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0909.2719
Standards for Language Resources
cs.CL
This paper presents an abstract data model for linguistic annotations and its implementation using XML, RDF and related standards; and to outline the work of a newly formed committee of the International Standards Organization (ISO), ISO/TC 37/SC 4 Language Resource Management, which will use this work as its starting point. The primary motive for presenting the latter is to solicit the participation of members of the research community to contribute to the work of the committee.
0909.2737
Compressive sensing by white random convolution
math.OC cs.IT math.IT
A different compressive sensing framework, convolution with white noise waveform followed by subsampling at fixed (not randomly selected) locations, is studied in this paper. We show that its recoverability for sparse signals depends on the coherence (denoted by mu) between the signal representation and the Fourier basis. In particular, an n-dimensional signal which is S-sparse in such a basis can be recovered with a probability exceeding 1-delta from any fixed m~O(mu^2*S*log(n/delta)^(3/2)) output samples of the random convolution.
0909.2777
On the Symmetric Gaussian Interference Channel with Partial Unidirectional Cooperation
cs.IT math.IT
A two-user symmetric Gaussian Interference Channel (IC) is considered in which a noiseless unidirectional link connects one encoder to the other. Having a constant capacity, the additional link provides partial cooperation between the encoders. It is shown that the available cooperation can dramatically increase the sum-capacity of the channel. This fact is proved based on comparison of proposed lower and upper bounds on the sum-capacity. Partitioning the data into three independent messages, namely private, common, and cooperative ones, the transmission strategy used to obtain the lower bound enjoys a simple type of Han-Kobayashi scheme together with a cooperative communication scheme. A Genie-aided upper bound is developed which incorporates the capacity of the cooperative link. Other upper bounds are based on the sum-capacity of the Cognitive Radio Channel and cut-set bounds. For the strong interference regime, the achievablity scheme is simplified to employ common and/or cooperative messages but not the private one. Through a careful analysis it is shown that the gap between these bounds is at most one and two bits per real dimension for strong and weak interference regimes, respectively. Moreover, the Generalized Degrees-of-Freedom of the channel is characterized.
0909.2817
Strongly Cancellative and Recovering Sets On Lattices
math.CO cs.IT math.IT
We use information theory to study recovering sets $\R_L$ and strongly cancellative sets $\C_L$ on different lattices. These sets are special classes of recovering pairs and cancellative sets previously discussed in [1], [3] and [5]. We mainly focus on the lattices $B_n$ and $D_{l}^{k}$. Specifically, we find upper bounds and constructions for the sets $\R_{B_n}$, $\C_{B_n}$, and $\C_{D_{l}^{k}}$.
0909.2894
Adaptive Spatial Intercell Interference Cancellation in Multicell Wireless Networks
cs.IT math.IT
Downlink spatial intercell interference cancellation (ICIC) is considered for mitigating other-cell interference using multiple transmit antennas. A principle question we explore is whether it is better to do ICIC or simply standard single-cell beamforming. We explore this question analytically and show that beamforming is preferred for all users when the edge SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) is low ($<0$ dB), and ICIC is preferred when the edge SNR is high ($>10$ dB), for example in an urban setting. At medium SNR, a proposed adaptive strategy, where multiple base stations jointly select transmission strategies based on the user location, outperforms both while requiring a lower feedback rate than the pure ICIC approach. The employed metric is sum rate, which is normally a dubious metric for cellular systems, but surprisingly we show that even with this reward function the adaptive strategy also improves fairness. When the channel information is provided by limited feedback, the impact of the induced quantization error is also investigated. It is shown that ICIC with well-designed feedback strategies still provides significant throughput gain.
0909.2927
Distribution-Specific Agnostic Boosting
cs.LG cs.CC
We consider the problem of boosting the accuracy of weak learning algorithms in the agnostic learning framework of Haussler (1992) and Kearns et al. (1992). Known algorithms for this problem (Ben-David et al., 2001; Gavinsky, 2002; Kalai et al., 2008) follow the same strategy as boosting algorithms in the PAC model: the weak learner is executed on the same target function but over different distributions on the domain. We demonstrate boosting algorithms for the agnostic learning framework that only modify the distribution on the labels of the points (or, equivalently, modify the target function). This allows boosting a distribution-specific weak agnostic learner to a strong agnostic learner with respect to the same distribution. When applied to the weak agnostic parity learning algorithm of Goldreich and Levin (1989) our algorithm yields a simple PAC learning algorithm for DNF and an agnostic learning algorithm for decision trees over the uniform distribution using membership queries. These results substantially simplify Jackson's famous DNF learning algorithm (1994) and the recent result of Gopalan et al. (2008). We also strengthen the connection to hard-core set constructions discovered by Klivans and Servedio (1999) by demonstrating that hard-core set constructions that achieve the optimal hard-core set size (given by Holenstein (2005) and Barak et al. (2009)) imply distribution-specific agnostic boosting algorithms. Conversely, our boosting algorithm gives a simple hard-core set construction with an (almost) optimal hard-core set size.
0909.2934
A Convergent Online Single Time Scale Actor Critic Algorithm
cs.LG cs.AI
Actor-Critic based approaches were among the first to address reinforcement learning in a general setting. Recently, these algorithms have gained renewed interest due to their generality, good convergence properties, and possible biological relevance. In this paper, we introduce an online temporal difference based actor-critic algorithm which is proved to converge to a neighborhood of a local maximum of the average reward. Linear function approximation is used by the critic in order estimate the value function, and the temporal difference signal, which is passed from the critic to the actor. The main distinguishing feature of the present convergence proof is that both the actor and the critic operate on a similar time scale, while in most current convergence proofs they are required to have very different time scales in order to converge. Moreover, the same temporal difference signal is used to update the parameters of both the actor and the critic. A limitation of the proposed approach, compared to results available for two time scale convergence, is that convergence is guaranteed only to a neighborhood of an optimal value, rather to an optimal value itself. The single time scale and identical temporal difference signal used by the actor and the critic, may provide a step towards constructing more biologically realistic models of reinforcement learning in the brain.
0909.3027
Language Models for Handwritten Short Message Services
cs.CL
Handwriting is an alternative method for entering texts composing Short Message Services. However, a whole new language features the texts which are produced. They include for instance abbreviations and other consonantal writing which sprung up for time saving and fashion. We have collected and processed a significant number of such handwriting SMS, and used various strategies to tackle this challenging area of handwriting recognition. We proposed to study more specifically three different phenomena: consonant skeleton, rebus, and phonetic writing. For each of them, we compare the rough results produced by a standard recognition system with those obtained when using a specific language model.
0909.3028
Vers la reconnaissance de mini-messages manuscrits
cs.CL
Handwriting is an alternative method for entering texts which composed Short Message Services. However, a whole new language features the texts which are produced. They include for instance abbreviations and other consonantal writing which sprung up for time saving and fashion. We have collected and processed a significant number of such handwritten SMS, and used various strategies to tackle this challenging area of handwriting recognition. We proposed to study more specifically three different phenomena: consonant skeleton, rebus, and phonetic writing. For each of them, we compare the rough results produced by a standard recognition system with those obtained when using a specific language model to take care of them.
0909.3055
Compressive Sensing Based Opportunistic Protocol for Throughput Improvement in Wireless Networks
cs.IT math.IT
A key feature in the design of any MAC protocol is the throughput it can provide. In wireless networks, the channel of a user is not fixed but varies randomly. Thus, in order to maximize the throughput of the MAC protocol at any given time, only users with large channel gains should be allowed to transmit. In this paper, compressive sensing based opportunistic protocol for throughput improvement in wireless networks is proposed. The protocol is based on the traditional protocol of R-ALOHA which allows users to compete for channel access before reserving the channel to the best user. We use compressive sensing to find the best user, and show that the proposed protocol requires less time for reservation and so it outperforms other schemes proposed in literature. This makes the protocol particularly suitable for enhancing R-ALOHA in fast fading environments. We consider both analog and digital versions of the protocol where the channel gains sent by the user are analog and digital, respectively.
0909.3123
Median K-flats for hybrid linear modeling with many outliers
cs.CV cs.LG
We describe the Median K-Flats (MKF) algorithm, a simple online method for hybrid linear modeling, i.e., for approximating data by a mixture of flats. This algorithm simultaneously partitions the data into clusters while finding their corresponding best approximating l1 d-flats, so that the cumulative l1 error is minimized. The current implementation restricts d-flats to be d-dimensional linear subspaces. It requires a negligible amount of storage, and its complexity, when modeling data consisting of N points in D-dimensional Euclidean space with K d-dimensional linear subspaces, is of order O(n K d D+n d^2 D), where n is the number of iterations required for convergence (empirically on the order of 10^4). Since it is an online algorithm, data can be supplied to it incrementally and it can incrementally produce the corresponding output. The performance of the algorithm is carefully evaluated using synthetic and real data.
0909.3131
Constructing Linear Encoders with Good Spectra
cs.IT math.IT
Linear encoders with good joint spectra are suitable candidates for optimal lossless joint source-channel coding (JSCC), where the joint spectrum is a variant of the input-output complete weight distribution and is considered good if it is close to the average joint spectrum of all linear encoders (of the same coding rate). In spite of their existence, little is known on how to construct such encoders in practice. This paper is devoted to their construction. In particular, two families of linear encoders are presented and proved to have good joint spectra. The first family is derived from Gabidulin codes, a class of maximum-rank-distance codes. The second family is constructed using a serial concatenation of an encoder of a low-density parity-check code (as outer encoder) with a low-density generator matrix encoder (as inner encoder). In addition, criteria for good linear encoders are defined for three coding applications: lossless source coding, channel coding, and lossless JSCC. In the framework of the code-spectrum approach, these three scenarios correspond to the problems of constructing linear encoders with good kernel spectra, good image spectra, and good joint spectra, respectively. Good joint spectra imply both good kernel spectra and good image spectra, and for every linear encoder having a good kernel (resp., image) spectrum, it is proved that there exists a linear encoder not only with the same kernel (resp., image) but also with a good joint spectrum. Thus a good joint spectrum is the most important feature of a linear encoder.
0909.3135
A Random Variable Substitution Lemma With Applications to Multiple Description Coding
cs.IT math.IT
We establish a random variable substitution lemma and use it to investigate the role of refinement layer in multiple description coding, which clarifies the relationship among several existing achievable multiple description rate-distortion regions. Specifically, it is shown that the El Gamal-Cover (EGC) region is equivalent to the EGC* region (an antecedent version of the EGC region) while the Venkataramani-Kramer-Goyal (VKG) region (when specialized to the 2-description case) is equivalent to the Zhang-Berger (ZB) region. Moreover, we prove that for multiple description coding with individual and hierarchical distortion constraints, the number of layers in the VKG scheme can be significantly reduced when only certain weighted sum rates are concerned. The role of refinement layer in scalable coding (a special case of multiple description coding) is also studied.
0909.3146
An Authentication Code against Pollution Attacks in Network Coding
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
Systems exploiting network coding to increase their throughput suffer greatly from pollution attacks which consist of injecting malicious packets in the network. The pollution attacks are amplified by the network coding process, resulting in a greater damage than under traditional routing. In this paper, we address this issue by designing an unconditionally secure authentication code suitable for multicast network coding. The proposed scheme is robust against pollution attacks from outsiders, as well as coalitions of malicious insiders. Intermediate nodes can verify the integrity and origin of the packets received without having to decode, and thus detect and discard the malicious messages in-transit that fail the verification. This way, the pollution is canceled out before reaching the destinations. We analyze the performance of the scheme in terms of both multicast throughput and goodput, and show the goodput gains. We also discuss applications to file distribution.
0909.3165
Finite-time Consensus for Nonlinear Multi-agent Systems with Fixed Topologies
cs.IT cs.MA math.IT math.OC
In this paper, we study finite-time state consensus problems for continuous nonlinear multi-agent systems. Building on the theory of finite-time Lyapunov stability, we propose sufficient criteria which guarantee the system to reach a consensus in finite time, provided that the underlying directed network contains a spanning tree. Novel finite-time consensus protocols are introduced as examples for applying the criteria. Simulations are also presented to illustrate our theoretical results.
0909.3169
On Low Distortion Embeddings of Statistical Distance Measures into Low Dimensional Spaces
cs.CG cs.DB
Statistical distance measures have found wide applicability in information retrieval tasks that typically involve high dimensional datasets. In order to reduce the storage space and ensure efficient performance of queries, dimensionality reduction while preserving the inter-point similarity is highly desirable. In this paper, we investigate various statistical distance measures from the point of view of discovering low distortion embeddings into low-dimensional spaces. More specifically, we consider the Mahalanobis distance measure, the Bhattacharyya class of divergences and the Kullback-Leibler divergence. We present a dimensionality reduction method based on the Johnson-Lindenstrauss Lemma for the Mahalanobis measure that achieves arbitrarily low distortion. By using the Johnson-Lindenstrauss Lemma again, we further demonstrate that the Bhattacharyya distance admits dimensionality reduction with arbitrarily low additive error. We also examine the question of embeddability into metric spaces for these distance measures due to the availability of efficient indexing schemes on metric spaces. We provide explicit constructions of point sets under the Bhattacharyya and the Kullback-Leibler divergences whose embeddings into any metric space incur arbitrarily large distortions. We show that the lower bound presented for Bhattacharyya distance is nearly tight by providing an embedding that approaches the lower bound for relatively small dimensional datasets.
0909.3185
Construction of Additive Reed-Muller Codes
cs.IT math.IT
The well known Plotkin construction is, in the current paper, generalized and used to yield new families of Z2Z4-additive codes, whose length, dimension as well as minimum distance are studied. These new constructions enable us to obtain families of Z2Z4-additive codes such that, under the Gray map, the corresponding binary codes have the same parameters and properties as the usual binary linear Reed-Muller codes. Moreover, the first family is the usual binary linear Reed-Muller family.
0909.3226
Blind user detection in doubly-dispersive DS/CDMA channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this work, we consider the problem of detecting the presence of a new user in a direct-sequence/code-division-multiple-access (DS/CDMA) system with a doubly-dispersive fading channel, and we propose a novel blind detection strategy which only requires knowledge of the spreading code of the user to be detected, but no prior information as to the time-varying channel impulse response and the structure of the multiaccess interference. The proposed detector has a bounded constant false alarm rate (CFAR) under the design assumptions, while providing satisfactory detection performance even in the presence of strong cochannel interference and high user mobility.
0909.3257
The Shield that Never Was: Societies with Single-Peaked Preferences are More Open to Manipulation and Control
cs.GT cs.CC cs.MA physics.soc-ph
Much work has been devoted, during the past twenty years, to using complexity to protect elections from manipulation and control. Many results have been obtained showing NP-hardness shields, and recently there has been much focus on whether such worst-case hardness protections can be bypassed by frequently correct heuristics or by approximations. This paper takes a very different approach: We argue that when electorates follow the canonical political science model of societal preferences the complexity shield never existed in the first place. In particular, we show that for electorates having single-peaked preferences, many existing NP-hardness results on manipulation and control evaporate.
0909.3273
Decomposition of the NVALUE constraint
cs.AI
We study decompositions of NVALUE, a global constraint that can be used to model a wide range of problems where values need to be counted. Whilst decomposition typically hinders propagation, we identify one decomposition that maintains a global view as enforcing bound consistency on the decomposition achieves bound consistency on the original global NVALUE constraint. Such decompositions offer the prospect for advanced solving techniques like nogood learning and impact based branching heuristics. They may also help SAT and IP solvers take advantage of the propagation of global constraints.
0909.3276
Symmetries of Symmetry Breaking Constraints
cs.AI
Symmetry is an important feature of many constraint programs. We show that any symmetry acting on a set of symmetry breaking constraints can be used to break symmetry. Different symmetries pick out different solutions in each symmetry class. We use these observations in two methods for eliminating symmetry from a problem. These methods are designed to have many of the advantages of symmetry breaking methods that post static symmetry breaking constraint without some of the disadvantages. In particular, the two methods prune the search space using fast and efficient propagation of posted constraints, whilst reducing the conflict between symmetry breaking and branching heuristics. Experimental results show that the two methods perform well on some standard benchmarks.
0909.3382
Statistical mechanical analysis of the Kronecker channel model for MIMO wireless communication
cs.IT cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.stat-mech math.IT
The Kronecker channel model of wireless communication is analyzed using statistical mechanics methods. In the model, spatial proximities among transmission/reception antennas are taken into account as certain correlation matrices, which generally yield non-trivial dependence among symbols to be estimated. This prevents accurate assessment of the communication performance by naively using a previously developed analytical scheme based on a matrix integration formula. In order to resolve this difficulty, we develop a formalism that can formally handle the correlations in Kronecker models based on the known scheme. Unfortunately, direct application of the developed scheme is, in general, practically difficult. However, the formalism is still useful, indicating that the effect of the correlations generally increase after the fourth order with respect to correlation strength. Therefore, the known analytical scheme offers a good approximation in performance evaluation when the correlation strength is sufficiently small. For a class of specific correlation, we show that the performance analysis can be mapped to the problem of one-dimensional spin systems in random fields, which can be investigated without approximation by the belief propagation algorithm.
0909.3384
Comparing Single and Multiobjective Evolutionary Approaches to the Inventory and Transportation Problem
cs.NE
EVITA, standing for Evolutionary Inventory and Transportation Algorithm, is a two-level methodology designed to address the Inventory and Transportation Problem (ITP) in retail chains. The top level uses an evolutionary algorithm to obtain delivery patterns for each shop on a weekly basis so as to minimise the inventory costs, while the bottom level solves the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) for every day in order to obtain the minimum transport costs associated to a particular set of patterns. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether a multiobjective approach to this problem can yield any advantage over the previously used single objective approach. The analysis performed allows us to conclude that this is not the case and that the single objective approach is in gene- ral preferable for the ITP in the case studied. A further conclusion is that it is useful to employ a classical algorithm such as Clarke & Wright's as the seed for other metaheuristics like local search or tabu search in order to provide good results for the Vehicle Routing Problem.
0909.3388
Pattern occurrence in the dyadic expansion of square root of two and an analysis of pseudorandom number generators
math.CO cs.IT math.IT
Recently, designs of pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) using integer-valued variants of logistic maps and their applications to some cryptographic schemes have been studied, due mostly to their ease of implementation and performance. However, it has been noted that this ease is reduced for some choices of the PRNGs accuracy parameters. In this article, we show that the distribution of such undesirable accuracy parameters is closely related to the occurrence of some patterns in the dyadic expansion of the square root of 2. We prove that for an arbitrary infinite binary word, the asymptotic occurrence rate of these patterns is bounded in terms of the asymptotic occurrence rate of zeroes. We also present examples of infinite binary words that tightly achieve the bounds. As a consequence, a classical conjecture on asymptotic evenness of occurrence of zeroes and ones in the dyadic expansion of the square root of 2 implies that the asymptotic rate of the undesirable accuracy parameters for the PRNGs is at least 1/6.
0909.3395
A possible low-level explanation of "temporal dynamics of brightness induction and White's illusion"
cs.CV physics.bio-ph q-bio.NC
Based upon physiological observation on time dependent orientation selectivity in the cells of macaque's primary visual cortex together with the psychophysical studies on the tuning of orientation detectors in human vision we suggest that time dependence in brightness perception can be accommodated through the time evolution of cortical contribution to the orientation tuning of the ODoG filter responses. A set of Difference of Gaussians functions has been used to mimic the time dependence of orientation tuning. The tuning of orientation preference and its inversion at a later time have been considered in explaining qualitatively the temporal dynamics of brightness perception observed in "Brief presentations reveal the temporal dynamics of brightness induction and White's illusion" for 58 and 82 ms of stimulus exposure.
0909.3423
Digital Ecosystems
cs.MA cs.NE
We view Digital Ecosystems to be the digital counterparts of biological ecosystems, which are considered to be robust, self-organising and scalable architectures that can automatically solve complex, dynamic problems. So, this work is concerned with the creation, investigation, and optimisation of Digital Ecosystems, exploiting the self-organising properties of biological ecosystems. First, we created the Digital Ecosystem, a novel optimisation technique inspired by biological ecosystems, where the optimisation works at two levels: a first optimisation, migration of agents which are distributed in a decentralised peer-to-peer network, operating continuously in time; this process feeds a second optimisation based on evolutionary computing that operates locally on single peers and is aimed at finding solutions to satisfy locally relevant constraints. We then investigated its self-organising aspects, starting with an extension to the definition of Physical Complexity to include evolving agent populations. Next, we established stability of evolving agent populations over time, by extending the Chli-DeWilde definition of agent stability to include evolutionary dynamics. Further, we evaluated the diversity of the software agents within evolving agent populations. To conclude, we considered alternative augmentations to optimise and accelerate our Digital Ecosystem, by studying the accelerating effect of a clustering catalyst on the evolutionary dynamics. We also studied the optimising effect of targeted migration on the ecological dynamics, through the indirect and emergent optimisation of the agent migration patterns. Overall, we have advanced the understanding of creating Digital Ecosystems, the self-organisation that occurs within them, and the optimisation of their Ecosystem-Oriented Architecture.
0909.3444
Analyse en d\'ependances \`a l'aide des grammaires d'interaction
cs.CL
This article proposes a method to extract dependency structures from phrase-structure level parsing with Interaction Grammars. Interaction Grammars are a formalism which expresses interactions among words using a polarity system. Syntactical composition is led by the saturation of polarities. Interactions take place between constituents, but as grammars are lexicalized, these interactions can be translated at the level of words. Dependency relations are extracted from the parsing process: every dependency is the consequence of a polarity saturation. The dependency relations we obtain can be seen as a refinement of the usual dependency tree. Generally speaking, this work sheds new light on links between phrase structure and dependency parsing.
0909.3445
Grouping Synonyms by Definitions
cs.CL
We present a method for grouping the synonyms of a lemma according to its dictionary senses. The senses are defined by a large machine readable dictionary for French, the TLFi (Tr\'esor de la langue fran\c{c}aise informatis\'e) and the synonyms are given by 5 synonym dictionaries (also for French). To evaluate the proposed method, we manually constructed a gold standard where for each (word, definition) pair and given the set of synonyms defined for that word by the 5 synonym dictionaries, 4 lexicographers specified the set of synonyms they judge adequate. While inter-annotator agreement ranges on that task from 67% to at best 88% depending on the annotator pair and on the synonym dictionary being considered, the automatic procedure we propose scores a precision of 67% and a recall of 71%. The proposed method is compared with related work namely, word sense disambiguation, synonym lexicon acquisition and WordNet construction.
0909.3472
The Universal Recommender
cs.IR
We describe the Universal Recommender, a recommender system for semantic datasets that generalizes domain-specific recommenders such as content-based, collaborative, social, bibliographic, lexicographic, hybrid and other recommenders. In contrast to existing recommender systems, the Universal Recommender applies to any dataset that allows a semantic representation. We describe the scalable three-stage architecture of the Universal Recommender and its application to Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). To achieve good recommendation accuracy, several novel machine learning and optimization problems are identified. We finally give a brief argument supporting the need for machine learning recommenders.
0909.3475
Multi-agent Coordination in Directed Moving Neighborhood Random Networks
cs.MA cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider the consensus problem of dynamical multiple agents that communicate via a directed moving neighborhood random network. Each agent performs random walk on a weighted directed network. Agents interact with each other through random unidirectional information flow when they coincide in the underlying network at a given instant. For such a framework, we present sufficient conditions for almost sure asymptotic consensus. Some existed consensus schemes are shown to be reduced versions of the current model.
0909.3508
Compressed Sensing with Probabilistic Measurements: A Group Testing Solution
cs.IT cs.DM math.IT
Detection of defective members of large populations has been widely studied in the statistics community under the name "group testing", a problem which dates back to World War II when it was suggested for syphilis screening. There the main interest is to identify a small number of infected people among a large population using collective samples. In viral epidemics, one way to acquire collective samples is by sending agents inside the population. While in classical group testing, it is assumed that the sampling procedure is fully known to the reconstruction algorithm, in this work we assume that the decoder possesses only partial knowledge about the sampling process. This assumption is justified by observing the fact that in a viral sickness, there is a chance that an agent remains healthy despite having contact with an infected person. Therefore, the reconstruction method has to cope with two different types of uncertainty; namely, identification of the infected population and the partially unknown sampling procedure. In this work, by using a natural probabilistic model for "viral infections", we design non-adaptive sampling procedures that allow successful identification of the infected population with overwhelming probability 1-o(1). We propose both probabilistic and explicit design procedures that require a "small" number of agents to single out the infected individuals. More precisely, for a contamination probability p, the number of agents required by the probabilistic and explicit designs for identification of up to k infected members is bounded by m = O(k^2 (log n)/p^2) and m = O(k^2 (log n)^2 /p^2), respectively. In both cases, a simple decoder is able to successfully identify the infected population in time O(mn).
0909.3591
Mathematics, Recursion, and Universals in Human Languages
cs.CL
There are many scientific problems generated by the multiple and conflicting alternative definitions of linguistic recursion and human recursive processing that exist in the literature. The purpose of this article is to make available to the linguistic community the standard mathematical definition of recursion and to apply it to discuss linguistic recursion. As a byproduct, we obtain an insight into certain "soft universals" of human languages, which are related to cognitive constructs necessary to implement mathematical reasoning, i.e. mathematical model theory.
0909.3593
Exploiting Unlabeled Data to Enhance Ensemble Diversity
cs.LG cs.AI
Ensemble learning aims to improve generalization ability by using multiple base learners. It is well-known that to construct a good ensemble, the base learners should be accurate as well as diverse. In this paper, unlabeled data is exploited to facilitate ensemble learning by helping augment the diversity among the base learners. Specifically, a semi-supervised ensemble method named UDEED is proposed. Unlike existing semi-supervised ensemble methods where error-prone pseudo-labels are estimated for unlabeled data to enlarge the labeled data to improve accuracy, UDEED works by maximizing accuracies of base learners on labeled data while maximizing diversity among them on unlabeled data. Experiments show that UDEED can effectively utilize unlabeled data for ensemble learning and is highly competitive to well-established semi-supervised ensemble methods.
0909.3606
Extension of Path Probability Method to Approximate Inference over Time
cs.LG cs.CV
There has been a tremendous growth in publicly available digital video footage over the past decade. This has necessitated the development of new techniques in computer vision geared towards efficient analysis, storage and retrieval of such data. Many mid-level computer vision tasks such as segmentation, object detection, tracking, etc. involve an inference problem based on the video data available. Video data has a high degree of spatial and temporal coherence. The property must be intelligently leveraged in order to obtain better results. Graphical models, such as Markov Random Fields, have emerged as a powerful tool for such inference problems. They are naturally suited for expressing the spatial dependencies present in video data, It is however, not clear, how to extend the existing techniques for the problem of inference over time. This thesis explores the Path Probability Method, a variational technique in statistical mechanics, in the context of graphical models and approximate inference problems. It extends the method to a general framework for problems involving inference in time, resulting in an algorithm, \emph{DynBP}. We explore the relation of the algorithm with existing techniques, and find the algorithm competitive with existing approaches. The main contribution of this thesis are the extended GBP algorithm, the extension of Path Probability Methods to the DynBP algorithm and the relationship between them. We have also explored some applications in computer vision involving temporal evolution with promising results.
0909.3609
Randomized Algorithms for Large scale SVMs
cs.LG
We propose a randomized algorithm for training Support vector machines(SVMs) on large datasets. By using ideas from Random projections we show that the combinatorial dimension of SVMs is $O({log} n)$ with high probability. This estimate of combinatorial dimension is used to derive an iterative algorithm, called RandSVM, which at each step calls an existing solver to train SVMs on a randomly chosen subset of size $O({log} n)$. The algorithm has probabilistic guarantees and is capable of training SVMs with Kernels for both classification and regression problems. Experiments done on synthetic and real life data sets demonstrate that the algorithm scales up existing SVM learners, without loss of accuracy.
0909.3647
From f-divergence to quantum quasi-entropies and their use
cs.IT math.IT math.ST quant-ph stat.TH
Csiszar's f-divergence of two probability distributions was extended to the quantum case by the author in 1985. In the quantum setting positive semidefinite matrices are in the place of probability distributions and the quantum generalization is called quasi-entropy which is related to some other important concepts as covariance, quadratic costs, Fisher information, Cramer-Rao inequality and uncertainty relation. A conjecture about the scalar curvature of a Fisher information geometry is explained. The described subjects are overviewed in details in the matrix setting, but at the very end the von Neumann algebra approach is sketched shortly.
0909.3648
Random scattering of bits by prediction
cs.AI cs.IT math.IT
We investigate a population of binary mistake sequences that result from learning with parametric models of different order. We obtain estimates of their error, algorithmic complexity and divergence from a purely random Bernoulli sequence. We study the relationship of these variables to the learner's information density parameter which is defined as the ratio between the lengths of the compressed to uncompressed files that contain the learner's decision rule. The results indicate that good learners have a low information density$\rho$ while bad learners have a high $\rho$. Bad learners generate mistake sequences that are atypically complex or diverge stochastically from a purely random Bernoulli sequence. Good learners generate typically complex sequences with low divergence from Bernoulli sequences and they include mistake sequences generated by the Bayes optimal predictor. Based on the static algorithmic interference model of \cite{Ratsaby_entropy} the learner here acts as a static structure which "scatters" the bits of an input sequence (to be predicted) in proportion to its information density $\rho$ thereby deforming its randomness characteristics.
0909.3658
Efficient Steganography with Provable Security Guarantees
cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
We provide a new provably-secure steganographic encryption protocol that is proven secure in the complexity-theoretic framework of Hopper et al. The fundamental building block of our steganographic encryption protocol is a "one-time stegosystem" that allows two parties to transmit messages of length shorter than the shared key with information-theoretic security guarantees. The employment of a pseudorandom generator (PRG) permits secure transmission of longer messages in the same way that such a generator allows the use of one-time pad encryption for messages longer than the key in symmetric encryption. The advantage of our construction, compared to that of Hopper et al., is that it avoids the use of a pseudorandom function family and instead relies (directly) on a pseudorandom generator in a way that provides linear improvement in the number of applications of the underlying one-way permutation per transmitted bit. This advantageous trade-off is achieved by substituting the pseudorandom function family employed in the previous construction with an appropriate combinatorial construction that has been used extensively in derandomization, namely almost t-wise independent function families.
0909.3786
Kinematic calibration of Orthoglide-type mechanisms from observation of parallel leg motions
cs.RO
The paper proposes a new calibration method for parallel manipulators that allows efficient identification of the joint offsets using observations of the manipulator leg parallelism with respect to the base surface. The method employs a simple and low-cost measuring system, which evaluates deviation of the leg location during motions that are assumed to preserve the leg parallelism for the nominal values of the manipulator parameters. Using the measured deviations, the developed algorithm estimates the joint offsets that are treated as the most essential parameters to be identified. The validity of the proposed calibration method and efficiency of the developed numerical algorithms are confirmed by experimental results. The sensitivity of the measurement methods and the calibration accuracy are also studied.
0909.3892
Astroinformatics: A 21st Century Approach to Astronomy
astro-ph.IM cs.DB cs.DL cs.IR physics.data-an
Data volumes from multiple sky surveys have grown from gigabytes into terabytes during the past decade, and will grow from terabytes into tens (or hundreds) of petabytes in the next decade. This exponential growth of new data both enables and challenges effective astronomical research, requiring new approaches. Thus far, astronomy has tended to address these challenges in an informal and ad hoc manner, with the necessary special expertise being assigned to e-Science or survey science. However, we see an even wider scope and therefore promote a broader vision of this data-driven revolution in astronomical research. For astronomy to effectively cope with and reap the maximum scientific return from existing and future large sky surveys, facilities, and data-producing projects, we need our own information science specialists. We therefore recommend the formal creation, recognition, and support of a major new discipline, which we call Astroinformatics. Astroinformatics includes a set of naturally-related specialties including data organization, data description, astronomical classification taxonomies, astronomical concept ontologies, data mining, machine learning, visualization, and astrostatistics. By virtue of its new stature, we propose that astronomy now needs to integrate Astroinformatics as a formal sub-discipline within agency funding plans, university departments, research programs, graduate training, and undergraduate education. Now is the time for the recognition of Astroinformatics as an essential methodology of astronomical research. The future of astronomy depends on it.
0909.3895
The Revolution in Astronomy Education: Data Science for the Masses
astro-ph.IM cs.DB cs.DL cs.IR physics.ed-ph
As our capacity to study ever-expanding domains of our science has increased (including the time domain, non-electromagnetic phenomena, magnetized plasmas, and numerous sky surveys in multiple wavebands with broad spatial coverage and unprecedented depths), so have the horizons of our understanding of the Universe been similarly expanding. This expansion is coupled to the exponential data deluge from multiple sky surveys, which have grown from gigabytes into terabytes during the past decade, and will grow from terabytes into Petabytes (even hundreds of Petabytes) in the next decade. With this increased vastness of information, there is a growing gap between our awareness of that information and our understanding of it. Training the next generation in the fine art of deriving intelligent understanding from data is needed for the success of sciences, communities, projects, agencies, businesses, and economies. This is true for both specialists (scientists) and non-specialists (everyone else: the public, educators and students, workforce). Specialists must learn and apply new data science research techniques in order to advance our understanding of the Universe. Non-specialists require information literacy skills as productive members of the 21st century workforce, integrating foundational skills for lifelong learning in a world increasingly dominated by data. We address the impact of the emerging discipline of data science on astronomy education within two contexts: formal education and lifelong learners.
0909.3911
A Method for Extraction and Recognition of Isolated License Plate Characters
cs.CV
A method to extract and recognize isolated characters in license plates is proposed. In extraction stage, the proposed method detects isolated characters by using Difference-of-Gaussian (DOG) function, The DOG function, similar to Laplacian of Gaussian function, was proven to produce the most stable image features compared to a range of other possible image functions. The candidate characters are extracted by doing connected component analysis on different scale DOG images. In recognition stage, a novel feature vector named accumulated gradient projection vector (AGPV) is used to compare the candidate character with the standard ones. The AGPV is calculated by first projecting pixels of similar gradient orientations onto specific axes, and then accumulates the projected gradient magnitudes by each axis. In the experiments, the AGPVs are proven to be invariant from image scaling and rotation, and robust to noise and illumination change.
0909.3917
Stiffness Analysis Of Multi-Chain Parallel Robotic Systems
cs.RO
The paper presents a new stiffness modelling method for multi-chain parallel robotic manipulators with flexible links and compliant actuating joints. In contrast to other works, the method involves a FEA-based link stiffness evaluation and employs a new solution strategy of the kinetostatic equations, which allows computing the stiffness matrix for singular postures and to take into account influence of the external forces. The advantages of the developed technique are confirmed by application examples, which deal with stiffness analysis of a parallel manipulator of the Orthoglide family
0909.3966
Robust THP Transceiver Designs for Multiuser MIMO Downlink with Imperfect CSIT
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we present robust joint non-linear transceiver designs for multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink in the presence of imperfections in the channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). The base station (BS) is equipped with multiple transmit antennas, and each user terminal is equipped with one or more receive antennas. The BS employs Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP) for inter-user interference pre-cancellation at the transmitter. We consider robust transceiver designs that jointly optimize the transmit THP filters and receive filter for two models of CSIT errors. The first model is a stochastic error (SE) model, where the CSIT error is Gaussian-distributed. This model is applicable when the CSIT error is dominated by channel estimation error. In this case, the proposed robust transceiver design seeks to minimize a stochastic function of the sum mean square error (SMSE) under a constraint on the total BS transmit power. We propose an iterative algorithm to solve this problem. The other model we consider is a norm-bounded error (NBE) model, where the CSIT error can be specified by an uncertainty set. This model is applicable when the CSIT error is dominated by quantization errors. In this case, we consider a worst-case design. For this model, we consider robust i) minimum SMSE, ii) MSE-constrained, and iii) MSE-balancing transceiver designs. We propose iterative algorithms to solve these problems, wherein each iteration involves a pair of semi-definite programs (SDP). Further, we consider an extension of the proposed algorithm to the case with per-antenna power constraints.
0909.4017
On Degrees of Freedom Region of MIMO Networks without CSIT
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we study the effect of the absence of channel knowledge for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) networks. Specifically, we assume perfect channel state information at the receivers, no channel state information at the transmitter(s), and independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) Rayleigh fading across antennas, users and time slots. We provide the characterization of the degrees of freedom (DoF) region for a 2-user MIMO broadcast channel. We then provide a DoF region outer bound for a 2-user MIMO interference channel. This bound is shown to be tight for all possible combinations of the number of antennas at each node except for one case. As a byproduct of this analysis we point out the potential of interference alignment in the 2-user MIMO interference channel with no CSIT.
0909.4126
On an Inequality of Karlin and Rinott Concerning Weighted Sums of i.i.d. Random Variables
cs.IT math.IT math.PR
We present an entropy comparison result concerning weighted sums of independent and identically distributed random variables.
0909.4177
On the Degrees of Freedom of Finite State Compound Wireless Networks - Settling a Conjecture by Weingarten et. al
cs.IT math.IT
We explore the degrees of freedom (DoF) of three classes of finite state compound wireless networks in this paper. First, we study the multiple-input single-output (MISO) finite state compound broadcast channel (BC) with arbitrary number of users and antennas at the transmitter. In prior work, Weingarten et. al. have found inner and outer bounds on the DoF with 2 users. The bounds have a different character. While the inner bound collapses to unity as the number of states increases, the outer bound does not diminish with the increasing number of states beyond a threshold value. It has been conjectured that the outer bound is loose and the inner bound represents the actual DoF. In the complex setting (all signals, noise, and channel coefficients are complex variables) we solve a few cases to find that the outer bound -and not the inner bound- of Weingarten et. al. is tight. For the real setting (all signals, noise and channel coefficients are real variables) we completely characterize the DoF, once again proving that the outer bound of Weingarten et. al. is tight. We also extend the results to arbitrary number of users. Second, we characterize the DoF of finite state scalar (single antenna nodes) compound X networks with arbitrary number of users in the real setting. Third, we characterize the DoF of finite state scalar compound interference networks with arbitrary number of users in both the real and complex setting. The key finding is that scalar interference networks and (real) X networks do not lose any DoF due to channel uncertainty at the transmitter in the finite state compound setting. The finite state compound MISO BC does lose DoF relative to the perfect CSIT scenario. However, what is lost is only the DoF benefit of joint processing at transmit antennas, without which the MISO BC reduces to an X network.
0909.4196
Personal Information Databases
cs.DB
One of the most important aspects of security organization is to establish a framework to identify security significant points where policies and procedures are declared. The (information) security infrastructure comprises entities, processes, and technology. All are participants in handling information, which is the item that needs to be protected. Privacy and security information technology is a critical and unmet need in the management of personal information. This paper proposes concepts and technologies for management of personal information. Two different types of information can be distinguished: personal information and nonpersonal information. Personal information can be either personal identifiable information (PII), or nonidentifiable information (NII). Security, policy, and technical requirements can be based on this distinction. At the conceptual level, PII is defined and formalized by propositions over infons (discrete pieces of information) that specify transformations in PII and NII. PII is categorized into simple infons that reflect the proprietor s aspects, relationships with objects, and relationships with other proprietors. The proprietor is the identified person about whom the information is communicated. The paper proposes a database organization that focuses on the PII spheres of proprietors. At the design level, the paper describes databases of personal identifiable information built exclusively for this type of information, with their own conceptual scheme, system management, and physical structure.
0909.4203
Error Exponents for the Gaussian Channel with Active Noisy Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
We study the best exponential decay in the blocklength of the probability of error that can be achieved in the transmission of a single bit over the Gaussian channel with an active noisy Gaussian feedback link. We impose an \emph{expected} block power constraint on the forward link and study both \emph{almost-sure} and \emph{expected} block power constraints on the feedback link. In both cases the best achievable error exponents are finite and grow approximately proportionally to the larger between the signal-to-noise ratios on the forward and feedback links. The error exponents under almost-sure block power constraints are typically strictly smaller than under expected constraints. Some of the results extend to communication at arbitrary rates below capacity and to general discrete memoryless channels.
0909.4233
On the optimality of universal classifiers for finite-length individual test sequences
cs.IT math.IT
We consider pairs of finite-length individual sequences that are realizations of unknown, finite alphabet, stationary sources in a clas M of sources with vanishing memory (e.g. stationary Markov sources). The task of a universal classifier is to decide whether the two sequences are emerging from the same source or are emerging from two distinct sources in M, and it has to carry this task without any prior knowledge of the two underlying probability measures. Given a fidelity function and a fidelity criterion, the probability of classification error for a given universal classifier is defined. Two universal classifiers are defined for pairs of $N$ -sequence: A "classical" fixed-length (FL) universal classifier and an alternative variable-length (VL) universal classifier. Following Wyner and Ziv (1996) it is demonstrated that if the length of the individual sequences N is smaller than a cut-off value that is determined by the properties of the class M, any universal classifier will fail with high probability . It is demonstrated that for values of N larger than the cut-off rate, the classification error relative to either one of the two classifiers tends to zero as the length of the sequences tends to infinity. However, the probability of classification error that is associated with the variable-length universal classifier is uniformly smaller (or equal) to the one that is associated with the "classical" fixed-length universal classifier, for any finite length.
0909.4280
Towards Multimodal Content Representation
cs.CL
Multimodal interfaces, combining the use of speech, graphics, gestures, and facial expressions in input and output, promise to provide new possibilities to deal with information in more effective and efficient ways, supporting for instance: - the understanding of possibly imprecise, partial or ambiguous multimodal input; - the generation of coordinated, cohesive, and coherent multimodal presentations; - the management of multimodal interaction (e.g., task completion, adapting the interface, error prevention) by representing and exploiting models of the user, the domain, the task, the interactive context, and the media (e.g. text, audio, video). The present document is intended to support the discussion on multimodal content representation, its possible objectives and basic constraints, and how the definition of a generic representation framework for multimodal content representation may be approached. It takes into account the results of the Dagstuhl workshop, in particular those of the informal working group on multimodal meaning representation that was active during the workshop (see http://www.dfki.de/~wahlster/Dagstuhl_Multi_Modality, Working Group 4).
0909.4349
Leader-following Consensus Problems with a Time-varying Leader under Measurement Noises
cs.MA cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider a leader-following consensus problem for networks of continuous-time integrator agents with a time-varying leader under measurement noises. We propose a neighbor-based state-estimation protocol for every agent to track the leader, and time-varying consensus gains are introduced to attenuate the noises. By combining the tools of stochastic analysis and algebraic graph theory, we study mean square convergence of this multi-agent system under directed fixed as well as switching interconnection topologies. Sufficient conditions are given for mean square consensus in both cases. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate our theoretical results.
0909.4359
Sparse Signal Reconstruction via Iterative Support Detection
cs.IT math.IT math.NA math.OC
We present a novel sparse signal reconstruction method "ISD", aiming to achieve fast reconstruction and a reduced requirement on the number of measurements compared to the classical l_1 minimization approach. ISD addresses failed reconstructions of l_1 minimization due to insufficient measurements. It estimates a support set I from a current reconstruction and obtains a new reconstruction by solving the minimization problem \min{\sum_{i\not\in I}|x_i|:Ax=b}, and it iterates these two steps for a small number of times. ISD differs from the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) method, as well as its variants, because (i) the index set I in ISD is not necessarily nested or increasing and (ii) the minimization problem above updates all the components of x at the same time. We generalize the Null Space Property to Truncated Null Space Property and present our analysis of ISD based on the latter. We introduce an efficient implementation of ISD, called threshold--ISD, for recovering signals with fast decaying distributions of nonzeros from compressive sensing measurements. Numerical experiments show that threshold--ISD has significant advantages over the classical l_1 minimization approach, as well as two state--of--the--art algorithms: the iterative reweighted l_1 minimization algorithm (IRL1) and the iterative reweighted least--squares algorithm (IRLS). MATLAB code is available for download from http://www.caam.rice.edu/~optimization/L1/ISD/.
0909.4385
The meta book and size-dependent properties of written language
physics.soc-ph cs.CL physics.data-an
Evidence is given for a systematic text-length dependence of the power-law index gamma of a single book. The estimated gamma values are consistent with a monotonic decrease from 2 to 1 with increasing length of a text. A direct connection to an extended Heap's law is explored. The infinite book limit is, as a consequence, proposed to be given by gamma = 1 instead of the value gamma=2 expected if the Zipf's law was ubiquitously applicable. In addition we explore the idea that the systematic text-length dependence can be described by a meta book concept, which is an abstract representation reflecting the word-frequency structure of a text. According to this concept the word-frequency distribution of a text, with a certain length written by a single author, has the same characteristics as a text of the same length pulled out from an imaginary complete infinite corpus written by the same author.
0909.4409
Clustering with Obstacles in Spatial Databases
cs.DB
Clustering large spatial databases is an important problem, which tries to find the densely populated regions in a spatial area to be used in data mining, knowledge discovery, or efficient information retrieval. However most algorithms have ignored the fact that physical obstacles such as rivers, lakes, and highways exist in the real world and could thus affect the result of the clustering. In this paper, we propose CPO, an efficient clustering technique to solve the problem of clustering in the presence of obstacles. The proposed algorithm divides the spatial area into rectangular cells. Each cell is associated with statistical information used to label the cell as dense or non-dense. It also labels each cell as obstructed (i.e. intersects any obstacle) or nonobstructed. For each obstructed cell, the algorithm finds a number of non-obstructed sub-cells. Then it finds the dense regions of non-obstructed cells or sub-cells by a breadthfirst search as the required clusters with a center to each region.
0909.4412
Algorithm for Spatial Clustering with Obstacles
cs.DB
In this paper, we propose an efficient clustering technique to solve the problem of clustering in the presence of obstacles. The proposed algorithm divides the spatial area into rectangular cells. Each cell is associated with statistical information that enables us to label the cell as dense or non-dense. We also label each cell as obstructed (i.e. intersects any obstacle) or non-obstructed. Then the algorithm finds the regions (clusters) of connected, dense, non-obstructed cells. Finally, the algorithm finds a center for each such region and returns those centers as centers of the relatively dense regions (clusters) in the spatial area.
0909.4416
A baseline for content-based blog classification
cs.IR
A content-based network representation of web logs (blogs) using a basic word-overlap similarity measure is presented. Due to a strong signal in blog data the approach is sufficient for accurately classifying blogs. Using Swedish blog data we demonstrate that blogs that treat similar subjects are organized in clusters that, in turn, are hierarchically organized in higher-order clusters. The simplicity of the representation renders it both computationally tractable and transparent. We therefore argue that the approach is suitable as a baseline when developing and analyzing more advanced content-based representations of the blogosphere.
0909.4437
Manipulation and gender neutrality in stable marriage procedures
cs.AI cs.GT
The stable marriage problem is a well-known problem of matching men to women so that no man and woman who are not married to each other both prefer each other. Such a problem has a wide variety of practical applications ranging from matching resident doctors to hospitals to matching students to schools. A well-known algorithm to solve this problem is the Gale-Shapley algorithm, which runs in polynomial time. It has been proven that stable marriage procedures can always be manipulated. Whilst the Gale-Shapley algorithm is computationally easy to manipulate, we prove that there exist stable marriage procedures which are NP-hard to manipulate. We also consider the relationship between voting theory and stable marriage procedures, showing that voting rules which are NP-hard to manipulate can be used to define stable marriage procedures which are themselves NP-hard to manipulate. Finally, we consider the issue that stable marriage procedures like Gale-Shapley favour one gender over the other, and we show how to use voting rules to make any stable marriage procedure gender neutral.
0909.4441
Dealing with incomplete agents' preferences and an uncertain agenda in group decision making via sequential majority voting
cs.AI cs.GT cs.MA
We consider multi-agent systems where agents' preferences are aggregated via sequential majority voting: each decision is taken by performing a sequence of pairwise comparisons where each comparison is a weighted majority vote among the agents. Incompleteness in the agents' preferences is common in many real-life settings due to privacy issues or an ongoing elicitation process. In addition, there may be uncertainty about how the preferences are aggregated. For example, the agenda (a tree whose leaves are labelled with the decisions being compared) may not yet be known or fixed. We therefore study how to determine collectively optimal decisions (also called winners) when preferences may be incomplete, and when the agenda may be uncertain. We show that it is computationally easy to determine if a candidate decision always wins, or may win, whatever the agenda. On the other hand, it is computationally hard to know wheth er a candidate decision wins in at least one agenda for at least one completion of the agents' preferences. These results hold even if the agenda must be balanced so that each candidate decision faces the same number of majority votes. Such results are useful for reasoning about preference elicitation. They help understand the complexity of tasks such as determining if a decision can be taken collectively, as well as knowing if the winner can be manipulated by appropriately ordering the agenda.
0909.4446
Elicitation strategies for fuzzy constraint problems with missing preferences: algorithms and experimental studies
cs.AI
Fuzzy constraints are a popular approach to handle preferences and over-constrained problems in scenarios where one needs to be cautious, such as in medical or space applications. We consider here fuzzy constraint problems where some of the preferences may be missing. This models, for example, settings where agents are distributed and have privacy issues, or where there is an ongoing preference elicitation process. In this setting, we study how to find a solution which is optimal irrespective of the missing preferences. In the process of finding such a solution, we may elicit preferences from the user if necessary. However, our goal is to ask the user as little as possible. We define a combined solving and preference elicitation scheme with a large number of different instantiations, each corresponding to a concrete algorithm which we compare experimentally. We compute both the number of elicited preferences and the "user effort", which may be larger, as it contains all the preference values the user has to compute to be able to respond to the elicitation requests. While the number of elicited preferences is important when the concern is to communicate as little information as possible, the user effort measures also the hidden work the user has to do to be able to communicate the elicited preferences. Our experimental results show that some of our algorithms are very good at finding a necessarily optimal solution while asking the user for only a very small fraction of the missing preferences. The user effort is also very small for the best algorithms. Finally, we test these algorithms on hard constraint problems with possibly missing constraints, where the aim is to find feasible solutions irrespective of the missing constraints.
0909.4452
Flow-Based Propagators for the SEQUENCE and Related Global Constraints
cs.AI
We propose new filtering algorithms for the SEQUENCE constraint and some extensions of the SEQUENCE constraint based on network flows. We enforce domain consistency on the SEQUENCE constraint in $O(n^2)$ time down a branch of the search tree. This improves upon the best existing domain consistency algorithm by a factor of $O(\log n)$. The flows used in these algorithms are derived from a linear program. Some of them differ from the flows used to propagate global constraints like GCC since the domains of the variables are encoded as costs on the edges rather than capacities. Such flows are efficient for maintaining bounds consistency over large domains and may be useful for other global constraints.
0909.4456
The Weighted CFG Constraint
cs.AI
We introduce the weighted CFG constraint and propose a propagation algorithm that enforces domain consistency in $O(n^3|G|)$ time. We show that this algorithm can be decomposed into a set of primitive arithmetic constraints without hindering propagation.
0909.4474
Reconstruction of the equilibrium of the plasma in a Tokamak and identification of the current density profile in real time
math.NA cs.SY math.AP math.OC
The reconstruction of the equilibrium of a plasma in a Tokamak is a free boundary problem described by the Grad-Shafranov equation in axisymmetric configuration. The right-hand side of this equation is a nonlinear source, which represents the toroidal component of the plasma current density. This paper deals with the identification of this nonlinearity source from experimental measurements in real time. The proposed method is based on a fixed point algorithm, a finite element resolution, a reduced basis method and a least-square optimization formulation. This is implemented in a software called Equinox with which several numerical experiments are conducted to explore the identification problem. It is shown that the identification of the profile of the averaged current density and of the safety factor as a function of the poloidal flux is very robust.
0909.4484
Error exponents for Neyman-Pearson detection of a continuous-time Gaussian Markov process from noisy irregular samples
cs.IT math.IT
This paper addresses the detection of a stochastic process in noise from irregular samples. We consider two hypotheses. The \emph{noise only} hypothesis amounts to model the observations as a sample of a i.i.d. Gaussian random variables (noise only). The \emph{signal plus noise} hypothesis models the observations as the samples of a continuous time stationary Gaussian process (the signal) taken at known but random time-instants corrupted with an additive noise. Two binary tests are considered, depending on which assumptions is retained as the null hypothesis. Assuming that the signal is a linear combination of the solution of a multidimensional stochastic differential equation (SDE), it is shown that the minimum Type II error probability decreases exponentially in the number of samples when the False Alarm probability is fixed. This behavior is described by \emph{error exponents} that are completely characterized. It turns out that they are related with the asymptotic behavior of the Kalman Filter in random stationary environment, which is studied in this paper. Finally, numerical illustrations of our claims are provided in the context of sensor networks.
0909.4573
Efficient Linear Precoding in Downlink Cooperative Cellular Networks with Soft Interference Nulling
cs.IT math.IT
A simple line network model is proposed to study the downlink cellular network. Without base station cooperation, the system is interference-limited. The interference limitation is overcome when the base stations are allowed to jointly encode the user signals, but the capacity-achieving dirty paper coding scheme can be too complex for practical implementation. A new linear precoding technique called soft interference nulling (SIN) is proposed, which performs at least as well as zero-forcing (ZF) beamforming under full network coordination. Unlike ZF, SIN allows the possibility of but over-penalizes interference. The SIN precoder is computed by solving a convex optimization problem, and the formulation is extended to multiple-antenna channels. SIN can be applied when only a limited number of base stations cooperate; it is shown that SIN under partial network coordination can outperform full network coordination ZF at moderate SNRs.
0909.4575
Randomness Efficient Steganography
cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
Steganographic protocols enable one to embed covert messages into inconspicuous data over a public communication channel in such a way that no one, aside from the sender and the intended receiver, can even detect the presence of the secret message. In this paper, we provide a new provably-secure, private-key steganographic encryption protocol secure in the framework of Hopper et al. We first present a "one-time stegosystem" that allows two parties to transmit messages of length at most that of the shared key with information-theoretic security guarantees. The employment of a pseudorandom generator (PRG) permits secure transmission of longer messages in the same way that such a generator allows the use of one-time pad encryption for messages longer than the key in symmetric encryption. The advantage of our construction, compared to all previous work is randomness efficiency: in the information theoretic setting our protocol embeds a message of length n bits using a shared secret key of length (1+o(1))n bits while achieving security 2^{-n/log^{O(1)}n}; simply put this gives a rate of key over message that is 1 as n tends to infinity (the previous best result achieved a constant rate greater than 1 regardless of the security offered). In this sense, our protocol is the first truly randomness efficient steganographic system. Furthermore, in our protocol, we can permit a portion of the shared secret key to be public while retaining precisely n private key bits. In this setting, by separating the public and the private randomness of the shared key, we achieve security of 2^{-n}. Our result comes as an effect of the application of randomness extractors to stegosystem design. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time extractors have been applied in steganography.
0909.4588
Discrete MDL Predicts in Total Variation
math.PR cs.IT cs.LG math.IT math.ST stat.ML stat.TH
The Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle selects the model that has the shortest code for data plus model. We show that for a countable class of models, MDL predictions are close to the true distribution in a strong sense. The result is completely general. No independence, ergodicity, stationarity, identifiability, or other assumption on the model class need to be made. More formally, we show that for any countable class of models, the distributions selected by MDL (or MAP) asymptotically predict (merge with) the true measure in the class in total variation distance. Implications for non-i.i.d. domains like time-series forecasting, discriminative learning, and reinforcement learning are discussed.
0909.4589
Cross-correlation properties of cyclotomic sequences
cs.IT cs.DM math.CO math.IT
Sequences with good correlation properties are widely used in engineering applications, especially in the area of communications. Among the known sequences, cyclotomic families have the optimal autocorrelation property. In this paper, we decide the cross-correlation function of the known cyclotomic sequences completely. Moreover, to get our results, the relations between the multiplier group and the decimations of the characteristic sequence are also established for an arbitrary difference set.
0909.4592
Autocorrelation-Run Formula for Binary Sequences
cs.IT cs.DM math.CO math.IT
The autocorrelation function and the run structure are two basic notions for binary sequences, and have been used as two independent postulates to test randomness of binary sequences ever since Golomb 1955. In this paper, we prove for binary sequence that the autocorrelation function is in fact completely determined by its run structure.
0909.4601
Rank Metric Decoder Architectures for Random Linear Network Coding with Error Control
cs.IT math.IT
While random linear network coding is a powerful tool for disseminating information in communication networks, it is highly susceptible to errors caused by various sources. Due to error propagation, errors greatly deteriorate the throughput of network coding and seriously undermine both reliability and security of data. Hence error control for network coding is vital. Recently, constant-dimension codes (CDCs), especially K\"otter-Kschischang (KK) codes, have been proposed for error control in random linear network coding. KK codes can also be constructed from Gabidulin codes, an important class of rank metric codes. Rank metric decoders have been recently proposed for both Gabidulin and KK codes, but they have high computational complexities. Furthermore, it is not clear whether such decoders are feasible and suitable for hardware implementations. In this paper, we reduce the complexities of rank metric decoders and propose novel decoder architectures for both codes. The synthesis results of our decoder architectures for Gabidulin and KK codes with limited error-correcting capabilities over small fields show that our architectures not only are affordable, but also achieve high throughput.
0909.4603
Scalable Inference for Latent Dirichlet Allocation
cs.LG
We investigate the problem of learning a topic model - the well-known Latent Dirichlet Allocation - in a distributed manner, using a cluster of C processors and dividing the corpus to be learned equally among them. We propose a simple approximated method that can be tuned, trading speed for accuracy according to the task at hand. Our approach is asynchronous, and therefore suitable for clusters of heterogenous machines.
0909.4604
Interference Alignment for the $K$ User MIMO Interference Channel
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the $K$-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel with $M$ antennas at each transmitter and $N$ antennas at each receiver. It is assumed that channel coefficients are constant and are available at all transmitters and at all receivers. The main objective of this paper is to characterize the Degrees of Freedom (DoF) for this channel. Using a new interference alignment technique which has been recently introduced in \cite{abolfazl-final}, we show that $\frac{MN}{M+N} K$ degrees of freedom can be achieved for almost all channel realizations. Also, a new upper-bound on the DoF of this channel is provided. This upper-bound coincides with our achievable DoF for $K\geq K_u\define\frac{M+N}{\gcd(M,N)}$, where $\gcd(M,N)$ denotes the greatest common divisor of $M$ and $N$. This gives an exact characterization of DoF for $M\times N$ MIMO Gaussian interference channel in the case of $K\geq K_u$.
0909.4767
Semidefinite programming, harmonic analysis and coding theory
cs.IT math.IT
These lecture notes where presented as a course of the CIMPA summer school in Manila, July 20-30, 2009, Semidefinite programming in algebraic combinatorics. This version is an update June 2010.
0909.4807
Consensus in Correlated Random Topologies: Weights for Finite Time Horizon
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the weight design problem for the consensus algorithm under a finite time horizon. We assume that the underlying network is random where the links fail at each iteration with certain probability and the link failures can be spatially correlated. We formulate a family of weight design criteria (objective functions) that minimize n, n = 1,...,N (out of N possible) largest (slowest) eigenvalues of the matrix that describes the mean squared consensus error dynamics. We show that the objective functions are convex; hence, globally optimal weights (with respect to the design criteria) can be efficiently obtained. Numerical examples on large scale, sparse random networks with spatially correlated link failures show that: 1) weights obtained according to our criteria lead to significantly faster convergence than the choices available in the literature; 2) different design criteria that corresponds to different n, exhibits very interesting tradeoffs: faster transient performance leads to slower long time run performance and vice versa. Thus, n is a valuable degree of freedom and can be appropriately selected for the given time horizon.
0909.4808
Combinatiorial Algorithms for Wireless Information Flow
cs.DS cs.IT math.IT
A long-standing open question in information theory is to characterize the unicast capacity of a wireless relay network. The difficulty arises due to the complex signal interactions induced in the network, since the wireless channel inherently broadcasts the signals and there is interference among transmissions. Recently, Avestimehr, Diggavi and Tse proposed a linear deterministic model that takes into account the shared nature of wireless channels, focusing on the signal interactions rather than the background noise. They generalized the min-cut max-flow theorem for graphs to networks of deterministic channels and proved that the capacity can be achieved using information theoretical tools. They showed that the value of the minimum cut is in this case the minimum rank of all the adjacency matrices describing source-destination cuts. In this paper, we develop a polynomial time algorithm that discovers the relay encoding strategy to achieve the min-cut value in linear deterministic (wireless) networks, for the case of a unicast connection. Our algorithm crucially uses a notion of linear independence between channels to calculate the capacity in polynomial time. Moreover, we can achieve the capacity by using very simple one-symbol processing at the intermediate nodes, thereby constructively yielding finite length strategies that achieve the unicast capacity of the linear deterministic (wireless) relay network.
0909.4828
Optimal Feedback Communication via Posterior Matching
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we introduce a fundamental principle for optimal communication over general memoryless channels in the presence of noiseless feedback, termed posterior matching. Using this principle, we devise a (simple, sequential) generic feedback transmission scheme suitable for a large class of memoryless channels and input distributions, achieving any rate below the corresponding mutual information. This provides a unified framework for optimal feedback communication in which the Horstein scheme (BSC) and the Schalkwijk-Kailath scheme (AWGN channel) are special cases. Thus, as a corollary, we prove that the Horstein scheme indeed attains the BSC capacity, settling a longstanding conjecture. We further provide closed form expressions for the error probability of the scheme over a range of rates, and derive the achievable rates in a mismatch setting where the scheme is designed according to the wrong channel model. Several illustrative examples of the posterior matching scheme for specific channels are given, and the corresponding error probability expressions are evaluated. The proof techniques employed utilize novel relations between information rates and contraction properties of iterated function systems.
0909.4830
Super-wavelets versus poly-Bergman spaces
math.FA cs.IT math.IT
Motivated by potential applications in multiplexing and by recent results on Gabor analysis with Hermite windows due to Gr\"{o}chenig and Lyubarskii, we investigate vector-valued wavelet transforms and vector-valued wavelet frames, which constitute special cases of super-wavelets, with a particular attention to the case when the analyzing wavelet vector is related to Fourier transforms of Laguerre functions. We construct an isometric isomorphism between $L^{2}(\mathbb{R}^{+},\mathbf{C}^{n})$ and poly-Bergman spaces, with a view to relate the sampling sequences in the poly-Bergman spaces to the wavelet frames and super-frames with the windows $\Phi_{n}$. One of the applications of the theory is a proof that $b\ln a<2\pi (n+1)$ is a necessary condition for the (scalar) wavelet frame associated to the $\Phi_{n}$ to exist. This seems to be the first known result of this type outside the setting of analytic functions (the case $n=0$, which has been completely studied by Seip in 1993).
0909.4876
A Program in Dialectical Rough Set Theory
math.LO cs.IT math.IT
A dialectical rough set theory focussed on the relation between roughly equivalent objects and classical objects was introduced in \cite{AM699} by the present author. The focus of our investigation is on elucidating the minimal conditions on the nature of granularity, underlying semantic domain and nature of the general rough set theories (RST) involved for possible extension of the semantics to more general RST on a paradigm. On this basis we also formulate a program in dialectical rough set theory. The dialectical approach provides better semantics in many difficult cases and helps in formalising a wide variety of concepts and notions that remain untamed at meta levels in the usual approaches. This is a brief version of a more detailed forthcoming paper by the present author.
0909.4889
Hybrid Intrusion Detection and Prediction multiAgent System HIDPAS
cs.CR cs.AI cs.DS
This paper proposes an intrusion detection and prediction system based on uncertain and imprecise inference networks and its implementation. Giving a historic of sessions, it is about proposing a method of supervised learning doubled of a classifier permitting to extract the necessary knowledge in order to identify the presence or not of an intrusion in a session and in the positive case to recognize its type and to predict the possible intrusions that will follow it. The proposed system takes into account the uncertainty and imprecision that can affect the statistical data of the historic. The systematic utilization of an unique probability distribution to represent this type of knowledge supposes a too rich subjective information and risk to be in part arbitrary. One of the first objectives of this work was therefore to permit the consistency between the manner of which we represent information and information which we really dispose.
0909.4938
Empirical analysis of web-based user-object bipartite networks
physics.data-an cs.IR physics.soc-ph
Understanding the structure and evolution of web-based user-object networks is a significant task since they play a crucial role in e-commerce nowadays. This Letter reports the empirical analysis on two large-scale web sites, audioscrobbler.com and del.icio.us, where users are connected with music groups and bookmarks, respectively. The degree distributions and degree-degree correlations for both users and objects are reported. We propose a new index, named collaborative clustering coefficient, to quantify the clustering behavior based on the collaborative selection. Accordingly, the clustering properties and clustering-degree correlations are investigated. We report some novel phenomena well characterizing the selection mechanism of web users and outline the relevance of these phenomena to the information recommendation problem.
0909.4983
Event-Driven Optimal Feedback Control for Multi-Antenna Beamforming
cs.IT math.IT
Transmit beamforming is a simple multi-antenna technique for increasing throughput and the transmission range of a wireless communication system. The required feedback of channel state information (CSI) can potentially result in excessive overhead especially for high mobility or many antennas. This work concerns efficient feedback for transmit beamforming and establishes a new approach of controlling feedback for maximizing net throughput, defined as throughput minus average feedback cost. The feedback controller using a stationary policy turns CSI feedback on/off according to the system state that comprises the channel state and transmit beamformer. Assuming channel isotropy and Markovity, the controller's state reduces to two scalars. This allows the optimal control policy to be efficiently computed using dynamic programming. Consider the perfect feedback channel free of error, where each feedback instant pays a fixed price. The corresponding optimal feedback control policy is proved to be of the threshold type. This result holds regardless of whether the controller's state space is discretized or continuous. Under the threshold-type policy, feedback is performed whenever a state variable indicating the accuracy of transmit CSI is below a threshold, which varies with channel power. The practical finite-rate feedback channel is also considered. The optimal policy for quantized feedback is proved to be also of the threshold type. The effect of CSI quantization is shown to be equivalent to an increment on the feedback price. Moreover, the increment is upper bounded by the expected logarithm of one minus the quantization error. Finally, simulation shows that feedback control increases net throughput of the conventional periodic feedback by up to 0.5 bit/s/Hz without requiring additional bandwidth or antennas.
0909.4995
Geometrical Interpretation of Shannon's Entropy Based on the Born Rule
cs.IT cs.NE math.IT math.PR physics.data-an
In this paper we will analyze discrete probability distributions in which probabilities of particular outcomes of some experiment (microstates) can be represented by the ratio of natural numbers (in other words, probabilities are represented by digital numbers of finite representation length). We will introduce several results that are based on recently proposed JoyStick Probability Selector, which represents a geometrical interpretation of the probability based on the Born rule. The terms of generic space and generic dimension of the discrete distribution, as well as, effective dimension are going to be introduced. It will be shown how this simple geometric representation can lead to an optimal code length coding of the sequence of signals. Then, we will give a new, geometrical, interpretation of the Shannon entropy of the discrete distribution. We will suggest that the Shannon entropy represents the logarithm of the effective dimension of the distribution. Proposed geometrical interpretation of the Shannon entropy can be used to prove some information inequalities in an elementary way.
0909.5000
Eignets for function approximation on manifolds
cs.LG cs.NA cs.NE
Let $\XX$ be a compact, smooth, connected, Riemannian manifold without boundary, $G:\XX\times\XX\to \RR$ be a kernel. Analogous to a radial basis function network, an eignet is an expression of the form $\sum_{j=1}^M a_jG(\circ,y_j)$, where $a_j\in\RR$, $y_j\in\XX$, $1\le j\le M$. We describe a deterministic, universal algorithm for constructing an eignet for approximating functions in $L^p(\mu;\XX)$ for a general class of measures $\mu$ and kernels $G$. Our algorithm yields linear operators. Using the minimal separation amongst the centers $y_j$ as the cost of approximation, we give modulus of smoothness estimates for the degree of approximation by our eignets, and show by means of a converse theorem that these are the best possible for every \emph{individual function}. We also give estimates on the coefficients $a_j$ in terms of the norm of the eignet. Finally, we demonstrate that if any sequence of eignets satisfies the optimal estimates for the degree of approximation of a smooth function, measured in terms of the minimal separation, then the derivatives of the eignets also approximate the corresponding derivatives of the target function in an optimal manner.
0909.5006
On the Degrees of Freedom of the Compound MIMO Broadcast Channels with Finite States
cs.IT math.IT
Multiple-antenna broadcast channels with $M$ transmit antennas and $K$ single-antenna receivers is considered, where the channel of receiver $r$ takes one of the $J_r$ finite values. It is assumed that the channel states of each receiver are randomly selected from $\mathds{R}^{M\times 1}$ (or from $\mathds{C}^{M\times 1}$). It is shown that no matter what $J_r$ is, the degrees of freedom (DoF) of $\frac{MK}{M+K-1}$ is achievable. The achievable scheme relies on the idea of interference alignment at receivers, without exploiting the possibility of cooperation among transmit antennas. It is proven that if $J_r \geq M$, $r=1,...,K$, this scheme achieves the optimal DoF. This results implies that when the uncertainty of the base station about the channel realization is considerable, the system loses the gain of cooperation. However, it still benefits from the gain of interference alignment. In fact, in this case, the compound broadcast channel is treated as a compound X channel. Moreover, it is shown that when the base station knows the channel states of some of the receivers, a combination of transmit cooperation and interference alignment would achieve the optimal DoF. Like time-invariant $K$-user interference channels, the naive vector-space approaches of interference management seem insufficient to achieve the optimal DoF of this channel. In this paper, we use the Number-Theory approach of alignment, recently developed by Motahari et al.[1]. We extend the approach of [1] to complex channels as well, therefore all the results that we present are valid for both real and complex channels.
0909.5007
Achieving Capacity of Bi-Directional Tandem Collision Network by Joint Medium-Access Control and Channel-Network Coding
cs.IT math.IT
In ALOHA-type packetized network, the transmission times of packets follow a stochastic process. In this paper, we advocate a deterministic approach for channel multiple-access. Each user is statically assigned a periodic protocol signal, which takes value either zero or one, and transmit packets whenever the value of the protocol signal is equal to one. On top of this multiple-access protocol, efficient channel coding and network coding schemes are devised. We illustrate the idea by constructing a transmission scheme for the tandem collision network, for both slot-synchronous and slot-asynchronous systems. This cross-layer approach is able to achieve the capacity region when the network is bi-directional.
0909.5012
IRPF90: a programming environment for high performance computing
cs.SE cs.CE
IRPF90 is a Fortran programming environment which helps the development of large Fortran codes. In Fortran programs, the programmer has to focus on the order of the instructions: before using a variable, the programmer has to be sure that it has already been computed in all possible situations. For large codes, it is common source of error. In IRPF90 most of the order of instructions is handled by the pre-processor, and an automatic mechanism guarantees that every entity is built before being used. This mechanism relies on the {needs/needed by} relations between the entities, which are built automatically. Codes written with IRPF90 execute often faster than Fortran programs, are faster to write and easier to maintain.
0909.5097
On the Scope of the Universal-Algebraic Approach to Constraint Satisfaction
cs.LO cs.AI cs.CC
The universal-algebraic approach has proved a powerful tool in the study of the complexity of CSPs. This approach has previously been applied to the study of CSPs with finite or (infinite) omega-categorical templates, and relies on two facts. The first is that in finite or omega-categorical structures A, a relation is primitive positive definable if and only if it is preserved by the polymorphisms of A. The second is that every finite or omega-categorical structure is homomorphically equivalent to a core structure. In this paper, we present generalizations of these facts to infinite structures that are not necessarily omega-categorical. (This abstract has been severely curtailed by the space constraints of arXiv -- please read the full abstract in the article.) Finally, we present applications of our general results to the description and analysis of the complexity of CSPs. In particular, we give general hardness criteria based on the absence of polymorphisms that depend on more than one argument, and we present a polymorphism-based description of those CSPs that are first-order definable (and therefore can be solved in polynomial time).
0909.5099
Breaking Generator Symmetry
cs.AI cs.CC
Dealing with large numbers of symmetries is often problematic. One solution is to focus on just symmetries that generate the symmetry group. Whilst there are special cases where breaking just the symmetries in a generating set is complete, there are also cases where no irredundant generating set eliminates all symmetry. However, focusing on just generators improves tractability. We prove that it is polynomial in the size of the generating set to eliminate all symmetric solutions, but NP-hard to prune all symmetric values. Our proof considers row and column symmetry, a common type of symmetry in matrix models where breaking just generator symmetries is very effective. We show that propagating a conjunction of lexicographical ordering constraints on the rows and columns of a matrix of decision variables is NP-hard.
0909.5119
Random Access Transport Capacity
cs.IT math.IT
We develop a new metric for quantifying end-to-end throughput in multihop wireless networks, which we term random access transport capacity, since the interference model presumes uncoordinated transmissions. The metric quantifies the average maximum rate of successful end-to-end transmissions, multiplied by the communication distance, and normalized by the network area. We show that a simple upper bound on this quantity is computable in closed-form in terms of key network parameters when the number of retransmissions is not restricted and the hops are assumed to be equally spaced on a line between the source and destination. We also derive the optimum number of hops and optimal per hop success probability and show that our result follows the well-known square root scaling law while providing exact expressions for the preconstants as well. Numerical results demonstrate that the upper bound is accurate for the purpose of determining the optimal hop count and success (or outage) probability.
0909.5120
Feedback-Based Collaborative Secrecy Encoding over Binary Symmetric Channels
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
In this paper we propose a feedback scheme for transmitting secret messages between two legitimate parties, over an eavesdropped communication link. Relative to Wyner's traditional encoding scheme \cite{wyner1}, our feedback-based encoding often yields larger rate-equivocation regions and achievable secrecy rates. More importantly, by exploiting the channel randomness inherent in the feedback channels, our scheme achieves a strictly positive secrecy rate even when the eavesdropper's channel is less noisy than the legitimate receiver's channel. All channels are modeled as binary and symmetric (BSC). We demonstrate the versatility of our feedback-based encoding method by using it in three different configurations: the stand-alone configuration, the mixed configuration (when it combines with Wyner's scheme \cite{wyner1}), and the reversed configuration. Depending on the channel conditions, significant improvements over Wyner's secrecy capacity can be observed in all configurations.
0909.5166
An Algorithm for Mining Multidimensional Fuzzy Association Rules
cs.IR cs.DB
Multidimensional association rule mining searches for interesting relationship among the values from different dimensions or attributes in a relational database. In this method the correlation is among set of dimensions i.e., the items forming a rule come from different dimensions. Therefore each dimension should be partitioned at the fuzzy set level. This paper proposes a new algorithm for generating multidimensional association rules by utilizing fuzzy sets. A database consisting of fuzzy transactions, the Apriory property is employed to prune the useless candidates, itemsets.
0909.5175
Bounding the Sensitivity of Polynomial Threshold Functions
cs.CC cs.LG
We give the first non-trivial upper bounds on the average sensitivity and noise sensitivity of polynomial threshold functions. More specifically, for a Boolean function f on n variables equal to the sign of a real, multivariate polynomial of total degree d we prove 1) The average sensitivity of f is at most O(n^{1-1/(4d+6)}) (we also give a combinatorial proof of the bound O(n^{1-1/2^d}). 2) The noise sensitivity of f with noise rate \delta is at most O(\delta^{1/(4d+6)}). Previously, only bounds for the linear case were known. Along the way we show new structural theorems about random restrictions of polynomial threshold functions obtained via hypercontractivity. These structural results may be of independent interest as they provide a generic template for transforming problems related to polynomial threshold functions defined on the Boolean hypercube to polynomial threshold functions defined in Gaussian space.
0909.5179
Expected RIP: Conditioning of The Modulated Wideband Converter
cs.IT math.IT
The sensing matrix of a compressive system impacts the stability of the associated sparse recovery problem. In this paper, we study the sensing matrix of the modulated wideband converter, a recently proposed system for sub-Nyquist sampling of analog sparse signals. Attempting to quantify the conditioning of the converter sensing matrix with existing approaches leads to unreasonable rate requirements, due to the relatively small size of this matrix. We propose a new conditioning criterion, named the expected restricted isometry property, and derive theoretical guarantees for the converter to satisfy this property. We then show that applying these conditions to popular binary sequences, such as maximal codes or Gold codes, leads to practical rate requirements.
0909.5216
Learning Gaussian Tree Models: Analysis of Error Exponents and Extremal Structures
stat.ML cs.IT math.IT math.ST stat.TH
The problem of learning tree-structured Gaussian graphical models from independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) samples is considered. The influence of the tree structure and the parameters of the Gaussian distribution on the learning rate as the number of samples increases is discussed. Specifically, the error exponent corresponding to the event that the estimated tree structure differs from the actual unknown tree structure of the distribution is analyzed. Finding the error exponent reduces to a least-squares problem in the very noisy learning regime. In this regime, it is shown that the extremal tree structure that minimizes the error exponent is the star for any fixed set of correlation coefficients on the edges of the tree. If the magnitudes of all the correlation coefficients are less than 0.63, it is also shown that the tree structure that maximizes the error exponent is the Markov chain. In other words, the star and the chain graphs represent the hardest and the easiest structures to learn in the class of tree-structured Gaussian graphical models. This result can also be intuitively explained by correlation decay: pairs of nodes which are far apart, in terms of graph distance, are unlikely to be mistaken as edges by the maximum-likelihood estimator in the asymptotic regime.
0909.5268
A Simple Necessary and Sufficient Condition for the Double Unicast Problem
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a directed acyclic network where there are two source-terminal pairs and the terminals need to receive the symbols generated at the respective sources. Each source independently generates an i.i.d. random process over the same alphabet. Each edge in the network is error-free, delay-free, and can carry one symbol from the alphabet per use. We give a simple necessary and sufficient condition for being able to simultaneously satisfy the unicast requirements of the two source-terminal pairs at rate-pair $(1,1)$ using vector network coding. The condition is also sufficient for doing this using only "XOR" network coding and is much simpler compared to the necessary and sufficient conditions known from previous work. Our condition also yields a simple characterization of the capacity region of a double-unicast network which does not support the rate-pair $(1,1)$.
0909.5310
Cognitive Power Control Under Correlated Fading and Primary-Link CSI
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the cognitive power control problem of maximizing the secondary throughput under an outage probability constraint on a constant-power constant-rate primary link. We assume a temporally correlated primary channel with two types of feedback: perfect delayed channel state information (CSI) and one-bit automatic repeat request (ARQ). We use channel correlation to enhance the primary and secondary throughput via exploiting the CSI feedback to predict the future primary channel gain. We provide a numerical solution for the power control optimization problem under delayed CSI. In order to make the solution tractable under ARQ-CSI, we re-formulate the cognitive power control problem as the maximization of the instantaneous weighted sum of primary and secondary throughput. We propose a greedy ARQ-CSI algorithm that is shown to achieve an average throughput comparable to that attained under the delayed-CSI algorithm, which we solve optimally.
0909.5424
The Degrees of Freedom Regions of MIMO Broadcast, Interference, and Cognitive Radio Channels with No CSIT
cs.IT math.IT
The degrees of freedom (DoF) regions are characterized for the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) broadcast channel (BC), interference channels (IC) (including X and multi-hop interference channels) and the cognitive radio channel (CRC), when there is perfect and no channel state information at the receivers and the transmitter(s) (CSIR and CSIT), respectively. For the K-user MIMO BC, the exact characterization of the DoF region is obtained, which shows that a simple time-division-based transmission scheme is DoF-region optimal. Using the techniques developed for the MIMO BC, the corresponding problems for the two-user MIMO IC and the CRC are addressed. For both of these channels, inner and outer bounds to the DoF region are obtained and are seen to coincide for a vast majority of the relative numbers of antennas at the four terminals, thereby characterizing DoF regions for all but a few cases. Finally, the DoF regions of the $K$-user MIMO IC, the CRC, and X networks are derived for certain classes of these networks, including the one where all transmitters have an equal number of antennas and so do all receivers. The results of this paper are derived for distributions of fading channel matrices and additive noises that are more general than those considered in other simultaneous related works. The DoF regions with and without CSIT are compared and conditions on the relative numbers of antennas at the terminals under which a lack of CSIT does, or does not, result in the loss of DoF are identified, thereby providing, on the one hand, simple and robust communication schemes that don't require CSIT but have the same DoF performance as their previously found CSIT counterparts, and on the other hand, identifying situations where CSI feedback to transmitters would provide gains that are significant enough that even the DoF performance could be improved.
0909.5450
Robust Distributed Estimation over Multiple Access Channels with Constant Modulus Signaling
cs.IT math.IT
A distributed estimation scheme where the sensors transmit with constant modulus signals over a multiple access channel is considered. The proposed estimator is shown to be strongly consistent for any sensing noise distribution in the i.i.d. case both for a per-sensor power constraint, and a total power constraint. When the distributions of the sensing noise are not identical, a bound on the variances is shown to establish strong consistency. The estimator is shown to be asymptotically normal with a variance (AsV) that depends on the characteristic function of the sensing noise. Optimization of the AsV is considered with respect to a transmission phase parameter for a variety of noise distributions exhibiting differing levels of impulsive behavior. The robustness of the estimator to impulsive sensing noise distributions such as those with positive excess kurtosis, or those that do not have finite moments is shown. The proposed estimator is favorably compared with the amplify and forward scheme under an impulsive noise scenario. The effect of fading is shown to not affect the consistency of the estimator, but to scale the asymptotic variance by a constant fading penalty depending on the fading statistics. Simulations corroborate our analytical results.
0909.5457
Guaranteed Rank Minimization via Singular Value Projection
cs.LG cs.IT math.IT
Minimizing the rank of a matrix subject to affine constraints is a fundamental problem with many important applications in machine learning and statistics. In this paper we propose a simple and fast algorithm SVP (Singular Value Projection) for rank minimization with affine constraints (ARMP) and show that SVP recovers the minimum rank solution for affine constraints that satisfy the "restricted isometry property" and show robustness of our method to noise. Our results improve upon a recent breakthrough by Recht, Fazel and Parillo (RFP07) and Lee and Bresler (LB09) in three significant ways: 1) our method (SVP) is significantly simpler to analyze and easier to implement, 2) we give recovery guarantees under strictly weaker isometry assumptions 3) we give geometric convergence guarantees for SVP even in presense of noise and, as demonstrated empirically, SVP is significantly faster on real-world and synthetic problems. In addition, we address the practically important problem of low-rank matrix completion (MCP), which can be seen as a special case of ARMP. We empirically demonstrate that our algorithm recovers low-rank incoherent matrices from an almost optimal number of uniformly sampled entries. We make partial progress towards proving exact recovery and provide some intuition for the strong performance of SVP applied to matrix completion by showing a more restricted isometry property. Our algorithm outperforms existing methods, such as those of \cite{RFP07,CR08,CT09,CCS08,KOM09,LB09}, for ARMP and the matrix-completion problem by an order of magnitude and is also significantly more robust to noise.
0909.5458
Information tracking approach to segmentation of ultrasound imagery of prostate
cs.CV
The size and geometry of the prostate are known to be pivotal quantities used by clinicians to assess the condition of the gland during prostate cancer screening. As an alternative to palpation, an increasing number of methods for estimation of the above-mentioned quantities are based on using imagery data of prostate. The necessity to process large volumes of such data creates a need for automatic segmentation tools which would allow the estimation to be carried out with maximum accuracy and efficiency. In particular, the use of transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) imaging in prostate cancer screening seems to be becoming a standard clinical practice due to the high benefit-to-cost ratio of this imaging modality. Unfortunately, the segmentation of TRUS images is still hampered by relatively low contrast and reduced SNR of the images, thereby requiring the segmentation algorithms to incorporate prior knowledge about the geometry of the gland. In this paper, a novel approach to the problem of segmenting the TRUS images is described. The proposed approach is based on the concept of distribution tracking, which provides a unified framework for modeling and fusing image-related and morphological features of the prostate. Moreover, the same framework allows the segmentation to be regularized via using a new type of "weak" shape priors, which minimally bias the estimation procedure, while rendering the latter stable and robust.