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1011.4829
Closed-Form Solutions to A Category of Nuclear Norm Minimization Problems
cs.IT cs.CV math.IT
It is an efficient and effective strategy to utilize the nuclear norm approximation to learn low-rank matrices, which arise frequently in machine learning and computer vision. So the exploration of nuclear norm minimization problems is gaining much attention recently. In this paper we shall prove that the following Low-Rank Representation (LRR) \cite{icml_2010_lrr,lrr_extention} problem: {eqnarray*} \min_{Z} \norm{Z}_*, & {s.t.,} & X=AZ, {eqnarray*} has a unique and closed-form solution, where $X$ and $A$ are given matrices. The proof is based on proving a lemma that allows us to get closed-form solutions to a category of nuclear norm minimization problems.
1011.4833
A Logical Charaterisation of Ordered Disjunction
cs.LO cs.AI
In this paper we consider a logical treatment for the ordered disjunction operator 'x' introduced by Brewka, Niemel\"a and Syrj\"anen in their Logic Programs with Ordered Disjunctions (LPOD). LPODs are used to represent preferences in logic programming under the answer set semantics. Their semantics is defined by first translating the LPOD into a set of normal programs (called split programs) and then imposing a preference relation among the answer sets of these split programs. We concentrate on the first step and show how a suitable translation of the ordered disjunction as a derived operator into the logic of Here-and-There allows capturing the answer sets of the split programs in a direct way. We use this characterisation not only for providing an alternative implementation for LPODs, but also for checking several properties (under strongly equivalent transformations) of the 'x' operator, like for instance, its distributivity with respect to conjunction or regular disjunction. We also make a comparison to an extension proposed by K\"arger, Lopes, Olmedilla and Polleres, that combines 'x' with regular disjunction.
1011.4859
Geographic constraints on social network groups
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.SI
Social groups are fundamental building blocks of human societies. While our social interactions have always been constrained by geography, it has been impossible, due to practical difficulties, to evaluate the nature of this restriction on social group structure. We construct a social network of individuals whose most frequent geographical locations are also known. We also classify the individuals into groups according to a community detection algorithm. We study the variation of geographical span for social groups of varying sizes, and explore the relationship between topological positions and geographic positions of their members. We find that small social groups are geographically very tight, but become much more clumped when the group size exceeds about 30 members. Also, we find no correlation between the topological positions and geographic positions of individuals within network communities. These results suggest that spreading processes face distinct structural and spatial constraints.
1011.4910
Sensor Selection for Event Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks
cs.IT math.IT stat.AP
We consider the problem of sensor selection for event detection in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We want to choose a subset of p out of n sensors that yields the best detection performance. As the sensor selection optimality criteria, we propose the Kullback-Leibler and Chernoff distances between the distributions of the selected measurements under the two hypothesis. We formulate the maxmin robust sensor selection problem to cope with the uncertainties in distribution means. We prove that the sensor selection problem is NP hard, for both Kullback-Leibler and Chernoff criteria. To (sub)optimally solve the sensor selection problem, we propose an algorithm of affordable complexity. Extensive numerical simulations on moderate size problem instances (when the optimum by exhaustive search is feasible to compute) demonstrate the algorithm's near optimality in a very large portion of problem instances. For larger problems, extensive simulations demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms random searches, once an upper bound on computational time is set. We corroborate numerically the validity of the Kullback-Leibler and Chernoff sensor selection criteria, by showing that they lead to sensor selections nearly optimal both in the Neyman-Pearson and Bayes sense.
1011.4969
Learning in A Changing World: Restless Multi-Armed Bandit with Unknown Dynamics
math.OC cs.LG math.PR
We consider the restless multi-armed bandit (RMAB) problem with unknown dynamics in which a player chooses M out of N arms to play at each time. The reward state of each arm transits according to an unknown Markovian rule when it is played and evolves according to an arbitrary unknown random process when it is passive. The performance of an arm selection policy is measured by regret, defined as the reward loss with respect to the case where the player knows which M arms are the most rewarding and always plays the M best arms. We construct a policy with an interleaving exploration and exploitation epoch structure that achieves a regret with logarithmic order when arbitrary (but nontrivial) bounds on certain system parameters are known. When no knowledge about the system is available, we show that the proposed policy achieves a regret arbitrarily close to the logarithmic order. We further extend the problem to a decentralized setting where multiple distributed players share the arms without information exchange. Under both an exogenous restless model and an endogenous restless model, we show that a decentralized extension of the proposed policy preserves the logarithmic regret order as in the centralized setting. The results apply to adaptive learning in various dynamic systems and communication networks, as well as financial investment.
1011.5039
Information and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
This work is a discussion on the concept of information. We define here information as an abstraction that is able to be copied. We consider the connection between the process of copying information in quantum systems and the emergence of the so-called classical realism. The problem of interpretation of quantum mechanics in this context is discussed as well.
1011.5053
Tight Sample Complexity of Large-Margin Learning
cs.LG math.PR math.ST stat.ML stat.TH
We obtain a tight distribution-specific characterization of the sample complexity of large-margin classification with L_2 regularization: We introduce the \gamma-adapted-dimension, which is a simple function of the spectrum of a distribution's covariance matrix, and show distribution-specific upper and lower bounds on the sample complexity, both governed by the \gamma-adapted-dimension of the source distribution. We conclude that this new quantity tightly characterizes the true sample complexity of large-margin classification. The bounds hold for a rich family of sub-Gaussian distributions.
1011.5065
Gaussian Relay Channel Capacity to Within a Fixed Number of Bits
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we show that the capacity of the three-node Gaussian relay channel can be achieved to within 1 and 2 bit/sec/Hz using compress-and-forward and amplify-and-forward relaying, respectively.
1011.5076
Application of a Quantum Ensemble Model to Linguistic Analysis
physics.data-an cs.CL
A new set of parameters to describe the word frequency behavior of texts is proposed. The analogy between the word frequency distribution and the Bose-distribution is suggested and the notion of "temperature" is introduced for this case. The calculations are made for English, Ukrainian, and the Guinean Maninka languages. The correlation between in-deep language structure (the level of analyticity) and the defined parameters is shown to exist.
1011.5105
Logical Foundations and Complexity of 4QL, a Query Language with Unrestricted Negation
cs.LO cs.DB
The paper discusses properties of a DATALOG$^{\neg\neg}$-like query language 4QL, originally outlined in [MS10]. Negated literals in heads of rules naturally lead to inconsistencies. On the other hand, rules do not have to attach meaning to some literals. Therefore 4QL is founded on a four-valued semantics, employing the logic introduced in [MSV08, VMS09] with truth values: 'true', 'false', 'inconsistent' and 'unknown'. 4QL allows one to use rules with negation in heads and bodies of rules, it is based on a simple and intuitive semantics and provides uniform tools for "lightweight" versions of known forms of nonmonotonic reasoning. In addition, 4QL is tractable as regards its data complexity and captures PTIME queries. Even if DATALOG$^{\neg\neg}$ is known as a concept for the last 30 years, to our best knowledge no existing approach enjoys these properties. In the current paper we: - investigate properties of well-supported models of 4QL - prove the correctness of the algorithm for computing well-supported models - show that 4QL has PTIME data complexity and captures PTIME.
1011.5113
State-Based Random Access: A Cross-Layer Approach
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
In this paper, we propose novel state-based algorithms which dynamically control the random access network based on its current state such as channel states of wireless links and backlog states of the queues. After formulating the problem, corresponding algorithms with diverse control functions are proposed. Consequently, it will be shown that the proposed state-based schemes for control of the random access networks, results in significant performance gains in comparison with previously proposed control algorithms. In order to select an appropriate control function, performances of the state-based control algorithms are compared for a wide range of traffic scenarios. It is also shown that even an approximate knowledge of network statistics helps in selecting the proper state dependent control function.
1011.5115
Optimal Utility-Energy tradeoff in Delay Constrained Random Access Networks
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
Rate, energy and delay are three main parameters of interest in ad-hoc networks. In this paper, we discuss the problem of maximizing network utility and minimizing energy consumption while satisfying a given transmission delay constraint for each packet. We formulate this problem in the standard convex optimization form and subsequently discuss the tradeoff between utility, energy and delay in such framework. Also, in order to adapt for the distributed nature of the network, a distributed algorithm where nodes decide on choosing transmission rates and probabilities based on their local information is introduced.
1011.5117
Energy and Utility Optimization in Wireless Networks with Random Access
cs.IT math.IT
Energy consumption is a main issue of concern in wireless networks. Energy minimization increases the time that networks' nodes work properly without recharging or substituting batteries. Another criterion for network performance is data transmission rate which is usually quantified by a network utility function. There exists an inherent tradeoff between these criteria and enhancing one of them can deteriorate the other one. In this paper, we consider both Network Utility Maximization (NUM) and energy minimization in a bi-criterion optimization problem. The problem is formulated for Random Access (RA) Medium Access Control (MAC) for ad-hoc networks. First, we optimize performance of the MAC and define utility as a monotonically increasing function of link throughputs. We investigate the optimal tradeoff between energy and utility in this part. In the second part, we define utility as a function of end to end rates and optimize MAC and transport layers simultaneously. We calculate optimal persistence probabilities and end-to-end rates. Finally, by means of duality theorem, we decompose the problem into smaller subproblems, which are solved at node and network layers separately. This decomposition avoids need for a central unit while sustaining benefits of layering.
1011.5122
Utility Constrained Energy Minimization In Aloha Networks
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper we consider the issue of energy efficiency in random access networks and show that optimizing transmission probabilities of nodes can enhance network performance in terms of energy consumption and fairness. First, we propose a heuristic power control method that improves throughput, and then we model the Utility Constrained Energy Minimization (UCEM) problem in which the utility constraint takes into account single and multi node performance. UCEM is modeled as a convex optimization problem and Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) is used to find optimal transmission probabilities. Numerical results show that our method can achieve fairness, reduce energy consumption and enhance lifetime of such networks.
1011.5124
Delay Constrained Utility Maximization in Multihop Random Access Networks
cs.IT cs.NI cs.SY math.IT math.OC
Multi-hop random access networks have received much attention due to their distributed nature which facilitates deploying many new applications over the sensor and computer networks. Recently, utility maximization framework is applied in order to optimize performance of such networks, however proposed algorithms result in large transmission delays. In this paper, we will analyze delay in random access multi-hop networks and solve the delay-constrained utility maximization problem. We define the network utility as a combination of rate utility and energy cost functions and solve the following two problems: 'optimal medium access control with link delay constraint' and, 'optimal congestion and contention control with end-to-end delay constraint'. The optimal tradeoff between delay, rate, and energy is achieved for different values of delay constraint and the scaling factors between rate and energy. Eventually linear and super-linear distributed optimization solutions are proposed for each problem and their performance are compared in terms of convergence and complexity.
1011.5164
Living City, a Collaborative Browser-based Massively Multiplayer Online Game
cs.CY cs.SI
This work presents the design and implementation of our Browser-based Massively Multiplayer Online Game, Living City, a simulation game fully developed at the University of Messina. Living City is a persistent and real-time digital world, running in the Web browser environment and accessible from users without any client-side installation. Today Massively Multiplayer Online Games attract the attention of Computer Scientists both for their architectural peculiarity and the close interconnection with the social network phenomenon. We will cover these two aspects paying particular attention to some aspects of the project: game balancing (e.g. algorithms behind time and money balancing); business logic (e.g., handling concurrency, cheating avoidance and availability) and, finally, social and psychological aspects involved in the collaboration of players, analyzing their activities and interconnections.
1011.5167
A Coder-Decoder model for use in Lossless Data Compression
cs.IT math.IT
This article describes a technique of using a trigonometric function and combinatorial calculations to code or transform any finite sequence of binary numbers (0s and 1s) of any length to a unique set of three Real numbers. In reverse, these three Real numbers can be used independently to reconstruct the original Binary sequence precisely. The main principles of this technique are then applied in a proposal for a highly efficient model for Lossless Data Compression.
1011.5168
Analyzing the Facebook Friendship Graph
cs.SI physics.soc-ph
Online Social Networks (OSN) during last years acquired a huge and increasing popularity as one of the most important emerging Web phenomena, deeply modifying the behavior of users and contributing to build a solid substrate of connections and relationships among people using the Web. In this preliminary work paper, our purpose is to analyze Facebook, considering a significant sample of data reflecting relationships among subscribed users. Our goal is to extract, from this platform, relevant information about the distribution of these relations and exploit tools and algorithms provided by the Social Network Analysis (SNA) to discover and, possibly, understand underlying similarities between the developing of OSN and real-life social networks.
1011.5188
La r\'eduction de termes complexes dans les langues de sp\'ecialit\'e
cs.CL
Our study applies statistical methods to French and Italian corpora to examine the phenomenon of multi-word term reduction in specialty languages. There are two kinds of reduction: anaphoric and lexical. We show that anaphoric reduction depends on the discourse type (vulgarization, pedagogical, specialized) but is independent of both domain and language; that lexical reduction depends on domain and is more frequent in technical, rapidly evolving domains; and that anaphoric reductions tend to follow full terms rather than precede them. We define the notion of the anaphoric tree of the term and study its properties. Concerning lexical reduction, we attempt to prove statistically that there is a notion of term lifecycle, where the full form is progressively replaced by a lexical reduction. ----- Nous \'etudions par des m\'ethodes statistiques sur des corpus fran\c{c}ais et italiens, le ph\'enom\`ene de r\'eduction des termes complexes dans les langues de sp\'ecialit\'e. Il existe deux types de r\'eductions : anaphorique et lexicale. Nous montrons que la r\'eduction anaphorique d\'epend du type de discours (de vulgarisation, p\'edagogique, sp\'ecialis\'e) mais ne d\'epend ni du domaine, ni de la langue, alors que la r\'eduction lexicale d\'epend du domaine et est plus fr\'equente dans les domaines techniques \`a \'evolution rapide. D'autre part, nous montrons que la r\'eduction anaphorique a tendance \`a suivre la forme pleine du terme, nous d\'efinissons une notion d'arbre anaphorique de terme et nous \'etudions ses propri\'et\'es. Concernant la r\'eduction lexicale, nous tentons de d\'emontrer statistiquement qu'il existe une notion de cycle de vie de terme, o\`u la forme pleine est progressivement remplac\'ee par une r\'eduction lexicale.
1011.5202
Covered Clause Elimination
cs.LO cs.AI
Generalizing the novel clause elimination procedures developed in [M. Heule, M. J\"arvisalo, and A. Biere. Clause elimination procedures for CNF formulas. In Proc. LPAR-17, volume 6397 of LNCS, pages 357-371. Springer, 2010.], we introduce explicit (CCE), hidden (HCCE), and asymmetric (ACCE) variants of a procedure that eliminates covered clauses from CNF formulas. We show that these procedures are more effective in reducing CNF formulas than the respective variants of blocked clause elimination, and may hence be interesting as new preprocessing/simplification techniques for SAT solving.
1011.5209
The semantic mapping of words and co-words in contexts
cs.CL stat.AP
Meaning can be generated when information is related at a systemic level. Such a system can be an observer, but also a discourse, for example, operationalized as a set of documents. The measurement of semantics as similarity in patterns (correlations) and latent variables (factor analysis) has been enhanced by computer techniques and the use of statistics; for example, in "Latent Semantic Analysis". This communication provides an introduction, an example, pointers to relevant software, and summarizes the choices that can be made by the analyst. Visualization ("semantic mapping") is thus made more accessible.
1011.5239
Preferential attachment in growing spatial networks
cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We obtain the degree distribution for a class of growing network models on flat and curved spaces. These models evolve by preferential attachment weighted by a function of the distance between nodes. The degree distribution of these models is similar to the one of the fitness model of Bianconi and Barabasi, with a fitness distribution dependent on the metric and the density of nodes. We show that curvature singularities in these spaces can give rise to asymptotic Bose-Einstein condensation, but transient condensation can be observed also in smooth hyperbolic spaces with strong curvature. We provide numerical results for spaces of constant curvature (sphere, flat and hyperbolic space) and we discuss the conditions for the breakdown of this approach and the critical points of the transition to distance-dominated attachment. Finally we discuss the distribution of link lengths.
1011.5270
Classifying Clustering Schemes
stat.ML cs.LG
Many clustering schemes are defined by optimizing an objective function defined on the partitions of the underlying set of a finite metric space. In this paper, we construct a framework for studying what happens when we instead impose various structural conditions on the clustering schemes, under the general heading of functoriality. Functoriality refers to the idea that one should be able to compare the results of clustering algorithms as one varies the data set, for example by adding points or by applying functions to it. We show that within this framework, one can prove a theorems analogous to one of J. Kleinberg, in which for example one obtains an existence and uniqueness theorem instead of a non-existence result. We obtain a full classification of all clustering schemes satisfying a condition we refer to as excisiveness. The classification can be changed by varying the notion of maps of finite metric spaces. The conditions occur naturally when one considers clustering as the statistical version of the geometric notion of connected components. By varying the degree of functoriality that one requires from the schemes it is possible to construct richer families of clustering schemes that exhibit sensitivity to density.
1011.5274
Jamming Games in the MIMO Wiretap Channel With an Active Eavesdropper
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates reliable and covert transmission strategies in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wiretap channel with a transmitter, receiver and an adversarial wiretapper, each equipped with multiple antennas. In a departure from existing work, the wiretapper possesses a novel capability to act either as a passive eavesdropper or as an active jammer, under a half-duplex constraint. The transmitter therefore faces a choice between allocating all of its power for data, or broadcasting artificial interference along with the information signal in an attempt to jam the eavesdropper (assuming its instantaneous channel state is unknown). To examine the resulting trade-offs for the legitimate transmitter and the adversary, we model their interactions as a two-person zero-sum game with the ergodic MIMO secrecy rate as the payoff function. We first examine conditions for the existence of pure-strategy Nash equilibria (NE) and the structure of mixed-strategy NE for the strategic form of the game.We then derive equilibrium strategies for the extensive form of the game where players move sequentially under scenarios of perfect and imperfect information. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to examine the equilibrium outcomes of the various scenarios considered.
1011.5287
Distributed Storage Allocations
cs.IT math.IT
We examine the problem of allocating a given total storage budget in a distributed storage system for maximum reliability. A source has a single data object that is to be coded and stored over a set of storage nodes; it is allowed to store any amount of coded data in each node, as long as the total amount of storage used does not exceed the given budget. A data collector subsequently attempts to recover the original data object by accessing only the data stored in a random subset of the nodes. By using an appropriate code, successful recovery can be achieved whenever the total amount of data accessed is at least the size of the original data object. The goal is to find an optimal storage allocation that maximizes the probability of successful recovery. This optimization problem is challenging in general because of its combinatorial nature, despite its simple formulation. We study several variations of the problem, assuming different allocation models and access models. The optimal allocation and the optimal symmetric allocation (in which all nonempty nodes store the same amount of data) are determined for a variety of cases. Our results indicate that the optimal allocations often have nonintuitive structure and are difficult to specify. We also show that depending on the circumstances, coding may or may not be beneficial for reliable storage.
1011.5298
Bayesian Sequential Detection with Phase-Distributed Change Time and Nonlinear Penalty -- A POMDP Approach
cs.IT math.IT stat.ME
We show that the optimal decision policy for several types of Bayesian sequential detection problems has a threshold switching curve structure on the space of posterior distributions. This is established by using lattice programming and stochastic orders in a partially observed Markov decision process (POMDP) framework. A stochastic gradient algorithm is presented to estimate the optimal linear approximation to this threshold curve. We illustrate these results by first considering quickest time detection with phase-type distributed change time and a variance stopping penalty. Then it is proved that the threshold switching curve also arises in several other Bayesian decision problems such as quickest transient detection, exponential delay (risk-sensitive) penalties, stopping time problems in social learning, and multi-agent scheduling in a changing world. Using Blackwell dominance, it is shown that for dynamic decision making problems, the optimal decision policy is lower bounded by a myopic policy. Finally, it is shown how the achievable cost of the optimal decision policy varies with change time distribution by imposing a partial order on transition matrices.
1011.5314
ML(n)BiCGStab: Reformulation, Analysis and Implementation
math.NA cs.IT math.DS math.IT math.OC math.ST stat.TH
With the aid of index functions, we re-derive the ML(n)BiCGStab algorithm in a paper by Yeung and Chan in 1999 in a more systematic way. It turns out that there are n ways to define the ML(n)BiCGStab residual vector. Each definition will lead to a different ML(n)BiCGStab algorithm. We demonstrate this by presenting a second algorithm which requires less storage. In theory, this second algorithm serves as a bridge that connects the Lanczos-based BiCGStab and the Arnoldi-based FOM while ML(n)BiCG a bridge connecting BiCG and FOM. We also analyze the breakdown situations from the probabilistic point of view and summarize some useful properties of ML(n)BiCGStab. Implementation issues are also addressed.
1011.5349
Distributed Graph Coloring: An Approach Based on the Calling Behavior of Japanese Tree Frogs
cs.AI
Graph coloring, also known as vertex coloring, considers the problem of assigning colors to the nodes of a graph such that adjacent nodes do not share the same color. The optimization version of the problem concerns the minimization of the number of used colors. In this paper we deal with the problem of finding valid colorings of graphs in a distributed way, that is, by means of an algorithm that only uses local information for deciding the color of the nodes. Such algorithms prescind from any central control. Due to the fact that quite a few practical applications require to find colorings in a distributed way, the interest in distributed algorithms for graph coloring has been growing during the last decade. As an example consider wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks, where tasks such as the assignment of frequencies or the assignment of TDMA slots are strongly related to graph coloring. The algorithm proposed in this paper is inspired by the calling behavior of Japanese tree frogs. Male frogs use their calls to attract females. Interestingly, groups of males that are located nearby each other desynchronize their calls. This is because female frogs are only able to correctly localize the male frogs when their calls are not too close in time. We experimentally show that our algorithm is very competitive with the current state of the art, using different sets of problem instances and comparing to one of the most competitive algorithms from the literature.
1011.5364
Optimizing On-Line Advertising
cs.IR
We want to find the optimal strategy for displaying advertisements e.g. banners, videos, in given locations at given times under some realistic dynamic constraints. Our primary goal is to maximize the expected revenue in a given period of time, i.e. the total profit produced by the impressions, which depends on profit-generating events such as the impressions themselves, the ensuing clicks and registrations. Moreover we must take into consideration the possibility that the constraints could change in time in a way that cannot always be foreseen.
1011.5367
The dynamical strength of social ties in information spreading
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
We investigate the temporal patterns of human communication and its influence on the spreading of information in social networks. The analysis of mobile phone calls of 20 million people in one country shows that human communication is bursty and happens in group conversations. These features have opposite effects in information reach: while bursts hinder propagation at large scales, conversations favor local rapid cascades. To explain these phenomena we define the dynamical strength of social ties, a quantity that encompasses both the topological and temporal patterns of human communication.
1011.5395
The Sample Complexity of Dictionary Learning
stat.ML cs.LG
A large set of signals can sometimes be described sparsely using a dictionary, that is, every element can be represented as a linear combination of few elements from the dictionary. Algorithms for various signal processing applications, including classification, denoising and signal separation, learn a dictionary from a set of signals to be represented. Can we expect that the representation found by such a dictionary for a previously unseen example from the same source will have L_2 error of the same magnitude as those for the given examples? We assume signals are generated from a fixed distribution, and study this questions from a statistical learning theory perspective. We develop generalization bounds on the quality of the learned dictionary for two types of constraints on the coefficient selection, as measured by the expected L_2 error in representation when the dictionary is used. For the case of l_1 regularized coefficient selection we provide a generalization bound of the order of O(sqrt(np log(m lambda)/m)), where n is the dimension, p is the number of elements in the dictionary, lambda is a bound on the l_1 norm of the coefficient vector and m is the number of samples, which complements existing results. For the case of representing a new signal as a combination of at most k dictionary elements, we provide a bound of the order O(sqrt(np log(m k)/m)) under an assumption on the level of orthogonality of the dictionary (low Babel function). We further show that this assumption holds for most dictionaries in high dimensions in a strong probabilistic sense. Our results further yield fast rates of order 1/m as opposed to 1/sqrt(m) using localized Rademacher complexity. We provide similar results in a general setting using kernels with weak smoothness requirements.
1011.5425
Layered Label Propagation: A MultiResolution Coordinate-Free Ordering for Compressing Social Networks
cs.DS cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We continue the line of research on graph compression started with WebGraph, but we move our focus to the compression of social networks in a proper sense (e.g., LiveJournal): the approaches that have been used for a long time to compress web graphs rely on a specific ordering of the nodes (lexicographical URL ordering) whose extension to general social networks is not trivial. In this paper, we propose a solution that mixes clusterings and orders, and devise a new algorithm, called Layered Label Propagation, that builds on previous work on scalable clustering and can be used to reorder very large graphs (billions of nodes). Our implementation uses overdecomposition to perform aggressively on multi-core architecture, making it possible to reorder graphs of more than 600 millions nodes in a few hours. Experiments performed on a wide array of web graphs and social networks show that combining the order produced by the proposed algorithm with the WebGraph compression framework provides a major increase in compression with respect to all currently known techniques, both on web graphs and on social networks. These improvements make it possible to analyse in main memory significantly larger graphs.
1011.5452
Convergence Speed of the Consensus Algorithm with Interference and Sparse Long-Range Connectivity
cs.IT math.IT
We analyze the effect of interference on the convergence rate of average consensus algorithms, which iteratively compute the measurement average by message passing among nodes. It is usually assumed that these algorithms converge faster with a greater exchange of information (i.e., by increased network connectivity) in every iteration. However, when interference is taken into account, it is no longer clear if the rate of convergence increases with network connectivity. We study this problem for randomly-placed consensus-seeking nodes connected through an interference-limited network. We investigate the following questions: (a) How does the rate of convergence vary with increasing communication range of each node? and (b) How does this result change when each node is allowed to communicate with a few selected far-off nodes? When nodes schedule their transmissions to avoid interference, we show that the convergence speed scales with $r^{2-d}$, where $r$ is the communication range and $d$ is the number of dimensions. This scaling is the result of two competing effects when increasing $r$: Increased schedule length for interference-free transmission vs. the speed gain due to improved connectivity. Hence, although one-dimensional networks can converge faster from a greater communication range despite increased interference, the two effects exactly offset one another in two-dimensions. In higher dimensions, increasing the communication range can actually degrade the rate of convergence. Our results thus underline the importance of factoring in the effect of interference in the design of distributed estimation algorithms.
1011.5480
Bayesian Modeling of a Human MMORPG Player
cs.AI
This paper describes an application of Bayesian programming to the control of an autonomous avatar in a multiplayer role-playing game (the example is based on World of Warcraft). We model a particular task, which consists of choosing what to do and to select which target in a situation where allies and foes are present. We explain the model in Bayesian programming and show how we could learn the conditional probabilities from data gathered during human-played sessions.
1011.5481
Using Evolution Strategy with Meta-models for Well Placement Optimization
cs.CE
Optimum implementation of non-conventional wells allows us to increase considerably hydrocarbon recovery. By considering the high drilling cost and the potential improvement in well productivity, well placement decision is an important issue in field development. Considering complex reservoir geology and high reservoir heterogeneities, stochastic optimization methods are the most suitable approaches for optimum well placement. This paper proposes an optimization methodology to determine optimal well location and trajectory based upon the Covariance Matrix Adaptation - Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) which is a variant of Evolution Strategies recognized as one of the most powerful derivative-free optimizers for continuous optimization. To improve the optimization procedure, two new techniques are investigated: (1). Adaptive penalization with rejection is developed to handle well placement constraints. (2). A meta-model, based on locally weighted regression, is incorporated into CMA-ES using an approximate ranking procedure. Therefore, we can reduce the number of reservoir simulations, which are computationally expensive. Several examples are presented. Our new approach is compared with a Genetic Algorithm incorporating the Genocop III technique. It is shown that our approach outperforms the genetic algorithm: it leads in general to both a higher NPV and a significant reduction of the number of reservoir simulations.
1011.5496
On Network Functional Compression
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we consider different aspects of the network functional compression problem where computation of a function (or, some functions) of sources located at certain nodes in a network is desired at receiver(s). The rate region of this problem has been considered in the literature under certain restrictive assumptions, particularly in terms of the network topology, the functions and the characteristics of the sources. In this paper, we present results that significantly relax these assumptions. Firstly, we consider this problem for an arbitrary tree network and asymptotically lossless computation. We show that, for depth one trees with correlated sources, or for general trees with independent sources, a modularized coding scheme based on graph colorings and Slepian-Wolf compression performs arbitrarily closely to rate lower bounds. For a general tree network with independent sources, optimal computation to be performed at intermediate nodes is derived. We introduce a necessary and sufficient condition on graph colorings of any achievable coding scheme, called coloring connectivity condition (C.C.C.). Secondly, we investigate the effect of having several functions at the receiver. In this problem, we derive a rate region and propose a coding scheme based on graph colorings. Thirdly, we consider the functional compression problem with feedback. We show that, in this problem, unlike Slepian-Wolf compression, by having feedback, one may outperform rate bounds of the case without feedback. Fourthly, we investigate functional computation problem with distortion. We compute a rate-distortion region for this problem. Then, we propose a simple suboptimal coding scheme with a non-trivial performance guarantee. Finally, we introduce cases where finding minimum entropy colorings and therefore, optimal coding schemes can be performed in polynomial time.
1011.5535
Examples of minimal-memory, non-catastrophic quantum convolutional encoders
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
One of the most important open questions in the theory of quantum convolutional coding is to determine a minimal-memory, non-catastrophic, polynomial-depth convolutional encoder for an arbitrary quantum convolutional code. Here, we present a technique that finds quantum convolutional encoders with such desirable properties for several example quantum convolutional codes (an exposition of our technique in full generality will appear elsewhere). We first show how to encode the well-studied Forney-Grassl-Guha (FGG) code with an encoder that exploits just one memory qubit (the former Grassl-Roetteler encoder requires 15 memory qubits). We then show how our technique can find an online decoder corresponding to this encoder, and we also detail the operation of our technique on a different example of a quantum convolutional code. Finally, the reduction in memory for the FGG encoder makes it feasible to simulate the performance of a quantum turbo code employing it, and we present the results of such simulations.
1011.5566
Secure Index Coding with Side Information
cs.IT cs.CR cs.NI math.IT
Security aspects of the Index Coding with Side Information (ICSI) problem are investigated. Building on the results of Bar-Yossef et al. (2006), the properties of linear coding schemes for the ICSI problem are further explored. The notion of weak security, considered by Bhattad and Narayanan (2005) in the context of network coding, is generalized to block security. It is shown that the coding scheme for the ICSI problem based on a linear code C of length n, minimum distance d and dual distance d^\perp, is (d-1-t)-block secure (and hence also weakly secure) if the adversary knows in advance t \le d - 2 messages, and is completely insecure if the adversary knows in advance more than n - d^\perp messages.
1011.5599
HyperANF: Approximating the Neighbourhood Function of Very Large Graphs on a Budget
cs.DS cs.SI physics.soc-ph
The neighbourhood function N(t) of a graph G gives, for each t, the number of pairs of nodes <x, y> such that y is reachable from x in less that t hops. The neighbourhood function provides a wealth of information about the graph (e.g., it easily allows one to compute its diameter), but it is very expensive to compute it exactly. Recently, the ANF algorithm (approximate neighbourhood function) has been proposed with the purpose of approximating NG(t) on large graphs. We describe a breakthrough improvement over ANF in terms of speed and scalability. Our algorithm, called HyperANF, uses the new HyperLogLog counters and combines them efficiently through broadword programming; our implementation uses overdecomposition to exploit multi-core parallelism. With HyperANF, for the first time we can compute in a few hours the neighbourhood function of graphs with billions of nodes with a small error and good confidence using a standard workstation. Then, we turn to the study of the distribution of the shortest paths between reachable nodes (that can be efficiently approximated by means of HyperANF), and discover the surprising fact that its index of dispersion provides a clear-cut characterisation of proper social networks vs. web graphs. We thus propose the spid (Shortest-Paths Index of Dispersion) of a graph as a new, informative statistics that is able to discriminate between the above two types of graphs. We believe this is the first proposal of a significant new non-local structural index for complex networks whose computation is highly scalable.
1011.5606
Stability of a Stochastic Model for Demand-Response
cs.SY math.OC
We study the stability of a Markovian model of electricity production and consumption that incorporates production volatility due to renewables and uncertainty about actual demand versus planned production. We assume that the energy producer targets a fixed energy reserve, subject to ramp-up and ramp-down constraints, and that appliances are subject to demand-response signals and adjust their consumption to the available production by delaying their demand. When a constant fraction of the delayed demand vanishes over time, we show that the general state Markov chain characterizing the system is positive Harris and ergodic (i.e., delayed demand is bounded with high probability). However, when delayed demand increases by a constant fraction over time, we show that the Markov chain is non-positive (i.e., there exists a non-zero probability that delayed demand becomes unbounded). We exhibit Lyapunov functions to prove our claims. In addition, we provide examples of heating appliances that, when delayed, have energy requirements corresponding to the two considered cases.
1011.5668
On Theorem 2.3 in "Prediction, Learning, and Games" by Cesa-Bianchi and Lugosi
cs.LG
The note presents a modified proof of a loss bound for the exponentially weighted average forecaster with time-varying potential. The regret term of the algorithm is upper-bounded by sqrt{n ln(N)} (uniformly in n), where N is the number of experts and n is the number of steps.
1011.5694
Formulation Of A N-Degree Polynomial For Depth Estimation using a Single Image
cs.CV math-ph math.MP physics.comp-ph physics.ed-ph physics.pop-ph
The depth of a visible surface of a scene is the distance between the surface and the sensor. Recovering depth information from two-dimensional images of a scene is an important task in computer vision that can assist numerous applications such as object recognition, scene interpretation, obstacle avoidance, inspection and assembly. Various passive depth computation techniques have been developed for computer vision applications. They can be classified into two groups. The first group operates using just one image. The second group requires more than one image which can be acquired using either multiple cameras or a camera whose parameters and positioning can be changed. This project is aimed to find the real depth of the object from the camera which had been used to click the photograph. An n-degree polynomial was formulated, which maps the pixel depth of an image to the real depth. In order to find the coefficients of the polynomial, an experiment was carried out for a particular lens and thus, these coefficients are a unique feature of a particular camera. The procedure explained in this report is a monocular approach for estimation of depth of a scene. The idea involves mapping the Pixel Depth of the object photographed in the image with the Real Depth of the object from the camera lens with an interpolation function. In order to find the parameters of the interpolation function, a set of lines with predefined distance from camera is used, and then the distance of each line from the bottom edge of the picture (as the origin line) is calculated.
1011.5696
Quantifying and qualifying trust: Spectral decomposition of trust networks
cs.CR cs.IR
In a previous FAST paper, I presented a quantitative model of the process of trust building, and showed that trust is accumulated like wealth: the rich get richer. This explained the pervasive phenomenon of adverse selection of trust certificates, as well as the fragility of trust networks in general. But a simple explanation does not always suggest a simple solution. It turns out that it is impossible to alter the fragile distribution of trust without sacrificing some of its fundamental functions. A solution for the vulnerability of trust must thus be sought elsewhere, without tampering with its distribution. This observation was the starting point of the present paper. It explores a different method for securing trust: not by redistributing it, but by mining for its sources. The method used to break privacy is thus also used to secure trust. A high level view of the mining methods that connect the two is provided in terms of *similarity networks*, and *spectral decomposition* of similarity preserving maps. This view may be of independent interest, as it uncovers a common conceptual and structural foundation of mathematical classification theory on one hand, and of the spectral methods of graph clustering and data mining on the other hand.
1011.5699
The Necessity of Relay Selection
cs.IT math.IT
We determine necessary conditions on the structure of symbol error rate (SER) optimal quantizers for limited feedback beamforming in wireless networks with one transmitter-receiver pair and R parallel amplify-and-forward relays. We call a quantizer codebook "small" if its cardinality is less than R, and "large" otherwise. A "d-codebook" depends on the power constraints and can be optimized accordingly, while an "i-codebook" remains fixed. It was previously shown that any i-codebook that contains the single-relay selection (SRS) codebook achieves the full-diversity order, R. We prove the following: Every full-diversity i-codebook contains the SRS codebook, and thus is necessarily large. In general, as the power constraints grow to infinity, the limit of an optimal large d-codebook contains an SRS codebook, provided that it exists. For small codebooks, the maximal diversity is equal to the codebook cardinality. Every diversity-optimal small i-codebook is an orthogonal multiple-relay selection (OMRS) codebook. Moreover, the limit of an optimal small d-codebook is an OMRS codebook. We observe that SRS is nothing but a special case of OMRS for codebooks with cardinality equal to R. As a result, we call OMRS as "the universal necessary condition" for codebook optimality. Finally, we confirm our analytical findings through simulations.
1011.5739
Protocol Coding through Reordering of User Resources: Applications and Capacity Results
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
While there are continuous efforts to introduce new communication systems and standards, it is legitimate to ask the question: how can one send additional bits by minimally changing the systems that are already operating? This is of a significant practical interest, since it has a potential to generate additional value of the systems through, for example, introduction of new devices and only a software update of the access points or base stations, without incurring additional cost for infrastructure hardware installation. The place to look for such an opportunity is the communication protocol and we use the term *protocol coding* to refer to strategies for sending information by using the degrees of freedom available when one needs to decide the actions taken by a particular communication protocol. In this paper we consider protocol coding that gives a rise to *secondary communication channels*, defined by combinatorial ordering of the user resources (packets, channels) in a primary (legacy) communication system. We introduce communication models that enable us to compute the capacity of such secondary channels under suitable restrictions imposed by the primary systems. We first show the relation to the capacity of channels with causal channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT), originally considered by Shannon. By using the specific communication setup, we develop an alternative framework for achieving the capacity and we discuss coding strategies that need to be used over the secondary channels. We also discuss some practical features of the secondary channels and their applications that add value to the existing wireless systems.
1011.5814
Quantum Cyclic Code of length dividing $p^{t}+1$
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we study cyclic stabiliser codes over $\mathbb{F}_p$ of length dividing $p^t+1$ for some positive integer $t$. We call these $t$-Frobenius codes or just Frobenius codes for short. We give methods to construct them and show that they have efficient decoding algorithms. An important subclass of stabiliser codes are the linear stabiliser codes. For linear Frobenius codes we have stronger results: We completely characterise all linear Frobenius codes. As a consequence, we show that for every integer $n$ that divides $p^t+1$ for an odd $t$, there are no linear cyclic codes of length $n$. On the other hand for even $t$, we give an explicit method to construct all of them. This gives us a many explicit example of Frobenius codes which include the well studied Laflamme code. We show that the classical notion of BCH distance can be generalised to all the Frobenius codes that we construct, including the non-linear ones, and show that the algorithm of Berlekamp can be generalised to correct quantum errors within the BCH limit. This gives, for the first time, a family of codes that are neither CSS nor linear for which efficient decoding algorithm exits. The explicit examples that we construct are summarised in Table \ref{tab:explicit-examples-short} and explained in detail in Tables \ref{tab:explicit-examples-2} (linear case) and \ref{tab:explicit-examples-3} (non-linear case).
1011.5866
Evolving difficult SAT instances thanks to local search
cs.NE cs.LO
We propose to use local search algorithms to produce SAT instances which are harder to solve than randomly generated k-CNF formulae. The first results, obtained with rudimentary search algorithms, show that the approach deserves further study. It could be used as a test of robustness for SAT solvers, and could help to investigate how branching heuristics, learning strategies, and other aspects of solvers impact there robustness.
1011.5914
Static and Expanding Grid Coverage with Ant Robots : Complexity Results
cs.MA
In this paper we study the strengths and limitations of collaborative teams of simple agents. In particular, we discuss the efficient use of "ant robots" for covering a connected region on the Z^{2} grid, whose area is unknown in advance, and which expands at a given rate, where $n$ is the initial size of the connected region. We show that regardless of the algorithm used, and the robots' hardware and software specifications, the minimal number of robots required in order for such coverage to be possible is \Omega({\sqrt{n}}). In addition, we show that when the region expands at a sufficiently slow rate, a team of \Theta(\sqrt{n}) robots could cover it in at most O(n^{2} \ln n) time. This completion time can even be achieved by myopic robots, with no ability to directly communicate with each other, and where each robot is equipped with a memory of size O(1) bits w.r.t the size of the region (therefore, the robots cannot maintain maps of the terrain, nor plan complete paths). Regarding the coverage of non-expanding regions in the grid, we improve the current best known result of O(n^{2}) by demonstrating an algorithm that guarantees such a coverage with completion time of O(\frac{1}{k} n^{1.5} + n) in the worst case, and faster for shapes of perimeter length which is shorter than O(n).
1011.5936
On the Performance of Sparse Recovery via L_p-minimization (0<=p <=1)
cs.IT math.IT
It is known that a high-dimensional sparse vector x* in R^n can be recovered from low-dimensional measurements y= A^{m*n} x* (m<n) . In this paper, we investigate the recovering ability of l_p-minimization (0<=p<=1) as p varies, where l_p-minimization returns a vector with the least l_p ``norm'' among all the vectors x satisfying Ax=y. Besides analyzing the performance of strong recovery where l_p-minimization needs to recover all the sparse vectors up to certain sparsity, we also for the first time analyze the performance of ``weak'' recovery of l_p-minimization (0<=p<1) where the aim is to recover all the sparse vectors on one support with fixed sign pattern. When m/n goes to 1, we provide sharp thresholds of the sparsity ratio that differentiates the success and failure via l_p-minimization. For strong recovery, the threshold strictly decreases from 0.5 to 0.239 as p increases from 0 to 1. Surprisingly, for weak recovery, the threshold is 2/3 for all p in [0,1), while the threshold is 1 for l_1-minimization. We also explicitly demonstrate that l_p-minimization (p<1) can return a denser solution than l_1-minimization. For any m/n<1, we provide bounds of sparsity ratio for strong recovery and weak recovery respectively below which l_p-minimization succeeds with overwhelming probability. Our bound of strong recovery improves on the existing bounds when m/n is large. Regarding the recovery threshold, l_p-minimization has a higher threshold with smaller p for strong recovery; the threshold is the same for all p for sectional recovery; and l_1-minimization can outperform l_p-minimization for weak recovery. These are in contrast to traditional wisdom that l_p-minimization has better sparse recovery ability than l_1-minimization since it is closer to l_0-minimization. We provide an intuitive explanation to our findings and use numerical examples to illustrate the theoretical predictions.
1011.5950
Networks and the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease
physics.soc-ph cs.SI q-bio.PE
The science of networks has revolutionised research into the dynamics of interacting elements. It could be argued that epidemiology in particular has embraced the potential of network theory more than any other discipline. Here we review the growing body of research concerning the spread of infectious diseases on networks, focusing on the interplay between network theory and epidemiology. The review is split into four main sections, which examine: the types of network relevant to epidemiology; the multitude of ways these networks can be characterised; the statistical methods that can be applied to infer the epidemiological parameters on a realised network; and finally simulation and analytical methods to determine epidemic dynamics on a given network. Given the breadth of areas covered and the ever-expanding number of publications, a comprehensive review of all work is impossible. Instead, we provide a personalised overview into the areas of network epidemiology that have seen the greatest progress in recent years or have the greatest potential to provide novel insights. As such, considerable importance is placed on analytical approaches and statistical methods which are both rapidly expanding fields. Throughout this review we restrict our attention to epidemiological issues.
1011.5951
Reinforcement Learning in Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes using Hybrid Probabilistic Logic Programs
cs.AI
We present a probabilistic logic programming framework to reinforcement learning, by integrating reinforce-ment learning, in POMDP environments, with normal hybrid probabilistic logic programs with probabilistic answer set seman-tics, that is capable of representing domain-specific knowledge. We formally prove the correctness of our approach. We show that the complexity of finding a policy for a reinforcement learning problem in our approach is NP-complete. In addition, we show that any reinforcement learning problem can be encoded as a classical logic program with answer set semantics. We also show that a reinforcement learning problem can be encoded as a SAT problem. We present a new high level action description language that allows the factored representation of POMDP. Moreover, we modify the original model of POMDP so that it be able to distinguish between knowledge producing actions and actions that change the environment.
1011.5962
Edge Preserving Image Denoising in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces
cs.CV
The goal of this paper is the development of a novel approach for the problem of Noise Removal, based on the theory of Reproducing Kernels Hilbert Spaces (RKHS). The problem is cast as an optimization task in a RKHS, by taking advantage of the celebrated semiparametric Representer Theorem. Examples verify that in the presence of gaussian noise the proposed method performs relatively well compared to wavelet based technics and outperforms them significantly in the presence of impulse or mixed noise. A more detailed version of this work has been published in the IEEE Trans. Im. Proc. : P. Bouboulis, K. Slavakis and S. Theodoridis, Adaptive Kernel-based Image Denoising employing Semi-Parametric Regularization, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol 19(6), 2010, 1465 - 1479.
1011.5987
Prediction-based Adaptation (PRADA) Algorithm for Modulation and Coding
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) algorithm dedicated to reduce the feedback frequency of the channel state information (CSI). There have been already plenty of works on AMC so as to exploit the bandwidth more efficiently with the CSI feedback to the transmitter. However, in some occasions, frequent CSI feedback is not favorable in these systems. This work considers finite-state Markov chain (FSMC) based channel prediction to alleviate the feedback while maximizing the overall throughput. We derive the close-form of the frame error rate (FER) based on channel prediction using limited CSI feedback. In addition, instead of switching settings according to the CSI, we also provide means to combine both CSI and FER as the switching parameter. Numerical results illustrate that the average throughput of the proposed algorithm has significant performance improvement over fixed modulation and coding while the CSI feedback being largely reduced.
1011.6017
A Selection Region Based Routing Protocol for Random Mobile ad hoc Networks with Directional Antennas
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we propose a selection region based multihop routing protocol with directional antennas for wireless mobile ad hoc networks, where the selection region is defined by two parameters: a reference distance and the beamwidth of the directional antenna. At each hop, we choose the nearest node to the transmitter within the selection region as the next hop relay. By maximizing the expected density of progress, we present an upper bound for the optimum reference distance and derive the relationship between the optimum reference distance and the optimum transmission probability. Compared with the results with routing strategy using omnidirectional antennas in \cite{Di:Relay-Region}, we find interestingly that the optimum transmission probability is a constant independent of the beamwidth, the expected density of progress with the new routing strategy is increased significantly, and the computational complexity involved in the relay selection is also greatly reduced.
1011.6022
DXNN Platform: The Shedding of Biological Inefficiencies
cs.NE
This paper introduces a novel type of memetic algorithm based Topology and Weight Evolving Artificial Neural Network (TWEANN) system called DX Neural Network (DXNN). DXNN implements a number of interesting features, amongst which is: a simple and database friendly tuple based encoding method, a 2 phase neuroevolutionary approach aimed at removing the need for speciation due to its intrinsic population diversification effects, a new "Targeted Tuning Phase" aimed at dealing with "the curse of dimensionality", and a new Random Intensity Mutation (RIM) method that removes the need for crossover algorithms. The paper will discuss DXNN's architecture, mutation operators, and its built in feature selection method that allows for the evolved systems to expand and incorporate new sensors and actuators. I then compare DXNN to other state of the art TWEANNs on the standard double pole balancing benchmark, and demonstrate its superior ability to evolve highly compact solutions faster than its competitors. Then a set of oblation experiments is performed to demonstrate how each feature of DXNN effects its performance, followed by a set of experiments which demonstrate the platform's ability to create NN populations with exceptionally high diversity profiles. Finally, DXNN is used to evolve artificial robots in a set of two dimensional open-ended food gathering and predator-prey simulations, demonstrating the system's ability to produce ever more complex Neural Networks, and the system's applicability to the domain of robotics, artificial life, and coevolution.
1011.6075
Distributed High Accuracy Peer-to-Peer Localization in Mobile Multipath Environments
cs.IT cs.DC cs.NI math.IT math.OC
In this paper we consider the problem of high accuracy localization of mobile nodes in a multipath-rich environment where sub-meter accuracies are required. We employ a peer to peer framework where the vehicles/nodes can get pairwise multipath-degraded ranging estimates in local neighborhoods together with a fixed number of anchor nodes. The challenge is to overcome the multipath-barrier with redundancy in order to provide the desired accuracies especially under severe multipath conditions when the fraction of received signals corrupted by multipath is dominating. We invoke a message passing analytical framework based on particle filtering and reveal its high accuracy localization promise through simulations.
1011.6086
In All Likelihood, Deep Belief Is Not Enough
stat.ML cs.LG
Statistical models of natural stimuli provide an important tool for researchers in the fields of machine learning and computational neuroscience. A canonical way to quantitatively assess and compare the performance of statistical models is given by the likelihood. One class of statistical models which has recently gained increasing popularity and has been applied to a variety of complex data are deep belief networks. Analyses of these models, however, have been typically limited to qualitative analyses based on samples due to the computationally intractable nature of the model likelihood. Motivated by these circumstances, the present article provides a consistent estimator for the likelihood that is both computationally tractable and simple to apply in practice. Using this estimator, a deep belief network which has been suggested for the modeling of natural image patches is quantitatively investigated and compared to other models of natural image patches. Contrary to earlier claims based on qualitative results, the results presented in this article provide evidence that the model under investigation is not a particularly good model for natural images
1011.6121
On Beamformer Design for Multiuser MIMO Interference Channels
cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers several linear beamformer design paradigms for multiuser time-invariant multiple-input multiple-output interference channels. Notably, interference alignment and sum-rate based algorithms such as the maximum signal-to-interference-plus noise (max-SINR) algorithm are considered. Optimal linear beamforming under interference alignment consists of two layers; an inner precoder and decoder (or receive filter) accomplish interference alignment to eliminate inter-user interference, and an outer precoder and decoder diagonalize the effective single-user channel resulting from the interference alignment by the inner precoder and decoder. The relationship between this two-layer beamforming and the max-SINR algorithm is established at high signal-to-noise ratio. Also, the optimality of the max-SINR algorithm within the class of linear beamforming algorithms, and its local convergence with exponential rate, are established at high signal-to-noise ratio.
1011.6127
Visibility maintenance via controlled invariance for leader-follower Dubins-like vehicles
cs.MA
The paper studies the visibility maintenance problem (VMP) for a leader-follower pair of Dubins-like vehicles with input constraints, and proposes an original solution based on the notion of controlled invariance. The nonlinear model describing the relative dynamics of the vehicles is interpreted as linear uncertain system, with the leader robot acting as an external disturbance. The VMP is then reformulated as a linear constrained regulation problem with additive disturbances (DLCRP). Positive D-invariance conditions for linear uncertain systems with parametric disturbance matrix are introduced and used to solve the VMP when box bounds on the state, control input and disturbance are considered. The proposed design procedure is shown to be easily adaptable to more general working scenarios. Extensive simulation results are provided to illustrate the theory and show the effectiveness of our approach
1011.6218
Coordinated Transmissions to Direct and Relayed Users in Wireless Cellular Systems
cs.IT cs.NI math.IT
The ideas of wireless network coding at the physical layer promise high throughput gains in wireless systems with relays and multi-way traffic flows. This gain can be ascribed to two principles: (1) joint transmission of multiple communication flows and (2) usage of \emph{a priori} information to cancel the interference. In this paper we use these principles to devise new transmission schemes in wireless cellular systems that feature both users served directly by the base stations (direct users) and users served through relays (relayed users). We present four different schemes for \emph{coordinated transmission} of uplink and downlink traffic in which one direct and one relayed user are served. These schemes are then used as building blocks in multi-user scenarios, where we present several schemes for scheduling pairs of users for coordinated transmissions. The optimal scheme involves exhaustive search of the best user pair in terms of overall rate. We propose several suboptimal scheduling schemes, which perform closely to the optimal scheme. The numerical results show a substantial increase in the system--level rate with respect to the systems with non--coordinated transmissions.
1011.6220
Multimodal Biometric Systems - Study to Improve Accuracy and Performance
cs.AI
Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data of human body, extracting a feature set from the acquired data, and comparing this set against to the template set in the database. Experimental studies show that Unimodal biometric systems had many disadvantages regarding performance and accuracy. Multimodal biometric systems perform better than unimodal biometric systems and are popular even more complex also. We examine the accuracy and performance of multimodal biometric authentication systems using state of the art Commercial Off- The-Shelf (COTS) products. Here we discuss fingerprint and face biometric systems, decision and fusion techniques used in these systems. We also discuss their advantage over unimodal biometric systems.
1011.6224
Classifying extremely imbalanced data sets
physics.data-an cs.LG hep-ex stat.ML
Imbalanced data sets containing much more background than signal instances are very common in particle physics, and will also be characteristic for the upcoming analyses of LHC data. Following up the work presented at ACAT 2008, we use the multivariate technique presented there (a rule growing algorithm with the meta-methods bagging and instance weighting) on much more imbalanced data sets, especially a selection of D0 decays without the use of particle identification. It turns out that the quality of the result strongly depends on the number of background instances used for training. We discuss methods to exploit this in order to improve the results significantly, and how to handle and reduce the size of large training sets without loss of result quality in general. We will also comment on how to take into account statistical fluctuation in receiver operation characteristic curves (ROC) for comparing classifier methods.
1011.6242
A Construction of Weakly and Non-Weakly Regular Bent Functions
math.CO cs.IT math.IT
In this article a technique for constructing $p$-ary bent functions from near-bent functions is presented. Two classes of quadratic $p$-ary functions are shown to be near-bent. Applying the construction of bent functions to these classes of near-bent functions yields classes of non-quadratic bent functions. We show that one construction in even dimension yields weakly regular bent functions. For other constructions, we obtain both weakly regular and non-weakly regular bent functions. In particular we present the first known infinite class of non-weakly regular bent functions.
1011.6266
Characterizing the speed and paths of shared bicycles in Lyon
cs.SI
Thanks to numerical data gathered by Lyon's shared bicycling system V\'elo'v, we are able to analyze 11.6 millions bicycle trips, leading to the first robust characterization of urban bikers' behaviors. We show that bicycles outstrip cars in downtown Lyon, by combining high speed and short paths.These data also allows us to calculate V\'elo'v fluxes on all streets, pointing to interesting locations for bike paths.
1011.6268
Quantitative Analysis of Bloggers Collective Behavior Powered by Emotions
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI
Large-scale data resulting from users online interactions provide the ultimate source of information to study emergent social phenomena on the Web. From individual actions of users to observable collective behaviors, different mechanisms involving emotions expressed in the posted text play a role. Here we combine approaches of statistical physics with machine-learning methods of text analysis to study emergence of the emotional behavior among Web users. Mapping the high-resolution data from digg.com onto bipartite network of users and their comments onto posted stories, we identify user communities centered around certain popular posts and determine emotional contents of the related comments by the emotion-classifier developed for this type of texts. Applied over different time periods, this framework reveals strong correlations between the excess of negative emotions and the evolution of communities. We observe avalanches of emotional comments exhibiting significant self-organized critical behavior and temporal correlations. To explore robustness of these critical states, we design a network automaton model on realistic network connections and several control parameters, which can be inferred from the dataset. Dissemination of emotions by a small fraction of very active users appears to critically tune the collective states.
1011.6293
Nonparametric Bayesian sparse factor models with application to gene expression modeling
stat.AP cs.AI stat.ML
A nonparametric Bayesian extension of Factor Analysis (FA) is proposed where observed data $\mathbf{Y}$ is modeled as a linear superposition, $\mathbf{G}$, of a potentially infinite number of hidden factors, $\mathbf{X}$. The Indian Buffet Process (IBP) is used as a prior on $\mathbf{G}$ to incorporate sparsity and to allow the number of latent features to be inferred. The model's utility for modeling gene expression data is investigated using randomly generated data sets based on a known sparse connectivity matrix for E. Coli, and on three biological data sets of increasing complexity.
1011.6326
New Null Space Results and Recovery Thresholds for Matrix Rank Minimization
math.OC cs.IT math.IT stat.ML
Nuclear norm minimization (NNM) has recently gained significant attention for its use in rank minimization problems. Similar to compressed sensing, using null space characterizations, recovery thresholds for NNM have been studied in \cite{arxiv,Recht_Xu_Hassibi}. However simulations show that the thresholds are far from optimal, especially in the low rank region. In this paper we apply the recent analysis of Stojnic for compressed sensing \cite{mihailo} to the null space conditions of NNM. The resulting thresholds are significantly better and in particular our weak threshold appears to match with simulation results. Further our curves suggest for any rank growing linearly with matrix size $n$ we need only three times of oversampling (the model complexity) for weak recovery. Similar to \cite{arxiv} we analyze the conditions for weak, sectional and strong thresholds. Additionally a separate analysis is given for special case of positive semidefinite matrices. We conclude by discussing simulation results and future research directions.
1011.6441
LP Decodable Permutation Codes based on Linearly Constrained Permutation Matrices
cs.IT math.CO math.IT math.RT
A set of linearly constrained permutation matrices are proposed for constructing a class of permutation codes. Making use of linear constraints imposed on the permutation matrices, we can formulate a minimum Euclidian distance decoding problem for the proposed class of permutation codes as a linear programming (LP) problem. The main feature of this class of permutation codes, called LP decodable permutation codes, is this LP decodability. It is demonstrated that the LP decoding performance of the proposed class of permutation codes is characterized by the vertices of the code polytope of the code. Two types of linear constraints are discussed; one is structured constraints and another is random constraints. The structured constraints such as pure involution lead to an efficient encoding algorithm. On the other hand, the random constraints enable us to use probabilistic methods for analyzing several code properties such as the average cardinality and the average weight distribution.
1011.6495
The Minimum-Rank Gram Matrix Completion via Modified Fixed Point Continuation Method
math.OC cs.NA cs.SY
The problem of computing a representation for a real polynomial as a sum of minimum number of squares of polynomials can be casted as finding a symmetric positive semidefinite real matrix (Gram matrix) of minimum rank subject to linear equality constraints. In this paper, we propose algorithms for solving the minimum-rank Gram matrix completion problem, and show the convergence of these algorithms. Our methods are based on the modified fixed point continuation (FPC) method. We also use the Barzilai-Borwein (BB) technique and a specific linear combination of two previous iterates to accelerate the convergence of modified FPC algorithms. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms for computing approximate and exact rational sum of squares (SOS) decompositions of polynomials with rational coefficients.
1011.6639
Multiple Access Channels with States Causally Known at Transmitters
cs.IT math.IT
It has been recently shown by Lapidoth and Steinberg that strictly causal state information can be beneficial in multiple access channels (MACs). Specifically, it was proved that the capacity region of a two-user MAC with independent states, each known strictly causally to one encoder, can be enlarged by letting the encoders send compressed past state information to the decoder. In this work, a generalization of the said strategy is proposed whereby the encoders compress also the past transmitted codewords along with the past state sequences. The proposed scheme uses a combination of long-message encoding, compression of the past state sequences and codewords without binning, and joint decoding over all transmission blocks. The proposed strategy has been recently shown by Lapidoth and Steinberg to strictly improve upon the original one. Capacity results are then derived for a class of channels that include two-user modulo-additive state-dependent MACs. Moreover, the proposed scheme is extended to state-dependent MACs with an arbitrary number of users. Finally, output feedback is introduced and an example is provided to illustrate the interplay between feedback and availability of strictly causal state information in enlarging the capacity region.
1011.6644
Interference Alignment via Improved Subspace Conditioning
cs.IT math.IT
For the K user, single input single output (SISO), frequency selective interference channel, a new low complexity transmit beamforming design that improves the achievable sum rate is presented. Jointly employing the interference alignment (IA) scheme presented by Cadambe and Jafar in [1] and linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) decoding at the transmitters and receivers, respectively, the new IA precoding design improves the average sum rate while preserving the achievable degrees of freedom of the Cadambe and Jafar scheme, K/2.
1011.6656
Learning sparse representations of depth
cs.CV
This paper introduces a new method for learning and inferring sparse representations of depth (disparity) maps. The proposed algorithm relaxes the usual assumption of the stationary noise model in sparse coding. This enables learning from data corrupted with spatially varying noise or uncertainty, typically obtained by laser range scanners or structured light depth cameras. Sparse representations are learned from the Middlebury database disparity maps and then exploited in a two-layer graphical model for inferring depth from stereo, by including a sparsity prior on the learned features. Since they capture higher-order dependencies in the depth structure, these priors can complement smoothness priors commonly used in depth inference based on Markov Random Field (MRF) models. Inference on the proposed graph is achieved using an alternating iterative optimization technique, where the first layer is solved using an existing MRF-based stereo matching algorithm, then held fixed as the second layer is solved using the proposed non-stationary sparse coding algorithm. This leads to a general method for improving solutions of state of the art MRF-based depth estimation algorithms. Our experimental results first show that depth inference using learned representations leads to state of the art denoising of depth maps obtained from laser range scanners and a time of flight camera. Furthermore, we show that adding sparse priors improves the results of two depth estimation methods: the classical graph cut algorithm by Boykov et al. and the more recent algorithm of Woodford et al.
1011.6664
Learning restricted Bayesian network structures
math.OC cs.DS cs.IT math.IT
Bayesian networks are basic graphical models, used widely both in statistics and artificial intelligence. These statistical models of conditional independence structure are described by acyclic directed graphs whose nodes correspond to (random) variables in consideration. A quite important topic is the learning of Bayesian network structures, which is determining the best fitting statistical model on the basis of given data. Although there are learning methods based on statistical conditional independence tests, contemporary methods are mainly based on maximization of a suitable quality criterion that evaluates how good the graph explains the occurrence of the observed data. This leads to a nonlinear combinatorial optimization problem that is in general NP-hard to solve. In this paper we deal with the complexity of learning restricted Bayesian network structures, that is, we wish to find network structures of highest score within a given subset of all possible network structures. For this, we introduce a new unique algebraic representative for these structures, called the characteristic imset. We show that these imsets are always 0-1-vectors and that they have many nice properties that allow us to simplify long proofs for some known results and to easily establish new complexity results for learning restricted Bayes network structures.
1012.0009
Time-Varying Graphs and Dynamic Networks
cs.DC cs.NI cs.SI physics.soc-ph
The past few years have seen intensive research efforts carried out in some apparently unrelated areas of dynamic systems -- delay-tolerant networks, opportunistic-mobility networks, social networks -- obtaining closely related insights. Indeed, the concepts discovered in these investigations can be viewed as parts of the same conceptual universe; and the formal models proposed so far to express some specific concepts are components of a larger formal description of this universe. The main contribution of this paper is to integrate the vast collection of concepts, formalisms, and results found in the literature into a unified framework, which we call TVG (for time-varying graphs). Using this framework, it is possible to express directly in the same formalism not only the concepts common to all those different areas, but also those specific to each. Based on this definitional work, employing both existing results and original observations, we present a hierarchical classification of TVGs; each class corresponds to a significant property examined in the distributed computing literature. We then examine how TVGs can be used to study the evolution of network properties, and propose different techniques, depending on whether the indicators for these properties are a-temporal (as in the majority of existing studies) or temporal. Finally, we briefly discuss the introduction of randomness in TVGs.
1012.0011
Secure Wireless Communication and Optimal Power Control under Statistical Queueing Constraints
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, secure transmission of information over fading broadcast channels is studied in the presence of statistical queueing constraints. Effective capacity is employed as a performance metric to identify the secure throughput of the system, i.e., effective secure throughput. It is assumed that perfect channel side information (CSI) is available at both the transmitter and the receivers. Initially, the scenario in which the transmitter sends common messages to two receivers and confidential messages to one receiver is considered. For this case, effective secure throughput region, which is the region of constant arrival rates of common and confidential messages that can be supported by the buffer-constrained transmitter and fading broadcast channel, is defined. It is proven that this effective throughput region is convex. Then, the optimal power control policies that achieve the boundary points of the effective secure throughput region are investigated and an algorithm for the numerical computation of the optimal power adaptation schemes is provided. Subsequently, the special case in which the transmitter sends only confidential messages to one receiver, is addressed in more detail. For this case, effective secure throughput is formulated and two different power adaptation policies are studied. In particular, it is noted that opportunistic transmission is no longer optimal under buffer constraints and the transmitter should not wait to send the data at a high rate until the main channel is much better than the eavesdropper channel.
1012.0018
n-Channel Asymmetric Entropy-Constrained Multiple-Description Lattice Vector Quantization
cs.IT math.IT
This paper is about the design and analysis of an index-assignment (IA) based multiple-description coding scheme for the n-channel asymmetric case. We use entropy constrained lattice vector quantization and restrict attention to simple reconstruction functions, which are given by the inverse IA function when all descriptions are received or otherwise by a weighted average of the received descriptions. We consider smooth sources with finite differential entropy rate and MSE fidelity criterion. As in previous designs, our construction is based on nested lattices which are combined through a single IA function. The results are exact under high-resolution conditions and asymptotically as the nesting ratios of the lattices approach infinity. For any n, the design is asymptotically optimal within the class of IA-based schemes. Moreover, in the case of two descriptions and finite lattice vector dimensions greater than one, the performance is strictly better than that of existing designs. In the case of three descriptions, we show that in the limit of large lattice vector dimensions, points on the inner bound of Pradhan et al. can be achieved. Furthermore, for three descriptions and finite lattice vector dimensions, we show that the IA-based approach yields, in the symmetric case, a smaller rate loss than the recently proposed source-splitting approach.
1012.0065
Counting in Graph Covers: A Combinatorial Characterization of the Bethe Entropy Function
cs.IT cond-mat.stat-mech cs.AI math.CO math.IT
We present a combinatorial characterization of the Bethe entropy function of a factor graph, such a characterization being in contrast to the original, analytical, definition of this function. We achieve this combinatorial characterization by counting valid configurations in finite graph covers of the factor graph. Analogously, we give a combinatorial characterization of the Bethe partition function, whose original definition was also of an analytical nature. As we point out, our approach has similarities to the replica method, but also stark differences. The above findings are a natural backdrop for introducing a decoder for graph-based codes that we will call symbolwise graph-cover decoding, a decoder that extends our earlier work on blockwise graph-cover decoding. Both graph-cover decoders are theoretical tools that help towards a better understanding of message-passing iterative decoding, namely blockwise graph-cover decoding links max-product (min-sum) algorithm decoding with linear programming decoding, and symbolwise graph-cover decoding links sum-product algorithm decoding with Bethe free energy function minimization at temperature one. In contrast to the Gibbs entropy function, which is a concave function, the Bethe entropy function is in general not concave everywhere. In particular, we show that every code picked from an ensemble of regular low-density parity-check codes with minimum Hamming distance growing (with high probability) linearly with the block length has a Bethe entropy function that is convex in certain regions of its domain.
1012.0081
Molecular communication in fluid media: The additive inverse Gaussian noise channel
cs.IT math.IT
We consider molecular communication, with information conveyed in the time of release of molecules. The main contribution of this paper is the development of a theoretical foundation for such a communication system. Specifically, we develop the additive inverse Gaussian (IG) noise channel model: a channel in which the information is corrupted by noise with an inverse Gaussian distribution. We show that such a channel model is appropriate for molecular communication in fluid media - when propagation between transmitter and receiver is governed by Brownian motion and when there is positive drift from transmitter to receiver. Taking advantage of the available literature on the IG distribution, upper and lower bounds on channel capacity are developed, and a maximum likelihood receiver is derived. Theory and simulation results are presented which show that such a channel does not have a single quality measure analogous to signal-to-noise ratio in the AWGN channel. It is also shown that the use of multiple molecules leads to reduced error rate in a manner akin to diversity order in wireless communications. Finally, we discuss some open problems in molecular communications that arise from the IG system model.
1012.0084
Survey on Various Gesture Recognition Techniques for Interfacing Machines Based on Ambient Intelligence
cs.AI cs.CV cs.HC cs.RO
Gesture recognition is mainly apprehensive on analyzing the functionality of human wits. The main goal of gesture recognition is to create a system which can recognize specific human gestures and use them to convey information or for device control. Hand gestures provide a separate complementary modality to speech for expressing ones ideas. Information associated with hand gestures in a conversation is degree,discourse structure, spatial and temporal structure. The approaches present can be mainly divided into Data-Glove Based and Vision Based approaches. An important face feature point is the nose tip. Since nose is the highest protruding point from the face. Besides that, it is not affected by facial expressions.Another important function of the nose is that it is able to indicate the head pose. Knowledge of the nose location will enable us to align an unknown 3D face with those in a face database. Eye detection is divided into eye position detection and eye contour detection. Existing works in eye detection can be classified into two major categories: traditional image-based passive approaches and the active IR based approaches. The former uses intensity and shape of eyes for detection and the latter works on the assumption that eyes have a reflection under near IR illumination and produce bright/dark pupil effect. The traditional methods can be broadly classified into three categories: template based methods,appearance based methods and feature based methods. The purpose of this paper is to compare various human Gesture recognition systems for interfacing machines directly to human wits without any corporeal media in an ambient environment.
1012.0112
Multiple-access Network Information-flow and Correction Codes
cs.IT math.IT
This work considers the multiple-access multicast error-correction scenario over a packetized network with $z$ malicious edge adversaries. The network has min-cut $m$ and packets of length $\ell$, and each sink demands all information from the set of sources $\sources$. The capacity region is characterized for both a "side-channel" model (where sources and sinks share some random bits that are secret from the adversary) and an "omniscient" adversarial model (where no limitations on the adversary's knowledge are assumed). In the "side-channel" adversarial model, the use of a secret channel allows higher rates to be achieved compared to the "omniscient" adversarial model, and a polynomial-complexity capacity-achieving code is provided. For the "omniscient" adversarial model, two capacity-achieving constructions are given: the first is based on random subspace code design and has complexity exponential in $\ell m$, while the second uses a novel multiple-field-extension technique and has $O(\ell m^{|\sources|})$ complexity, which is polynomial in the network size. Our code constructions are "end-to-end" in that all nodes except the sources and sinks are oblivious to the adversaries and may simply implement predesigned linear network codes (random or otherwise). Also, the sources act independently without knowledge of the data from other sources.
1012.0142
Universal patterns in sound amplitudes of songs and music genres
physics.data-an cs.IR cs.SD
We report a statistical analysis over more than eight thousand songs. Specifically, we investigate the probability distribution of the normalized sound amplitudes. Our findings seems to suggest a universal form of distribution which presents a good agreement with a one-parameter stretched Gaussian. We also argue that this parameter can give information on music complexity, and consequently it goes towards classifying songs as well as music genres. Additionally, we present statistical evidences that correlation aspects of the songs are directly related with the non-Gaussian nature of their sound amplitude distributions.
1012.0178
From Social Data Mining to Forecasting Socio-Economic Crisis
cs.CY cs.DB cs.DC
Socio-economic data mining has a great potential in terms of gaining a better understanding of problems that our economy and society are facing, such as financial instability, shortages of resources, or conflicts. Without large-scale data mining, progress in these areas seems hard or impossible. Therefore, a suitable, distributed data mining infrastructure and research centers should be built in Europe. It also appears appropriate to build a network of Crisis Observatories. They can be imagined as laboratories devoted to the gathering and processing of enormous volumes of data on both natural systems such as the Earth and its ecosystem, as well as on human techno-socio-economic systems, so as to gain early warnings of impending events. Reality mining provides the chance to adapt more quickly and more accurately to changing situations. Further opportunities arise by individually customized services, which however should be provided in a privacy-respecting way. This requires the development of novel ICT (such as a self- organizing Web), but most likely new legal regulations and suitable institutions as well. As long as such regulations are lacking on a world-wide scale, it is in the public interest that scientists explore what can be done with the huge data available. Big data do have the potential to change or even threaten democratic societies. The same applies to sudden and large-scale failures of ICT systems. Therefore, dealing with data must be done with a large degree of responsibility and care. Self-interests of individuals, companies or institutions have limits, where the public interest is affected, and public interest is not a sufficient justification to violate human rights of individuals. Privacy is a high good, as confidentiality is, and damaging it would have serious side effects for society.
1012.0196
Coarse Graining for Synchronization in Directed Networks
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.SI
Coarse graining model is a promising way to analyze and visualize large-scale networks. The coarse-grained networks are required to preserve the same statistical properties as well as the dynamic behaviors as the initial networks. Some methods have been proposed and found effective in undirected networks, while the study on coarse graining in directed networks lacks of consideration. In this paper, we proposed a Topology-aware Coarse Graining (TCG) method to coarse grain the directed networks. Performing the linear stability analysis of synchronization and numerical simulation of the Kuramoto model on four kinds of directed networks, including tree-like networks and variants of Barab\'{a}si-Albert networks, Watts-Strogatz networks and Erd\"{o}s-R\'{e}nyi networks, we find our method can effectively preserve the network synchronizability.
1012.0197
Low-Rank Matrix Approximation with Weights or Missing Data is NP-hard
math.OC cs.SY math.NA
Weighted low-rank approximation (WLRA), a dimensionality reduction technique for data analysis, has been successfully used in several applications, such as in collaborative filtering to design recommender systems or in computer vision to recover structure from motion. In this paper, we study the computational complexity of WLRA and prove that it is NP-hard to find an approximate solution, even when a rank-one approximation is sought. Our proofs are based on a reduction from the maximum-edge biclique problem, and apply to strictly positive weights as well as binary weights (the latter corresponding to low-rank matrix approximation with missing data).
1012.0201
Generation of degree-correlated networks using copulas
physics.data-an cs.SI math-ph math.MP physics.soc-ph
Dynamical processes on complex networks such as information propagation, innovation diffusion, cascading failures or epidemic spreading are highly affected by their underlying topologies as characterized by, for instance, degree-degree correlations. Here, we introduce the concept of copulas in order to artificially generate random networks with an arbitrary degree distribution and a rich a priori degree-degree correlation (or `association') structure. The accuracy of the proposed formalism and corresponding algorithm is numerically confirmed. The derived network ensembles can be systematically deployed as proper null models, in order to unfold the complex interplay between the topology of real networks and the dynamics on top of them.
1012.0203
Enhancing synchronization by directionality in complex networks
cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We proposed a method called residual edge-betweenness gradient (REBG) to enhance synchronizability of networks by assignment of link direction while keeping network topology and link weight unchanged. Direction assignment has been shown to improve the synchronizability of undirected networks in general, but we find that in some cases incommunicable components emerge and networks fail to synchronize. We show that the REBG method can effectively avoid the synchronization failure ($R=\lambda_{2}^{r}/\lambda_{N}^{r}=0$) which occurs in the residual degree gradient (RDG) method proposed in Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 228702 (2009). Further experiments show that REBG method enhance synchronizability in networks with community structure as compared with the RDG method.
1012.0206
Catastrophic Cascade of Failures in Interdependent Networks
physics.data-an cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI physics.comp-ph physics.soc-ph
Modern network-like systems are usually coupled in such a way that failures in one network can affect the entire system. In infrastructures, biology, sociology, and economy, systems are interconnected and events taking place in one system can propagate to any other coupled system. Recent studies on such coupled systems show that the coupling increases their vulnerability to random failure. Properties for interdependent networks differ significantly from those of single-network systems. In this article, these results are reviewed and the main properties discussed.
1012.0223
An Effective Method of Image Retrieval using Image Mining Techniques
cs.CV cs.MM
The present research scholars are having keen interest in doing their research activities in the area of Data mining all over the world. Especially, [13]Mining Image data is the one of the essential features in this present scenario since image data plays vital role in every aspect of the system such as business for marketing, hospital for surgery, engineering for construction, Web for publication and so on. The other area in the Image mining system is the Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) which performs retrieval based on the similarity defined in terms of extracted features with more objectiveness. The drawback in CBIR is the features of the query image alone are considered. Hence, a new technique called Image retrieval based on optimum clusters is proposed for improving user interaction with image retrieval systems by fully exploiting the similarity information. The index is created by describing the images according to their color characteristics, with compact feature vectors, that represent typical color distributions [12].
1012.0260
Modeling and Analysis of Time-Varying Graphs
cs.NI cs.DM cs.SI physics.soc-ph
We live in a world increasingly dominated by networks -- communications, social, information, biological etc. A central attribute of many of these networks is that they are dynamic, that is, they exhibit structural changes over time. While the practice of dynamic networks has proliferated, we lag behind in the fundamental, mathematical understanding of network dynamism. Existing research on time-varying graphs ranges from preliminary algorithmic studies (e.g., Ferreira's work on evolving graphs) to analysis of specific properties such as flooding time in dynamic random graphs. A popular model for studying dynamic graphs is a sequence of graphs arranged by increasing snapshots of time. In this paper, we study the fundamental property of reachability in a time-varying graph over time and characterize the latency with respect to two metrics, namely store-or-advance latency and cut-through latency. Instead of expected value analysis, we concentrate on characterizing the exact probability distribution of routing latency along a randomly intermittent path in two popular dynamic random graph models. Using this analysis, we characterize the loss of accuracy (in a probabilistic setting) between multiple temporal graph models, ranging from one that preserves all the temporal ordering information for the purpose of computing temporal graph properties to one that collapses various snapshots into one graph (an operation called smashing), with multiple intermediate variants. We also show how some other traditional graph theoretic properties can be extended to the temporal domain. Finally, we propose algorithms for controlling the progress of a packet in single-copy adaptive routing schemes in various dynamic random graphs.
1012.0322
A Bayesian Methodology for Estimating Uncertainty of Decisions in Safety-Critical Systems
cs.AI
Uncertainty of decisions in safety-critical engineering applications can be estimated on the basis of the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique of averaging over decision models. The use of decision tree (DT) models assists experts to interpret causal relations and find factors of the uncertainty. Bayesian averaging also allows experts to estimate the uncertainty accurately when a priori information on the favored structure of DTs is available. Then an expert can select a single DT model, typically the Maximum a Posteriori model, for interpretation purposes. Unfortunately, a priori information on favored structure of DTs is not always available. For this reason, we suggest a new prior on DTs for the Bayesian MCMC technique. We also suggest a new procedure of selecting a single DT and describe an application scenario. In our experiments on the Short-Term Conflict Alert data our technique outperforms the existing Bayesian techniques in predictive accuracy of the selected single DTs.
1012.0335
Faster Query Answering in Probabilistic Databases using Read-Once Functions
cs.DB
A boolean expression is in read-once form if each of its variables appears exactly once. When the variables denote independent events in a probability space, the probability of the event denoted by the whole expression in read-once form can be computed in polynomial time (whereas the general problem for arbitrary expressions is #P-complete). Known approaches to checking read-once property seem to require putting these expressions in disjunctive normal form. In this paper, we tell a better story for a large subclass of boolean event expressions: those that are generated by conjunctive queries without self-joins and on tuple-independent probabilistic databases. We first show that given a tuple-independent representation and the provenance graph of an SPJ query plan without self-joins, we can, without using the DNF of a result event expression, efficiently compute its co-occurrence graph. From this, the read-once form can already, if it exists, be computed efficiently using existing techniques. Our second and key contribution is a complete, efficient, and simple to implement algorithm for computing the read-once forms (whenever they exist) directly, using a new concept, that of co-table graph, which can be significantly smaller than the co-occurrence graph.
1012.0356
The Past and the Future in the Present
nlin.CD cs.IT math.DS math.IT math.ST stat.TH
We show how the shared information between the past and future---the excess entropy---derives from the components of directional information stored in the present---the predictive and retrodictive causal states. A detailed proof allows us to highlight a number of the subtle problems in estimation and analysis that impede accurate calculation of the excess entropy.
1012.0365
A Block Lanczos with Warm Start Technique for Accelerating Nuclear Norm Minimization Algorithms
cs.NA cs.AI math.OC
Recent years have witnessed the popularity of using rank minimization as a regularizer for various signal processing and machine learning problems. As rank minimization problems are often converted to nuclear norm minimization (NNM) problems, they have to be solved iteratively and each iteration requires computing a singular value decomposition (SVD). Therefore, their solution suffers from the high computation cost of multiple SVDs. To relieve this issue, we propose using the block Lanczos method to compute the partial SVDs, where the principal singular subspaces obtained in the previous iteration are used to start the block Lanczos procedure. To avoid the expensive reorthogonalization in the Lanczos procedure, the block Lanczos procedure is performed for only a few steps. Our block Lanczos with warm start (BLWS) technique can be adopted by different algorithms that solve NNM problems. We present numerical results on applying BLWS to Robust PCA and Matrix Completion problems. Experimental results show that our BLWS technique usually accelerates its host algorithm by at least two to three times.
1012.0366
Optimal measures and Markov transition kernels
math.OC cs.CC cs.IT math-ph math.FA math.IT math.MP stat.ML
We study optimal solutions to an abstract optimization problem for measures, which is a generalization of classical variational problems in information theory and statistical physics. In the classical problems, information and relative entropy are defined using the Kullback-Leibler divergence, and for this reason optimal measures belong to a one-parameter exponential family. Measures within such a family have the property of mutual absolute continuity. Here we show that this property characterizes other families of optimal positive measures if a functional representing information has a strictly convex dual. Mutual absolute continuity of optimal probability measures allows us to strictly separate deterministic and non-deterministic Markov transition kernels, which play an important role in theories of decisions, estimation, control, communication and computation. We show that deterministic transitions are strictly sub-optimal, unless information resource with a strictly convex dual is unconstrained. For illustration, we construct an example where, unlike non-deterministic, any deterministic kernel either has negatively infinite expected utility (unbounded expected error) or communicates infinite information.
1012.0367
Universal polar coding and sparse recovery
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates universal polar coding schemes. In particular, a notion of ordering (called convolutional path) is introduced between probability distributions to determine when a polar compression (or communication) scheme designed for one distribution can also succeed for another one. The original polar decoding algorithm is also generalized to an algorithm allowing to learn information about the source distribution using the idea of checkers. These tools are used to construct a universal compression algorithm for binary sources, operating at the lowest achievable rate (entropy), with low complexity and with guaranteed small error probability. In a second part of the paper, the problem of sketching high dimensional discrete signals which are sparse is approached via the polarization technique. It is shown that the number of measurements required for perfect recovery is competitive with the $O(k \log (n/k))$ bound (with optimal constant for binary signals), meanwhile affording a deterministic low complexity measurement matrix.
1012.0375
Dynamic Resource Coordination and Interference Management for Femtocell Networks
cs.IT math.IT
Femtocell is emerging as a key technology to secure the coverage and capacity in indoor environments. However the deployment of a new femtocell layer may originate undesired interference to the whole system. This paper investigates spectrum resource coordination and interference management for the femtocell networks. A resource coordination scheme based on broadcasting resource coordination request messages by the femto mobile is proposed to reduce the system interference.
1012.0384
Adaptive Sensing and Transmission Durations for Cognitive Radios
math.OC cs.IT math-ph math.IT math.MP
In a cognitive radio setting, secondary users opportunistically access the spectrum allocated to primary users. Finding the optimal sensing and transmission durations for the secondary users becomes crucial in order to maximize the secondary throughput while protecting the primary users from interference and service disruption. In this paper an adaptive sensing and transmission scheme for cognitive radios is proposed. We consider a channel allocated to a primary user which operates in an unslotted manner switching activity at random times. A secondary transmitter adapts its sensing and transmission durations according to its belief regarding the primary user state of activity. The objective is to maximize a secondary utility function. This function has a penalty term for collisions with primary transmission. It accounts for the reliability-throughput tradeoff by explicitly incorporating the impact of sensing duration on secondary throughput and primary activity detection reliability. It also accounts for throughput reduction that results from data overhead. Numerical simulations of the system performance demonstrate the effectiveness of adaptive sensing and transmission scheme over non-adaptive approach in increasing the secondary user utility.
1012.0392
Supporting Information for the Paper: Optimal Ternary Constant-Composition Codes of Weight Four and Distance Five, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, To Appear
cs.IT math.CO math.IT
Supporting Information for the Paper: Optimal Ternary Constant-Composition Codes of Weight Four and Distance Five, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, To Appear.
1012.0412
Entropy power inequality for a family of discrete random variables
cs.IT math.IT
It is known that the Entropy Power Inequality (EPI) always holds if the random variables have density. Not much work has been done to identify discrete distributions for which the inequality holds with the differential entropy replaced by the discrete entropy. Harremo\"{e}s and Vignat showed that it holds for the pair (B(m,p), B(n,p)), m,n \in \mathbb{N}, (where B(n,p) is a Binomial distribution with n trials each with success probability p) for p = 0.5. In this paper, we considerably expand the set of Binomial distributions for which the inequality holds and, in particular, identify n_0(p) such that for all m,n \geq n_0(p), the EPI holds for (B(m,p), B(n,p)). We further show that the EPI holds for the discrete random variables that can be expressed as the sum of n independent identical distributed (IID) discrete random variables for large n.
1012.0416
Compress-and-Forward Scheme for Relay Networks: Backword Decoding and Connection to Bisubmodular Flows
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, a compress-and-forward scheme with backward decoding is presented for the unicast wireless relay network. The encoding at the source and relay is a generalization of the noisy network coding scheme (NNC). While it achieves the same reliable data rate as noisy network coding scheme, the backward decoding allows for a better decoding complexity as compared to the joint decoding of the NNC scheme. Characterizing the layered decoding scheme is shown to be equivalent to characterizing an information flow for the wireless network. A node-flow for a graph with bisubmodular capacity constraints is presented and a max-flow min-cut theorem is proved for it. This generalizes many well-known results of flows over capacity constrained graphs studied in computer science literature. The results for the unicast relay network are generalized to the network with multiple sources with independent messages intended for a single destination.