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cs/0702162
Distributed Power Allocation with Rate Constraints in Gaussian Parallel Interference Channels
cs.IT cs.GT math.IT
This paper considers the minimization of transmit power in Gaussian parallel interference channels, subject to a rate constraint for each user. To derive decentralized solutions that do not require any cooperation among the users, we formulate this power control problem as a (generalized) Nash equilibrium game. We obtain sufficient conditions that guarantee the existence and nonemptiness of the solution set to our problem. Then, to compute the solutions of the game, we propose two distributed algorithms based on the single user waterfilling solution: The \emph{sequential} and the \emph{simultaneous} iterative waterfilling algorithms, wherein the users update their own strategies sequentially and simultaneously, respectively. We derive a unified set of sufficient conditions that guarantee the uniqueness of the solution and global convergence of both algorithms. Our results are applicable to all practical distributed multipoint-to-multipoint interference systems, either wired or wireless, where a quality of service in terms of information rate must be guaranteed for each link.
cs/0702163
First Passage Time for Multivariate Jump-diffusion Stochastic Models With Applications in Finance
cs.CE cs.NA
The ``first passage-time'' (FPT) problem is an important problem with a wide range of applications in mathematics, physics, biology and finance. Mathematically, such a problem can be reduced to estimating the probability of a (stochastic) process first to reach a critical level or threshold. While in other areas of applications the FPT problem can often be solved analytically, in finance we usually have to resort to the application of numerical procedures, in particular when we deal with jump-diffusion stochastic processes (JDP). In this paper, we develop a Monte-Carlo-based methodology for the solution of the FPT problem in the context of a multivariate jump-diffusion stochastic process. The developed methodology is tested by using different parameters, the simulation results indicate that the developed methodology is much more efficient than the conventional Monte Carlo method. It is an efficient tool for further practical applications, such as the analysis of default correlation and predicting barrier options in finance.
cs/0702164
Monte-Carlo Simulations of the First Passage Time for Multivariate Jump-Diffusion Processes in Financial Applications
cs.CE cs.NA
Many problems in finance require the information on the first passage time (FPT) of a stochastic process. Mathematically, such problems are often reduced to the evaluation of the probability density of the time for such a process to cross a certain level, a boundary, or to enter a certain region. While in other areas of applications the FPT problem can often be solved analytically, in finance we usually have to resort to the application of numerical procedures, in particular when we deal with jump-diffusion stochastic processes (JDP). In this paper, we propose a Monte-Carlo-based methodology for the solution of the first passage time problem in the context of multivariate (and correlated) jump-diffusion processes. The developed technique provide an efficient tool for a number of applications, including credit risk and option pricing. We demonstrate its applicability to the analysis of the default rates and default correlations of several different, but correlated firms via a set of empirical data.
cs/0702165
Efficient estimation of default correlation for multivariate jump-diffusion processes
cs.CE cs.NA
Evaluation of default correlation is an important task in credit risk analysis. In many practical situations, it concerns the joint defaults of several correlated firms, the task that is reducible to a first passage time (FPT) problem. This task represents a great challenge for jump-diffusion processes (JDP), where except for very basic cases, there are no analytical solutions for such problems. In this contribution, we generalize our previous fast Monte-Carlo method (non-correlated jump-diffusion cases) for multivariate (and correlated) jump-diffusion processes. This generalization allows us, among other things, to evaluate the default events of several correlated assets based on a set of empirical data. The developed technique is an efficient tool for a number of other applications, including credit risk and option pricing.
cs/0702166
Solving Stochastic Differential Equations with Jump-Diffusion Efficiently: Applications to FPT Problems in Credit Risk
cs.CE cs.NA
The first passage time (FPT) problem is ubiquitous in many applications. In finance, we often have to deal with stochastic processes with jump-diffusion, so that the FTP problem is reducible to a stochastic differential equation with jump-diffusion. While the application of the conventional Monte-Carlo procedure is possible for the solution of the resulting model, it becomes computationally inefficient which severely restricts its applicability in many practically interesting cases. In this contribution, we focus on the development of efficient Monte-Carlo-based computational procedures for solving the FPT problem under the multivariate (and correlated) jump-diffusion processes. We also discuss the implementation of the developed Monte-Carlo-based technique for multivariate jump-diffusion processes driving by several compound Poisson shocks. Finally, we demonstrate the application of the developed methodologies for analyzing the default rates and default correlations of differently rated firms via historical data.
cs/0702167
Finite Volume Analysis of Nonlinear Thermo-mechanical Dynamics of Shape Memory Alloys
cs.CE cs.NA
In this paper, the finite volume method is developed to analyze coupled dynamic problems of nonlinear thermoelasticity. The major focus is given to the description of martensitic phase transformations essential in the modelling of shape memory alloys. Computational experiments are carried out to study the thermo-mechanical wave interactions in a shape memory alloy rod, and a patch. Both mechanically and thermally induced phase transformations, as well as hysteresis effects, in a one-dimensional structure are successfully simulated with the developed methodology. In the two-dimensional case, the main focus is given to square-to-rectangular transformations and examples of martensitic combinations under different mechanical loadings are provided.
cs/0702168
Simulation of Phase Combinations in Shape Memory Alloys Patches by Hybrid Optimization Methods
cs.CE cs.NA
In this paper, phase combinations among martensitic variants in shape memory alloys patches and bars are simulated by a hybrid optimization methodology. The mathematical model is based on the Landau theory of phase transformations. Each stable phase is associated with a local minimum of the free energy function, and the phase combinations are simulated by minimizing the bulk energy. At low temperature, the free energy function has double potential wells leading to non-convexity of the optimization problem. The methodology proposed in the present paper is based on an initial estimate of the global solution by a genetic algorithm, followed by a refined quasi-Newton procedure to locally refine the optimum. By combining the local and global search algorithms, the phase combinations are successfully simulated. Numerical experiments are presented for the phase combinations in a SMA patch under several typical mechanical loadings.
cs/0702170
Generic Global Constraints based on MDDs
cs.AI
Constraint Programming (CP) has been successfully applied to both constraint satisfaction and constraint optimization problems. A wide variety of specialized global constraints provide critical assistance in achieving a good model that can take advantage of the structure of the problem in the search for a solution. However, a key outstanding issue is the representation of 'ad-hoc' constraints that do not have an inherent combinatorial nature, and hence are not modeled well using narrowly specialized global constraints. We attempt to address this issue by considering a hybrid of search and compilation. Specifically we suggest the use of Reduced Ordered Multi-Valued Decision Diagrams (ROMDDs) as the supporting data structure for a generic global constraint. We give an algorithm for maintaining generalized arc consistency (GAC) on this constraint that amortizes the cost of the GAC computation over a root-to-leaf path in the search tree without requiring asymptotically more space than used for the MDD. Furthermore we present an approach for incrementally maintaining the reduced property of the MDD during the search, and show how this can be used for providing domain entailment detection. Finally we discuss how to apply our approach to other similar data structures such as AOMDDs and Case DAGs. The technique used can be seen as an extension of the GAC algorithm for the regular language constraint on finite length input.
cs/0702172
Numerical Model For Vibration Damping Resulting From the First Order Phase Transformations
cs.CE cs.NA
A numerical model is constructed for modelling macroscale damping effects induced by the first order martensite phase transformations in a shape memory alloy rod. The model is constructed on the basis of the modified Landau-Ginzburg theory that couples nonlinear mechanical and thermal fields. The free energy function for the model is constructed as a double well function at low temperature, such that the external energy can be absorbed during the phase transformation and converted into thermal form. The Chebyshev spectral methods are employed together with backward differentiation for the numerical analysis of the problem. Computational experiments performed for different vibration energies demonstrate the importance of taking into account damping effects induced by phase transformations.
cs/0703002
Integral Biomathics: A Post-Newtonian View into the Logos of Bios (On the New Meaning, Relations and Principles of Life in Science)
cs.NE cs.CC
This work is an attempt for a state-of-the-art survey of natural and life sciences with the goal to define the scope and address the central questions of an original research program. It is focused on the phenomena of emergence, adaptive dynamics and evolution of self-assembling, self-organizing, self-maintaining and self-replicating biosynthetic systems viewed from a newly-arranged perspective and understanding of computation and communication in the living nature.
cs/0703005
State Amplification
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of transmitting data at rate R over a state dependent channel p(y|x,s) with the state information available at the sender and at the same time conveying the information about the channel state itself to the receiver. The amount of state information that can be learned at the receiver is captured by the mutual information I(S^n; Y^n) between the state sequence S^n and the channel output Y^n. The optimal tradeoff is characterized between the information transmission rate R and the state uncertainty reduction rate \Delta, when the state information is either causally or noncausally available at the sender. This result is closely related and in a sense dual to a recent study by Merhav and Shamai, which solves the problem of masking the state information from the receiver rather than conveying it.
cs/0703016
Outage Probability of Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) Systems with Delayed Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
We investigate the effect of feedback delay on the outage probability of multiple-input single-output (MISO) fading channels. Channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) is a delayed version of the channel state information available at the receiver (CSIR). We consider two cases of CSIR: (a) perfect CSIR and (b) CSI estimated at the receiver using training symbols. With perfect CSIR, under a short-term power constraint, we determine: (a) the outage probability for beamforming with imperfect CSIT (BF-IC) analytically, and (b) the optimal spatial power allocation (OSPA) scheme that minimizes outage numerically. Results show that, for delayed CSIT, BF-IC is close to optimal for low SNR and uniform spatial power allocation (USPA) is close to optimal at high SNR. Similarly, under a long-term power constraint, we show that BF-IC is close to optimal for low SNR and USPA is close to optimal at high SNR. With imperfect CSIR, we obtain an upper bound on the outage probability with USPA and BF-IC. Results show that the loss in performance due to imperfection in CSIR is not significant, if the training power is chosen appropriately.
cs/0703017
Performance Bounds for Bi-Directional Coded Cooperation Protocols
cs.IT math.IT
In coded bi-directional cooperation, two nodes wish to exchange messages over a shared half-duplex channel with the help of a relay. In this paper, we derive performance bounds for this problem for each of three protocols. The first protocol is a two phase protocol were both users simultaneously transmit during the first phase and the relay alone transmits during the second. In this protocol, our bounds are tight and a multiple-access channel transmission from the two users to the relay followed by a coded broadcast-type transmission from the relay to the users achieves all points in the two-phase capacity region. The second protocol considers sequential transmissions from the two users followed by a transmission from the relay while the third protocol is a hybrid of the first two protocols and has four phases. In the latter two protocols the inner and outer bounds are not identical, and differ in a manner similar to the inner and outer bounds of Cover's relay channel. Numerical evaluation shows that at least in some cases of interest our bounds do not differ significantly. Finally, in the Gaussian case with path loss, we derive achievable rates and compare the relative merits of each protocol in various regimes. This case is of interest in cellular systems. Surprisingly, we find that in some cases, the achievable rate region of the four phase protocol sometimes contains points that are outside the outer bounds of the other protocols.
cs/0703022
Rate of Channel Hardening of Antenna Selection Diversity Schemes and Its Implication on Scheduling
cs.IT math.IT
For a multiple antenna system, we compute the asymptotic distribution of antenna selection gain when the transmitter selects the transmit antenna with the strongest channel. We use this to asymptotically estimate the underlying channel capacity distributions, and demonstrate that unlike multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) systems, the channel for antenna selection systems hardens at a slower rate, and thus a significant multiuser scheduling gain can exist - O(1/ log m) for channel selection as opposed to O(1/ sqrt{m}) for MIMO, where m is the number of transmit antennas. Additionally, even without this scheduling gain, it is demonstrated that transmit antenna selection systems outperform open loop MIMO systems in low signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) regimes, particularly for a small number of receive antennas. This may have some implications on wireless system design, because most of the users in modern wireless systems have low SINRs
cs/0703024
Algorithmic Information Theory: a brief non-technical guide to the field
cs.IT cs.CC math.IT
This article is a brief guide to the field of algorithmic information theory (AIT), its underlying philosophy, and the most important concepts. AIT arises by mixing information theory and computation theory to obtain an objective and absolute notion of information in an individual object, and in so doing gives rise to an objective and robust notion of randomness of individual objects. This is in contrast to classical information theory that is based on random variables and communication, and has no bearing on information and randomness of individual objects. After a brief overview, the major subfields, applications, history, and a map of the field are presented.
cs/0703027
Interroger un corpus par le sens
cs.CL cs.IR
In textual knowledge management, statistical methods prevail. Nonetheless, some difficulties cannot be overcome by these methodologies. I propose a symbolic approach using a complete textual analysis to identify which analysis level can improve the the answers provided by a system. The approach identifies word senses and relation between words and generates as many rephrasings as possible. Using synonyms and derivative, the system provides new utterances without changing the original meaning of the sentences. Such a way, an information can be retrieved whatever the question or answer's wording may be.
cs/0703033
Time Warp Edit Distance with Stiffness Adjustment for Time Series Matching
cs.IR
In a way similar to the string-to-string correction problem we address time series similarity in the light of a time-series-to-time-series-correction problem for which the similarity between two time series is measured as the minimum cost sequence of "edit operations" needed to transform one time series into another. To define the "edit operations" we use the paradigm of a graphical editing process and end up with a dynamic programming algorithm that we call Time Warp Edit Distance (TWED). TWED is slightly different in form from Dynamic Time Warping, Longest Common Subsequence or Edit Distance with Real Penalty algorithms. In particular, it highlights a parameter which drives a kind of stiffness of the elastic measure along the time axis. We show that the similarity provided by TWED is a metric potentially useful in time series retrieval applications since it could benefit from the triangular inequality property to speed up the retrieval process while tuning the parameters of the elastic measure. In that context, a lower bound is derived to relate the matching of time series into down sampled representation spaces to the matching into the original space. Empiric quality of the TWED distance is evaluated on a simple classification task. Compared to Edit Distance, Dynamic Time Warping, Longest Common Subsequnce and Edit Distance with Real Penalty, TWED has proven to be quite effective on the considered experimental task.
cs/0703034
Nanoscale Communication with Brownian Motion
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, the problem of communicating using chemical messages propagating using Brownian motion, rather than electromagnetic messages propagating as waves in free space or along a wire, is considered. This problem is motivated by nanotechnological and biotechnological applications, where the energy cost of electromagnetic communication might be prohibitive. Models are given for communication using particles that propagate with Brownian motion, and achievable capacity results are given. Under conservative assumptions, it is shown that rates exceeding one bit per particle are achievable.
cs/0703035
On the Distortion SNR Exponent of Some Layered Transmission Schemes
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of joint source-channel coding for transmitting K samples of a complex Gaussian source over T = bK uses of a block-fading multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel with M transmit and N receive antennas. We consider the case when we are allowed to code over L blocks. The channel gain is assumed to be constant over a block and channel gains for different blocks are assumed to be independent. The performance measure of interest is the rate of decay of the expected mean squared error with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), called the distortion SNR exponent. We first show that using a broadcast strategy of Gunduz and Erkip, but with a different power and rate allocation policy, the optimal distortion SNR exponent can be achieved for bandwidth efficiencies 0 < b < (|N-M|+1)/min(M,N). This is the first time the optimal exponent is characterized for 1/min(M,N) < b < (|N-M |+ 1)/ min(M, N). Also, for b > MNL^2, we show that the broadcast scheme achieves the optimal exponent of MNL. Special cases of this result have been derived for the L=1 case and for M=N=1 by Gunduz and Erkip. We then propose a digital layered transmission scheme that uses both time layering and superposition. This includes many previously known schemes as special cases. The proposed scheme is at least as good as the currently best known schemes for the entire range of bandwidth efficiencies, whereas at least for some M, N, and b, it is strictly better than the currently best known schemes.
cs/0703036
Constructions of Grassmannian Simplices
cs.IT math.IT
In this article an explicit method (relying on representation theory) to construct packings in Grassmannian space is presented. Infinite families of configurations having only one non-trivial set of principal angles are found using 2-transitive groups. These packings are proved to reach the simplex bound and are therefore optimal w.r.t. the chordal distance. The construction is illustrated by an example on the symmetric group. Then some natural extends and consequences of this situation are given.
cs/0703038
Delay and Throughput Optimal Scheduling for OFDM Broadcast Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper a scheduling policy is presented which minimizes the average delay of the users. The scheduling scheme is investigated both by analysis and simulations carried out in the context of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) broadcast channels (BC). First the delay optimality is obtained for a static scenario providing solutions for specific subproblems, then the analysis is carried over to the dynamic scheme. Furthermore auxiliary tools are given for proving throughput optimality. Finally simulations show the superior performance of the presented scheme.
cs/0703042
Recommender System for Online Dating Service
cs.IR cs.SE
Users of online dating sites are facing information overload that requires them to manually construct queries and browse huge amount of matching user profiles. This becomes even more problematic for multimedia profiles. Although matchmaking is frequently cited as a typical application for recommender systems, there is a surprising lack of work published in this area. In this paper we describe a recommender system we implemented and perform a quantitative comparison of two collaborative filtering (CF) and two global algorithms. Results show that collaborative filtering recommenders significantly outperform global algorithms that are currently used by dating sites. A blind experiment with real users also confirmed that users prefer CF based recommendations to global popularity recommendations. Recommender systems show a great potential for online dating where they could improve the value of the service to users and improve monetization of the service.
cs/0703045
Performance Bounds on Sparse Representations Using Redundant Frames
cs.IT math.IT
We consider approximations of signals by the elements of a frame in a complex vector space of dimension $N$ and formulate both the noiseless and the noisy sparse representation problems. The noiseless representation problem is to find sparse representations of a signal $\mathbf{r}$ given that such representations exist. In this case, we explicitly construct a frame, referred to as the Vandermonde frame, for which the noiseless sparse representation problem can be solved uniquely using $O(N^2)$ operations, as long as the number of non-zero coefficients in the sparse representation of $\mathbf{r}$ is $\epsilon N$ for some $0 \le \epsilon \le 0.5$, thus improving on a result of Candes and Tao \cite{Candes-Tao}. We also show that $\epsilon \le 0.5$ cannot be relaxed without violating uniqueness. The noisy sparse representation problem is to find sparse representations of a signal $\mathbf{r}$ satisfying a distortion criterion. In this case, we establish a lower bound on the trade-off between the sparsity of the representation, the underlying distortion and the redundancy of any given frame.
cs/0703046
Optimal Power Allocation for Distributed Detection over MIMO Channels in Wireless Sensor Networks
cs.IT math.IT
In distributed detection systems with wireless sensor networks, the communication between sensors and a fusion center is not perfect due to interference and limited transmitter power at the sensors to combat noise at the fusion center's receiver. The problem of optimizing detection performance with such imperfect communication brings a new challenge to distributed detection. In this paper, sensors are assumed to have independent but nonidentically distributed observations, and a multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) channel model is included to account for imperfect communication between the sensors and the fusion center. The J-divergence between the distributions of the detection statistic under different hypotheses is used as a performance criterion in order to provide a tractable analysis. Optimizing the performance (in terms of the J-divergence) with individual and total transmitter power constraints on the sensors is studied, and the corresponding power allocation scheme is provided. It is interesting to see that the proposed power allocation is a tradeoff between two factors, the communication channel quality and the local decision quality. For the case with orthogonal channels under certain conditions, the power allocation can be solved by a weighted water-filling algorithm. Simulations show that, to achieve the same performance, the proposed power allocation in certain cases only consumes as little as 25 percent of the total power used by an equal power allocation scheme.
cs/0703047
Precoding for the AWGN Channel with Discrete Interference
cs.IT math.IT
$M$-ary signal transmission over AWGN channel with additive $Q$-ary interference where the sequence of i.i.d. interference symbols is known causally at the transmitter is considered. Shannon's theorem for channels with side information at the transmitter is used to formulate the capacity of the channel. It is shown that by using at most $MQ-Q+1$ out of $M^Q$ input symbols of the \emph{associated} channel, the capacity is achievable. For the special case where the Gaussian noise power is zero, a sufficient condition, which is independent of interference, is given for the capacity to be $\log_2 M$ bits per channel use. The problem of maximization of the transmission rate under the constraint that the channel input given any current interference symbol is uniformly distributed over the channel input alphabet is investigated. For this setting, the general structure of a communication system with optimal precoding is proposed. The extension of the proposed precoding scheme to continuous channel input alphabet is also investigated.
cs/0703048
Path Loss Models Based on Stochastic Rays
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, two-dimensional percolation lattices are applied to describe wireless propagation environment, and stochastic rays are employed to model the trajectories of radio waves. We first derive the probability that a stochastic ray undergoes certain number of collisions at a specific spatial location. Three classes of stochastic rays with different constraint conditions are considered: stochastic rays of random walks, and generic stochastic rays with two different anomalous levels. Subsequently, we obtain the closed-form formulation of mean received power of radio waves under non line-of-sight conditions for each class of stochastic ray. Specifically, the determination of model parameters and the effects of lattice structures on the path loss are investigated. The theoretical results are validated by comparison with experimental data.
cs/0703049
Algorithm of Segment-Syllabic Synthesis in Speech Recognition Problem
cs.SD cs.CL
Speech recognition based on the syllable segment is discussed in this paper. The principal search methods in space of states for the speech recognition problem by segment-syllabic parameters trajectory synthesis are investigated. Recognition as comparison the parameters trajectories in chosen speech units on the sections of the segmented speech is realized. Some experimental results are given and discussed.
cs/0703050
On The Capacity Deficit of Mobile Wireless Ad Hoc Networks: A Rate Distortion Formulation
cs.IT math.IT
Overheads incurred by routing protocols diminish the capacity available for relaying useful data in a mobile wireless ad hoc network. Discovering lower bounds on the amount of protocol overhead incurred for routing data packets is important for the development of efficient routing protocols, and for characterizing the actual (effective) capacity available for network users. This paper presents an information-theoretic framework for characterizing the minimum routing overheads of geographic routing in a network with mobile nodes. specifically, the minimum overhead problem is formulated as a rate-distortion problem. The formulation may be applied to networks with arbitrary traffic arrival and location service schemes. Lower bounds are derived for the minimum overheads incurred for maintaining the location of destination nodes and consistent neighborhood information in terms of node mobility and packet arrival process. This leads to a characterization of the deficit caused by the routing overheads on the overall transport capacity.
cs/0703052
On the densest MIMO lattices from cyclic division algebras
cs.IT math.IT
It is shown why the discriminant of a maximal order within a cyclic division algebra must be minimized in order to get the densest possible matrix lattices with a prescribed nonvanishing minimum determinant. Using results from class field theory a lower bound to the minimum discriminant of a maximal order with a given center and index (= the number of Tx/Rx antennas) is derived. Also numerous examples of division algebras achieving our bound are given. E.g. we construct a matrix lattice with QAM coefficients that has 2.5 times as many codewords as the celebrated Golden code of the same minimum determinant. We describe a general algorithm due to Ivanyos and Ronyai for finding maximal orders within a cyclic division algebra and discuss our enhancements to this algorithm. We also consider general methods for finding cyclic division algebras of a prescribed index achieving our lower bound.
cs/0703053
Extraction of cartographic objects in high resolution satellite images for object model generation
cs.CV
The aim of this study is to detect man-made cartographic objects in high-resolution satellite images. New generation satellites offer a sub-metric spatial resolution, in which it is possible (and necessary) to develop methods at object level rather than at pixel level, and to exploit structural features of objects. With this aim, a method to generate structural object models from manually segmented images has been developed. To generate the model from non-segmented images, extraction of the objects from the sample images is required. A hybrid method of extraction (both in terms of input sources and segmentation algorithms) is proposed: A region based segmentation is applied on a 10 meter resolution multi-spectral image. The result is used as marker in a "marker-controlled watershed method using edges" on a 2.5 meter resolution panchromatic image. Very promising results have been obtained even on images where the limits of the target objects are not apparent.
cs/0703055
Support and Quantile Tubes
cs.IT cs.LG math.IT
This correspondence studies an estimator of the conditional support of a distribution underlying a set of i.i.d. observations. The relation with mutual information is shown via an extension of Fano's theorem in combination with a generalization bound based on a compression argument. Extensions to estimating the conditional quantile interval, and statistical guarantees on the minimal convex hull are given.
cs/0703056
Unasssuming View-Size Estimation Techniques in OLAP
cs.DB cs.PF
Even if storage was infinite, a data warehouse could not materialize all possible views due to the running time and update requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate quickly, accurately, and reliably the size of views. Many available techniques make particular statistical assumptions and their error can be quite large. Unassuming techniques exist, but typically assume we have independent hashing for which there is no known practical implementation. We adapt an unassuming estimator due to Gibbons and Tirthapura: its theoretical bounds do not make unpractical assumptions. We compare this technique experimentally with stochastic probabilistic counting, LogLog probabilistic counting, and multifractal statistical models. Our experiments show that we can reliably and accurately (within 10%, 19 times out 20) estimate view sizes over large data sets (1.5 GB) within minutes, using almost no memory. However, only Gibbons-Tirthapura provides universally tight estimates irrespective of the size of the view. For large views, probabilistic counting has a small edge in accuracy, whereas the competitive sampling-based method (multifractal) we tested is an order of magnitude faster but can sometimes provide poor estimates (relative error of 100%). In our tests, LogLog probabilistic counting is not competitive. Experimental validation on the US Census 1990 data set and on the Transaction Processing Performance (TPC H) data set is provided.
cs/0703057
Doppler Resilient Waveforms with Perfect Autocorrelation
cs.IT math.IT
We describe a method of constructing a sequence of phase coded waveforms with perfect autocorrelation in the presence of Doppler shift. The constituent waveforms are Golay complementary pairs which have perfect autocorrelation at zero Doppler but are sensitive to nonzero Doppler shifts. We extend this construction to multiple dimensions, in particular to radar polarimetry, where the two dimensions are realized by orthogonal polarizations. Here we determine a sequence of two-by-two Alamouti matrices where the entries involve Golay pairs and for which the sum of the matrix-valued ambiguity functions vanish at small Doppler shifts. The Prouhet-Thue-Morse sequence plays a key role in the construction of Doppler resilient sequences of Golay pairs.
cs/0703058
A Comparison of Five Probabilistic View-Size Estimation Techniques in OLAP
cs.DB cs.PF
A data warehouse cannot materialize all possible views, hence we must estimate quickly, accurately, and reliably the size of views to determine the best candidates for materialization. Many available techniques for view-size estimation make particular statistical assumptions and their error can be large. Comparatively, unassuming probabilistic techniques are slower, but they estimate accurately and reliability very large view sizes using little memory. We compare five unassuming hashing-based view-size estimation techniques including Stochastic Probabilistic Counting and LogLog Probabilistic Counting. Our experiments show that only Generalized Counting, Gibbons-Tirthapura, and Adaptive Counting provide universally tight estimates irrespective of the size of the view; of those, only Adaptive Counting remains constantly fast as we increase the memory budget.
cs/0703060
Redesigning Decision Matrix Method with an indeterminacy-based inference process
cs.AI
For academics and practitioners concerned with computers, business and mathematics, one central issue is supporting decision makers. In this paper, we propose a generalization of Decision Matrix Method (DMM), using Neutrosophic logic. It emerges as an alternative to the existing logics and it represents a mathematical model of uncertainty and indeterminacy. This paper proposes the Neutrosophic Decision Matrix Method as a more realistic tool for decision making. In addition, a de-neutrosophication process is included.
cs/0703061
Coding for Errors and Erasures in Random Network Coding
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
The problem of error-control in random linear network coding is considered. A ``noncoherent'' or ``channel oblivious'' model is assumed where neither transmitter nor receiver is assumed to have knowledge of the channel transfer characteristic. Motivated by the property that linear network coding is vector-space preserving, information transmission is modelled as the injection into the network of a basis for a vector space $V$ and the collection by the receiver of a basis for a vector space $U$. A metric on the projective geometry associated with the packet space is introduced, and it is shown that a minimum distance decoder for this metric achieves correct decoding if the dimension of the space $V \cap U$ is sufficiently large. If the dimension of each codeword is restricted to a fixed integer, the code forms a subset of a finite-field Grassmannian, or, equivalently, a subset of the vertices of the corresponding Grassmann graph. Sphere-packing and sphere-covering bounds as well as a generalization of the Singleton bound are provided for such codes. Finally, a Reed-Solomon-like code construction, related to Gabidulin's construction of maximum rank-distance codes, is described and a Sudan-style ``list-1'' minimum distance decoding algorithm is provided.
cs/0703062
Bandit Algorithms for Tree Search
cs.LG
Bandit based methods for tree search have recently gained popularity when applied to huge trees, e.g. in the game of go (Gelly et al., 2006). The UCT algorithm (Kocsis and Szepesvari, 2006), a tree search method based on Upper Confidence Bounds (UCB) (Auer et al., 2002), is believed to adapt locally to the effective smoothness of the tree. However, we show that UCT is too ``optimistic'' in some cases, leading to a regret O(exp(exp(D))) where D is the depth of the tree. We propose alternative bandit algorithms for tree search. First, a modification of UCT using a confidence sequence that scales exponentially with the horizon depth is proven to have a regret O(2^D \sqrt{n}), but does not adapt to possible smoothness in the tree. We then analyze Flat-UCB performed on the leaves and provide a finite regret bound with high probability. Then, we introduce a UCB-based Bandit Algorithm for Smooth Trees which takes into account actual smoothness of the rewards for performing efficient ``cuts'' of sub-optimal branches with high confidence. Finally, we present an incremental tree search version which applies when the full tree is too big (possibly infinite) to be entirely represented and show that with high probability, essentially only the optimal branches is indefinitely developed. We illustrate these methods on a global optimization problem of a Lipschitz function, given noisy data.
cs/0703067
Target assignment for robotic networks: asymptotic performance under limited communication
cs.RO
We are given an equal number of mobile robotic agents, and distinct target locations. Each agent has simple integrator dynamics, a limited communication range, and knowledge of the position of every target. We address the problem of designing a distributed algorithm that allows the group of agents to divide the targets among themselves and, simultaneously, leads each agent to reach its unique target. We do not require connectivity of the communication graph at any time. We introduce a novel assignment-based algorithm with the following features: initial assignments and robot motions follow a greedy rule, and distributed refinements of the assignment exploit an implicit circular ordering of the targets. We prove correctness of the algorithm, and give worst-case asymptotic bounds on the time to complete the assignment as the environment grows with the number of agents. We show that among a certain class of distributed algorithms, our algorithm is asymptotically optimal. The analysis utilizes results on the Euclidean traveling salesperson problem.
cs/0703068
Option Valuation using Fourier Space Time Stepping
cs.CE
It is well known that the Black-Scholes-Merton model suffers from several deficiencies. Jump-diffusion and Levy models have been widely used to partially alleviate some of the biases inherent in this classical model. Unfortunately, the resulting pricing problem requires solving a more difficult partial-integro differential equation (PIDE) and although several approaches for solving the PIDE have been suggested in the literature, none are entirely satisfactory. All treat the integral and diffusive terms asymmetrically and are difficult to extend to higher dimensions. We present a new, efficient algorithm, based on transform methods, which symmetrically treats the diffusive and integrals terms, is applicable to a wide class of path-dependent options (such as Bermudan, barrier, and shout options) and options on multiple assets, and naturally extends to regime-switching Levy models. We present a concise study of the precision and convergence properties of our algorithm for several classes of options and Levy models and demonstrate that the algorithm is second-order in space and first-order in time for path-dependent options.
cs/0703078
Broadcast Capacity Region of Two-Phase Bidirectional Relaying
cs.IT math.IT
In a three-node network a half-duplex relay node enables bidirectional communication between two nodes with a spectral efficient two phase protocol. In the first phase, two nodes transmit their message to the relay node, which decodes the messages and broadcast a re-encoded composition in the second phase. In this work we determine the capacity region of the broadcast phase. In this scenario each receiving node has perfect information about the message that is intended for the other node. The resulting set of achievable rates of the two-phase bidirectional relaying includes the region which can be achieved by applying XOR on the decoded messages at the relay node. We also prove the strong converse for the maximum error probability and show that this implies that the $[\eps_1,\eps_2]$-capacity region defined with respect to the average error probability is constant for small values of error parameters $\eps_1$, $\eps_2$.
cs/0703081
Randomized Computations on Large Data Sets: Tight Lower Bounds
cs.DB cs.CC
We study the randomized version of a computation model (introduced by Grohe, Koch, and Schweikardt (ICALP'05); Grohe and Schweikardt (PODS'05)) that restricts random access to external memory and internal memory space. Essentially, this model can be viewed as a powerful version of a data stream model that puts no cost on sequential scans of external memory (as other models for data streams) and, in addition, (like other external memory models, but unlike streaming models), admits several large external memory devices that can be read and written to in parallel. We obtain tight lower bounds for the decision problems set equality, multiset equality, and checksort. More precisely, we show that any randomized one-sided-error bounded Monte Carlo algorithm for these problems must perform Omega(log N) random accesses to external memory devices, provided that the internal memory size is at most O(N^(1/4)/log N), where N denotes the size of the input data. From the lower bound on the set equality problem we can infer lower bounds on the worst case data complexity of query evaluation for the languages XQuery, XPath, and relational algebra on streaming data. More precisely, we show that there exist queries in XQuery, XPath, and relational algebra, such that any (randomized) Las Vegas algorithm that evaluates these queries must perform Omega(log N) random accesses to external memory devices, provided that the internal memory size is at most O(N^(1/4)/log N).
cs/0703087
Social Information Processing in Social News Aggregation
cs.CY cs.AI cs.HC cs.MA
The rise of the social media sites, such as blogs, wikis, Digg and Flickr among others, underscores the transformation of the Web to a participatory medium in which users are collaboratively creating, evaluating and distributing information. The innovations introduced by social media has lead to a new paradigm for interacting with information, what we call 'social information processing'. In this paper, we study how social news aggregator Digg exploits social information processing to solve the problems of document recommendation and rating. First, we show, by tracking stories over time, that social networks play an important role in document recommendation. The second contribution of this paper consists of two mathematical models. The first model describes how collaborative rating and promotion of stories emerges from the independent decisions made by many users. The second model describes how a user's influence, the number of promoted stories and the user's social network, changes in time. We find qualitative agreement between predictions of the model and user data gathered from Digg.
cs/0703088
Plot 94 in ambiance X-Window
cs.CV cs.GR
<PLOT > is a collection of routines to draw surfaces, contours and so on. In this work we are presenting a version, that functions over work stations with the operative system UNIX, that count with the graphic ambiance X-WINDOW with the tools XLIB and OSF/MOTIF. This implant was realized for the work stations DEC 5000-200, DEC IPX, and DEC ALFA of the CINVESTAV (Center of Investigation and Advanced Studies). Also implanted in SILICON GRAPHICS of the CENAC (National Center of Calculation of the Polytechnic National Institute
cs/0703089
Space Program Language (SPL/SQL) for the Relational Approach of the Spatial Databases
cs.DB cs.CG
In this project we are presenting a grammar which unify the design and development of spatial databases. In order to make it, we combine nominal and spatial information, the former is represented by the relational model and latter by a modification of the same model. The modification lets to represent spatial data structures (as Quadtrees, Octrees, etc.) in a integrated way. This grammar is important because with it we can create tools to build systems that combine spatial-nominal characteristics such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Hypermedia Systems, Computed Aided Design Systems (CAD), and so on
cs/0703090
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing: An Overview
cs.IT math.IT
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a multi-carrier modulation scheme that provides efficient bandwidth utilization and robustness against time dispersive channels. This paper deals with the basic system model for OFDM based systems and with self-interference, or the corruption of desired signal by itself in OFDM systems. A simple transceiver based on OFDM modulation is presented. Important impairments in OFDM systems are mathematically analyzed
cs/0703091
Multimodal Meaning Representation for Generic Dialogue Systems Architectures
cs.AI cs.MM
An unified language for the communicative acts between agents is essential for the design of multi-agents architectures. Whatever the type of interaction (linguistic, multimodal, including particular aspects such as force feedback), whatever the type of application (command dialogue, request dialogue, database querying), the concepts are common and we need a generic meta-model. In order to tend towards task-independent systems, we need to clarify the modules parameterization procedures. In this paper, we focus on the characteristics of a meta-model designed to represent meaning in linguistic and multimodal applications. This meta-model is called MMIL for MultiModal Interface Language, and has first been specified in the framework of the IST MIAMM European project. What we want to test here is how relevant is MMIL for a completely different context (a different task, a different interaction type, a different linguistic domain). We detail the exploitation of MMIL in the framework of the IST OZONE European project, and we draw the conclusions on the role of MMIL in the parameterization of task-independent dialogue managers.
cs/0703095
Copula Component Analysis
cs.IR cs.AI
A framework named Copula Component Analysis (CCA) for blind source separation is proposed as a generalization of Independent Component Analysis (ICA). It differs from ICA which assumes independence of sources that the underlying components may be dependent with certain structure which is represented by Copula. By incorporating dependency structure, much accurate estimation can be made in principle in the case that the assumption of independence is invalidated. A two phrase inference method is introduced for CCA which is based on the notion of multidimensional ICA.
cs/0703097
On Approximating Optimal Weighted Lobbying, and Frequency of Correctness versus Average-Case Polynomial Time
cs.GT cs.CC cs.MA
We investigate issues related to two hard problems related to voting, the optimal weighted lobbying problem and the winner problem for Dodgson elections. Regarding the former, Christian et al. [CFRS06] showed that optimal lobbying is intractable in the sense of parameterized complexity. We provide an efficient greedy algorithm that achieves a logarithmic approximation ratio for this problem and even for a more general variant--optimal weighted lobbying. We prove that essentially no better approximation ratio than ours can be proven for this greedy algorithm. The problem of determining Dodgson winners is known to be complete for parallel access to NP [HHR97]. Homan and Hemaspaandra [HH06] proposed an efficient greedy heuristic for finding Dodgson winners with a guaranteed frequency of success, and their heuristic is a ``frequently self-knowingly correct algorithm.'' We prove that every distributional problem solvable in polynomial time on the average with respect to the uniform distribution has a frequently self-knowingly correct polynomial-time algorithm. Furthermore, we study some features of probability weight of correctness with respect to Procaccia and Rosenschein's junta distributions [PR07].
cs/0703099
Constrained Cost-Coupled Stochastic Games with Independent State Processes
cs.IT cs.GT math.IT
We consider a non-cooperative constrained stochastic games with N players with the following special structure. With each player there is an associated controlled Markov chain. The transition probabilities of the i-th Markov chain depend only on the state and actions of controller i. The information structure that we consider is such that each player knows the state of its own MDP and its own actions. It does not know the states of, and the actions taken by other players. Finally, each player wishes to minimize a time-average cost function, and has constraints over other time-avrage cost functions. Both the cost that is minimized as well as those defining the constraints depend on the state and actions of all players. We study in this paper the existence of a Nash equilirium. Examples in power control in wireless communications are given.
cs/0703101
A Note on Approximate Nearest Neighbor Methods
cs.IR cs.CC cs.CV
A number of authors have described randomized algorithms for solving the epsilon-approximate nearest neighbor problem. In this note I point out that the epsilon-approximate nearest neighbor property often fails to be a useful approximation property, since epsilon-approximate solutions fail to satisfy the necessary preconditions for using nearest neighbors for classification and related tasks.
cs/0703102
Generation of Efficient Codes for Realizing Boolean Functions in Nanotechnologies
cs.IT cs.DM math.IT
We address the challenge of implementing reliable computation of Boolean functions in future nanocircuit fabrics. Such fabrics are projected to have very high defect rates. We overcome this limitation by using a combination of cheap but unreliable nanodevices and reliable but expensive CMOS devices. In our approach, defect tolerance is achieved through a novel coding of Boolean functions; specifically, we exploit the dont cares of Boolean functions encountered in multi-level Boolean logic networks for constructing better codes. We show that compared to direct application of existing coding techniques, the coding overhead in terms of extra bits can be reduced, on average by 23%, and savings can go up to 34%. We demonstrate that by incorporating efficient coding techniques more than a 40% average yield improvement is possible in case of 1% and 0.1% defect rates. With 0.1% defect density, the savings can be up to 90%.
cs/0703103
Concept of a Value in Multilevel Security Databases
cs.DB
This paper has been withdrawn.
cs/0703104
Encoding via Gr\"obner bases and discrete Fourier transforms for several types of algebraic codes
cs.IT math.IT
We propose a novel encoding scheme for algebraic codes such as codes on algebraic curves, multidimensional cyclic codes, and hyperbolic cascaded Reed-Solomon codes and present numerical examples. We employ the recurrence from the Gr\"obner basis of the locator ideal for a set of rational points and the two-dimensional inverse discrete Fourier transform. We generalize the functioning of the generator polynomial for Reed-Solomon codes and develop systematic encoding for various algebraic codes.
cs/0703105
New List Decoding Algorithms for Reed-Solomon and BCH Codes
cs.IT cs.CC math.IT
In this paper we devise a rational curve fitting algorithm and apply it to the list decoding of Reed-Solomon and BCH codes. The proposed list decoding algorithms exhibit the following significant properties. 1 The algorithm corrects up to $n(1-\sqrt{1-D})$ errors for a (generalized) $(n, k, d=n-k+1)$ Reed-Solomon code, which matches the Johnson bound, where $D\eqdef \frac{d}{n}$ denotes the normalized minimum distance. In comparison with the Guruswami-Sudan algorithm, which exhibits the same list correction capability, the former requires multiplicity, which dictates the algorithmic complexity, $O(n(1-\sqrt{1-D}))$, whereas the latter requires multiplicity $O(n^2(1-D))$. With the up-to-date most efficient implementation, the former has complexity $O(n^{6}(1-\sqrt{1-D})^{7/2})$, whereas the latter has complexity $O(n^{10}(1-D)^4)$. 2. With the multiplicity set to one, the derivative list correction capability precisely sits in between the conventional hard-decision decoding and the optimal list decoding. Moreover, the number of candidate codewords is upper bounded by a constant for a fixed code rate and thus, the derivative algorithm exhibits quadratic complexity $O(n^2)$. 3. By utilizing the unique properties of the Berlekamp algorithm, the algorithm corrects up to $\frac{n}{2}(1-\sqrt{1-2D})$ errors for a narrow-sense $(n, k, d)$ binary BCH code, which matches the Johnson bound for binary codes. The algorithmic complexity is $O(n^{6}(1-\sqrt{1-2D})^7)$.
cs/0703111
Maximum Weighted Sum Rate of Multi-Antenna Broadcast Channels
cs.IT math.IT
Recently, researchers showed that dirty paper coding (DPC) is the optimal transmission strategy for multiple-input multiple-output broadcast channels (MIMO-BC). In this paper, we study how to determine the maximum weighted sum of DPC rates through solving the maximum weighted sum rate problem of the dual MIMO multiple access channel (MIMO-MAC) with a sum power constraint. We first simplify the maximum weighted sum rate problem such that enumerating all possible decoding orders in the dual MIMO-MAC is unnecessary. We then design an efficient algorithm based on conjugate gradient projection (CGP) to solve the maximum weighted sum rate problem. Our proposed CGP method utilizes the powerful concept of Hessian conjugacy. We also develop a rigorous algorithm to solve the projection problem. We show that CGP enjoys provable convergence, nice scalability, and great efficiency for large MIMO-BC systems.
cs/0703113
Automatic Selection of Bitmap Join Indexes in Data Warehouses
cs.DB
The queries defined on data warehouses are complex and use several join operations that induce an expensive computational cost. This cost becomes even more prohibitive when queries access very large volumes of data. To improve response time, data warehouse administrators generally use indexing techniques such as star join indexes or bitmap join indexes. This task is nevertheless complex and fastidious. Our solution lies in the field of data warehouse auto-administration. In this framework, we propose an automatic index selection strategy. We exploit a data mining technique ; more precisely frequent itemset mining, in order to determine a set of candidate indexes from a given workload. Then, we propose several cost models allowing to create an index configuration composed by the indexes providing the best profit. These models evaluate the cost of accessing data using bitmap join indexes, and the cost of updating and storing these indexes.
cs/0703114
Clustering-Based Materialized View Selection in Data Warehouses
cs.DB
Materialized view selection is a non-trivial task. Hence, its complexity must be reduced. A judicious choice of views must be cost-driven and influenced by the workload experienced by the system. In this paper, we propose a framework for materialized view selection that exploits a data mining technique (clustering), in order to determine clusters of similar queries. We also propose a view merging algorithm that builds a set of candidate views, as well as a greedy process for selecting a set of views to materialize. This selection is based on cost models that evaluate the cost of accessing data using views and the cost of storing these views. To validate our strategy, we executed a workload of decision-support queries on a test data warehouse, with and without using our strategy. Our experimental results demonstrate its efficiency, even when storage space is limited.
cs/0703118
Mathematical model of interest matchmaking in electronic social networks
cs.CY cs.AI
The problem of matchmaking in electronic social networks is formulated as an optimization problem. In particular, a function measuring the matching degree of fields of interest of a search profile with those of an advertising profile is proposed.
cs/0703120
Sequential decoding for lossless streaming source coding with side information
cs.IT math.IT
The problem of lossless fixed-rate streaming coding of discrete memoryless sources with side information at the decoder is studied. A random time-varying tree-code is used to sequentially bin strings and a Stack Algorithm with a variable bias uses the side information to give a delay-universal coding system for lossless source coding with side information. The scheme is shown to give exponentially decaying probability of error with delay, with exponent equal to Gallager's random coding exponent for sources with side information. The mean of the random variable of computation for the stack decoder is bounded, and conditions on the bias are given to guarantee a finite $\rho^{th}$ moment for $0 \leq \rho \leq 1$. Further, the problem is also studied in the case where there is a discrete memoryless channel between encoder and decoder. The same scheme is slightly modified to give a joint-source channel encoder and Stack Algorithm-based sequential decoder using side information. Again, by a suitable choice of bias, the probability of error decays exponentially with delay and the random variable of computation has a finite mean. Simulation results for several examples are given.
cs/0703123
Adaptive Methods for Linear Programming Decoding
cs.IT math.IT
Detectability of failures of linear programming (LP) decoding and the potential for improvement by adding new constraints motivate the use of an adaptive approach in selecting the constraints for the underlying LP problem. In this paper, we make a first step in studying this method, and show that it can significantly reduce the complexity of the problem, which was originally exponential in the maximum check-node degree. We further show that adaptively adding new constraints, e.g. by combining parity checks, can provide large gains in the performance.
cs/0703124
Modelling Complexity in Musical Rhythm
cs.AI
This paper constructs a tree structure for the music rhythm using the L-system. It models the structure as an automata and derives its complexity. It also solves the complexity for the L-system. This complexity can resolve the similarity between trees. This complexity serves as a measure of psychological complexity for rhythms. It resolves the music complexity of various compositions including the Mozart effect K488. Keyword: music perception, psychological complexity, rhythm, L-system, automata, temporal associative memory, inverse problem, rewriting rule, bracketed string, tree similarity
cs/0703125
Intrinsic dimension of a dataset: what properties does one expect?
cs.LG
We propose an axiomatic approach to the concept of an intrinsic dimension of a dataset, based on a viewpoint of geometry of high-dimensional structures. Our first axiom postulates that high values of dimension be indicative of the presence of the curse of dimensionality (in a certain precise mathematical sense). The second axiom requires the dimension to depend smoothly on a distance between datasets (so that the dimension of a dataset and that of an approximating principal manifold would be close to each other). The third axiom is a normalization condition: the dimension of the Euclidean $n$-sphere $\s^n$ is $\Theta(n)$. We give an example of a dimension function satisfying our axioms, even though it is in general computationally unfeasible, and discuss a computationally cheap function satisfying most but not all of our axioms (the ``intrinsic dimensionality'' of Ch\'avez et al.)
cs/0703127
Isochronous Data Transmission With Rates Close to Channel Capacity
cs.IT math.IT
The existing ARQ schemes (including a hybrid ARQ) have a throughput depending on packet error probability. In this paper we describe a strategy for delay tolerant applications which provide a constant throughput until the algorithm robustness criterion is not failed. The algorithm robustness criterion is applied to find the optimum size of the retransmission block in the assumption of the small changes of coding rate within the rate compatible codes family.
cs/0703129
A theorem on the quantum evaluation of Weight Enumerators for a certain class of Cyclic Codes with a note on Cyclotomic cosets
cs.IT math.IT quant-ph
This note is a stripped down version of a published paper on the Potts partition function, where we concentrate solely on the linear coding aspect of our approach. It is meant as a resource for people interested in coding theory but who do not know much of the mathematics involved and how quantum computation may provide a speed up in the computation of a very important quantity in coding theory. We provide a theorem on the quantum computation of the Weight Enumerator polynomial for a restricted family of cyclic codes. The complexity of obtaining an exact evaluation is $O(k^{2s}(\log q)^{2})$, where $s$ is a parameter which determines the class of cyclic codes in question, $q$ is the characteristic of the finite field over which the code is defined, and $k$ is the dimension of the code. We also provide an overview of cyclotomic cosets and discuss applications including how they can be used to speed up the computation of the weight enumerator polynomial (which is related to the Potts partition function). We also give an algorithm which returns the coset leaders and the size of each coset from the list $\{0,1,2,...,N-1\}$, whose time complexity is soft-O(N). This algorithm uses standard techniques but we include it as a resource for students. Note that cyclotomic cosets do not improve the asymptotic complexity of the computation of weight enumerators.
cs/0703130
Space-contained conflict revision, for geographic information
cs.AI
Using qualitative reasoning with geographic information, contrarily, for instance, with robotics, looks not only fastidious (i.e.: encoding knowledge Propositional Logics PL), but appears to be computational complex, and not tractable at all, most of the time. However, knowledge fusion or revision, is a common operation performed when users merge several different data sets in a unique decision making process, without much support. Introducing logics would be a great improvement, and we propose in this paper, means for deciding -a priori- if one application can benefit from a complete revision, under only the assumption of a conjecture that we name the "containment conjecture", which limits the size of the minimal conflicts to revise. We demonstrate that this conjecture brings us the interesting computational property of performing a not-provable but global, revision, made of many local revisions, at a tractable size. We illustrate this approach on an application.
cs/0703131
Open Access Scientometrics and the UK Research Assessment Exercise
cs.IR cs.DL
Scientometric predictors of research performance need to be validated by showing that they have a high correlation with the external criterion they are trying to predict. The UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), together with the growing movement toward making the full-texts of research articles freely available on the web -- offer a unique opportunity to test and validate a wealth of old and new scientometric predictors, through multiple regression analysis: Publications, journal impact factors, citations, co-citations, citation chronometrics (age, growth, latency to peak, decay rate), hub/authority scores, h-index, prior funding, student counts, co-authorship scores, endogamy/exogamy, textual proximity, download/co-downloads and their chronometrics, etc. can all be tested and validated jointly, discipline by discipline, against their RAE panel rankings in the forthcoming parallel panel-based and metric RAE in 2008. The weights of each predictor can be calibrated to maximize the joint correlation with the rankings. Open Access Scientometrics will provide powerful new means of navigating, evaluating, predicting and analyzing the growing Open Access database, as well as powerful incentives for making it grow faster. ~
cs/0703132
Structure induction by lossless graph compression
cs.DS cs.IT cs.LG math.IT
This work is motivated by the necessity to automate the discovery of structure in vast and evergrowing collection of relational data commonly represented as graphs, for example genomic networks. A novel algorithm, dubbed Graphitour, for structure induction by lossless graph compression is presented and illustrated by a clear and broadly known case of nested structure in a DNA molecule. This work extends to graphs some well established approaches to grammatical inference previously applied only to strings. The bottom-up graph compression problem is related to the maximum cardinality (non-bipartite) maximum cardinality matching problem. The algorithm accepts a variety of graph types including directed graphs and graphs with labeled nodes and arcs. The resulting structure could be used for representation and classification of graphs.
cs/0703133
Computing Good Nash Equilibria in Graphical Games
cs.GT cs.DS cs.MA
This paper addresses the problem of fair equilibrium selection in graphical games. Our approach is based on the data structure called the {\em best response policy}, which was proposed by Kearns et al. \cite{kls} as a way to represent all Nash equilibria of a graphical game. In \cite{egg}, it was shown that the best response policy has polynomial size as long as the underlying graph is a path. In this paper, we show that if the underlying graph is a bounded-degree tree and the best response policy has polynomial size then there is an efficient algorithm which constructs a Nash equilibrium that guarantees certain payoffs to all participants. Another attractive solution concept is a Nash equilibrium that maximizes the social welfare. We show that, while exactly computing the latter is infeasible (we prove that solving this problem may involve algebraic numbers of an arbitrarily high degree), there exists an FPTAS for finding such an equilibrium as long as the best response policy has polynomial size. These two algorithms can be combined to produce Nash equilibria that satisfy various fairness criteria.
cs/0703134
Automatic Generation of Benchmarks for Plagiarism Detection Tools using Grammatical Evolution
cs.NE cs.IT math.IT
This paper has been withdrawn by the authors due to a major rewriting.
cs/0703135
Dependency Parsing with Dynamic Bayesian Network
cs.CL cs.AI
Exact parsing with finite state automata is deemed inappropriate because of the unbounded non-locality languages overwhelmingly exhibit. We propose a way to structure the parsing task in order to make it amenable to local classification methods. This allows us to build a Dynamic Bayesian Network which uncovers the syntactic dependency structure of English sentences. Experiments with the Wall Street Journal demonstrate that the model successfully learns from labeled data.
cs/0703136
Uncovering Plagiarism Networks
cs.IT cs.SI math.IT
Plagiarism detection in educational programming assignments is still a problematic issue in terms of resource waste, ethical controversy, legal risks, and technical complexity. This paper presents AC, a modular plagiarism detection system. The design is portable across platforms and assignment formats and provides easy extraction into the internal assignment representation. Multiple similarity measures have been incorporated, both existing and newly-developed. Statistical analysis and several graphical visualizations aid in the interpretation of analysis results. The system has been evaluated with a survey that encompasses several academic semesters of use at the authors' institution.
cs/0703138
Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive Routing
cs.LG cs.AI cs.NI
Reinforcement learning means learning a policy--a mapping of observations into actions--based on feedback from the environment. The learning can be viewed as browsing a set of policies while evaluating them by trial through interaction with the environment. We present an application of gradient ascent algorithm for reinforcement learning to a complex domain of packet routing in network communication and compare the performance of this algorithm to other routing methods on a benchmark problem.
cs/0703141
Constructive Conjugate Codes for Quantum Error Correction and Cryptography
cs.IT math.IT
A conjugate code pair is defined as a pair of linear codes either of which contains the dual of the other. A conjugate code pair represents the essential structure of the corresponding Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) quantum error-correcting code. It is known that conjugate code pairs are applicable to quantum cryptography. In this work, a polynomial construction of conjugate code pairs is presented. The constructed pairs achieve the highest known achievable rate on additive channels, and are decodable with algorithms of polynomial complexity.
cs/0703142
Pragmatic Space-Time Trellis Codes for Block Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT
A pragmatic approach for the construction of space-time codes over block fading channels is investigated. The approach consists in using common convolutional encoders and Viterbi decoders with suitable generators and rates, thus greatly simplifying the implementation of space-time codes. For the design of pragmatic space-time codes a methodology is proposed and applied, based on the extension of the concept of generalized transfer function for convolutional codes over block fading channels. Our search algorithm produces the convolutional encoder generators of pragmatic space-time codes for various number of states, number of antennas and fading rate. Finally it is shown that, for the investigated cases, the performance of pragmatic space-time codes is better than that of previously known space-time codes, confirming that they are a valuable choice in terms of both implementation complexity and performance.
cs/0703143
How much feedback is required in MIMO Broadcast Channels?
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, a downlink communication system, in which a Base Station (BS) equipped with M antennas communicates with N users each equipped with K receive antennas ($K \leq M$), is considered. It is assumed that the receivers have perfect Channel State Information (CSI), while the BS only knows the partial CSI, provided by the receivers via feedback. The minimum amount of feedback required at the BS, to achieve the maximum sum-rate capacity in the asymptotic case of $N \to \infty$ and different ranges of SNR is studied. In the fixed and low SNR regimes, it is demonstrated that to achieve the maximum sum-rate, an infinite amount of feedback is required. Moreover, in order to reduce the gap to the optimum sum-rate to zero, in the fixed SNR regime, the minimum amount of feedback scales as $\theta(\ln \ln \ln N)$, which is achievable by the Random Beam-Forming scheme proposed in [14]. In the high SNR regime, two cases are considered; in the case of $K < M$, it is proved that the minimum amount of feedback bits to reduce the gap between the achievable sum-rate and the maximum sum-rate to zero grows logaritmically with SNR, which is achievable by the "Generalized Random Beam-Forming" scheme, proposed in [18]. In the case of $K = M$, it is shown that by using the Random Beam-Forming scheme and the total amount of feedback not growing with SNR, the maximum sum-rate capacity is achieved.
cs/0703144
On The Capacity Of Time-Varying Channels With Periodic Feedback
cs.IT math.IT
The capacity of time-varying channels with periodic feedback at the transmitter is evaluated. It is assumed that the channel state information is perfectly known at the receiver and is fed back to the transmitter at the regular time-intervals. The system capacity is investigated in two cases: i) finite state Markov channel, and ii) additive white Gaussian noise channel with time-correlated fading. In the first case, it is shown that the capacity is achievable by multiplexing multiple codebooks across the channel. In the second case, the channel capacity and the optimal adaptive coding is obtained. It is shown that the optimal adaptation can be achieved by a single Gaussian codebook, while adaptively allocating the total power based on the side information at the transmitter.
cs/0703149
Exploring Logic Artificial Chemistries: An Illogical Attempt?
cs.NE nlin.AO
Robustness to a wide variety of negative factors and the ability to self-repair is an inherent and natural characteristic of all life forms on earth. As opposed to nature, man-made systems are in most cases not inherently robust and a significant effort has to be made in order to make them resistant against failures. This can be done in a wide variety of ways and on various system levels. In the field of digital systems, for example, techniques such as triple modular redundancy (TMR) are frequently used, which results in a considerable hardware overhead. Biologically-inspired computing by means of bio-chemical metaphors offers alternative paradigms, which need to be explored and evaluated. Here, we are interested to evaluate the potential of nature-inspired artificial chemistries and membrane systems as an alternative information representing and processing paradigm in order to obtain robust and spatially extended Boolean computing systems in a distributed environment. We investigate conceptual approaches inspired by artificial chemistries and membrane systems and compare proof-of-concepts. First, we show, that elementary logical functions can be implemented. Second, we illustrate how they can be made more robust and how they can be assembled to larger-scale systems. Finally, we discuss the implications for and paths to possible genuine implementations. Compared to the main body of work in artificial chemistries, we take a very pragmatic and implementation-oriented approach and are interested in realizing Boolean computations only. The results emphasize that artificial chemistries can be used to implement Boolean logic in a spatially extended and distributed environment and can also be made highly robust, but at a significant price.
cs/0703151
Asymptotic Analysis of Amplify and Forward Relaying in a Parallel MIMO Relay Network
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers the setup of a parallel MIMO relay network in which $K$ relays, each equipped with $N$ antennas, assist the transmitter and the receiver, each equipped with $M$ antennas, in the half-duplex mode, under the assumption that $N\geq{M}$. This setup has been studied in the literature like in \cite{nabar}, \cite{nabar2}, and \cite{qr}. In this paper, a simple scheme, the so-called Incremental Cooperative Beamforming, is introduced and shown to achieve the capacity of the network in the asymptotic case of $K\to{\infty}$ with a gap no more than $O(\frac{1}{\log(K)})$. This result is shown to hold, as long as the power of the relays scales as $\omega(\frac{\log^9(K)}{K})$. Finally, the asymptotic SNR behavior is studied and it is proved that the proposed scheme achieves the full multiplexing gain, regardless of the number of relays.
cs/0703154
A Hot Channel
cs.IT math.IT
This paper studies on-chip communication with non-ideal heat sinks. A channel model is proposed where the variance of the additive noise depends on the weighted sum of the past channel input powers. It is shown that, depending on the weights, the capacity can be either bounded or unbounded in the input power. A necessary condition and a sufficient condition for the capacity to be bounded are presented.
cs/0703156
Case Base Mining for Adaptation Knowledge Acquisition
cs.AI
In case-based reasoning, the adaptation of a source case in order to solve the target problem is at the same time crucial and difficult to implement. The reason for this difficulty is that, in general, adaptation strongly depends on domain-dependent knowledge. This fact motivates research on adaptation knowledge acquisition (AKA). This paper presents an approach to AKA based on the principles and techniques of knowledge discovery from databases and data-mining. It is implemented in CABAMAKA, a system that explores the variations within the case base to elicit adaptation knowledge. This system has been successfully tested in an application of case-based reasoning to decision support in the domain of breast cancer treatment.
cs/9308101
Dynamic Backtracking
cs.AI
Because of their occasional need to return to shallow points in a search tree, existing backtracking methods can sometimes erase meaningful progress toward solving a search problem. In this paper, we present a method by which backtrack points can be moved deeper in the search space, thereby avoiding this difficulty. The technique developed is a variant of dependency-directed backtracking that uses only polynomial space while still providing useful control information and retaining the completeness guarantees provided by earlier approaches.
cs/9308102
A Market-Oriented Programming Environment and its Application to Distributed Multicommodity Flow Problems
cs.AI
Market price systems constitute a well-understood class of mechanisms that under certain conditions provide effective decentralization of decision making with minimal communication overhead. In a market-oriented programming approach to distributed problem solving, we derive the activities and resource allocations for a set of computational agents by computing the competitive equilibrium of an artificial economy. WALRAS provides basic constructs for defining computational market structures, and protocols for deriving their corresponding price equilibria. In a particular realization of this approach for a form of multicommodity flow problem, we see that careful construction of the decision process according to economic principles can lead to efficient distributed resource allocation, and that the behavior of the system can be meaningfully analyzed in economic terms.
cs/9309101
An Empirical Analysis of Search in GSAT
cs.AI
We describe an extensive study of search in GSAT, an approximation procedure for propositional satisfiability. GSAT performs greedy hill-climbing on the number of satisfied clauses in a truth assignment. Our experiments provide a more complete picture of GSAT's search than previous accounts. We describe in detail the two phases of search: rapid hill-climbing followed by a long plateau search. We demonstrate that when applied to randomly generated 3SAT problems, there is a very simple scaling with problem size for both the mean number of satisfied clauses and the mean branching rate. Our results allow us to make detailed numerical conjectures about the length of the hill-climbing phase, the average gradient of this phase, and to conjecture that both the average score and average branching rate decay exponentially during plateau search. We end by showing how these results can be used to direct future theoretical analysis. This work provides a case study of how computer experiments can be used to improve understanding of the theoretical properties of algorithms.
cs/9311101
The Difficulties of Learning Logic Programs with Cut
cs.AI
As real logic programmers normally use cut (!), an effective learning procedure for logic programs should be able to deal with it. Because the cut predicate has only a procedural meaning, clauses containing cut cannot be learned using an extensional evaluation method, as is done in most learning systems. On the other hand, searching a space of possible programs (instead of a space of independent clauses) is unfeasible. An alternative solution is to generate first a candidate base program which covers the positive examples, and then make it consistent by inserting cut where appropriate. The problem of learning programs with cut has not been investigated before and this seems to be a natural and reasonable approach. We generalize this scheme and investigate the difficulties that arise. Some of the major shortcomings are actually caused, in general, by the need for intensional evaluation. As a conclusion, the analysis of this paper suggests, on precise and technical grounds, that learning cut is difficult, and current induction techniques should probably be restricted to purely declarative logic languages.
cs/9311102
Software Agents: Completing Patterns and Constructing User Interfaces
cs.AI
To support the goal of allowing users to record and retrieve information, this paper describes an interactive note-taking system for pen-based computers with two distinctive features. First, it actively predicts what the user is going to write. Second, it automatically constructs a custom, button-box user interface on request. The system is an example of a learning-apprentice software- agent. A machine learning component characterizes the syntax and semantics of the user's information. A performance system uses this learned information to generate completion strings and construct a user interface. Description of Online Appendix: People like to record information. Doing this on paper is initially efficient, but lacks flexibility. Recording information on a computer is less efficient but more powerful. In our new note taking softwre, the user records information directly on a computer. Behind the interface, an agent acts for the user. To help, it provides defaults and constructs a custom user interface. The demonstration is a QuickTime movie of the note taking agent in action. The file is a binhexed self-extracting archive. Macintosh utilities for binhex are available from mac.archive.umich.edu. QuickTime is available from ftp.apple.com in the dts/mac/sys.soft/quicktime.
cs/9312101
Decidable Reasoning in Terminological Knowledge Representation Systems
cs.AI
Terminological knowledge representation systems (TKRSs) are tools for designing and using knowledge bases that make use of terminological languages (or concept languages). We analyze from a theoretical point of view a TKRS whose capabilities go beyond the ones of presently available TKRSs. The new features studied, often required in practical applications, can be summarized in three main points. First, we consider a highly expressive terminological language, called ALCNR, including general complements of concepts, number restrictions and role conjunction. Second, we allow to express inclusion statements between general concepts, and terminological cycles as a particular case. Third, we prove the decidability of a number of desirable TKRS-deduction services (like satisfiability, subsumption and instance checking) through a sound, complete and terminating calculus for reasoning in ALCNR-knowledge bases. Our calculus extends the general technique of constraint systems. As a byproduct of the proof, we get also the result that inclusion statements in ALCNR can be simulated by terminological cycles, if descriptive semantics is adopted.
cs/9401101
Teleo-Reactive Programs for Agent Control
cs.AI
A formalism is presented for computing and organizing actions for autonomous agents in dynamic environments. We introduce the notion of teleo-reactive (T-R) programs whose execution entails the construction of circuitry for the continuous computation of the parameters and conditions on which agent action is based. In addition to continuous feedback, T-R programs support parameter binding and recursion. A primary difference between T-R programs and many other circuit-based systems is that the circuitry of T-R programs is more compact; it is constructed at run time and thus does not have to anticipate all the contingencies that might arise over all possible runs. In addition, T-R programs are intuitive and easy to write and are written in a form that is compatible with automatic planning and learning methods. We briefly describe some experimental applications of T-R programs in the control of simulated and actual mobile robots.
cs/9402101
Learning the Past Tense of English Verbs: The Symbolic Pattern Associator vs. Connectionist Models
cs.AI
Learning the past tense of English verbs - a seemingly minor aspect of language acquisition - has generated heated debates since 1986, and has become a landmark task for testing the adequacy of cognitive modeling. Several artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been implemented, and a challenge for better symbolic models has been posed. In this paper, we present a general-purpose Symbolic Pattern Associator (SPA) based upon the decision-tree learning algorithm ID3. We conduct extensive head-to-head comparisons on the generalization ability between ANN models and the SPA under different representations. We conclude that the SPA generalizes the past tense of unseen verbs better than ANN models by a wide margin, and we offer insights as to why this should be the case. We also discuss a new default strategy for decision-tree learning algorithms.
cs/9402102
Substructure Discovery Using Minimum Description Length and Background Knowledge
cs.AI
The ability to identify interesting and repetitive substructures is an essential component to discovering knowledge in structural data. We describe a new version of our SUBDUE substructure discovery system based on the minimum description length principle. The SUBDUE system discovers substructures that compress the original data and represent structural concepts in the data. By replacing previously-discovered substructures in the data, multiple passes of SUBDUE produce a hierarchical description of the structural regularities in the data. SUBDUE uses a computationally-bounded inexact graph match that identifies similar, but not identical, instances of a substructure and finds an approximate measure of closeness of two substructures when under computational constraints. In addition to the minimum description length principle, other background knowledge can be used by SUBDUE to guide the search towards more appropriate substructures. Experiments in a variety of domains demonstrate SUBDUE's ability to find substructures capable of compressing the original data and to discover structural concepts important to the domain. Description of Online Appendix: This is a compressed tar file containing the SUBDUE discovery system, written in C. The program accepts as input databases represented in graph form, and will output discovered substructures with their corresponding value.
cs/9402103
Bias-Driven Revision of Logical Domain Theories
cs.AI
The theory revision problem is the problem of how best to go about revising a deficient domain theory using information contained in examples that expose inaccuracies. In this paper we present our approach to the theory revision problem for propositional domain theories. The approach described here, called PTR, uses probabilities associated with domain theory elements to numerically track the ``flow'' of proof through the theory. This allows us to measure the precise role of a clause or literal in allowing or preventing a (desired or undesired) derivation for a given example. This information is used to efficiently locate and repair flawed elements of the theory. PTR is proved to converge to a theory which correctly classifies all examples, and shown experimentally to be fast and accurate even for deep theories.
cs/9403101
Exploring the Decision Forest: An Empirical Investigation of Occam's Razor in Decision Tree Induction
cs.AI
We report on a series of experiments in which all decision trees consistent with the training data are constructed. These experiments were run to gain an understanding of the properties of the set of consistent decision trees and the factors that affect the accuracy of individual trees. In particular, we investigated the relationship between the size of a decision tree consistent with some training data and the accuracy of the tree on test data. The experiments were performed on a massively parallel Maspar computer. The results of the experiments on several artificial and two real world problems indicate that, for many of the problems investigated, smaller consistent decision trees are on average less accurate than the average accuracy of slightly larger trees.
cs/9406101
A Semantics and Complete Algorithm for Subsumption in the CLASSIC Description Logic
cs.AI
This paper analyzes the correctness of the subsumption algorithm used in CLASSIC, a description logic-based knowledge representation system that is being used in practical applications. In order to deal efficiently with individuals in CLASSIC descriptions, the developers have had to use an algorithm that is incomplete with respect to the standard, model-theoretic semantics for description logics. We provide a variant semantics for descriptions with respect to which the current implementation is complete, and which can be independently motivated. The soundness and completeness of the polynomial-time subsumption algorithm is established using description graphs, which are an abstracted version of the implementation structures used in CLASSIC, and are of independent interest.
cs/9406102
Applying GSAT to Non-Clausal Formulas
cs.AI
In this paper we describe how to modify GSAT so that it can be applied to non-clausal formulas. The idea is to use a particular ``score'' function which gives the number of clauses of the CNF conversion of a formula which are false under a given truth assignment. Its value is computed in linear time, without constructing the CNF conversion itself. The proposed methodology applies to most of the variants of GSAT proposed so far.
cs/9408101
Random Worlds and Maximum Entropy
cs.AI
Given a knowledge base KB containing first-order and statistical facts, we consider a principled method, called the random-worlds method, for computing a degree of belief that some formula Phi holds given KB. If we are reasoning about a world or system consisting of N individuals, then we can consider all possible worlds, or first-order models, with domain {1,...,N} that satisfy KB, and compute the fraction of them in which Phi is true. We define the degree of belief to be the asymptotic value of this fraction as N grows large. We show that when the vocabulary underlying Phi and KB uses constants and unary predicates only, we can naturally associate an entropy with each world. As N grows larger, there are many more worlds with higher entropy. Therefore, we can use a maximum-entropy computation to compute the degree of belief. This result is in a similar spirit to previous work in physics and artificial intelligence, but is far more general. Of equal interest to the result itself are the limitations on its scope. Most importantly, the restriction to unary predicates seems necessary. Although the random-worlds method makes sense in general, the connection to maximum entropy seems to disappear in the non-unary case. These observations suggest unexpected limitations to the applicability of maximum-entropy methods.
cs/9408102
Pattern Matching and Discourse Processing in Information Extraction from Japanese Text
cs.AI
Information extraction is the task of automatically picking up information of interest from an unconstrained text. Information of interest is usually extracted in two steps. First, sentence level processing locates relevant pieces of information scattered throughout the text; second, discourse processing merges coreferential information to generate the output. In the first step, pieces of information are locally identified without recognizing any relationships among them. A key word search or simple pattern search can achieve this purpose. The second step requires deeper knowledge in order to understand relationships among separately identified pieces of information. Previous information extraction systems focused on the first step, partly because they were not required to link up each piece of information with other pieces. To link the extracted pieces of information and map them onto a structured output format, complex discourse processing is essential. This paper reports on a Japanese information extraction system that merges information using a pattern matcher and discourse processor. Evaluation results show a high level of system performance which approaches human performance.
cs/9408103
A System for Induction of Oblique Decision Trees
cs.AI
This article describes a new system for induction of oblique decision trees. This system, OC1, combines deterministic hill-climbing with two forms of randomization to find a good oblique split (in the form of a hyperplane) at each node of a decision tree. Oblique decision tree methods are tuned especially for domains in which the attributes are numeric, although they can be adapted to symbolic or mixed symbolic/numeric attributes. We present extensive empirical studies, using both real and artificial data, that analyze OC1's ability to construct oblique trees that are smaller and more accurate than their axis-parallel counterparts. We also examine the benefits of randomization for the construction of oblique decision trees.
cs/9409101
On Planning while Learning
cs.AI
This paper introduces a framework for Planning while Learning where an agent is given a goal to achieve in an environment whose behavior is only partially known to the agent. We discuss the tractability of various plan-design processes. We show that for a large natural class of Planning while Learning systems, a plan can be presented and verified in a reasonable time. However, coming up algorithmically with a plan, even for simple classes of systems is apparently intractable. We emphasize the role of off-line plan-design processes, and show that, in most natural cases, the verification (projection) part can be carried out in an efficient algorithmic manner.
cs/9412101
Wrap-Up: a Trainable Discourse Module for Information Extraction
cs.AI
The vast amounts of on-line text now available have led to renewed interest in information extraction (IE) systems that analyze unrestricted text, producing a structured representation of selected information from the text. This paper presents a novel approach that uses machine learning to acquire knowledge for some of the higher level IE processing. Wrap-Up is a trainable IE discourse component that makes intersentential inferences and identifies logical relations among information extracted from the text. Previous corpus-based approaches were limited to lower level processing such as part-of-speech tagging, lexical disambiguation, and dictionary construction. Wrap-Up is fully trainable, and not only automatically decides what classifiers are needed, but even derives the feature set for each classifier automatically. Performance equals that of a partially trainable discourse module requiring manual customization for each domain.
cs/9412102
Operations for Learning with Graphical Models
cs.AI
This paper is a multidisciplinary review of empirical, statistical learning from a graphical model perspective. Well-known examples of graphical models include Bayesian networks, directed graphs representing a Markov chain, and undirected networks representing a Markov field. These graphical models are extended to model data analysis and empirical learning using the notation of plates. Graphical operations for simplifying and manipulating a problem are provided including decomposition, differentiation, and the manipulation of probability models from the exponential family. Two standard algorithm schemas for learning are reviewed in a graphical framework: Gibbs sampling and the expectation maximization algorithm. Using these operations and schemas, some popular algorithms can be synthesized from their graphical specification. This includes versions of linear regression, techniques for feed-forward networks, and learning Gaussian and discrete Bayesian networks from data. The paper concludes by sketching some implications for data analysis and summarizing how some popular algorithms fall within the framework presented. The main original contributions here are the decomposition techniques and the demonstration that graphical models provide a framework for understanding and developing complex learning algorithms.
cs/9412103
Total-Order and Partial-Order Planning: A Comparative Analysis
cs.AI
For many years, the intuitions underlying partial-order planning were largely taken for granted. Only in the past few years has there been renewed interest in the fundamental principles underlying this paradigm. In this paper, we present a rigorous comparative analysis of partial-order and total-order planning by focusing on two specific planners that can be directly compared. We show that there are some subtle assumptions that underly the wide-spread intuitions regarding the supposed efficiency of partial-order planning. For instance, the superiority of partial-order planning can depend critically upon the search strategy and the structure of the search space. Understanding the underlying assumptions is crucial for constructing efficient planners.