id
stringlengths
9
16
title
stringlengths
4
278
categories
stringlengths
5
104
abstract
stringlengths
6
4.09k
1009.5432
An approximative calculation of the fractal structure in self-similar tilings
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.SI
Fractal structures emerge from statistical and hierarchical processes in urban development or network evolution. In a class of efficient and robust geographical networks, we derive the size distribution of layered areas, and estimate the fractal dimension by using the distribution without huge computations. This method can be applied to self-similar tilings based on a stochastic process.
1009.5473
The thermodynamic temperature of a rhythmic spiking network
cs.NE cs.AI q-bio.NC
Artificial neural networks built from two-state neurons are powerful computational substrates, whose computational ability is well understood by analogy with statistical mechanics. In this work, we introduce similar analogies in the context of spiking neurons in a fixed time window, where excitatory and inhibitory inputs drawn from a Poisson distribution play the role of temperature. For single neurons with a "bandgap" between their inputs and the spike threshold, this temperature allows for stochastic spiking. By imposing a global inhibitory rhythm over the fixed time windows, we connect neurons into a network that exhibits synchronous, clock-like updating akin to neural networks. We implement a single-layer Boltzmann machine without learning to demonstrate our model.
1009.5520
Diversity and Polarization of Research Performance: Evidence from Hungary
cs.SI stat.AP
Measuring the intellectual diversity encoded in publication records as a proxy to the degree of interdisciplinarity has recently received considerable attention in the science mapping community. The present paper draws upon the use of the Stirling index as a diversity measure applied to a network model (customized science map) of research profiles, proposed by several authors. A modified version of the index is used and compared with the previous versions on a sample data set in order to rank top Hungarian research organizations (HROs) according to their research performance diversity. Results, unexpected in several respects, show that the modified index is a candidate for measuring the degree of polarization of a research profile. The study also points towards a possible typology of publication portfolios that instantiate different types of diversity.
1009.5614
Input Design for System Identification via Convex Relaxation
math.OC cs.SY math.ST stat.TH
This paper proposes a new framework for the optimization of excitation inputs for system identification. The optimization problem considered is to maximize a reduced Fisher information matrix in any of the classical D-, E-, or A-optimal senses. In contrast to the majority of published work on this topic, we consider the problem in the time domain and subject to constraints on the amplitude of the input signal. This optimization problem is nonconvex. The main result of the paper is a convex relaxation that gives an upper bound accurate to within $2/\pi$ of the true maximum. A randomized algorithm is presented for finding a feasible solution which, in a certain sense is expected to be at least $2/\pi$ as informative as the globally optimal input signal. In the case of a single constraint on input power, the proposed approach recovers the true global optimum exactly. Extensions to situations with both power and amplitude constraints on both inputs and outputs are given. A simple simulation example illustrates the technique.
1009.5625
Decomposition of Unitary Matrices for Finding Quantum Circuits: Application to Molecular Hamiltonians
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Constructing appropriate unitary matrix operators for new quantum algorithms and finding the minimum cost gate sequences for the implementation of these unitary operators is of fundamental importance in the field of quantum information and quantum computation. Evolution of quantum circuits faces two major challenges: complex and huge search space and the high costs of simulating quantum circuits on classical computers. Here, we use the group leaders optimization algorithm to decompose a given unitary matrix into a proper-minimum cost quantum gate sequence. We test the method on the known decompositions of Toffoli gate, the amplification step of the Grover search algorithm, the quantum Fourier transform, and the sender part of the quantum teleportation. Using this procedure, we present the circuit designs for the simulation of the unitary propagators of the Hamiltonians for the hydrogen and the water molecules. The approach is general and can be applied to generate the sequence of quantum gates for larger molecular systems.
1009.5750
Use of multiple singular value decompositions to analyze complex intracellular calcium ion signals
stat.AP cs.CV physics.bio-ph q-bio.QM
We compare calcium ion signaling ($\mathrm {Ca}^{2+}$) between two exposures; the data are present as movies, or, more prosaically, time series of images. This paper describes novel uses of singular value decompositions (SVD) and weighted versions of them (WSVD) to extract the signals from such movies, in a way that is semi-automatic and tuned closely to the actual data and their many complexities. These complexities include the following. First, the images themselves are of no interest: all interest focuses on the behavior of individual cells across time, and thus, the cells need to be segmented in an automated manner. Second, the cells themselves have 100$+$ pixels, so that they form 100$+$ curves measured over time, so that data compression is required to extract the features of these curves. Third, some of the pixels in some of the cells are subject to image saturation due to bit depth limits, and this saturation needs to be accounted for if one is to normalize the images in a reasonably unbiased manner. Finally, the $\mathrm {Ca}^{2+}$ signals have oscillations or waves that vary with time and these signals need to be extracted. Thus, our aim is to show how to use multiple weighted and standard singular value decompositions to detect, extract and clarify the $\mathrm {Ca}^{2+}$ signals. Our signal extraction methods then lead to simple although finely focused statistical methods to compare $\mathrm {Ca}^{2+}$ signals across experimental conditions.
1009.5758
Face Detection with Effective Feature Extraction
cs.CV
There is an abundant literature on face detection due to its important role in many vision applications. Since Viola and Jones proposed the first real-time AdaBoost based face detector, Haar-like features have been adopted as the method of choice for frontal face detection. In this work, we show that simple features other than Haar-like features can also be applied for training an effective face detector. Since, single feature is not discriminative enough to separate faces from difficult non-faces, we further improve the generalization performance of our simple features by introducing feature co-occurrences. We demonstrate that our proposed features yield a performance improvement compared to Haar-like features. In addition, our findings indicate that features play a crucial role in the ability of the system to generalize.
1009.5760
Secret Key Agreement from Vector Gaussian Sources by Rate Limited Public Communication
cs.IT math.IT
We investigate the secret key agreement from correlated vector Gaussian sources in which the legitimate parties can use the public communication with limited rate. For the class of protocols with the one-way public communication, we show that the optimal trade-off between the rate of key generation and the rate of the public communication is characterized as an optimization problem of a Gaussian random variable. The characterization is derived by using the enhancement technique introduced by Weingarten et.al. for MIMO Gaussian broadcast channel.
1009.5761
Approximate Maximum A Posteriori Inference with Entropic Priors
cs.SD cs.LG
In certain applications it is useful to fit multinomial distributions to observed data with a penalty term that encourages sparsity. For example, in probabilistic latent audio source decomposition one may wish to encode the assumption that only a few latent sources are active at any given time. The standard heuristic of applying an L1 penalty is not an option when fitting the parameters to a multinomial distribution, which are constrained to sum to 1. An alternative is to use a penalty term that encourages low-entropy solutions, which corresponds to maximum a posteriori (MAP) parameter estimation with an entropic prior. The lack of conjugacy between the entropic prior and the multinomial distribution complicates this approach. In this report I propose a simple iterative algorithm for MAP estimation of multinomial distributions with sparsity-inducing entropic priors.
1009.5762
Morphological dilation image coding with context weights prediction
cs.IT cs.MM math.IT
This paper proposes an adaptive morphological dilation image coding with context weights prediction. The new dilation method is not to use fixed models, but to decide whether a coefficient needs to be dilated or not according to the coefficient's predicted significance degree. It includes two key dilation technologies: 1) controlling dilation process with context weights to reduce the output of insignificant coefficients, and 2) using variable-length group test coding with context weights to adjust the coding order and cost as few bits as possible to present the events with large probability. Moreover, we also propose a novel context weight strategy to predict coefficient's significance degree more accurately, which serves for two dilation technologies. Experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms the state of the art image coding algorithms available today.
1009.5764
The E8 Lattice and Error Correction in Multi-Level Flash Memory
cs.IT math.IT
A construction using the E8 lattice and Reed-Solomon codes for error-correction in flash memory is given. Since E8 lattice decoding errors are bursty, a Reed-Solomon code over GF($2^8$) is well suited. This is a type of coded modulation, where the Euclidean distance of the lattice, which is an eight-dimensional signal constellation, is combined with the Hamming distance of the code. This system is compared with the conventional technique for flash memories, BCH codes using Gray-coded PAM. The described construction has a performance advantage of 1.6 to 1.8 dB at a probability of word error of $10^{-6}$. Evaluation is at high data rates of 2.9 bits/cell for flash memory cells that have an uncoded data density of 3 bits/cell.
1009.5773
Fast Reinforcement Learning for Energy-Efficient Wireless Communications
cs.LG
We consider the problem of energy-efficient point-to-point transmission of delay-sensitive data (e.g. multimedia data) over a fading channel. Existing research on this topic utilizes either physical-layer centric solutions, namely power-control and adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), or system-level solutions based on dynamic power management (DPM); however, there is currently no rigorous and unified framework for simultaneously utilizing both physical-layer centric and system-level techniques to achieve the minimum possible energy consumption, under delay constraints, in the presence of stochastic and a priori unknown traffic and channel conditions. In this report, we propose such a framework. We formulate the stochastic optimization problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) and solve it online using reinforcement learning. The advantages of the proposed online method are that (i) it does not require a priori knowledge of the traffic arrival and channel statistics to determine the jointly optimal power-control, AMC, and DPM policies; (ii) it exploits partial information about the system so that less information needs to be learned than when using conventional reinforcement learning algorithms; and (iii) it obviates the need for action exploration, which severely limits the adaptation speed and run-time performance of conventional reinforcement learning algorithms. Our results show that the proposed learning algorithms can converge up to two orders of magnitude faster than a state-of-the-art learning algorithm for physical layer power-control and up to three orders of magnitude faster than conventional reinforcement learning algorithms.
1009.5829
Capacity Results for Relay Channels with Confidential Messages
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a communication system where a relay helps transmission of messages from {a} sender to {a} receiver. The relay is considered not only as a helper but as a wire-tapper who can obtain some knowledge about transmitted messages. In this paper we study a relay channel with confidential messages(RCC), where a sender attempts to transmit common information to both a receiver and a relay and also has private information intended for the receiver and confidential to the relay. The level of secrecy of private information confidential to the relay is measured by the equivocation rate, i.e., the entropy rate of private information conditioned on channel outputs at the relay. The performance measure of interest for the RCC is the rate triple that includes the common rate, the private rate, and the equivocation rate as components. The rate-equivocation region is defined by the set that consists of all these achievable rate triples. In this paper we give two definitions of the rate-equivocation region. We first define the rate-equivocation region in the case of deterministic encoder and call it the deterministic rate-equivocation region. Next, we define the rate-equivocation region in the case of stochastic encoder and call it the stochastic rate-equivocation region. We derive explicit inner and outer bounds for the above two regions. On the deterministic/stochastic rate-equivocation region we present two classes of relay channels where inner and outer bounds match. We also evaluate the deterministic and stochastic rate-equivocation regions of the Gaussian RCC.
1009.5894
Some Theorems on the Algorithmic Approach to Probability Theory and Information Theory
cs.IT math.IT
This is a 1971 dissertation. Only its extended abstract was published at the time. While some results appeared in other publications, a number of details remained unpublished and may still have relevance.
1009.5900
On the Accuracy of the Wyner Model in Cellular Networks
cs.IT math.IT
The Wyner model has been widely used to model and analyze cellular networks due to its simplicity and analytical tractability. Its key aspects include fixed user locations and the deterministic and homogeneous interference intensity. While clearly a significant simplification of a real cellular system, which has random user locations and interference levels that vary by several orders of magnitude over a cell, a common presumption by theorists is that the Wyner model nevertheless captures the essential aspects of cellular interactions. But is this true? To answer this question, we consider both uplink and downlink transmissions, and both outage-based and average-based metrics. For the uplink, for both metrics, we conclude that the Wyner model is in fact quite accurate for systems with a sufficient number of simultaneous users, e.g. CDMA. Conversely, it is broadly inaccurate otherwise. With multicell processing, intracell TDMA is shown to be suboptimal in terms of average throughput, in sharp contrast to predictions using the Wyner model. Turning to the downlink, the Wyner model is highly inaccurate for outage since it depends largely on the user locations. However, for average or sum throughput, the Wyner model serves as an acceptable simplification in certain special cases if the interference parameter is set appropriately.
1009.5944
Throughput-Optimal Random Access with Order-Optimal Delay
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider CSMA policies for scheduling of multihop wireless networks with one-hop traffic. The main contribution of this paper is to propose Unlocking CSMA (U-CSMA) policy that enables to obtain high throughput with low (average) packet delay for large wireless networks. In particular, the delay under U-CSMA policy becomes order-optimal. For one-hop traffic, delay is defined to be order-optimal if it is O(1), i.e., it stays bounded, as the network-size increases to infinity. Using mean field theory techniques, we analytically show that for torus (grid-like) interference topologies with one-hop traffic, to achieve a network load of $\rho$, the delay under U-CSMA policy becomes $O(1/(1-\rho)^{3})$ as the network-size increases, and hence, delay becomes order optimal. We conduct simulations for general random geometric interference topologies under U-CSMA policy combined with congestion control to maximize a network-wide utility. These simulations confirm that order optimality holds, and that we can use U-CSMA policy jointly with congestion control to operate close to the optimal utility with a low packet delay in arbitrarily large random geometric topologies. To the best of our knowledge, it is for the first time that a simple distributed scheduling policy is proposed that in addition to throughput/utility-optimality exhibits delay order-optimality.
1009.5949
Fast CRCs (Extended Version)
cs.IT math.IT
CRCs have desirable properties for effective error detection. But their software implementation, which relies on many steps of the polynomial division, is typically slower than other codes such as weaker checksums. A relevant question is whether there are some particular CRCs that have fast implementation. In this paper, we introduce such fast CRCs as well as an effective technique to implement them. For these fast CRCs, even without using table lookup, it is possible either to eliminate or to greatly reduce many steps of the polynomial division during their computation.
1009.5959
On the Optimal Compressions in the Compress-and-Forward Relay Schemes
cs.IT math.IT
..... joint decoding provides more freedom in choosing the compression at the relay. However, the question remains whether this freedom of selecting the compression necessarily improves the achievable rate of the original message. It has been shown in (El Gamal and Kim, 2010) that the answer is negative in the single-relay case. In this paper, it is further demonstrated that in the case of multiple relays, there is no improvement on the achievable rate by joint decoding either. More interestingly, it is discovered that any compressions not supporting successive decoding will actually lead to strictly lower achievable rates for the original message. Therefore, to maximize the achievable rate for the original message, the compressions should always be chosen to support successive decoding. Furthermore, it is shown that any compressions not completely decodable even with joint decoding will not provide any contribution to the decoding of the original message. The above phenomenon is also shown to exist under the repetitive encoding framework recently proposed by (Lim, Kim, El Gamal, and Chung, 2010), which improved the achievable rate in the case of multiple relays. Here, another interesting discovery is that the improvement is not a result of repetitive encoding, but the benefit of delayed decoding after all the blocks have been finished. The same rate is shown to be achievable with the simpler classical encoding process of (Cover and El Gamal, 1979) with a block-by-block backward decoding process.
1009.5972
The Attentive Perceptron
cs.LG
We propose a focus of attention mechanism to speed up the Perceptron algorithm. Focus of attention speeds up the Perceptron algorithm by lowering the number of features evaluated throughout training and prediction. Whereas the traditional Perceptron evaluates all the features of each example, the Attentive Perceptron evaluates less features for easy to classify examples, thereby achieving significant speedups and small losses in prediction accuracy. Focus of attention allows the Attentive Perceptron to stop the evaluation of features at any interim point and filter the example. This creates an attentive filter which concentrates computation at examples that are hard to classify, and quickly filters examples that are easy to classify.
1009.5975
Information-Theoretic Analysis of an Energy Harvesting Communication System
cs.IT math.IT
In energy harvesting communication systems, an exogenous recharge process supplies energy for the data transmission and arriving energy can be buffered in a battery before consumption. Transmission is interrupted if there is not sufficient energy. We address communication with such random energy arrivals in an information-theoretic setting. Based on the classical additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel model, we study the coding problem with random energy arrivals at the transmitter. We show that the capacity of the AWGN channel with stochastic energy arrivals is equal to the capacity with an average power constraint equal to the average recharge rate. We provide two different capacity achieving schemes: {\it save-and-transmit} and {\it best-effort-transmit}. Next, we consider the case where energy arrivals have time-varying average in a larger time scale. We derive the optimal offline power allocation for maximum average throughput and provide an algorithm that finds the optimal power allocation.
1009.5979
Performance Analysis of the Matrix Pair Beamformer with Matrix Mismatch
cs.IT math.IT
Matrix pair beamformer (MPB) is a blind beamformer. It exploits the temporal structure of the signal of interest (SOI) and applies generalized eigen-decomposition to a covariance matrix pair. Unlike other blind algorithms, it only uses the second order statistics. A key assumption in the previous work is that the two matrices have the same interference statistics. However, this assumption may be invalid in the presence of multipath propagations or certain "smart" jammers, and we call it as matrix mismatch. This paper analyzes the performance of MPB with matrix mismatch. First, we propose a general framework that covers the existing schemes. Then, we derive its normalized output SINR. It reveals that the matrix mismatch leads to a threshold effect caused by "steering vector competition". Second, using matrix perturbation theory, we find that, if there are generalized eigenvalues that are infinite, the threshold will increase unboundedly with the interference power. This is highly probable when there are multiple periodical interferers. Finally, we present simulation results to verify our analysis.
1009.5981
Empirical Bayes methods corrected for small numbers of tests
stat.ME cs.IT math.IT math.ST q-bio.QM stat.TH
Histogram-based empirical Bayes methods developed for analyzing data for large numbers of genes, SNPs, or other biological features tend to have large biases when applied to data with a smaller number of features such as genes with expression measured conventionally, proteins, and metabolites. To analyze such small-scale and medium-scale data in an empirical Bayes framework, we introduce corrections of maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) of the local false discovery rate (LFDR). In this context, the MLE estimates the LFDR, which is a posterior probability of null hypothesis truth, by estimating the prior distribution. The corrections lie in excluding each feature when estimating one or more parameters on which the prior depends. An application of the new estimators and previous estimators to protein abundance data illustrates how different estimators lead to very different conclusions about which proteins are affected by cancer. The estimators are compared using simulated data of two different numbers of features, two different detectability levels, and all possible numbers of affected features. The simulations show that some of the corrected MLEs substantially reduce a negative bias of the MLE. (The best-performing corrected MLE was derived from the minimum description length principle.) However, even the corrected MLEs have strong negative biases when the proportion of features that are unaffected is greater than 90%. Therefore, since the number of affected features is unknown in the case of real data, we recommend an optimally weighted combination of the best of the corrected MLEs with a conservative estimator that has weaker parametric assumptions.
1009.6008
Multiple Access Channels with Cooperative Encoders and Channel State Information
cs.IT math.IT
The two-user Multiple Access Channel (MAC) with cooperative encoders and Channel State Information (CSI) is considered where two different scenarios are investigated: A two-user MAC with common message (MACCM) and a two-user MAC with conferencing encoders (MACCE). For both situations, the two cases where the CSI is known to the encoders either non-causally or causally are studied. Achievable rate regions are established for both discrete memoryless channels and Gaussian channels with additive interference. The achievable rate regions derived for the Gaussian models with additive interference known non-causally to the encoders are shown to coincide with the capacity region of the same channel with no interference. Therefore, the capacity region for such channels is established.
1009.6050
Comments on "Consensus and Cooperation in Networked Multi-Agent Systems"
cs.MA cs.NI math.OC
This note corrects a pretty serious mistake and some inaccuracies in "Consensus and cooperation in networked multi-agent systems" by R. Olfati-Saber, J.A. Fax, and R.M. Murray, published in Vol. 95 of the Proceedings of the IEEE (2007, No. 1, P. 215-233). It also mentions several stronger results applicable to the class of problems under consideration and addresses the issue of priority whose interpretation in the above-mentioned paper is not exact.
1009.6053
Efficient Sampling of Band-limited Signals from Sine Wave Crossings
cs.IT math.CV math.IT math.NA
This correspondence presents an efficient method for reconstructing a band-limited signal in the discrete domain from its crossings with a sine wave. The method makes it possible to design A/D converters that only deliver the crossing timings, which are then used to interpolate the input signal at arbitrary instants. Potentially, it may allow for reductions in power consumption and complexity in these converters. The reconstruction in the discrete domain is based on a recently-proposed modification of the Lagrange interpolator, which is readily implementable with linear complexity and efficiently, given that it re-uses known schemes for variable fractional-delay (VFD) filters. As a spin-off, the method allows one to perform spectral analysis from sine wave crossings with the complexity of the FFT. Finally, the results in the correspondence are validated in several numerical examples.
1009.6057
Network Flows for Functions
cs.NI cs.DC cs.IT math.IT
We consider in-network computation of an arbitrary function over an arbitrary communication network. A network with capacity constraints on the links is given. Some nodes in the network generate data, e.g., like sensor nodes in a sensor network. An arbitrary function of this distributed data is to be obtained at a terminal node. The structure of the function is described by a given computation schema, which in turn is represented by a directed tree. We design computing and communicating schemes to obtain the function at the terminal at the maximum rate. For this, we formulate linear programs to determine network flows that maximize the computation rate. We then develop fast combinatorial primal-dual algorithm to obtain $\epsilon$-approximate solutions to these linear programs. We then briefly describe extensions of our techniques to the cases of multiple terminals wanting different functions, multiple computation schemas for a function, computation with a given desired precision, and to networks with energy constraints at nodes.
1009.6079
A Multi-Interference-Channel Matrix Pair Beamformer for CDMA Systems
cs.CE cs.IT math.IT
Matrix pair beamformer (MPB) is a promising blind beamformer which exploits the temporal signature of the signal of interest (SOI) to acquire its spatial statistical information. It does not need any knowledge of directional information or training sequences. However, the major problem of the existing MPBs is that they have serious threshold effects and the thresholds will grow as the interference power increases or even approach infinity. In particular, this issue prevails in scenarios with structured interference, such as, periodically repeated white noise, tones, or MAIs in multipath channels. In this paper, we will first present the principles for designing the projection space of the MPB which are closely correlated with the ability of suppressing structured interference and system finite sample performance. Then a multiple-interference-channel based matrix pair beamformer (MIC-MPB) for CDMA systems is developed according to the principles. In order to adapt to dynamic channels, an adaptive algorithm for the beamformer is also proposed. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed beamformer has a small and bounded threshold when the interference power increases. Performance comparisons of the MIC-MPB and the existing MPBs in various scenarios via a number of numerical examples are also presented.
1009.6119
A Comprehensive Survey of Data Mining-based Fraud Detection Research
cs.AI cs.CE
This survey paper categorises, compares, and summarises from almost all published technical and review articles in automated fraud detection within the last 10 years. It defines the professional fraudster, formalises the main types and subtypes of known fraud, and presents the nature of data evidence collected within affected industries. Within the business context of mining the data to achieve higher cost savings, this research presents methods and techniques together with their problems. Compared to all related reviews on fraud detection, this survey covers much more technical articles and is the only one, to the best of our knowledge, which proposes alternative data and solutions from related domains.
1009.6127
Efficient Knowledge Base Management in DCSP
cs.AI cs.DC
DCSP (Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problem) has been a very important research area in AI (Artificial Intelligence). There are many application problems in distributed AI that can be formalized as DSCPs. With the increasing complexity and problem size of the application problems in AI, the required storage place in searching and the average searching time are increasing too. Thus, to use a limited storage place efficiently in solving DCSP becomes a very important problem, and it can help to reduce searching time as well. This paper provides an efficient knowledge base management approach based on general usage of hyper-resolution-rule in consistence algorithm. The approach minimizes the increasing of the knowledge base by eliminate sufficient constraint and false nogood. These eliminations do not change the completeness of the original knowledge base increased. The proofs are given as well. The example shows that this approach decrease both the new nogoods generated and the knowledge base greatly. Thus it decreases the required storage place and simplify the searching process.
1009.6182
Goodput Maximization in Cooperative Networks with ARQ
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, the average successful throughput, i.e., goodput, of a coded 3-node cooperative network is studied in a Rayleigh fading environment. It is assumed that a simple automatic repeat request (ARQ) technique is employed in the network so that erroneously received codeword is retransmitted until successful delivery. The relay is assumed to operate in either amplify-and-forward (AF) or decode-and-forward (DF) mode. Under these assumptions, retransmission mechanisms and protocols are described, and the average time required to send information successfully is determined. Subsequently, the goodput for both AF and DF relaying is formulated. The tradeoffs and interactions between the goodput, transmission rates, and relay location are investigated and optimal strategies are identified.
1009.6197
Secure Relay Beamforming over Cognitive Radio Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, a cognitive relay channel is considered, and amplify-and-forward (AF) relay beamforming designs in the presence of an eavesdropper and a primary user are studied. Our objective is to optimize the performance of the cognitive relay beamforming system while limiting the interference in the direction of the primary receiver and keeping the transmitted signal secret from the eavesdropper. We show that under both total and individual power constraints, the problem becomes a quasiconvex optimization problem which can be solved by interior point methods. We also propose two sub-optimal null space beamforming schemes which are obtained in a more computationally efficient way.
1009.6200
Optimal Power Allocation for Secrecy Fading Channels Under Spectrum-Sharing Constraints
cs.IT math.IT
In the spectrum-sharing technology, a secondary user may utilize the primary user's licensed band as long as its interference to the primary user is below a tolerable value. In this paper, we consider a scenario in which a secondary user is operating in the presence of both a primary user and an eavesdropper. Hence, the secondary user has both interference limitations and security considerations. In such a scenario, we study the secrecy capacity limits of opportunistic spectrum-sharing channels in fading environments and investigate the optimal power allocation for the secondary user under average and peak received power constraints at the primary user with global channel side information (CSI). Also, in the absence of the eavesdropper's CSI, we study optimal power allocation under an average power constraint and propose a suboptimal on/off power control method.
1009.6205
Channel Coding over Multiple Coherence Blocks with Queueing Constraints
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates the performance of wireless systems that employ finite-blocklength channel codes for transmission and operate under queueing constraints in the form of limitations on buffer overflow probabilities. A block fading model, in which fading stays constant in each coherence block and change independently between blocks, is considered. It is assumed that channel coding is performed over multiple coherence blocks. An approximate lower bound on the transmission rate is obtained from Feintein's Lemma. This lower bound is considered as the service rate and is incorporated into the effective capacity formulation, which characterizes the maximum constant arrival rate that can be supported under statistical queuing constraints. Performances of variable-rate and fixed-rate transmissions are studied. The optimum error probability for variable rate transmission and the optimum coding rate for fixed rate transmission are shown to be unique. Moreover, the tradeoff between the throughput and the number of blocks over which channel coding is performed is identified.
1009.6206
On the Effective Capacity of Two-Hop Communication Systems
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, two-hop communication between a source and a destination with the aid of an intermediate relay node is considered. Both the source and intermediate relay node are assumed to operate under statistical quality of service (QoS) constraints imposed as limitations on the buffer overflow probabilities. It is further assumed that the nodes send the information at fixed power levels and have perfect channel side information. In this scenario, the maximum constant arrival rates that can be supported by this two-hop link are characterized by finding the effective capacity. Through this analysis, the impact upon the throughput of having buffer constraints at the source and intermediate-hop nodes is identified.
1009.6215
How to Extract the Geometry and Topology from Very Large 3D Segmentations
cs.CG cs.CV cs.DS
Segmentation is often an essential intermediate step in image analysis. A volume segmentation characterizes the underlying volume image in terms of geometric information--segments, faces between segments, curves in which several faces meet--as well as a topology on these objects. Existing algorithms encode this information in designated data structures, but require that these data structures fit entirely in Random Access Memory (RAM). Today, 3D images with several billion voxels are acquired, e.g. in structural neurobiology. Since these large volumes can no longer be processed with existing methods, we present a new algorithm which performs geometry and topology extraction with a runtime linear in the number of voxels and log-linear in the number of faces and curves. The parallelizable algorithm proceeds in a block-wise fashion and constructs a consistent representation of the entire volume image on the hard drive, making the structure of very large volume segmentations accessible to image analysis. The parallelized C++ source code, free command line tools and MATLAB mex files are avilable from http://hci.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/software.php
1010.0011
Deterministic Compressed Sensing Matrices from Additive Character Sequences
cs.IT math.IT
Compressed sensing is a novel technique where one can recover sparse signals from the undersampled measurements. In this correspondence, a $K \times N$ measurement matrix for compressed sensing is deterministically constructed via additive character sequences. The Weil bound is then used to show that the matrix has asymptotically optimal coherence for $N=K^2$, and to present a sufficient condition on the sparsity level for unique sparse recovery. Also, the restricted isometry property (RIP) is statistically studied for the deterministic matrix. Using additive character sequences with small alphabets, the compressed sensing matrix can be efficiently implemented by linear feedback shift registers. Numerical results show that the deterministic compressed sensing matrix guarantees reliable matching pursuit recovery performance for both noiseless and noisy measurements.
1010.0012
An Embarrassingly Simple Speed-Up of Belief Propagation with Robust Potentials
cs.CV cs.AI
We present an exact method of greatly speeding up belief propagation (BP) for a wide variety of potential functions in pairwise MRFs and other graphical models. Specifically, our technique applies whenever the pairwise potentials have been {\em truncated} to a constant value for most pairs of states, as is commonly done in MRF models with robust potentials (such as stereo) that impose an upper bound on the penalty assigned to discontinuities; for each of the $M$ possible states in one node, only a smaller number $m$ of compatible states in a neighboring node are assigned milder penalties. The computational complexity of our method is $O(mM)$, compared with $O(M^2)$ for standard BP, and we emphasize that the method is {\em exact}, in contrast with related techniques such as pruning; moreover, the method is very simple and easy to implement. Unlike some previous work on speeding up BP, our method applies both to sum-product and max-product BP, which makes it useful in any applications where marginal probabilities are required, such as maximum likelihood estimation. We demonstrate the technique on a stereo MRF example, confirming that the technique speeds up BP without altering the solution.
1010.0019
Mantis: Predicting System Performance through Program Analysis and Modeling
cs.PF cs.AI cs.PL
We present Mantis, a new framework that automatically predicts program performance with high accuracy. Mantis integrates techniques from programming language and machine learning for performance modeling, and is a radical departure from traditional approaches. Mantis extracts program features, which are information about program execution runs, through program instrumentation. It uses machine learning techniques to select features relevant to performance and creates prediction models as a function of the selected features. Through program analysis, it then generates compact code slices that compute these feature values for prediction. Our evaluation shows that Mantis can achieve more than 93% accuracy with less than 10% training data set, which is a significant improvement over models that are oblivious to program features. The system generates code slices that are cheap to compute feature values.
1010.0034
Spectral Control of Mobile Robot Networks
cs.MA cs.SY math.OC
The eigenvalue spectrum of the adjacency matrix of a network is closely related to the behavior of many dynamical processes run over the network. In the field of robotics, this spectrum has important implications in many problems that require some form of distributed coordination within a team of robots. In this paper, we propose a continuous-time control scheme that modifies the structure of a position-dependent network of mobile robots so that it achieves a desired set of adjacency eigenvalues. For this, we employ a novel abstraction of the eigenvalue spectrum by means of the adjacency matrix spectral moments. Since the eigenvalue spectrum is uniquely determined by its spectral moments, this abstraction provides a way to indirectly control the eigenvalues of the network. Our construction is based on artificial potentials that capture the distance of the network's spectral moments to their desired values. Minimization of these potentials is via a gradient descent closed-loop system that, under certain convexity assumptions, ensures convergence of the network topology to one with the desired set of moments and, therefore, eigenvalues. We illustrate our approach in nontrivial computer simulations.
1010.0041
Throughput and Collision Analysis of Multi-Channel Multi-Stage Spectrum Sensing Algorithms
cs.PF cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
Multi-stage sensing is a novel concept that refers to a general class of spectrum sensing algorithms that divide the sensing process into a number of sequential stages. The number of sensing stages and the sensing technique per stage can be used to optimize performance with respect to secondary user throughput and the collision probability between primary and secondary users. So far, the impact of multi-stage sensing on network throughput and collision probability for a realistic network model is relatively unexplored. Therefore, we present the first analytical framework which enables performance evaluation of different multi-channel multi-stage spectrum sensing algorithms for Opportunistic Spectrum Access networks. The contribution of our work lies in studying the effect of the following parameters on performance: number of sensing stages, physical layer sensing techniques and durations per each stage, single and parallel channel sensing and access, number of available channels, primary and secondary user traffic, buffering of incoming secondary user traffic, as well as MAC layer sensing algorithms. Analyzed performance metrics include the average secondary user throughput and the average collision probability between primary and secondary users. Our results show that when the probability of primary user mis-detection is constrained, the performance of multi-stage sensing is, in most cases, superior to the single stage sensing counterpart. Besides, prolonged channel observation at the first stage of sensing decreases the collision probability considerably, while keeping the throughput at an acceptable level. Finally, in realistic primary user traffic scenarios, using two stages of sensing provides a good balance between secondary users throughput and collision probability while meeting successful detection constraints subjected by Opportunistic Spectrum Access communication.
1010.0056
Online Learning in Opportunistic Spectrum Access: A Restless Bandit Approach
math.OC cs.LG
We consider an opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) problem where the time-varying condition of each channel (e.g., as a result of random fading or certain primary users' activities) is modeled as an arbitrary finite-state Markov chain. At each instance of time, a (secondary) user probes a channel and collects a certain reward as a function of the state of the channel (e.g., good channel condition results in higher data rate for the user). Each channel has potentially different state space and statistics, both unknown to the user, who tries to learn which one is the best as it goes and maximizes its usage of the best channel. The objective is to construct a good online learning algorithm so as to minimize the difference between the user's performance in total rewards and that of using the best channel (on average) had it known which one is the best from a priori knowledge of the channel statistics (also known as the regret). This is a classic exploration and exploitation problem and results abound when the reward processes are assumed to be iid. Compared to prior work, the biggest difference is that in our case the reward process is assumed to be Markovian, of which iid is a special case. In addition, the reward processes are restless in that the channel conditions will continue to evolve independent of the user's actions. This leads to a restless bandit problem, for which there exists little result on either algorithms or performance bounds in this learning context to the best of our knowledge. In this paper we introduce an algorithm that utilizes regenerative cycles of a Markov chain and computes a sample-mean based index policy, and show that under mild conditions on the state transition probabilities of the Markov chains this algorithm achieves logarithmic regret uniformly over time, and that this regret bound is also optimal.
1010.0060
Design and Performance of Rate-compatible Non-Binary LDPC Convolutional Codes
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we present a construction method of non-binary low-density parity-check (LDPC) convolutional codes. Our construction method is an extension of Felstroem and Zigangirov construction for non-binary LDPC convolutional codes. The rate-compatibility of the non-binary convolutional code is also discussed. The proposed rate-compatible code is designed from one single mother (2,4)-regular non-binary LDPC convolutional code of rate 1/2. Higher-rate codes are produced by puncturing the mother code and lower-rate codes are produced by multiplicatively repeating the mother code. Simulation results show that non-binary LDPC convolutional codes of rate 1/2 outperform state-of-the-art binary LDPC convolutional codes with comparable constraint bit length. Also the derived low-rate and high-rate non-binary LDPC convolutional codes exhibit good decoding performance without loss of large gap to the Shannon limits.
1010.0066
Continuous-time Discontinuous Equations in Bounded Confidence Opinion Dynamics
math.OC cs.SI cs.SY math.DS
This report studies a continuous-time version of the well-known Hegselmann-Krause model of opinion dynamics with bounded confidence. As the equations of this model have discontinuous right-hand side, we study their Krasovskii solutions. We present results about existence and completeness of solutions, and asymptotical convergence to equilibria featuring a "clusterization" of opinions. The robustness of such equilibria to small perturbations is also studied.
1010.0122
Rule-based Generation of Diff Evolution Mappings between Ontology Versions
cs.DB
Ontologies such as taxonomies, product catalogs or web directories are heavily used and hence evolve frequently to meet new requirements or to better reflect the current instance data of a domain. To effectively manage the evolution of ontologies it is essential to identify the difference (Diff) between two ontology versions. We propose a novel approach to determine an expressive and invertible diff evolution mapping between given versions of an ontology. Our approach utilizes the result of a match operation to determine an evolution mapping consisting of a set of basic change operations (insert/update/delete). To semantically enrich the evolution mapping we adopt a rule-based approach to transform the basic change operations into a smaller set of more complex change operations, such as merge, split, or changes of entire subgraphs. The proposed algorithm is customizable in different ways to meet the requirements of diverse ontologies and application scenarios. We evaluate the proposed approach by determining and analyzing evolution mappings for real-world life science ontologies and web directories.
1010.0145
Multi-Agent Programming Contest 2010 - The Jason-DTU Team
cs.MA
We provide a brief description of the Jason-DTU system, including the methodology, the tools and the team strategy that we plan to use in the agent contest.
1010.0150
Implementing Lego Agents Using Jason
cs.MA
Since many of the currently available multi-agent frameworks are generally mostly intended for research, it can be difficult to built multi-agent systems using physical robots. In this report I describe a way to combine the multi-agent framework Jason, an extended version of the agent-oriented programming language AgentSpeak, with Lego robots to address this problem. By extending parts of the Jason reasoning cycle I show how Lego robots are able to complete tasks such as following lines on a floor and communicating to be able to avoid obstacles with minimal amount of coding. The final implementation is a functional extension that is able to built multi-agent systems using Lego agents, however there are some issues that have not been addressed. If the agents are highly dependent on percepts from their sensors, they are required to move quite slowly, because there currently is a high delay in the reasoning cycle, when it is combined with a robot. Overall the system is quite robust and can be used to make simple Lego robots perform tasks of an advanced agent in a multi-agent environment.
1010.0155
An Investigation of the Advantages of Organization-Centered Multi-Agent Systems
cs.MA
Whereas classical multi-agent systems have the agent in center, there have recently been a development towards focusing more on the organization of the system. This allows the designer to focus on what the system goals are, without considering how the goals should be fulfilled. This paper investigates whether taking this approach has any clear advantages to the classical way of implementing multi-agent systems. The investigation is done by implementing each type of system in the same environment in order to realize what advantages and disadvantages each approach has.
1010.0177
Strongly Secure Communications Over the Two-Way Wiretap Channel
cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of secure communications over the two-way wiretap channel under a strong secrecy criterion. We improve existing results by developing an achievable region based on strategies that exploit both the interference at the eavesdropper's terminal and cooperation between legitimate users. We leverage the notion of channel resolvability for the multiple-access channel to analyze cooperative jamming and we show that the artificial noise created by cooperative jamming induces a source of common randomness that can be used for secret-key agreement. We illustrate the gain provided by this coding technique in the case of the Gaussian two-way wiretap channel, and we show significant improvements for some channel configurations.
1010.0182
List decoding for nested lattices and applications to relay channels
cs.IT math.IT
We demonstrate a decoding scheme for nested lattice codes which is able to decode a list of a particular size which contains the transmitted codeword with high probability. This list decoder is analogous to that used in random coding arguments in achievability schemes of relay channels, and allows for the effective combination of information from the relay and source node. Using this list decoding result, we demonstrate 1) that lattice codes may achieve the capacity of the physically degraded AWGN relay channel, 2) an achievable rate region for the two-way relay channel with direct links using lattice codes, and 3) that we may improve the constant gap to capacity for specific cases of the two-way relay channel with direct links.
1010.0189
Reed-Muller Codes for Peak Power Control in Multicarrier CDMA
cs.IT math.IT
Reed-Muller codes are studied for peak power control in multicarrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) communication systems. In a coded MC-CDMA system, the information data multiplexed from users is encoded by a Reed-Muller subcode and the codeword is fully-loaded to Walsh-Hadamard spreading sequences. The polynomial representation of a coded MC-CDMA signal is established for theoretical analysis of the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). The Reed-Muller subcodes are defined in a recursive way by the Boolean functions providing the transmitted MC-CDMA signals with the bounded PAPR as well as the error correction capability. A connection between the code rates and the maximum PAPR is theoretically investigated in the coded MC-CDMA. Simulation results present the statistical evidence that the PAPR of the coded MC-CDMA signal is not only theoretically bounded, but also statistically reduced. In particular, the coded MC-CDMA solves the major PAPR problem of uncoded MC-CDMA by dramatically reducing its PAPR for the small number of users. Finally, the theoretical and statistical studies show that the Reed-Muller subcodes are effective coding schemes for peak power control in MC-CDMA with small and moderate numbers of users, subcarriers, and spreading factors.
1010.0200
Difference Antenna Selection and Power Allocation for Wireless Cognitive Systems
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we propose an antenna selection method in a wireless cognitive radio (CR) system, namely difference selection, whereby a single transmit antenna is selected at the secondary transmitter out of $M$ possible antennas such that the weighted difference between the channel gains of the data link and the interference link is maximized. We analyze mutual information and outage probability of the secondary transmission in a CR system with difference antenna selection, and propose a method of optimizing these performance metrics of the secondary data link subject to practical constraints on the peak secondary transmit power and the average interference power as seen by the primary receiver. The optimization is performed over two parameters: the peak secondary transmit power and the difference selection weight $\delta\in [0, 1]$. We show that, difference selection using the optimized parameters determined by the proposed method can be, in many cases of interest, superior to a so called ratio selection method disclosed in the literature, although ratio selection has been shown to be optimal, when impractically, the secondary transmission power constraint is not applied. We address the effects that the constraints have on mutual information and outage probability, and discuss the practical implications of the results.
1010.0226
An Information-theoretic Approach to Privacy
cs.IT math.IT
Ensuring the usefulness of electronic data sources while providing necessary privacy guarantees is an important unsolved problem. This problem drives the need for an overarching analytical framework that can quantify the safety of personally identifiable information (privacy) while still providing a quantifable benefit (utility) to multiple legitimate information consumers. State of the art approaches have predominantly focused on privacy. This paper presents the first information-theoretic approach that promises an analytical model guaranteeing tight bounds of how much utility is possible for a given level of privacy and vice-versa.
1010.0237
Using Stochastic Models to Describe and Predict Social Dynamics of Web Users
cs.CY cs.SI physics.soc-ph
Popularity of content in social media is unequally distributed, with some items receiving a disproportionate share of attention from users. Predicting which newly-submitted items will become popular is critically important for both hosts of social media content and its consumers. Accurate and timely prediction would enable hosts to maximize revenue through differential pricing for access to content or ad placement. Prediction would also give consumers an important tool for filtering the ever-growing amount of content. Predicting popularity of content in social media, however, is challenging due to the complex interactions between content quality and how the social media site chooses to highlight content. Moreover, most social media sites also selectively present content that has been highly rated by similar users, whose similarity is indicated implicitly by their behavior or explicitly by links in a social network. While these factors make it difficult to predict popularity \emph{a priori}, we show that stochastic models of user behavior on these sites allows predicting popularity based on early user reactions to new content. By incorporating the various mechanisms through which web sites display content, such models improve on predictions based on simply extrapolating from the early votes. Using data from one such site, the news aggregator Digg, we show how a stochastic model of user behavior distinguishes the effect of the increased visibility due to the network from how interested users are in the content. We find a wide range of interest, identifying stories primarily of interest to users in the network (``niche interests'') from those of more general interest to the user community. This distinction is useful for predicting a story's eventual popularity from users' early reactions to the story.
1010.0280
Infinite Families of Optimal Splitting Authentication Codes Secure Against Spoofing Attacks of Higher Order
cs.CR cs.DM cs.IT math.CO math.IT
We consider the problem of constructing optimal authentication codes with splitting. New infinite families of such codes are obtained. In particular, we establish the first known infinite family of optimal authentication codes with splitting that are secure against spoofing attacks of order two.
1010.0287
Queue-Aware Distributive Resource Control for Delay-Sensitive Two-Hop MIMO Cooperative Systems
cs.LG
In this paper, we consider a queue-aware distributive resource control algorithm for two-hop MIMO cooperative systems. We shall illustrate that relay buffering is an effective way to reduce the intrinsic half-duplex penalty in cooperative systems. The complex interactions of the queues at the source node and the relays are modeled as an average-cost infinite horizon Markov Decision Process (MDP). The traditional approach solving this MDP problem involves centralized control with huge complexity. To obtain a distributive and low complexity solution, we introduce a linear structure which approximates the value function of the associated Bellman equation by the sum of per-node value functions. We derive a distributive two-stage two-winner auction-based control policy which is a function of the local CSI and local QSI only. Furthermore, to estimate the best fit approximation parameter, we propose a distributive online stochastic learning algorithm using stochastic approximation theory. Finally, we establish technical conditions for almost-sure convergence and show that under heavy traffic, the proposed low complexity distributive control is global optimal.
1010.0298
Steepest Ascent Hill Climbing For A Mathematical Problem
cs.AI
The paper proposes artificial intelligence technique called hill climbing to find numerical solutions of Diophantine Equations. Such equations are important as they have many applications in fields like public key cryptography, integer factorization, algebraic curves, projective curves and data dependency in super computers. Importantly, it has been proved that there is no general method to find solutions of such equations. This paper is an attempt to find numerical solutions of Diophantine equations using steepest ascent version of Hill Climbing. The method, which uses tree representation to depict possible solutions of Diophantine equations, adopts a novel methodology to generate successors. The heuristic function used help to make the process of finding solution as a minimization process. The work illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed methodology using a class of Diophantine equations given by a1. x1 p1 + a2. x2 p2 + ...... + an . xn pn = N where ai and N are integers. The experimental results validate that the procedure proposed is successful in finding solutions of Diophantine Equations with sufficiently large powers and large number of variables.
1010.0301
A Microwave Imaging and Enhancement Technique from Noisy Synthetic Data
cs.CV cs.NA
An inverse iterative algorithm for microwave imaging based on moment method solution is presented here. The iterative scheme has been developed on constrained optimization technique and is certain to converge. Different mesh size for the model has been used here to overcome the Inverse Crime. The synthetic data at the receivers is contaminated with different percentage of noise. The ill-posedness of the problem is solved by Levenberg-Marquardt method. The algorithm is applied to synthetic data and the reconstructed image is then further enhanced through the Image enhancement technique
1010.0302
Spatial Networks
cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.dis-nn cs.SI physics.soc-ph q-bio.NC
Complex systems are very often organized under the form of networks where nodes and edges are embedded in space. Transportation and mobility networks, Internet, mobile phone networks, power grids, social and contact networks, neural networks, are all examples where space is relevant and where topology alone does not contain all the information. Characterizing and understanding the structure and the evolution of spatial networks is thus crucial for many different fields ranging from urbanism to epidemiology. An important consequence of space on networks is that there is a cost associated to the length of edges which in turn has dramatic effects on the topological structure of these networks. We will expose thoroughly the current state of our understanding of how the spatial constraints affect the structure and properties of these networks. We will review the most recent empirical observations and the most important models of spatial networks. We will also discuss various processes which take place on these spatial networks, such as phase transitions, random walks, synchronization, navigation, resilience, and disease spread.
1010.0316
Two-User Gaussian Interference Channel with Finite Constellation Input and FDMA
cs.IT math.IT
In the two-user Gaussian Strong Interference Channel (GSIC) with finite constellation inputs, it is known that relative rotation between the constellations of the two users enlarges the Constellation Constrained (CC) capacity region. In this paper, a metric for finding the approximate angle of rotation (with negligibly small error) to maximally enlarge the CC capacity for the two-user GSIC is presented. In the case of Gaussian input alphabets with equal powers for both the users and the modulus of both the cross-channel gains being equal to unity, it is known that the FDMA rate curve touches the capacity curve of the GSIC. It is shown that, with unequal powers for both the users also, when the modulus of one of the cross-channel gains being equal to one and the modulus of the other cross-channel gain being greater than or equal to one, the FDMA rate curve touches the capacity curve of the GSIC. On the contrary, it is shown that, under finite constellation inputs, with both the users using the same constellation, the FDMA rate curve strictly lies within (never touches) the enlarged CC capacity region throughout the strong-interference regime. This means that using FDMA it is impossible to go close to the CC capacity. It is well known that for the Gaussian input alphabets, the FDMA inner-bound, at the optimum sum-rate point, is always better than the simultaneous-decoding inner-bound throughout the weak-interference regime. For a portion of the weak interference regime, it is shown that with identical finite constellation inputs for both the users, the simultaneous-decoding inner-bound, enlarged by relative rotation between the constellations, is strictly better than the FDMA inner-bound.
1010.0333
Effects of Single-Cycle Structure on Iterative Decoding for Low-Density Parity-Check Codes
cs.IT math.IT
We consider communication over the binary erasure channel (BEC) using low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and belief propagation (BP) decoding. For fixed numbers of BP iterations, the bit error probability approaches a limit as blocklength tends to infinity, and the limit is obtained via density evolution. On the other hand, the difference between the bit error probability of codes with blocklength $n$ and that in the large blocklength limit is asymptotically $\alpha(\epsilon,t)/n + \Theta(n^{-2})$ where $\alpha(\epsilon,t)$ denotes a specific constant determined by the code ensemble considered, the number $t$ of iterations, and the erasure probability $\epsilon$ of the BEC. In this paper, we derive a set of recursive formulas which allows evaluation of the constant $\alpha(\epsilon,t)$ for standard irregular ensembles. The dominant difference $\alpha(\epsilon,t)/n$ can be considered as effects of cycle-free and single-cycle structures of local graphs. Furthermore, it is confirmed via numerical simulations that estimation of the bit error probability using $\alpha(\epsilon,t)$ is accurate even for small blocklengths.
1010.0344
Alternating-Offer Bargaining Games over the Gaussian Interference Channel
cs.IT cs.GT math.IT
This paper tackles the problem of how two selfish users jointly determine the operating point in the achievable rate region of a two-user Gaussian interference channel through bargaining. In previous work, incentive conditions for two users to cooperate using a simple version of Han-Kobayashi scheme was studied and the Nash bargaining solution (NBS) was used to obtain a fair operating point. Here a noncooperative bargaining game of alternating offers is adopted to model the bargaining process and rates resulting from the equilibrium outcome are analyzed. In particular, it is shown that the operating point resulting from the formulated bargaining game depends on the cost of delay in bargaining and how bargaining proceeds. If the associated bargaining problem is regular, a unique perfect equilibrium exists and lies on the individual rational efficient frontier of the achievable rate region. Besides, the equilibrium outcome approaches the NBS if the bargaining costs of both users are negligible.
1010.0410
Structure and Response in the World Trade Network
q-fin.GN cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We examine how the structure of the world trade network has been shaped by globalization and recessions over the last 40 years. We show that by treating the world trade network as an evolving system, theory predicts the trade network is more sensitive to evolutionary shocks and recovers more slowly from them now than it did 40 years ago, due to structural changes in the world trade network induced by globalization. We also show that recession-induced change to the world trade network leads to an \emph{increased} hierarchical structure of the global trade network for a few years after the recession.
1010.0412
Sequences of Inequalities Among New Divergence Measures
cs.IT math.IT
There are three classical divergence measures exist in the literature on information theory and statistics. These are namely, Jeffryes-Kullback-Leiber J-divergence. Sibson-Burbea-Rao Jensen-Shannon divegernce and Taneja arithemtic-geometric mean divergence. These three measures bear an interesting relationship among each other and are based on logarithmic expressions. The divergence measures like Hellinger discrimination, symmetric chi-square divergence, and triangular discrimination are also known in the literature and are not based on logarithmic expressions. Past years Dragomir et al., Kumar and Johnson and Jain and Srivastava studied different kind of divergence measures. In this paper, we have presented some more new divergence measures and obtained inequalities relating these new measures and also made connections with previous ones. The idea of exponential divergence is also introduced.
1010.0417
Visual-hint Boundary to Segment Algorithm for Image Segmentation
cs.CV
Image segmentation has been a very active research topic in image analysis area. Currently, most of the image segmentation algorithms are designed based on the idea that images are partitioned into a set of regions preserving homogeneous intra-regions and inhomogeneous inter-regions. However, human visual intuition does not always follow this pattern. A new image segmentation method named Visual-Hint Boundary to Segment (VHBS) is introduced, which is more consistent with human perceptions. VHBS abides by two visual hint rules based on human perceptions: (i) the global scale boundaries tend to be the real boundaries of the objects; (ii) two adjacent regions with quite different colors or textures tend to result in the real boundaries between them. It has been demonstrated by experiments that, compared with traditional image segmentation method, VHBS has better performance and also preserves higher computational efficiency.
1010.0418
Quantum capacity under adversarial quantum noise: arbitrarily varying quantum channels
quant-ph cs.IT math-ph math.IT math.MP
We investigate entanglement transmission over an unknown channel in the presence of a third party (called the adversary), which is enabled to choose the channel from a given set of memoryless but non-stationary channels without informing the legitimate sender and receiver about the particular choice that he made. This channel model is called arbitrarily varying quantum channel (AVQC). We derive a quantum version of Ahlswede's dichotomy for classical arbitrarily varying channels. This includes a regularized formula for the common randomness-assisted capacity for entanglement transmission of an AVQC. Quite surprisingly and in contrast to the classical analog of the problem involving the maximal and average error probability, we find that the capacity for entanglement transmission of an AVQC always equals its strong subspace transmission capacity. These results are accompanied by different notions of symmetrizability (zero-capacity conditions) as well as by conditions for an AVQC to have a capacity described by a single-letter formula. In he final part of the paper the capacity of the erasure-AVQC is computed and some light shed on the connection between AVQCs and zero-error capacities. Additionally, we show by entirely elementary and operational arguments motivated by the theory of AVQCs that the quantum, classical, and entanglement-assisted zero-error capacities of quantum channels are generically zero and are discontinuous at every positivity point.
1010.0422
Convolutional Matching Pursuit and Dictionary Training
cs.CV
Matching pursuit and K-SVD is demonstrated in the translation invariant setting
1010.0431
Multilevel compression of random walks on networks reveals hierarchical organization in large integrated systems
physics.soc-ph cs.SI physics.comp-ph
To comprehend the hierarchical organization of large integrated systems, we introduce the hierarchical map equation, which reveals multilevel structures in networks. In this information-theoretic approach, we exploit the duality between compression and pattern detection; by compressing a description of a random walker as a proxy for real flow on a network, we find regularities in the network that induce this system-wide flow. Finding the shortest multilevel description of the random walker therefore gives us the best hierarchical clustering of the network, the optimal number of levels and modular partition at each level, with respect to the dynamics on the network. With a novel search algorithm, we extract and illustrate the rich multilevel organization of several large social and biological networks. For example, from the global air traffic network we uncover countries and continents, and from the pattern of scientific communication we reveal more than 100 scientific fields organized in four major disciplines: life sciences, physical sciences, ecology and earth sciences, and social sciences. In general, we find shallow hierarchical structures in globally interconnected systems, such as neural networks, and rich multilevel organizations in systems with highly separated regions, such as road networks.
1010.0433
Derandomization and Group Testing
cs.IT math.IT
The rapid development of derandomization theory, which is a fundamental area in theoretical computer science, has recently led to many surprising applications outside its initial intention. We will review some recent such developments related to combinatorial group testing. In its most basic setting, the aim of group testing is to identify a set of "positive" individuals in a population of items by taking groups of items and asking whether there is a positive in each group. In particular, we will discuss explicit constructions of optimal or nearly-optimal group testing schemes using "randomness-conducting" functions. Among such developments are constructions of error-correcting group testing schemes using randomness extractors and condensers, as well as threshold group testing schemes from lossless condensers.
1010.0476
Interference Alignment as a Rank Constrained Rank Minimization
cs.IT cs.DC cs.NI math.IT
We show that the maximization of the sum degrees-of-freedom for the static flat-fading multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) interference channel is equivalent to a rank constrained rank minimization problem (RCRM), when the signal spaces span all available dimensions. The rank minimization corresponds to maximizing interference alignment (IA) so that interference spans the lowest dimensional subspace possible. The rank constraints account for the useful signal spaces spanning all available spatial dimensions. That way, we reformulate all IA requirements to requirements involving ranks. Then, we present a convex relaxation of the RCRM problem inspired by recent results in compressed sensing and low-rank matrix completion theory that rely on approximating rank with the nuclear norm. We show that the convex envelope of the sum of ranks of the interference matrices is the normalized sum of their corresponding nuclear norms and introduce tractable constraints that are asymptotically equivalent to the rank constraints for the initial problem. We also show that our heuristic relaxation can be tuned for the multi-cell interference channel. Furthermore, we experimentally show that in many cases the proposed algorithm attains perfect interference alignment and in some cases outperforms previous approaches for finding precoding and zero-forcing matrices for interference alignment.
1010.0485
Distributed Storage Codes Meet Multiple-Access Wiretap Channels
cs.IT cs.DC cs.NI math.IT
We consider {\it i)} the overhead minimization of maximum-distance separable (MDS) storage codes for the repair of a single failed node and {\it ii)} the total secure degrees-of-freedom (S-DoF) maximization in a multiple-access compound wiretap channel. We show that the two problems are connected. Specifically, the overhead minimization for a single node failure of an {\it optimal} MDS code, i.e. one that can achieve the information theoretic overhead minimum, is equivalent to maximizing the S-DoF in a multiple-access compound wiretap channel. Additionally, we show that maximizing the S-DoF in a multiple-access compound wiretap channel is equivalent to minimizing the overhead of an MDS code for the repair of a departed node. An optimal MDS code maps to a full S-DoF channel and a full S-DoF channel maps to an MDS code with minimum repair overhead for one failed node. We also state a general framework for code-to-channel and channel-to-code mappings and performance bounds between the two settings. The underlying theme for all connections presented is interference alignment (IA). The connections between the two problems become apparent when we restate IA as an optimization problem. Specifically, we formulate the overhead minimization and the S-DoF maximization as rank constrained, sum-rank and max-rank minimization problems respectively. The derived connections allow us to map repair strategies of recently discovered repair codes to beamforming matrices and characterize the maximum S-DoF for the single antenna multiple-access compound wiretap channel.
1010.0522
Strong direct product conjecture holds for all relations in public coin randomized one-way communication complexity
cs.CC cs.IT math.IT
Let f subset of X x Y x Z be a relation. Let the public coin one-way communication complexity of f, with worst case error 1/3, be denoted R^{1,pub}_{1/3}(f). We show that if for computing f^k (k independent copies of f), o(k R^{1,pub}_{1/3}(f)) communication is provided, then the success is exponentially small in k. This settles the strong direct product conjecture for all relations in public coin one-way communication complexity. We show a new tight characterization of public coin one-way communication complexity which strengthens on the tight characterization shown in [J., Klauck, Nayak 08]. We use the new characterization to show our direct product result and this may also be of independent interest.
1010.0558
Analyzing Network Coding Gossip Made Easy
cs.DC cs.DS cs.IT math.IT
We give a new technique to analyze the stopping time of gossip protocols that are based on random linear network coding (RLNC). Our analysis drastically simplifies, extends and strengthens previous results. We analyze RLNC gossip in a general framework for network and communication models that encompasses and unifies the models used previously in this context. We show, in most settings for the first time, that it converges with high probability in the information-theoretically optimal time. Most stopping times are of the form O(k + T) where k is the number of messages to be distributed and T is the time it takes to disseminate one message. This means RLNC gossip achieves "perfect pipelining". Our analysis directly extends to highly dynamic networks in which the topology can change completely at any time. This remains true even if the network dynamics are controlled by a fully adaptive adversary that knows the complete network state. Virtually nothing besides simple O(kT) sequential flooding protocols was previously known for such a setting. While RLNC gossip works in this wide variety of networks its analysis remains the same and extremely simple. This contrasts with more complex proofs that were put forward to give less strong results for various special cases.
1010.0601
A Random Matrix--Theoretic Approach to Handling Singular Covariance Estimates
math.PR cs.IT math.IT math.ST physics.data-an stat.TH
In many practical situations we would like to estimate the covariance matrix of a set of variables from an insufficient amount of data. More specifically, if we have a set of $N$ independent, identically distributed measurements of an $M$ dimensional random vector the maximum likelihood estimate is the sample covariance matrix. Here we consider the case where $N<M$ such that this estimate is singular and therefore fundamentally bad. We present a radically new approach to deal with this situation. Let $X$ be the $M\times N$ data matrix, where the columns are the $N$ independent realizations of the random vector with covariance matrix $\Sigma$. Without loss of generality, we can assume that the random variables have zero mean. We would like to estimate $\Sigma$ from $X$. Let $K$ be the classical sample covariance matrix. Fix a parameter $1\leq L\leq N$ and consider an ensemble of $L\times M$ random unitary matrices, $\{\Phi\}$, having Haar probability measure. Pre and post multiply $K$ by $\Phi$, and by the conjugate transpose of $\Phi$ respectively, to produce a non--singular $L\times L$ reduced dimension covariance estimate. A new estimate for $\Sigma$, denoted by $\mathrm{cov}_L(K)$, is obtained by a) projecting the reduced covariance estimate out (to $M\times M$) through pre and post multiplication by the conjugate transpose of $\Phi$, and by $\Phi$ respectively, and b) taking the expectation over the unitary ensemble. Another new estimate (this time for $\Sigma^{-1}$), $\mathrm{invcov}_L(K)$, is obtained by a) inverting the reduced covariance estimate, b) projecting the inverse out (to $M\times M$) through pre and post multiplication by the conjugate transpose of $\Phi$, and by $\Phi$ respectively, and c) taking the expectation over the unitary ensemble. We have a closed analytical expression for $\mathrm{invcov}_L(K)$ and $\mathrm{cov}_L(K)$ in terms of its eigenvalue decomposition.
1010.0608
Real-time Robust Principal Components' Pursuit
cs.CV cs.IT math.IT
In the recent work of Candes et al, the problem of recovering low rank matrix corrupted by i.i.d. sparse outliers is studied and a very elegant solution, principal component pursuit, is proposed. It is motivated as a tool for video surveillance applications with the background image sequence forming the low rank part and the moving objects/persons/abnormalities forming the sparse part. Each image frame is treated as a column vector of the data matrix made up of a low rank matrix and a sparse corruption matrix. Principal component pursuit solves the problem under the assumptions that the singular vectors of the low rank matrix are spread out and the sparsity pattern of the sparse matrix is uniformly random. However, in practice, usually the sparsity pattern and the signal values of the sparse part (moving persons/objects) change in a correlated fashion over time, for e.g., the object moves slowly and/or with roughly constant velocity. This will often result in a low rank sparse matrix. For video surveillance applications, it would be much more useful to have a real-time solution. In this work, we study the online version of the above problem and propose a solution that automatically handles correlated sparse outliers. The key idea of this work is as follows. Given an initial estimate of the principal directions of the low rank part, we causally keep estimating the sparse part at each time by solving a noisy compressive sensing type problem. The principal directions of the low rank part are updated every-so-often. In between two update times, if new Principal Components' directions appear, the "noise" seen by the Compressive Sensing step may increase. This problem is solved, in part, by utilizing the time correlation model of the low rank part. We call the proposed solution "Real-time Robust Principal Components' Pursuit".
1010.0609
Selfish Response to Epidemic Propagation
cs.SY cs.MA nlin.AO
An epidemic spreading in a network calls for a decision on the part of the network members: They should decide whether to protect themselves or not. Their decision depends on the trade-off between their perceived risk of being infected and the cost of being protected. The network members can make decisions repeatedly, based on information that they receive about the changing infection level in the network. We study the equilibrium states reached by a network whose members increase (resp. decrease) their security deployment when learning that the network infection is widespread (resp. limited). Our main finding is that the equilibrium level of infection increases as the learning rate of the members increases. We confirm this result in three scenarios for the behavior of the members: strictly rational cost minimizers, not strictly rational, and strictly rational but split into two response classes. In the first two cases, we completely characterize the stability and the domains of attraction of the equilibrium points, even though the first case leads to a differential inclusion. We validate our conclusions with simulations on human mobility traces.
1010.0621
Local Optimality of User Choices and Collaborative Competitive Filtering
stat.ML cs.IR cs.SI stat.AP
While a user's preference is directly reflected in the interactive choice process between her and the recommender, this wealth of information was not fully exploited for learning recommender models. In particular, existing collaborative filtering (CF) approaches take into account only the binary events of user actions but totally disregard the contexts in which users' decisions are made. In this paper, we propose Collaborative Competitive Filtering (CCF), a framework for learning user preferences by modeling the choice process in recommender systems. CCF employs a multiplicative latent factor model to characterize the dyadic utility function. But unlike CF, CCF models the user behavior of choices by encoding a local competition effect. In this way, CCF allows us to leverage dyadic data that was previously lumped together with missing data in existing CF models. We present two formulations and an efficient large scale optimization algorithm. Experiments on three real-world recommendation data sets demonstrate that CCF significantly outperforms standard CF approaches in both offline and online evaluations.
1010.0624
Eigenvalue Results for Large Scale Random Vandermonde Matrices with Unit Complex Entries
math.PR cs.IT math.IT physics.data-an
This paper centers on the limit eigenvalue distribution for random Vandermonde matrices with unit magnitude complex entries. The phases of the entries are chosen independently and identically distributed from the interval $[-\pi,\pi]$. Various types of distribution for the phase are considered and we establish the existence of the empirical eigenvalue distribution in the large matrix limit on a wide range of cases. The rate of growth of the maximum eigenvalue is examined and shown to be no greater than $O(\log N)$ and no slower than $O(\log N/\log\log N)$ where $N$ is the dimension of the matrix. Additional results include the existence of the capacity of the Vandermonde channel (limit integral for the expected log determinant).
1010.0642
Error Performance of Channel Coding in Random Access Communication
cs.IT math.IT
A new channel coding approach was proposed in [1] for random multiple access communication over the discrete-time memoryless channel. The coding approach allows users to choose their communication rates independently without sharing the rate information among each other or with the receiver. The receiver will either decode the message or report a collision depending on whether reliable message recovery is possible. It was shown that, asymptotically as the codeword length goes to infinity, the set of communication rates supporting reliable message recovery can be characterized by an achievable region which equals Shannon's information rate region possibly without a convex hull operation. In this paper, we derive achievable bounds on error probabilities, including the decoding error probability and the collision miss detection probability, of random multiple access systems with a finite codeword length. Achievable error exponents are obtained by taking the codeword length to infinity.
1010.0654
On Equivalence Between Network Topologies
cs.IT math.IT
One major open problem in network coding is to characterize the capacity region of a general multi-source multi-demand network. There are some existing computational tools for bounding the capacity of general networks, but their computational complexity grows very quickly with the size of the network. This motivates us to propose a new hierarchical approach which finds upper and lower bounding networks of smaller size for a given network. This approach sequentially replaces components of the network with simpler structures, i.e., with fewer links or nodes, so that the resulting network is more amenable to computational analysis and its capacity provides an upper or lower bound on the capacity of the original network. The accuracy of the resulting bounds can be bounded as a function of the link capacities. Surprisingly, we are able to simplify some families of network structures without any loss in accuracy.
1010.0670
Unconditionally Secure Computation on Large Distributed Databases with Vanishing Cost
cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
Consider a network of k parties, each holding a long sequence of n entries (a database), with minimum vertex-cut greater than t. We show that any empirical statistic across the network of databases can be computed by each party with perfect privacy, against any set of t < k/2 passively colluding parties, such that the worst-case distortion and communication cost (in bits per database entry) both go to zero as n, the number of entries in the databases, goes to infinity. This is based on combining a striking dimensionality reduction result for random sampling with unconditionally secure multi-party computation protocols.
1010.0694
Statistical inference optimized with respect to the observed sample for single or multiple comparisons
math.ST cs.IT math.IT q-bio.BM stat.ME stat.TH
The normalized maximum likelihood (NML) is a recent penalized likelihood that has properties that justify defining the amount of discrimination information (DI) in the data supporting an alternative hypothesis over a null hypothesis as the logarithm of an NML ratio, namely, the alternative hypothesis NML divided by the null hypothesis NML. The resulting DI, like the Bayes factor but unlike the p-value, measures the strength of evidence for an alternative hypothesis over a null hypothesis such that the probability of misleading evidence vanishes asymptotically under weak regularity conditions and such that evidence can support a simple null hypothesis. Unlike the Bayes factor, the DI does not require a prior distribution and is minimax optimal in a sense that does not involve averaging over outcomes that did not occur. Replacing a (possibly pseudo-) likelihood function with its weighted counterpart extends the scope of the DI to models for which the unweighted NML is undefined. The likelihood weights leverage side information, either in data associated with comparisons other than the comparison at hand or in the parameter value of a simple null hypothesis. Two case studies, one involving multiple populations and the other involving multiple biological features, indicate that the DI is robust to the type of side information used when that information is assigned the weight of a single observation. Such robustness suggests that very little adjustment for multiple comparisons is warranted if the sample size is at least moderate.
1010.0696
Robust H_infinity Filter Design for Lipschitz Nonlinear Systems via Multiobjective Optimization
cs.SY math.OC
In this paper, a new method of H_infinity observer design for Lipschitz nonlinear systems is proposed in the form of an LMI optimization problem. The proposed observer has guaranteed decay rate (exponential convergence) and is robust against unknown exogenous disturbance. In addition, thanks to the linearity of the proposed LMIs in the admissible Lipschitz constant, it can be maximized via LMI optimization. This adds an extra important feature to the observer, robustness against nonlinear uncertainty. Explicit bound on the tolerable nonlinear uncertainty is derived. The new LMI formulation also allows optimizations over the disturbance attenuation level (H_infinity cost). Then, the admissible Lipschitz constant and the disturbance attenuation level of the H_infinity filter are simultaneously optimized through LMI multiobjective optimization.
1010.0725
Link Prediction in Complex Networks: A Survey
physics.soc-ph cs.SI physics.comp-ph
Link prediction in complex networks has attracted increasing attention from both physical and computer science communities. The algorithms can be used to extract missing information, identify spurious interactions, evaluate network evolving mechanisms, and so on. This article summaries recent progress about link prediction algorithms, emphasizing on the contributions from physical perspectives and approaches, such as the random-walk-based methods and the maximum likelihood methods. We also introduce three typical applications: reconstruction of networks, evaluation of network evolving mechanism and classification of partially labelled networks. Finally, we introduce some applications and outline future challenges of link prediction algorithms.
1010.0743
Strong security and separated code constructions for the broadcast channels with confidential messages
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
We show that the capacity region of the broadcast channel with confidential messages does not change when the strong security criterion is adopted instead of the weak security criterion traditionally used. We also show a construction method of coding for the broadcast channel with confidential messages by using an arbitrary given coding for the broadcast channel with degraded message sets.
1010.0771
Genetic Algorithm for Mulicriteria Optimization of a Multi-Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows
cs.NE
In This paper we present a genetic algorithm for mulicriteria optimization of a multipickup and delivery problem with time windows (m-PDPTW). The m-PDPTW is an optimization vehicles routing problem which must meet requests for transport between suppliers and customers satisfying precedence, capacity and time constraints. This paper purposes a brief literature review of the PDPTW, present an approach based on genetic algorithms and Pareto dominance method to give a set of satisfying solutions to the m-PDPTW minimizing total travel cost, total tardiness time and the vehicles number.
1010.0781
Transmission Capacity of Spectrum Sharing Ad-hoc Networks with Multiple Antennas
cs.IT math.IT
Two coexisting ad-hoc networks, primary and secondary, are considered, where each node of the primary network has a single antenna, while each node of the secondary network is equipped with multiple antennas. Using multiple antennas, each secondary transmitter uses some of its spatial transmit degrees of freedom (STDOF) to null its interference towards the primary receivers, while each secondary receiver employs interference cancelation using some of its spatial receive degrees of freedom (SRDOF). This paper derives the optimal STDOF for nulling and SRDOF for interference cancelation that maximize the scaling of the transmission capacity of the secondary network with respect to the number of antennas, when the secondary network operates under an outage constraint at the primary receivers. With a single receive antenna, using a fraction of the total STDOF for nulling at each secondary transmitter maximizes the transmission capacity. With multiple transmit and receive antennas and fixing all but one STDOF for nulling, using a fraction of the total SRDOF to cancel the nearest interferers maximizes the transmission capacity of the secondary network.
1010.0803
Node similarity as a basic principle behind connectivity in complex networks
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI
How are people linked in a highly connected society? Since in many networks a power-law (scale-free) node-degree distribution can be observed, power-law might be seen as a universal characteristics of networks. But this study of communication in the Flickr social online network reveals that power-law node-degree distributions are restricted to only sparsely connected networks. More densely connected networks, by contrast, show an increasing divergence from power-law. This work shows that this observation is consistent with the classic idea from social sciences that similarity is the driving factor behind communication in social networks. The strong relation between communication strength and node similarity could be confirmed by analyzing the Flickr network. It also is shown that node similarity as a network formation model can reproduce the characteristics of different network densities and hence can be used as a model for describing the topological transition from weakly to strongly connected societies.
1010.0846
A strong direct product theorem for two-way public coin communication complexity
cs.CC cs.IT math.IT
We show a direct product result for two-way public coin communication complexity of all relations in terms of a new complexity measure that we define. Our new measure is a generalization to non-product distributions of the two-way product subdistribution bound of [J, Klauck and Nayak 08], thereby our result implying their direct product result in terms of the two-way product subdistribution bound. We show that our new complexity measure gives tight lower bound for the set-disjointness problem, as a result we reproduce strong direct product result for this problem, which was previously shown by [Klauck 00].
1010.0863
Coevolution of Glauber-like Ising dynamics on typical networks
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI
We consider coevolution of site status and link structures from two different initial networks: a one dimensional Ising chain and a scale free network. The dynamics is governed by a preassigned stability parameter $S$, and a rewiring factor $\phi$, that determines whether the Ising spin at the chosen site flips or whether the node gets rewired to another node in the system. This dynamics has also been studied with Ising spins distributed randomly among nodes which lie on a network with preferential attachment. We have observed the steady state average stability and magnetisation for both kinds of systems to have an idea about the effect of initial network topology. Although the average stability shows almost similar behaviour, the magnetisation depends on the initial condition we start from. Apart from the local dynamics, the global effect on the dynamics has also been studied. These parameters show interesting variations for different values of $S$ and $\phi$, which helps in determining the steady-state condition for a given substrate.
1010.0886
A Platform-independent Programming Environment for Robot Control
cs.RO
The development of robot control programs is a complex task. Many robots are different in their electrical and mechanical structure which is also reflected in the software. Specific robot software environments support the program development, but are mainly text-based and usually applied by experts in the field with profound knowledge of the target robot. This paper presents a graphical programming environment which aims to ease the development of robot control programs. In contrast to existing graphical robot programming environments, our approach focuses on the composition of parallel action sequences. The developed environment allows to schedule independent robot actions on parallel execution lines and provides mechanism to avoid side-effects of parallel actions. The developed environment is platform-independent and based on the model-driven paradigm. The feasibility of our approach is shown by the application of the sequencer to a simulated service robot and a robot for educational purpose.
1010.0924
Preserving Privacy in Sequential Data Release against Background Knowledge Attacks
cs.DB
A large amount of transaction data containing associations between individuals and sensitive information flows everyday into data stores. Examples include web queries, credit card transactions, medical exam records, transit database records. The serial release of these data to partner institutions or data analysis centers is a common situation. In this paper we show that, in most domains, correlations among sensitive values associated to the same individuals in different releases can be easily mined, and used to violate users' privacy by adversaries observing multiple data releases. We provide a formal model for privacy attacks based on this sequential background knowledge, as well as on background knowledge on the probability distribution of sensitive values over different individuals. We show how sequential background knowledge can be actually obtained by an adversary, and used to identify with high confidence the sensitive values associated with an individual. A defense algorithm based on Jensen-Shannon divergence is proposed, and extensive experiments show the superiority of the proposed technique with respect to other applicable solutions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that systematically investigates the role of sequential background knowledge in serial release of transaction data.
1010.0933
Interference Alignment with Limited Feedback on Two-cell Interfering Two-User MIMO-MAC
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider a two-cell interfering two-user multiple-input multiple-output multiple access channel (MIMO-MAC) with limited feedback. We first investigate the multiplexing gain of such channel when users have perfect channel state information at transmitter (CSIT) by exploiting an interference alignment scheme. In addition, we propose a feedback framework for the interference alignment in the limited feedback system. On the basis of the proposed feedback framework, we analyze the rate gap loss and it is shown that in order to keep the same multiplexing gain with the case of perfect CSIT, the number of feedback bits per receiver scales as $B \geq (M\!-1\!)\!\log_{2}(\textsf{SNR})+C$, where $M$ and $C$ denote the number of transmit antennas and a constant, respectively. Throughout the simulation results, it is shown that the sum-rate performance coincides with the derived results.
1010.0937
Signal Space Alignment for an Encryption Message and Successive Network Code Decoding on the MIMO K-way Relay Channel
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates a network information flow problem for a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian wireless network with $K$-users and a single intermediate relay having $M$ antennas. In this network, each user intends to convey a multicast message to all other users while receiving $K-1$ independent messages from the other users via an intermediate relay. This network information flow is termed a MIMO Gaussian $K$-way relay channel. For this channel, we show that $\frac{K}{2}$ degrees of freedom is achievable if $M=K-1$. To demonstrate this, we come up with an encoding and decoding strategy inspired from cryptography theory. The proposed encoding and decoding strategy involves a \textit{signal space alignment for an encryption message} for the multiple access phase (MAC) and \textit{zero forcing with successive network code decoding} for the broadcast (BC) phase. The idea of the \emph{signal space alignment for an encryption message} is that all users cooperatively choose the precoding vectors to transmit the message so that the relay can receive a proper encryption message with a special structure, \textit{network code chain structure}. During the BC phase, \emph{zero forcing combined with successive network code decoding} enables all users to decipher the encryption message from the relay despite the fact that they all have different self-information which they use as a key.
1010.0979
Un Algorithme g\'en\'etique pour le probl\`eme de ramassage et de livraison avec fen\^etres de temps \`a plusieurs v\'ehicules
cs.NE
The PDPTW is an optimization vehicles routing problem which must meet requests for transport between suppliers and customers satisfying precedence, capacity and time constraints. We present, in this paper, a genetic algorithm for optimization of a multi pickup and delivery problem with time windows (m-PDPTW). We purposes a brief literature review of the PDPTW, present an approach based on genetic algorithms to give a satisfying solution to the m-PDPTW minimizing the total travel cost.
1010.0980
Approche Multicrit\`ere pour le Probl\`eme de Ramassage et de Livraison avec Fen\^etres de Temps \`a Plusieurs V\'ehicules
cs.NE
Nowadays, the transport goods problem occupies an important place in the economic life of modern societies. The pickup and delivery problem with time windows (PDPTW) is one of the problems which a large part of the research was interested. In this paper, we present a a brief literature review of the VRP and the PDPTW, propose our multicriteria approach based on genetic algorithms which allows minimize the compromise between the vehicles number, the total tardiness time and the total travel cost. And this, by treating the case where a customer can have multiple suppliers and one supplier can have multiple customers
1010.1016
Multilevel Coding Schemes for Compute-and-Forward
cs.IT math.IT
We investigate techniques for designing modulation/coding schemes for the wireless two-way relaying channel. The relay is assumed to have perfect channel state information, but the transmitters are assumed to have no channel state information. We consider physical layer network coding based on multilevel coding techniques. Our multilevel coding framework is inspired by the compute-and-forward relaying protocol. Indeed, we show that the framework developed here naturally facilitates decoding of linear combinations of codewords for forwarding by the relay node. We develop our framework with general modulation formats in mind, but numerical results are presented for the case where each node transmits using the QPSK constellation with gray labeling. We focus our discussion on the rates at which the relay may reliably decode linear combinations of codewords transmitted from the end nodes.
1010.1024
Superselectors: Efficient Constructions and Applications
cs.DS cs.DM cs.IT math.IT
We introduce a new combinatorial structure: the superselector. We show that superselectors subsume several important combinatorial structures used in the past few years to solve problems in group testing, compressed sensing, multi-channel conflict resolution and data security. We prove close upper and lower bounds on the size of superselectors and we provide efficient algorithms for their constructions. Albeit our bounds are very general, when they are instantiated on the combinatorial structures that are particular cases of superselectors (e.g., (p,k,n)-selectors, (d,\ell)-list-disjunct matrices, MUT_k(r)-families, FUT(k, a)-families, etc.) they match the best known bounds in terms of size of the structures (the relevant parameter in the applications). For appropriate values of parameters, our results also provide the first efficient deterministic algorithms for the construction of such structures.
1010.1028
Stealing Reality
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
In this paper we discuss the threat of malware targeted at extracting information about the relationships in a real-world social network as well as characteristic information about the individuals in the network, which we dub Stealing Reality. We present Stealing Reality, explain why it differs from traditional types of network attacks, and discuss why its impact is significantly more dangerous than that of other attacks. We also present our initial analysis and results regarding the form that an SR attack might take, with the goal of promoting the discussion of defending against such an attack, or even just detecting the fact that one has already occurred.
1010.1037
Stratified economic exchange on networks
physics.soc-ph cs.SI nlin.CG
We investigate a model of stratified economic interactions between agents when the notion of spatial location is introduced. The agents are placed on a network with near-neighbor connections. Interactions between neighbors can occur only if the difference in their wealth is less than a threshold value that defines the width of the economic classes. By employing concepts from spatiotemporal dynamical systems, three types of patterns can be identified in the system as parameters are varied: laminar, intermittent and turbulent states. The transition from the laminar state to the turbulent state is characterized by the activity of the system, a quantity that measures the average exchange of wealth over long times. The degree of inequality in the wealth distribution for different parameter values is characterized by the Gini Coefficient. High levels of activity are associated to low values of the Gini coefficient. It is found that the topological properties of the network have little effect on the activity of the system, but the Gini coefficient increases when the clustering coefficient of the network is increased.
1010.1042
Hidden Markov Models with Multiple Observation Processes
math.PR cs.IT cs.LG math.IT
We consider a hidden Markov model with multiple observation processes, one of which is chosen at each point in time by a policy---a deterministic function of the information state---and attempt to determine which policy minimises the limiting expected entropy of the information state. Focusing on a special case, we prove analytically that the information state always converges in distribution, and derive a formula for the limiting entropy which can be used for calculations with high precision. Using this fomula, we find computationally that the optimal policy is always a threshold policy, allowing it to be easily found. We also find that the greedy policy is almost optimal.