id
stringlengths
9
16
title
stringlengths
4
278
categories
stringlengths
5
104
abstract
stringlengths
6
4.09k
1102.2035
Quasi-Cross Lattice Tilings with Applications to Flash Memory
cs.IT math.IT
We consider lattice tilings of $\R^n$ by a shape we call a $(\kp,\km,n)$-quasi-cross. Such lattices form perfect error-correcting codes which correct a single limited-magnitude error with prescribed maximal-magnitudes of positive error and negative error (the ratio of which is called the balance ratio). These codes can be used to correct both disturb and retention errors in flash memories, which are characterized by having limited magnitudes and different signs. We construct infinite families of perfect codes for any rational balance ratio, and provide a specific construction for $(2,1,n)$-quasi-cross lattice tiling. The constructions are related to group splitting and modular $B_1$ sequences. We also study bounds on the parameters of lattice-tilings by quasi-crosses, connecting the arm lengths of the quasi-crosses and the dimension. We also prove constraints on group splitting, a specific case of which shows that the parameters of the lattice tiling of $(2,1,n)$-quasi-crosses is the only ones possible.
1102.2091
The blogosphere as an excitable social medium: Richter's and Omori's Law in media coverage
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
We study the dynamics of public media attention by monitoring the content of online blogs. Social and media events can be traced by the propagation of word frequencies of related keywords. Media events are classified as exogenous - where blogging activity is triggered by an external news item - or endogenous where word frequencies build up within a blogging community without external influences. We show that word occurrences show statistical similarities to earthquakes. The size distribution of media events follows a Gutenberg-Richter law, the dynamics of media attention before and after the media event follows Omori's law. We present further empirical evidence that for media events of endogenous origin the overall public reception of the event is correlated with the behavior of word frequencies at the beginning of the event, and is to a certain degree predictable. These results may imply that the process of opinion formation in a human society might be related to effects known from excitable media.
1102.2114
Knowledge Management System Design using Extended Gaia
cs.MA
An efficient Learning resource centre can be achieved with the help of a network of collaborating, coordinating and communicating software agents. Agent-oriented techniques represent an exciting new means of analysing, designing and building complex software systems. The designing of the interacting agents is done with the help of Gaia, extended for the multiagent systems. Gaia is a methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design proposed by M. Wooldridge [9].
1102.2122
On the covering radius of first order generalized Reed-Muller codes
math.NT cs.IT math.IT
We generalize to any q a theorem about covering radius of linear codes proved by Helleseth, Klove and Mykkelvit. Then we determine the covering radius of first order generalized Reed-Muller codes in second order generalized Reed-Muller codes. Using these results, we are able to give bounds for the covering radius of first order generalized Reed-Muller codes. Finaly, using Magma, we get some improvements for q=3.
1102.2125
Improving DPLL Solver Performance with Domain-Specific Heuristics: the ASP Case
cs.AI cs.LO
In spite of the recent improvements in the performance of the solvers based on the DPLL procedure, it is still possible for the search algorithm to focus on the wrong areas of the search space, preventing the solver from returning a solution in an acceptable amount of time. This prospect is a real concern e.g. in an industrial setting, where users typically expect consistent performance. To overcome this problem, we propose a framework that allows learning and using domain-specific heuristics in solvers based on the DPLL procedure. The learning is done off-line, on representative instances from the target domain, and the learned heuristics are then used for choice-point selection. In this paper we focus on Answer Set Programming (ASP) solvers. In our experiments, the introduction of domain-specific heuristics improved performance on hard instances by up to 3 orders of magnitude (and 2 on average), nearly completely eliminating the cases in which the solver had to be terminated because the wait for an answer had become unacceptable.
1102.2166
Social Structure of Facebook Networks
cs.SI nlin.AO physics.soc-ph
We study the social structure of Facebook "friendship" networks at one hundred American colleges and universities at a single point in time, and we examine the roles of user attributes - gender, class year, major, high school, and residence - at these institutions. We investigate the influence of common attributes at the dyad level in terms of assortativity coefficients and regression models. We then examine larger-scale groupings by detecting communities algorithmically and comparing them to network partitions based on the user characteristics. We thereby compare the relative importances of different characteristics at different institutions, finding for example that common high school is more important to the social organization of large institutions and that the importance of common major varies significantly between institutions. Our calculations illustrate how microscopic and macroscopic perspectives give complementary insights on the social organization at universities and suggest future studies to investigate such phenomena further.
1102.2174
Linear Temporal Logic and Propositional Schemata, Back and Forth (extended version)
cs.LO cs.AI
This paper relates the well-known Linear Temporal Logic with the logic of propositional schemata introduced by the authors. We prove that LTL is equivalent to a class of schemata in the sense that polynomial-time reductions exist from one logic to the other. Some consequences about complexity are given. We report about first experiments and the consequences about possible improvements in existing implementations are analyzed.
1102.2176
Joint Distributed Access Point Selection and Power Allocation in Cognitive Radio Networks
cs.IT math.IT
Spectrum management has been identified as a crucial step towards enabling the technology of the cognitive radio network (CRN). Most of the current works dealing with spectrum management in the CRN focus on a single task of the problem, e.g., spectrum sensing, spectrum decision, spectrum sharing or spectrum mobility. In this work, we argue that for certain network configurations, jointly performing several tasks of the spectrum management improves the spectrum efficiency. Specifically, we study the uplink resource management problem in a CRN where there exist multiple cognitive users (CUs) and access points (APs), with each AP operates on a set of non-overlapping channels. The CUs, in order to maximize their uplink transmission rates, have to associate to a suitable AP (spectrum decision), and to share the channels belong to this AP with other CUs (spectrum sharing). These tasks are clearly interdependent, and the problem of how they should be carried out efficiently and distributedly is still open in the literature. In this work we formulate this joint spectrum decision and spectrum sharing problem into a non-cooperative game, in which the feasible strategy of a player contains a discrete variable and a continuous vector. The structure of the game is hence very different from most non-cooperative spectrum management game proposed in the literature. We provide characterization of the Nash Equilibrium (NE) of this game, and present a set of novel algorithms that allow the CUs to distributively and efficiently select the suitable AP and share the channels with other CUs. Finally, we study the properties of the proposed algorithms as well as their performance via extensive simulations.
1102.2180
Malagasy Dialects and the Peopling of Madagascar
cs.CL physics.soc-ph
The origin of Malagasy DNA is half African and half Indonesian, nevertheless the Malagasy language, spoken by the entire population, belongs to the Austronesian family. The language most closely related to Malagasy is Maanyan (Greater Barito East group of the Austronesian family), but related languages are also in Sulawesi, Malaysia and Sumatra. For this reason, and because Maanyan is spoken by a population which lives along the Barito river in Kalimantan and which does not possess the necessary skill for long maritime navigation, the ethnic composition of the Indonesian colonizers is still unclear. There is a general consensus that Indonesian sailors reached Madagascar by a maritime trek, but the time, the path and the landing area of the first colonization are all disputed. In this research we try to answer these problems together with other ones, such as the historical configuration of Malagasy dialects, by types of analysis related to lexicostatistics and glottochronology which draw upon the automated method recently proposed by the authors \cite{Serva:2008, Holman:2008, Petroni:2008, Bakker:2009}. The data were collected by the first author at the beginning of 2010 with the invaluable help of Joselin\`a Soafara N\'er\'e and consist of Swadesh lists of 200 items for 23 dialects covering all areas of the Island.
1102.2203
Some applications of quasi-velocities in optimal control
math.OC cs.SY math-ph math.MP
In this paper we study optimal control problems for nonholonomic systems defined on Lie algebroids by using quasi-velocities. We consider both kinematic, i.e. systems whose cost functional depends only on position and velocities, and dynamic optimal control problems, i.e. systems whose cost functional depends also on accelerations. The formulation of the problem directly at the level of Lie algebroids turns out to be the correct framework to explain in detail similar results appeared recently (Maruskin and Bloch, 2007). We also provide several examples to illustrate our construction.
1102.2207
Lossless Coding with Generalised Criteria
cs.IT math.IT
This paper presents prefix codes which minimize various criteria constructed as a convex combination of maximum codeword length and average codeword length or maximum redundancy and average redundancy, including a convex combination of the average of an exponential function of the codeword length and the average redundancy. This framework encompasses as a special case several criteria previously investigated in the literature, while relations to universal coding is discussed. The coding algorithm derived is parametric resulting in re-adjusting the initial source probabilities via a weighted probability vector according to a merging rule. The level of desirable merging has implication in applications where the maximum codeword length is bounded.
1102.2216
On the Capacity of Memoryless Channels with Synchronization Errors
cs.IT math.IT
Memoryless channels with synchronization errors as defined by a stochastic channel matrix allowing for symbol insertions and deletions in addition to random errors are considered. Such channels are information stable, hence their Shannon capacity exists. However, computation of the channel capacity is formidable, and only some upper and lower bounds on the capacity (for some special cases) exist. In this short paper, using a simple methodology, we prove that the channel capacity is a convex function of the stochastic channel matrix. Since the more widely studied model of an independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) deletion channel is a particular case, as an immediate corollary to this result we also argue that the i.i.d. deletion channel capacity is a convex function of the deletion probability. We further use this result to improve the existing capacity upper bounds on the deletion channel by a proper "convexification" argument. In particular, we prove that the capacity of the deletion channel, as the deletion probability d --> 1, is upper bounded by $0.4143(1-d)$ (which was also observed by a different (weaker) recent result).
1102.2223
On Inverses for Quadratic Permutation Polynomials over Integer Rings
cs.IT math.IT
Quadratic permutation polynomial interleavers over integer rings have recently received attention in practical turbo coding systems from deep space applications to mobile communications. In this correspondence, a necessary and sufficient condition that determines the least degree inverse of a quadratic permutation polynomial is proven. Moreover, an algorithm is provided to explicitly compute the inverse polynomials.
1102.2250
Modeling the pairwise key distribution scheme in the presence of unreliable links
cs.IT math.CO math.IT
We investigate the secure connectivity of wireless sensor networks under the pairwise key distribution scheme of Chan et al.. Unlike recent work which was carried out under the assumption of full visibility, here we assume a (simplified) communication model where unreliable wireless links are represented as on/off channels. We present conditions on how to scale the model parameters so that the network i) has no secure node which is isolated and ii) is securely connected, both with high probability when the number of sensor nodes becomes large. The results are given in the form of zero-one laws, and exhibit significant differences with corresponding results in the full visibility case. Through simulations these zero-one laws are shown to be valid also under a more realistic communication model, i.e., the disk model.
1102.2254
Matrix completion with column manipulation: Near-optimal sample-robustness-rank tradeoffs
stat.ML cs.IT math.IT
This paper considers the problem of matrix completion when some number of the columns are completely and arbitrarily corrupted, potentially by a malicious adversary. It is well-known that standard algorithms for matrix completion can return arbitrarily poor results, if even a single column is corrupted. One direct application comes from robust collaborative filtering. Here, some number of users are so-called manipulators who try to skew the predictions of the algorithm by calibrating their inputs to the system. In this paper, we develop an efficient algorithm for this problem based on a combination of a trimming procedure and a convex program that minimizes the nuclear norm and the $\ell_{1,2}$ norm. Our theoretical results show that given a vanishing fraction of observed entries, it is nevertheless possible to complete the underlying matrix even when the number of corrupted columns grows. Significantly, our results hold without any assumptions on the locations or values of the observed entries of the manipulated columns. Moreover, we show by an information-theoretic argument that our guarantees are nearly optimal in terms of the fraction of sampled entries on the authentic columns, the fraction of corrupted columns, and the rank of the underlying matrix. Our results therefore sharply characterize the tradeoffs between sample, robustness and rank in matrix completion.
1102.2284
Competitive Use of Multiple Antennas
cs.IT math.IT
A game theoretic framework is presented to analyze the problem of finding the optimal number of data streams to transmit in a multi-user MIMO scenario, where both the transmitters and receivers are equipped with multiple antennas. Without channel state information (CSI) at any transmitter, and using outage capacity as the utility function with zero-forcing receiver, each user is shown to transmit a single data stream at Nash equilibrium in the presence of sufficient number of users. Transmitting a single data stream is also shown to be optimal in terms of maximizing the sum of the outage capacities in the presence of sufficient number of users. With CSI available at each transmitter, and using the number of successful bits per Joule of energy as the utility function, at Nash equilibrium, each user is shown to transmit a single data stream on the best eigen-mode that requires the least transmit power to achieve a fixed signal-to-interference ratio. Using the concept of locally gross direction preserving maps, existence of Nash equilibrium is shown when the number of successful bits per Joule of energy is used as the utility function.
1102.2332
A Fast Measurement based fixed-point Quantum Search Algorithm
cs.DB quant-ph
Generic quantum search algorithm searches for target entity in an unsorted database by repeatedly applying canonical Grover's quantum rotation transform to reach near the vicinity of the target entity represented by a basis state in the Hilbert space associated with the qubits. Thus, when qubits are measured, there is a high probability of finding the target entity. However, the number of times quantum rotation transform is to be applied for reaching near the vicinity of the target is a function of the number of target entities present in the unsorted database, which is generally unknown. A wrong estimate of the number of target entities can lead to overshooting or undershooting the targets, thus reducing the success probability. Some proposals have been made to overcome this limitation. These proposals either employ quantum counting to estimate the number of solutions or fixed point schemes. This paper proposes a new scheme for stopping the application of quantum rotation transformation on reaching near the targets by measurement and subsequent processing to estimate the distance of the state vector from the target states. It ensures a success probability, which is at least greater than half for all the ratios of the number of target entities to the total number of entities in a database, which are less than half. The search problem is trivial for remaining possible ratios. The proposed scheme is simpler than quantum counting and more efficient than the known fixed-point schemes. It has same order of computational complexity as canonical Grover's search algorithm but is slow by a factor of two and requires an additional ancilla qubit.
1102.2334
Weak KAM theoretic aspects for nonregular commuting Hamiltonians
math.AP cs.SY math.OC
In this paper we consider the notion of commutation for a pair of continuous and convex Hamiltonians, given in terms of commutation of their Lax- Oleinik semigroups. This is equivalent to the solvability of an associated multi- time Hamilton-Jacobi equation. We examine the weak KAM theoretic aspects of the commutation property and show that the two Hamiltonians have the same weak KAM solutions and the same Aubry set, thus generalizing a result recently obtained by the second author for Tonelli Hamiltonians. We make a further step by proving that the Hamiltonians admit a common critical subsolution, strict outside their Aubry set. This subsolution can be taken of class C^{1,1} in the Tonelli case. To prove our main results in full generality, it is crucial to establish suitable differentiability properties of the critical subsolutions on the Aubry set. These latter results are new in the purely continuous case and of independent interest.
1102.2336
Opinions within Media, Power and Gossip
cs.SI cs.AI physics.soc-ph
Despite the increasing diffusion of the Internet technology, TV remains the principal medium of communication. People's perceptions, knowledge, beliefs and opinions about matter of facts get (in)formed through the information reported on by the mass-media. However, a single source of information (and consensus) could be a potential cause of anomalies in the structure and evolution of a society. Hence, as the information available (and the way it is reported) is fundamental for our perceptions and opinions, the definition of conditions allowing for a good information to be disseminated is a pressing challenge. In this paper starting from a report on the last Italian political campaign in 2008, we derive a socio-cognitive computational model of opinion dynamics where agents get informed by different sources of information. Then, a what-if analysis, performed trough simulations on the model's parameters space, is shown. In particular, the scenario implemented includes three main streams of information acquisition, differing in both the contents and the perceived reliability of the messages spread. Agents' internal opinion is updated either by accessing one of the information sources, namely media and experts, or by exchanging information with one another. They are also endowed with cognitive mechanisms to accept, reject or partially consider the acquired information.
1102.2350
The best possible upper bound on the probability of undetected error for linear codes of full support
cs.IT math.IT
There is a known best possible upper bound on the probability of undetected error for linear codes. The $[n,k;q]$ codes with probability of undetected error meeting the bound have support of size $k$ only. In this note, linear codes of full support ($=n$) are studied. A best possible upper bound on the probability of undetected error for such codes is given, and the codes with probability of undetected error meeting this bound are characterized.
1102.2361
Convergence of type-symmetric and cut-balanced consensus seeking systems (extended version)
cs.SY cs.MA math.OC
We consider continuous-time consensus seeking systems whose time-dependent interactions are cut-balanced, in the following sense: if a group of agents influences the remaining ones, the former group is also influenced by the remaining ones by at least a proportional amount. Models involving symmetric interconnections and models in which a weighted average of the agent values is conserved are special cases. We prove that such systems always converge. We give a sufficient condition on the evolving interaction topology for the limit values of two agents to be the same. Conversely, we show that if our condition is not satisfied, then these limits are generically different. These results allow treating systems where the agent interactions are a priori unknown, e.g., random or determined endogenously by the agent values. We also derive corresponding results for discrete-time systems.
1102.2382
A Comparison of Two Human Brain Tumor Segmentation Methods for MRI Data
cs.CV physics.med-ph
The most common primary brain tumors are gliomas, evolving from the cerebral supportive cells. For clinical follow-up, the evaluation of the preoperative tumor volume is essential. Volumetric assessment of tumor volume with manual segmentation of its outlines is a time-consuming process that can be overcome with the help of computerized segmentation methods. In this contribution, two methods for World Health Organization (WHO) grade IV glioma segmentation in the human brain are compared using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patient data from the clinical routine. One method uses balloon inflation forces, and relies on detection of high intensity tumor boundaries that are coupled with the use of contrast agent gadolinium. The other method sets up a directed and weighted graph and performs a min-cut for optimal segmentation results. The ground truth of the tumor boundaries - for evaluating the methods on 27 cases - is manually extracted by neurosurgeons with several years of experience in the resection of gliomas. A comparison is performed using the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), a measure for the spatial overlap of different segmentation results.
1102.2395
Matching, Merging and Structural Properties of Data Base Category
cs.DB cs.LO math.CT
Main contribution of this paper is an investigation of expressive power of the database category DB. An object in this category is a database-instance (set of n-ary relations). Morphisms are not functions but have complex tree structures based on a set of complex query computations. They express the semantics of view-based mappings between databases. The higher (logical) level scheme mappings between databases, usually written in some high expressive logical language, may be functorially translated into this base "computation" DB category . The behavioral point of view for databases is assumed, with behavioural equivalence of databases corresponding to isomorphism of objects in DB category. The introduced observations, which are view-based computations without side-effects, are based (from Universal algebra) on monad endofunctor T, which is the closure operator for objects and for morphisms also. It was shown that DB is symmetric (with a bijection between arrows and objects) 2-category, equal to its dual, complete and cocomplete. In this paper we demonstrate that DB is concrete, locally small and finitely presentable. Moreover, it is enriched over itself monoidal symmetric category with a tensor products for matching, and has a parameterized merging database operation. We show that it is an algebraic lattice and we define a database metric space and a subobject classifier: thus, DB category is a monoidal elementary topos.
1102.2398
The Kirchhoff's Matrix-Tree Theorem revisited: counting spanning trees with the quantum relative entropy
quant-ph cs.IT math.CO math.IT
By revisiting the Kirchhoff's Matrix-Tree Theorem, we give an exact formula for the number of spanning trees of a graph in terms of the quantum relative entropy between the maximally mixed state and another state specifically obtained from the graph. We use properties of the quantum relative entropy to prove tight bounds for the number of spanning trees in terms of basic parameters like degrees and number of vertices.
1102.2413
Optimal prefix codes for pairs of geometrically-distributed random variables
cs.IT math.IT
Optimal prefix codes are studied for pairs of independent, integer-valued symbols emitted by a source with a geometric probability distribution of parameter $q$, $0{<}q{<}1$. By encoding pairs of symbols, it is possible to reduce the redundancy penalty of symbol-by-symbol encoding, while preserving the simplicity of the encoding and decoding procedures typical of Golomb codes and their variants. It is shown that optimal codes for these so-called two-dimensional geometric distributions are \emph{singular}, in the sense that a prefix code that is optimal for one value of the parameter $q$ cannot be optimal for any other value of $q$. This is in sharp contrast to the one-dimensional case, where codes are optimal for positive-length intervals of the parameter $q$. Thus, in the two-dimensional case, it is infeasible to give a compact characterization of optimal codes for all values of the parameter $q$, as was done in the one-dimensional case. Instead, optimal codes are characterized for a discrete sequence of values of $q$ that provide good coverage of the unit interval. Specifically, optimal prefix codes are described for $q=2^{-1/k}$ ($k\ge 1$), covering the range $q\ge 1/2$, and $q=2^{-k}$ ($k>1$), covering the range $q<1/2$. The described codes produce the expected reduction in redundancy with respect to the one-dimensional case, while maintaining low complexity coding operations.
1102.2423
Social network dynamics of face-to-face interactions
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SI
The recent availability of data describing social networks is changing our understanding of the "microscopic structure" of a social tie. A social tie indeed is an aggregated outcome of many social interactions such as face-to-face conversations or phone-calls. Analysis of data on face-to-face interactions shows that such events, as many other human activities, are bursty, with very heterogeneous durations. In this paper we present a model for social interactions at short time scales, aimed at describing contexts such as conference venues in which individuals interact in small groups. We present a detailed anayltical and numerical study of the model's dynamical properties, and show that it reproduces important features of empirical data. The model allows for many generalizations toward an increasingly realistic description of social interactions. In particular in this paper we investigate the case where the agents have intrinsic heterogeneities in their social behavior, or where dynamic variations of the local number of individuals are included. Finally we propose this model as a very flexible framework to investigate how dynamical processes unfold in social networks.
1102.2453
Reducing the Number of Elements in Linear and Planar Antenna Arrays with Sparse Constraint Optimization
cs.IT math.IT
This paper has been withdrawn by the authors. I will do the major revision.
1102.2467
Universal Learning Theory
cs.LG cs.IT math.IT
This encyclopedic article gives a mini-introduction into the theory of universal learning, founded by Ray Solomonoff in the 1960s and significantly developed and extended in the last decade. It explains the spirit of universal learning, but necessarily glosses over technical subtleties.
1102.2468
Algorithmic Randomness as Foundation of Inductive Reasoning and Artificial Intelligence
cs.IT cs.AI cs.CC math.IT
This article is a brief personal account of the past, present, and future of algorithmic randomness, emphasizing its role in inductive inference and artificial intelligence. It is written for a general audience interested in science and philosophy. Intuitively, randomness is a lack of order or predictability. If randomness is the opposite of determinism, then algorithmic randomness is the opposite of computability. Besides many other things, these concepts have been used to quantify Ockham's razor, solve the induction problem, and define intelligence.
1102.2490
The KL-UCB Algorithm for Bounded Stochastic Bandits and Beyond
math.ST cs.LG cs.SY math.OC stat.TH
This paper presents a finite-time analysis of the KL-UCB algorithm, an online, horizon-free index policy for stochastic bandit problems. We prove two distinct results: first, for arbitrary bounded rewards, the KL-UCB algorithm satisfies a uniformly better regret bound than UCB or UCB2; second, in the special case of Bernoulli rewards, it reaches the lower bound of Lai and Robbins. Furthermore, we show that simple adaptations of the KL-UCB algorithm are also optimal for specific classes of (possibly unbounded) rewards, including those generated from exponential families of distributions. A large-scale numerical study comparing KL-UCB with its main competitors (UCB, UCB2, UCB-Tuned, UCB-V, DMED) shows that KL-UCB is remarkably efficient and stable, including for short time horizons. KL-UCB is also the only method that always performs better than the basic UCB policy. Our regret bounds rely on deviations results of independent interest which are stated and proved in the Appendix. As a by-product, we also obtain an improved regret bound for the standard UCB algorithm.
1102.2498
Two-Unicast Wireless Networks: Characterizing the Degrees-of-Freedom
cs.IT math.IT
We consider two-source two-destination (i.e., two-unicast) multi-hop wireless networks that have a layered structure with arbitrary connectivity. We show that, if the channel gains are chosen independently according to continuous distributions, then, with probability 1, two-unicast layered Gaussian networks can only have 1, 3/2 or 2 sum degrees-of-freedom (unless both source-destination pairs are disconnected, in which case no degrees-of-freedom can be achieved). We provide sufficient and necessary conditions for each case based on network connectivity and a new notion of source-destination paths with manageable interference. Our achievability scheme is based on forwarding the received signals at all nodes, except for a small fraction of them in at most two key layers. Hence, we effectively create a "condensed network" that has at most four layers (including the sources layer and the destinations layer). We design the transmission strategies based on the structure of this condensed network. The converse results are obtained by developing information-theoretic inequalities that capture the structures of the network connectivity. Finally, we extend this result and characterize the full degrees-of-freedom region of two-unicast layered wireless networks.
1102.2504
Cognitive Multiple Access Network with Outage Margin in the Primary System
cs.IT math.IT
This paper investigates the problem of spectrally efficient operation of a multiuser uplink cognitive radio system in the presence of a single primary link. The secondary system applies opportunistic interference cancelation (OIC) and decode the primary signal when such an opportunity is created. We derive the achievable rate in the secondary system when OIC is used. This scheme has a practical significance, since it enables rate adaptation without requiring any action from the primary system. The \emph{exact} expressions for outage probability of the primary user are derived, when the primary system is exposed to interference from secondary users. Moreover, approximated formulas and tight lower and upper bounds for the ergodic sum-rate capacity of the secondary network are found. Next, the power allocation is investigated in the secondary system for maximizing the sum-rate under an outage constraint at the primary system. We formulate the power optimization problem in various scenarios depending on the availability of channel state information and the type of power constraints, and propose a set of simple solutions. Finally, the analytical results are confirmed by simulations, indicating both the accuracy of the analysis, and the fact that the spectral-efficient, low-complexity, flexible, and high-performing cognitive radio can be designed based on the proposed schemes.
1102.2506
Opportunistic Relaying for Space-Time Coded Cooperation with Multiple Antenna Terminals
cs.IT math.IT
We consider a wireless relay network with multiple antenna terminals over Rayleigh fading channels, and apply distributed space-time coding (DSTC) in amplify-and-forward (A&F) mode. The A&F scheme is used in a way that each relay transmits a scaled version of the linear combination of the received symbols. It turns out that, combined with power allocation in the relays, A&F DSTC results in an opportunistic relaying scheme, in which only the best relay is selected to retransmit the source's space-time coded signal. Furthermore, assuming the knowledge of source-relay CSI at the source node, we design an efficient power allocation which outperforms uniform power allocation across the source antennas. Next, assuming M-PSK or M-QAM modulations, we analyze the performance of the proposed cooperative diversity transmission schemes in a wireless relay networks with the multiple-antenna source and destination. We derive the probability density function (PDF) of the received SNR at the destination. Then, the PDF is used to determine the symbol error rate (SER) in Rayleigh fading channels. We derived closed-form approximations of the average SER in the high SNR scenario, from which we find the diversity order of system RminfNs;Ndg, where R, Ns, and Nd are the number of the relays, source antennas, and destination antennas, respectively. Simulation results show that the proposed system obtain more than 6 dB gain in SNR over A&F MIMO DSTC for BER 10^{-4}, when R = 2, Ns = 2, and Nd = 1.
1102.2516
High Throughput Random Access via Codes on Graphs: Coded Slotted ALOHA
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, coded slotted ALOHA (CSA) is introduced as a powerful random access scheme to the MAC frame. In CSA, the burst a generic user wishes to transmit in the MAC frame is first split into segments, and these segments are then encoded through a local a packet-oriented code prior to transmission. On the receiver side, iterative interference cancellation combined with decoding of the local code is performed to recover from collisions. The new scheme generalizes the previously proposed irregular repetition slotted ALOHA (IRSA) technique, based on a simple repetition of the users' bursts. An interpretation of the CSA interference cancellation process as an iterative erasure decoding process over a sparse bipartite graph is identified, and the corresponding density evolution equations derived. Based on these equations, asymptotically optimal CSA schemes are designed for several rates and their performance for a finite number of users investigated through simulation and compared to IRSA competitors. Throughputs as high as 0.8 are demonstrated. The new scheme turns out to be a good candidate in contexts where power efficiency is required.
1102.2524
Multicriteria Steiner Tree Problem for Communication Network
cs.DS cs.AI cs.NI math.OC
This paper addresses combinatorial optimization scheme for solving the multicriteria Steiner tree problem for communication network topology design (e.g., wireless mesh network). The solving scheme is based on several models: multicriteria ranking, clustering, minimum spanning tree, and minimum Steiner tree problem. An illustrative numerical example corresponds to designing a covering long-distance Wi-Fi network (static Ad-Hoc network). The set of criteria (i.e., objective functions) involves the following: total cost, total edge length, overall throughput (capacity), and estimate of QoS. Obtained computing results show the suggested solving scheme provides good network topologies which can be compared with minimum spanning trees.
1102.2536
Lower bounds on Information Divergence
cs.IT math.IT math.PR
In this paper we establish lower bounds on information divergence from a distribution to certain important classes of distributions as Gaussian, exponential, Gamma, Poisson, geometric, and binomial. These lower bounds are tight and for several convergence theorems where a rate of convergence can be computed, this rate is determined by the lower bounds proved in this paper. General techniques for getting lower bounds in terms of moments are developed.
1102.2551
Yield Optimization of Display Advertising with Ad Exchange
math.OC cs.DS cs.SY
In light of the growing market of Ad Exchanges for the real-time sale of advertising slots, publishers face new challenges in choosing between the allocation of contract-based reservation ads and spot market ads. In this setting, the publisher should take into account the tradeoff between short-term revenue from an Ad Exchange and quality of allocating reservation ads. In this paper, we formalize this combined optimization problem as a stochastic control problem and derive an efficient policy for online ad allocation in settings with general joint distribution over placement quality and exchange bids. We prove asymptotic optimality of this policy in terms of any trade-off between quality of delivered reservation ads and revenue from the exchange, and provide a rigorous bound for its convergence rate to the optimal policy. We also give experimental results on data derived from real publisher inventory, showing that our policy can achieve any pareto-optimal point on the quality vs. revenue curve. Finally, we study a parametric training-based algorithm in which instead of learning the dual variables from a sample data (as is done in non-parametric training-based algorithms), we learn the parameters of the distribution and construct those dual variables from the learned parameter values. We compare parametric and non-parametric ways to estimate from data both analytically and experimentally in the special case without the ad exchange, and show that though both methods converge to the optimal policy as the sample size grows, our parametric method converges faster, and thus performs better on smaller samples.
1102.2559
Toward Measuring the Scaling of Genetic Programming
cs.NE
Several genetic programming systems are created, each solving a different problem. In these systems, the median number of generations G needed to evolve a working program is measured. The behavior of G is observed as the difficulty of the problem is increased. In these systems, the density D of working programs in the universe of all possible programs is measured. The relationship G ~ 1/sqrt(D) is observed to approximately hold for two program-like systems. For parallel systems (systems that look like several independent programs evolving in parallel), the relationship G ~ 1/(n ln n) is observed to approximately hold. Finally, systems that are anti-parallel are considered.
1102.2566
Key Reduction of McEliece's Cryptosystem Using List Decoding
cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
Different variants of the code-based McEliece cryptosystem were pro- posed to reduce the size of the public key. All these variants use very structured codes, which open the door to new attacks exploiting the underlying structure. In this paper, we show that the dyadic variant can be designed to resist all known attacks. In light of a new study on list decoding algorithms for binary Goppa codes, we explain how to increase the security level for given public keysizes. Using the state-of-the-art list decoding algorithm instead of unique decoding, we exhibit a keysize gain of about 4% for the standard McEliece cryptosystem and up to 21% for the adjusted dyadic variant.
1102.2568
Frequency characteristics based on describing function method for differentiators
cs.SY
In this paper, describing function method is used to analyze the characteristics and parameters selection of differentiators. Nonlinear differentiator is an effective compensation to linear differentiator, and hybrid differentiator consisting of linear and nonlinear parts is the combination of both advantages of linear and nonlinear differentiators. The merits of the hybrid differentiator include its simplicity, rapid convergence at all times, and restraining noises effectively. The methods are confirmed by some examples.
1102.2593
Codes and Designs Related to Lifted MRD Codes
cs.IT cs.DM math.IT
Lifted maximum rank distance (MRD) codes, which are constant dimension codes, are considered. It is shown that a lifted MRD code can be represented in such a way that it forms a block design known as a transversal design. A slightly different representation of this design makes it similar to a $q-$analog of a transversal design. The structure of these designs is used to obtain upper bounds on the sizes of constant dimension codes which contain a lifted MRD code. Codes which attain these bounds are constructed. These codes are the largest known codes for the given parameters. These transversal designs can be also used to derive a new family of linear codes in the Hamming space. Bounds on the minimum distance and the dimension of such codes are given.
1102.2598
The Dispersion of Lossy Source Coding
cs.IT math.IT
In this work we investigate the behavior of the minimal rate needed in order to guarantee a given probability that the distortion exceeds a prescribed threshold, at some fixed finite quantization block length. We show that the excess coding rate above the rate-distortion function is inversely proportional (to the first order) to the square root of the block length. We give an explicit expression for the proportion constant, which is given by the inverse Q-function of the allowed excess distortion probability, times the square root of a constant, termed the excess distortion dispersion. This result is the dual of a corresponding channel coding result, where the dispersion above is the dual of the channel dispersion. The work treats discrete memoryless sources, as well as the quadratic-Gaussian case.
1102.2599
Rapid-convergent nonlinear differentiator
cs.SY
A nonlinear differentiator being fit for rapid convergence is presented, which is based on singular perturbation technique. The differentiator design can not only sufficiently reduce the chattering phenomenon of derivative estimation by introducing a continuous power function, but the dynamical performances are also improved by adding linear correction terms to the nonlinear ones. Moreover, strong robustness ability is obtained by integrating nonlinear items and the linear filter. The merits of the rapid-convergent differentiator include the excellent dynamical performances, restraining noises sufficiently, avoiding the chattering phenomenon and being not based on system model. The theoretical results are confirmed by computer simulations and an experiment.
1102.2600
High-order integral-chain differentiator and application to acceleration feedback
cs.SY
The equivalence between integral-chain differentiator and usual high-gain differentiator is given under suitable coordinate transformation. Integral-chain differentiator can restrain noises more thoroughly than usual high-gain linear differentiator. In integral-chain differentiator, disturbances only exist in the last differential equation and can be restrained through each layer of integrator. Moreover, a nonlinear integral-chain differentiator is designed which is the expansion of linear integral-chain differentiator. Finally, a 3-order differentiator is applied to the estimation of acceleration for a second-order uncertain system.
1102.2602
A New Method for Variable Elimination in Systems of Inequations
cs.IT cs.DS math.IT
In this paper, we present a new method for variable elimination in systems of inequations which is much faster than the Fourier-Motzkin Elimination (FME) method. In our method, a linear Diophantine problem is introduced which is dual to our original problem. The new Diophantine system is then solved, and the final result is calculated by finding the dual inequations system. Our new method uses the algorithm Normaliz to find the Hilbert basis of the solution space of the given Diophantine problem. We introduce a problem in the interference channel with multiple nodes and solve it with our new method. Next, we generalize our method to all problems involving FME and in the end we compare our method with the previous method. We show that our method has many advantages in comparison to the previous method. It does not produce many of the redundant answers of the FME method. It also solves the whole problem in one step whereas the previous method uses a step by step approach in eliminating each auxiliary variable.
1102.2615
Guaranteeing Convergence of Iterative Skewed Voting Algorithms for Image Segmentation
math.FA cs.CV nlin.CG
In this paper we provide rigorous proof for the convergence of an iterative voting-based image segmentation algorithm called Active Masks. Active Masks (AM) was proposed to solve the challenging task of delineating punctate patterns of cells from fluorescence microscope images. Each iteration of AM consists of a linear convolution composed with a nonlinear thresholding; what makes this process special in our case is the presence of additive terms whose role is to "skew" the voting when prior information is available. In real-world implementation, the AM algorithm always converges to a fixed point. We study the behavior of AM rigorously and present a proof of this convergence. The key idea is to formulate AM as a generalized (parallel) majority cellular automaton, adapting proof techniques from discrete dynamical systems.
1102.2620
Predicting economic market crises using measures of collective panic
q-fin.ST cs.SI physics.soc-ph
Predicting panic is of critical importance in many areas of human and animal behavior, notably in the context of economics. The recent financial crisis is a case in point. Panic may be due to a specific external threat, or self-generated nervousness. Here we show that the recent economic crisis and earlier large single-day panics were preceded by extended periods of high levels of market mimicry --- direct evidence of uncertainty and nervousness, and of the comparatively weak influence of external news. High levels of mimicry can be a quite general indicator of the potential for self-organized crises.
1102.2623
Egomunities, Exploring Socially Cohesive Person-based Communities
cs.SI cs.NI physics.soc-ph
In the last few years, there has been a great interest in detecting overlapping communities in complex networks, which is understood as dense groups of nodes featuring a low outbound density. To date, most methods used to compute such communities stem from the field of disjoint community detection by either extending the concept of modularity to an overlapping context or by attempting to decompose the whole set of nodes into several possibly overlapping subsets. In this report we take an orthogonal approach by introducing a metric, the cohesion, rooted in sociological considerations. The cohesion quantifies the community-ness of one given set of nodes, based on the notions of triangles - triplets of connected nodes - and weak ties, instead of the classical view using only edge density. A set of nodes has a high cohesion if it features a high density of triangles and intersects few triangles with the rest of the network. As such, we introduce a numerical characterization of communities: sets of nodes featuring a high cohesion. We then present a new approach to the problem of overlapping communities by introducing the concept of ego-munities, which are subjective communities centered around a given node, specifically inside its neighborhood. We build upon the cohesion to construct a heuristic algorithm which outputs a node's ego-munities by attempting to maximize their cohesion. We illustrate the pertinence of our method with a detailed description of one person's ego-munities among Facebook friends. We finally conclude by describing promising applications of ego-munities such as information inference and interest recommendations, and present a possible extension to cohesion in the case of weighted networks.
1102.2624
Classical communication over a quantum interference channel
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Calculating the capacity of interference channels is a notorious open problem in classical information theory. Such channels have two senders and two receivers, and each sender would like to communicate with a partner receiver. The capacity of such channels is known exactly in the settings of "very strong" and "strong" interference, while the Han-Kobayashi coding strategy gives the best known achievable rate region in the general case. Here, we introduce and study the quantum interference channel, a natural generalization of the interference channel to the setting of quantum information theory. We restrict ourselves for the most part to channels with two classical inputs and two quantum outputs in order to simplify the presentation of our results (though generalizations of our results to channels with quantum inputs are straightforward). We are able to determine the exact classical capacity of this channel in the settings of "very strong" and "strong" interference, by exploiting Winter's successive decoding strategy and a novel two-sender quantum simultaneous decoder, respectively. We provide a proof that a Han-Kobayashi strategy is achievable with Holevo information rates, up to a conjecture regarding the existence of a three-sender quantum simultaneous decoder. This conjecture holds for a special class of quantum multiple access channels with average output states that commute, and we discuss some other variations of the conjecture that hold. Finally, we detail a connection between the quantum interference channel and prior work on the capacity of bipartite unitary gates.
1102.2627
The free space optical interference channel
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Semiclassical models for multiple-user optical communication cannot assess the ultimate limits on reliable communication as permitted by the laws of physics. In all optical communications settings that have been analyzed within a quantum framework so far, the gaps between the quantum limit to the capacity and the Shannon limit for structured receivers become most significant in the low photon-number regime. Here, we present a quantum treatment of a multiple-transmitter multiple-receiver multi-spatial-mode free-space interference channel with diffraction-limited loss and a thermal background. We consider the performance of a laser-light (coherent state) encoding in conjunction with various detection strategies such as homodyne, heterodyne, and joint detection. Joint detection outperforms both homodyne and heterodyne detection whenever the channel exhibits "very strong" interference. We determine the capacity region for homodyne or heterodyne detection when the channel has "strong" interference, and we conjecture the existence of a joint detection strategy that outperforms the former two strategies in this case. Finally, we determine the Han-Kobayashi achievable rate regions for both homodyne and heterodyne detection and compare them to a region achievable by a conjectured joint detection strategy. In these latter cases, we determine achievable rate regions if the receivers employ a recently discovered min-entropy quantum simultaneous decoder.
1102.2641
Improved Redundancy Bounds for Exponential Objectives
cs.IT math.IT
We present new lower and upper bounds for the compression rate of binary prefix codes optimized over memoryless sources according to two related exponential codeword length objectives. The objectives explored here are exponential-average length and exponential-average redundancy. The first of these relates to various problems involving queueing, uncertainty, and lossless communications, and it can be reduced to the second, which has properties more amenable to analysis. These bounds, some of which are tight, are in terms of a form of entropy and/or the probability of an input symbol, improving on recently discovered bounds of similar form. We also observe properties of optimal codes over the exponential-average redundancy utility.
1102.2654
PORGY: Strategy-Driven Interactive Transformation of Graphs
cs.CE cs.SE
This paper investigates the use of graph rewriting systems as a modelling tool, and advocates the embedding of such systems in an interactive environment. One important application domain is the modelling of biochemical systems, where states are represented by port graphs and the dynamics is driven by rules and strategies. A graph rewriting tool's capability to interactively explore the features of the rewriting system provides useful insights into possible behaviours of the model and its properties. We describe PORGY, a visual and interactive tool we have developed to model complex systems using port graphs and port graph rewrite rules guided by strategies, and to navigate in the derivation history. We demonstrate via examples some functionalities provided by PORGY.
1102.2670
Online Least Squares Estimation with Self-Normalized Processes: An Application to Bandit Problems
cs.AI
The analysis of online least squares estimation is at the heart of many stochastic sequential decision making problems. We employ tools from the self-normalized processes to provide a simple and self-contained proof of a tail bound of a vector-valued martingale. We use the bound to construct a new tighter confidence sets for the least squares estimate. We apply the confidence sets to several online decision problems, such as the multi-armed and the linearly parametrized bandit problems. The confidence sets are potentially applicable to other problems such as sleeping bandits, generalized linear bandits, and other linear control problems. We improve the regret bound of the Upper Confidence Bound (UCB) algorithm of Auer et al. (2002) and show that its regret is with high-probability a problem dependent constant. In the case of linear bandits (Dani et al., 2008), we improve the problem dependent bound in the dimension and number of time steps. Furthermore, as opposed to the previous result, we prove that our bound holds for small sample sizes, and at the same time the worst case bound is improved by a logarithmic factor and the constant is improved.
1102.2673
Environmental benefits of enhanced surveillance technology on airport departure operations
cs.SY
Airport departure operations constitute an important source of airline delays and passenger frustration. Excessive surface traffic is the cause of increased controller and pilot workload; It is also the source of increased emissions; It worsens traffic safety and often does not yield improved runway throughput. Acknowledging this fact, this paper explores some of the feedback mechanisms by which airport traffic can be optimized in real time according to its current degree of congestion. In particular, it examines the environmnetal benefits that improved surveillance technologies can bring in the context of gate- or spot-release aircraft strategies. It is shown that improvements can lead yield 4% to 6% emission reductions for busy airports like New-York La Guardia or Seattle Tacoma. These benefits come on top of the benefits already obtained by adopting threshold strategies currently under evaluation.
1102.2677
Measurement Bounds for Sparse Signal Ensembles via Graphical Models
cs.IT math.IT
In compressive sensing, a small collection of linear projections of a sparse signal contains enough information to permit signal recovery. Distributed compressive sensing (DCS) extends this framework by defining ensemble sparsity models, allowing a correlated ensemble of sparse signals to be jointly recovered from a collection of separately acquired compressive measurements. In this paper, we introduce a framework for modeling sparse signal ensembles that quantifies the intra- and inter-signal dependencies within and among the signals. This framework is based on a novel bipartite graph representation that links the sparse signal coefficients with the measurements obtained for each signal. Using our framework, we provide fundamental bounds on the number of noiseless measurements that each sensor must collect to ensure that the signals are jointly recoverable.
1102.2678
Minimum Redundancy Coding for Uncertain Sources
cs.IT math.IT
Consider the set of source distributions within a fixed maximum relative entropy with respect to a given nominal distribution. Lossless source coding over this relative entropy ball can be approached in more than one way. A problem previously considered is finding a minimax average length source code. The minimizing players are the codeword lengths --- real numbers for arithmetic codes, integers for prefix codes --- while the maximizing players are the uncertain source distributions. Another traditional minimizing objective is the first one considered here, maximum (average) redundancy. This problem reduces to an extension of an exponential Huffman objective treated in the literature but heretofore without direct practical application. In addition to these, this paper examines the related problem of maximal minimax pointwise redundancy and the problem considered by Gawrychowski and Gagie, which, for a sufficiently small relative entropy ball, is equivalent to minimax redundancy. One can consider both Shannon-like coding based on optimal real number ("ideal") codeword lengths and a Huffman-like optimal prefix coding.
1102.2684
Chernoff information of exponential families
cs.IT cs.CV cs.IR math.IT
Chernoff information upper bounds the probability of error of the optimal Bayesian decision rule for $2$-class classification problems. However, it turns out that in practice the Chernoff bound is hard to calculate or even approximate. In statistics, many usual distributions, such as Gaussians, Poissons or frequency histograms called multinomials, can be handled in the unified framework of exponential families. In this note, we prove that the Chernoff information for members of the same exponential family can be either derived analytically in closed form, or efficiently approximated using a simple geodesic bisection optimization technique based on an exact geometric characterization of the "Chernoff point" on the underlying statistical manifold.
1102.2700
On (Partial) Unit Memory Codes Based on Gabidulin Codes
cs.IT math.IT
(Partial) Unit Memory ((P)UM) codes provide a powerful possibility to construct convolutional codes based on block codes in order to achieve a high decoding performance. In this contribution, a construction based on Gabidulin codes is considered. This construction requires a modified rank metric, the so-called sum rank metric. For the sum rank metric, the free rank distance, the extended row rank distance and its slope are defined analogous to the extended row distance in Hamming metric. Upper bounds for the free rank distance and the slope of (P)UM codes in the sum rank metric are derived and an explicit construction of (P)UM codes based on Gabidulin codes is given, achieving the upper bound for the free rank distance.
1102.2702
On the Labeling Problem of Permutation Group Codes under the Infinity Metric
cs.IT math.IT
Codes over permutations under the infinity norm have been recently suggested as a coding scheme for correcting limited-magnitude errors in the rank modulation scheme. Given such a code, we show that a simple relabeling operation, which produces an isomorphic code, may drastically change the minimal distance of the code. Thus, we may choose a code structure for efficient encoding/decoding procedures, and then optimize the code's minimal distance via relabeling. We formally define the relabeling problem, and show that all codes may be relabeled to get a minimal distance at most 2. The decision problem of whether a code may be relabeled to distance 1 is shown to be NP-complete, and calculating the best achievable minimal distance after relabeling is proved hard to approximate. Finally, we consider general bounds on the relabeling problem. We specifically show the optimal relabeling distance of cyclic groups. A specific case of a general probabilistic argument is used to show $\agl(p)$ may be relabeled to a minimal distance of $p-O(\sqrt{p\ln p})$.
1102.2706
Blind source separation of convolutive mixtures of non circular linearly modulated signals with unknown baud rates
cs.IT math.IT
This paper addresses the problem of blind separation of convolutive mixtures of BPSK and circular linearly modulated signals with unknown (and possibly different) baud rates and carrier frequencies. In previous works, we established that the Constant Modulus Algorithm (CMA) is able to extract a source from a convolutive mixture of circular linearly modulated signals. We extend the analysis of the extraction capabilities of the CMA when the mixing also contains BPSK signals. We prove that if the various source signals do not share any non zero cyclic frequency nor any non conjugate cyclic frequencies, the local minima of the constant modulus cost function are separating filters. Unfortunately, the minimization of the Godard cost function generally fails when considering BPSK signals that have the same rates and the same carrier frequencies. This failure is due to the existence of non-separating local minima of the Godard cost function. In order to achieve the separation, we propose a simple modification of the Godard cost function which only requires knowledge of the BPSK sources frequency offsets at the receiver side. We provide various simulations of realistic digital communications scenarios that support our theoretical statements.
1102.2731
Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Distinguishability of Linear Control Systems
math.OC cs.SY
Distinguishability takes a crucial rule in studying observability of hybrid system such as switched system. Recently, for two linear systems, Lou and Si gave a condition not only necessary but also sufficient to the distinguishability of linear systems. However, the condition is not easy enough to verify. This paper will give a new equivalent condition which is relatively easy to verify.
1102.2734
The Treewidth of MDS and Reed-Muller Codes
cs.IT cs.DM math.IT
The constraint complexity of a graphical realization of a linear code is the maximum dimension of the local constraint codes in the realization. The treewidth of a linear code is the least constraint complexity of any of its cycle-free graphical realizations. This notion provides a useful parametrization of the maximum-likelihood decoding complexity for linear codes. In this paper, we prove the surprising fact that for maximum distance separable codes and Reed-Muller codes, treewidth equals trelliswidth, which, for a code, is defined to be the least constraint complexity (or branch complexity) of any of its trellis realizations. From this, we obtain exact expressions for the treewidth of these codes, which constitute the only known explicit expressions for the treewidth of algebraic codes.
1102.2738
Decision Theory with Prospect Interference and Entanglement
math-ph cs.AI math.MP physics.soc-ph quant-ph
We present a novel variant of decision making based on the mathematical theory of separable Hilbert spaces. This mathematical structure captures the effect of superposition of composite prospects, including many incorporated intentions, which allows us to describe a variety of interesting fallacies and anomalies that have been reported to particularize the decision making of real human beings. The theory characterizes entangled decision making, non-commutativity of subsequent decisions, and intention interference. We demonstrate how the violation of the Savage's sure-thing principle, known as the disjunction effect, can be explained quantitatively as a result of the interference of intentions, when making decisions under uncertainty. The disjunction effects, observed in experiments, are accurately predicted using a theorem on interference alternation that we derive, which connects aversion-to-uncertainty to the appearance of negative interference terms suppressing the probability of actions. The conjunction fallacy is also explained by the presence of the interference terms. A series of experiments are analysed and shown to be in excellent agreement with a priori evaluation of interference effects. The conjunction fallacy is also shown to be a sufficient condition for the disjunction effect and novel experiments testing the combined interplay between the two effects are suggested.
1102.2739
A General Framework for Development of the Cortex-like Visual Object Recognition System: Waves of Spikes, Predictive Coding and Universal Dictionary of Features
cs.CV cs.AI cs.LG cs.NE
This study is focused on the development of the cortex-like visual object recognition system. We propose a general framework, which consists of three hierarchical levels (modules). These modules functionally correspond to the V1, V4 and IT areas. Both bottom-up and top-down connections between the hierarchical levels V4 and IT are employed. The higher the degree of matching between the input and the preferred stimulus, the shorter the response time of the neuron. Therefore information about a single stimulus is distributed in time and is transmitted by the waves of spikes. The reciprocal connections and waves of spikes implement predictive coding: an initial hypothesis is generated on the basis of information delivered by the first wave of spikes and is tested with the information carried by the consecutive waves. The development is considered as extraction and accumulation of features in V4 and objects in IT. Once stored a feature can be disposed, if rarely activated. This cause update of feature repository. Consequently, objects in IT are also updated. This illustrates the growing process and dynamical change of topological structures of V4, IT and connections between these areas.
1102.2743
Feature selection via simultaneous sparse approximation for person specific face verification
cs.CV
There is an increasing use of some imperceivable and redundant local features for face recognition. While only a relatively small fraction of them is relevant to the final recognition task, the feature selection is a crucial and necessary step to select the most discriminant ones to obtain a compact face representation. In this paper, we investigate the sparsity-enforced regularization-based feature selection methods and propose a multi-task feature selection method for building person specific models for face verification. We assume that the person specific models share a common subset of features and novelly reformulated the common subset selection problem as a simultaneous sparse approximation problem. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to apply the sparsity-enforced regularization methods for person specific face verification. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is verified with the challenging LFW face databases.
1102.2748
Feature Selection via Sparse Approximation for Face Recognition
cs.CV cs.AI
Inspired by biological vision systems, the over-complete local features with huge cardinality are increasingly used for face recognition during the last decades. Accordingly, feature selection has become more and more important and plays a critical role for face data description and recognition. In this paper, we propose a trainable feature selection algorithm based on the regularized frame for face recognition. By enforcing a sparsity penalty term on the minimum squared error (MSE) criterion, we cast the feature selection problem into a combinatorial sparse approximation problem, which can be solved by greedy methods or convex relaxation methods. Moreover, based on the same frame, we propose a sparse Ho-Kashyap (HK) procedure to obtain simultaneously the optimal sparse solution and the corresponding margin vector of the MSE criterion. The proposed methods are used for selecting the most informative Gabor features of face images for recognition and the experimental results on benchmark face databases demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
1102.2749
Multi-task GLOH feature selection for human age estimation
cs.CV cs.AI
In this paper, we propose a novel age estimation method based on GLOH feature descriptor and multi-task learning (MTL). The GLOH feature descriptor, one of the state-of-the-art feature descriptor, is used to capture the age-related local and spatial information of face image. As the exacted GLOH features are often redundant, MTL is designed to select the most informative feature bins for age estimation problem, while the corresponding weights are determined by ridge regression. This approach largely reduces the dimensions of feature, which can not only improve performance but also decrease the computational burden. Experiments on the public available FG-NET database show that the proposed method can achieve comparable performance over previous approaches while using much fewer features.
1102.2761
Capacity of BICM Using (Bi-)Orthogonal Signal Constellations in Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wideband Systems
cs.IT math.IT
Bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) using (bi-)orthogonal signals is especially well suited for the application in impulse-radio ultra-wideband transmission systems, which typically operate in the power-limited regime and require a very low-complexity transmitter and receiver design. In this paper we analyze the capacity of BICM using (bi-)orthogonal signals with coherent and noncoherent detection and put particular focus on the power-limited or wideband regime. We give analytical expressions for the ratio energy per bit vs. noise power spectral density in the limit of infinite bandwidth and the respective wideband slope, and thus, are able to quantify the loss incurred by the restriction to BICM in contrast to coded modulation. The gained theoretical insights allow to derive design rules for impulse-radio ultra-wideband transmission systems.
1102.2768
Achievable Rate Region of Quantized Broadcast and MAC Channels
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we study the achievable rate region of Gaussian multiuser channels with the messages transmitted being from finite input alphabets and the outputs being {\em quantized at the receiver}. In particular, we focus on the achievable rate region of $i)$ Gaussian broadcast channel (GBC) and $ii)$ Gaussian multiple access channel (GMAC). First, we study the achievable rate region of two-user GBC when the messages to be transmitted to both the users take values from finite signal sets and the received signal is quantized at both the users. We refer to this channel as {\em quantized broadcast channel (QBC)}. We observe that the capacity region defined for a GBC does not carry over as such to QBC. We show that the optimal decoding scheme for GBC (i.e., high SNR user doing successive decoding and low SNR user decoding its message alone) is not optimal for QBC. We then propose an achievable rate region for QBC based on two different schemes. We present achievable rate region results for the case of uniform quantization at the receivers. Next, we investigate the achievable rate region of two-user GMAC with finite input alphabet and quantized receiver output. We refer to this channel as {\em quantized multiple access channel (QMAC)}. We derive expressions for the achievable rate region of a two-user QMAC. We show that, with finite input alphabet, the achievable rate region with the commonly used uniform receiver quantizer has a significant loss compared to the achievable rate region without receiver quantization. We propose a {\em non-uniform quantizer} which has a significantly larger rate region compared to what is achieved with a uniform quantizer in QMAC.
1102.2787
On the Sum Capacity of the Y-Channel
cs.IT math.IT
A network where three users communicate with each other via a relay is considered. Users do not receive other users' signals via a direct link, and thus the relay is essential for their communication. Each user is assumed to have an individual message to be delivered to each other user. Thus, each user wants to send two messages and to decode two messages. In general, the transmit signals of different nodes can be dependent since they can depend on previously received symbols. We call this case the general case. The sum-capacity is studied, and upper bounds and lower bounds are given. If all nodes have the same power, the sum-capacity is characterized to within a gap of 5/2 bits or a factor of 3 for all values of channel coefficients. This gap is also shown to approach 3/2 bits as the transmit power increases. Moreover, for the symmetric case with equal channel coefficients, the gap is shown to be less than 1 bit. The restricted case is also considered where the transmit signal does not depend on previously received symbols. In this case, the sum-capacity is characterized to within a gap of 2 bits or a factor of 3 for all values of channel coefficients, and approaches 1 bit as the transmit power increases.
1102.2794
Universal approximation using differentiators and application to feedback control
cs.SY math.OC
In this paper, we consider the problems of approximating uncertainties and feedback control for a class of nonlinear systems without full-known states, and two approximation methods are proposed: universal approximation using integral-chain differentiator or extended observer. Comparing to the approximations by fuzzy system and radial-based-function (RBF) neural networks, the presented two methods can not only approximate universally the uncertainties, but also estimate the unknown states. Moreover, the integral-chain differentiator can restrain noises thoroughly. The theoretical results are confirmed by computer simulations for feedback control.
1102.2797
On the Security of Index Coding with Side Information
cs.IT 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 index codes 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 linear index code based on a matrix $L$, whose column space code $C(L)$ has 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 $t \leq d-2$ messages, and is completely insecure if the adversary knows in advance more than $n - d$ messages. Strong security is examined under the conditions that the adversary: (i) possesses $t$ messages in advance; (ii) eavesdrops at most $\mu$ transmissions; (iii) corrupts at most $\delta$ transmissions. We prove that for sufficiently large $q$, an optimal linear index code which is strongly secure against such an adversary has length $\kappa_q+\mu+2\delta$. Here $\kappa_q$ is a generalization of the min-rank over $F_q$ of the side information graph for the ICSI problem in its original formulation in the work of Bar- Yossef et al.
1102.2799
Computing the Ball Size of Frequency Permutations under Chebyshev Distance
cs.IT cs.DM math.IT
Let $S_n^\lambda$ be the set of all permutations over the multiset $\{\overbrace{1,...,1}^{\lambda},...,\overbrace{m,...,m}^\lambda\}$ where $n=m\lambda$. A frequency permutation array (FPA) of minimum distance $d$ is a subset of $S_n^\lambda$ in which every two elements have distance at least $d$. FPAs have many applications related to error correcting codes. In coding theory, the Gilbert-Varshamov bound and the sphere-packing bound are derived from the size of balls of certain radii. We propose two efficient algorithms that compute the ball size of frequency permutations under Chebyshev distance. Both methods extend previous known results. The first one runs in $O({2d\lambda \choose d\lambda}^{2.376}\log n)$ time and $O({2d\lambda \choose d\lambda}^{2})$ space. The second one runs in $O({2d\lambda \choose d\lambda}{d\lambda+\lambda\choose \lambda}\frac{n}{\lambda})$ time and $O({2d\lambda \choose d\lambda})$ space. For small constants $\lambda$ and $d$, both are efficient in time and use constant storage space.
1102.2808
Transductive Ordinal Regression
cs.LG
Ordinal regression is commonly formulated as a multi-class problem with ordinal constraints. The challenge of designing accurate classifiers for ordinal regression generally increases with the number of classes involved, due to the large number of labeled patterns that are needed. The availability of ordinal class labels, however, is often costly to calibrate or difficult to obtain. Unlabeled patterns, on the other hand, often exist in much greater abundance and are freely available. To take benefits from the abundance of unlabeled patterns, we present a novel transductive learning paradigm for ordinal regression in this paper, namely Transductive Ordinal Regression (TOR). The key challenge of the present study lies in the precise estimation of both the ordinal class label of the unlabeled data and the decision functions of the ordinal classes, simultaneously. The core elements of the proposed TOR include an objective function that caters to several commonly used loss functions casted in transductive settings, for general ordinal regression. A label swapping scheme that facilitates a strictly monotonic decrease in the objective function value is also introduced. Extensive numerical studies on commonly used benchmark datasets including the real world sentiment prediction problem are then presented to showcase the characteristics and efficacies of the proposed transductive ordinal regression. Further, comparisons to recent state-of-the-art ordinal regression methods demonstrate the introduced transductive learning paradigm for ordinal regression led to the robust and improved performance.
1102.2816
Location-Oblivious Data Transfer with Flying Entangled Qudits
quant-ph cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
We present a simple and practical quantum protocol involving two mistrustful agencies in Minkowski space, which allows Alice to transfer data to Bob at a spacetime location that neither can predict in advance. The location depends on both Alice's and Bob's actions. The protocol guarantees unconditionally to Alice that Bob learns the data at a randomly determined location; it guarantees to Bob that Alice will not learn the transfer location even after the protocol is complete. The task implemented, transferring data at a space-time location that remains hidden from the transferrer, has no precise analogue in non-relativistic quantum cryptography. It illustrates further the scope for novel cryptographic applications of relativistic quantum theory.
1102.2819
Parameter Identification for Markov Models of Biochemical Reactions
q-bio.QM cs.CE
We propose a numerical technique for parameter inference in Markov models of biological processes. Based on time-series data of a process we estimate the kinetic rate constants by maximizing the likelihood of the data. The computation of the likelihood relies on a dynamic abstraction of the discrete state space of the Markov model which successfully mitigates the problem of state space largeness. We compare two variants of our method to state-of-the-art, recently published methods and demonstrate their usefulness and efficiency on several case studies from systems biology.
1102.2825
Algorithmic Aspects of Energy-Delay Tradeoff in Multihop Cooperative Wireless Networks
math.OC cs.DS cs.IT math.IT
We consider the problem of energy-efficient transmission in delay constrained cooperative multihop wireless networks. The combinatorial nature of cooperative multihop schemes makes it difficult to design efficient polynomial-time algorithms for deciding which nodes should take part in cooperation, and when and with what power they should transmit. In this work, we tackle this problem in memoryless networks with or without delay constraints, i.e., quality of service guarantee. We analyze a wide class of setups, including unicast, multicast, and broadcast, and two main cooperative approaches, namely: energy accumulation (EA) and mutual information accumulation (MIA). We provide a generalized algorithmic formulation of the problem that encompasses all those cases. We investigate the similarities and differences of EA and MIA in our generalized formulation. We prove that the broadcast and multicast problems are, in general, not only NP hard but also o(log(n)) inapproximable. We break these problems into three parts: ordering, scheduling and power control, and propose a novel algorithm that, given an ordering, can optimally solve the joint power allocation and scheduling problems simultaneously in polynomial time. We further show empirically that this algorithm used in conjunction with an ordering derived heuristically using the Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm yields near-optimal performance in typical settings. For the unicast case, we prove that although the problem remains NP hard with MIA, it can be solved optimally and in polynomial time when EA is used. We further use our algorithm to study numerically the trade-off between delay and power-efficiency in cooperative broadcast and compare the performance of EA vs MIA as well as the performance of our cooperative algorithm with a smart noncooperative algorithm in a broadcast setting.
1102.2831
The effect of linguistic constraints on the large scale organization of language
cs.CL cs.SI
This paper studies the effect of linguistic constraints on the large scale organization of language. It describes the properties of linguistic networks built using texts of written language with the words randomized. These properties are compared to those obtained for a network built over the text in natural order. It is observed that the "random" networks too exhibit small-world and scale-free characteristics. They also show a high degree of clustering. This is indeed a surprising result - one that has not been addressed adequately in the literature. We hypothesize that many of the network statistics reported here studied are in fact functions of the distribution of the underlying data from which the network is built and may not be indicative of the nature of the concerned network.
1102.2836
Finite-Memory Prediction as Well as the Empirical Mean
cs.IT math.IT
The problem of universally predicting an individual continuous sequence using a deterministic finite-state machine (FSM) is considered. The empirical mean is used as a reference as it is the constant that fits a given sequence within a minimal square error. With this reference, a reasonable prediction performance is the regret, namely the excess square-error over the reference loss, the empirical variance. The paper analyzes the tradeoff between the number of states of the universal FSM and the attainable regret. It first studies the case of a small number of states. A class of machines, denoted Degenerated Tracking Memory (DTM), is defined and the optimal machine in this class is shown to be the optimal among all machines for small enough number of states. Unfortunately, DTM machines become suboptimal as the number of available states increases. Next, the Exponential Decaying Memory (EDM) machine, previously used for predicting binary sequences, is considered. While this machine has poorer performance for small number of states, it achieves a vanishing regret for large number of states. Following that, an asymptotic lower bound of O(k^{-2/3}) on the achievable regret of any k-state machine is derived. This bound is attained asymptotically by the EDM machine. Furthermore, a new machine, denoted the Enhanced Exponential Decaying Memory machine, is shown to outperform the EDM machine for any number of states.
1102.2837
Efficient Promotion Strategies in Hierarchical Organizations
physics.soc-ph cs.SI
The Peter principle has been recently investigated by means of an agent-based simulation and its validity has been numerically corroborated. It has been confirmed that, within certain conditions, it can really influence in a negative way the efficiency of a pyramidal organization adopting meritocratic promotions. It was also found that, in order to bypass these effects, alternative promotion strategies should be adopted, as for example a random selection choice. In this paper, within the same line of research, we study promotion strategies in a more realistic hierarchical and modular organization and we show the robustness of our previous results, extending their validity to a more general context. We discuss also why the adoption of these strategies could be useful for real organizations.
1102.2840
Spectrum Sensing Based on Blindly Learned Signal Feature
cs.IT math.IT
Spectrum sensing is the major challenge in the cognitive radio (CR). We propose to learn local feature and use it as the prior knowledge to improve the detection performance. We define the local feature as the leading eigenvector derived from the received signal samples. A feature learning algorithm (FLA) is proposed to learn the feature blindly. Then, with local feature as the prior knowledge, we propose the feature template matching algorithm (FTM) for spectrum sensing. We use the discrete Karhunen--Lo{\`e}ve transform (DKLT) to show that such a feature is robust against noise and has maximum effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Captured real-world data shows that the learned feature is very stable over time. It is almost unchanged in 25 seconds. Then, we test the detection performance of the FTM in very low SNR. Simulation results show that the FTM is about 2 dB better than the blind algorithms, and the FTM does not have the noise uncertainty problem.
1102.2856
Spatially Coupled Codes over the Multiple Access Channel
cs.IT math.IT
We consider spatially coupled code ensembles over a multiple access channel. Convolutional LDPC ensembles are one instance of spatially coupled codes. It was shown recently that, for transmission over the binary erasure channel, this coupling of individual code ensembles has the effect of increasing the belief propagation threshold of the coupled ensembles to the maximum a-posteriori threshold of the underlying ensemble. In this sense, spatially coupled codes were shown to be capacity achieving. It was observed, empirically, that these codes are universal in the sense that they achieve performance close to the Shannon threshold for any general binary-input memoryless symmetric channels. In this work we provide further evidence of the threshold saturation phenomena when transmitting over a class of multiple access channel. We show, by density evolution analysis and EXIT curves, that the belief propagation threshold of the coupled ensembles is very close to the ultimate Shannon limit.
1102.2868
Interference Networks with Point-to-Point Codes
cs.IT math.IT math.PR
The paper establishes the capacity region of the Gaussian interference channel with many transmitter-receiver pairs constrained to use point-to-point codes. The capacity region is shown to be strictly larger in general than the achievable rate regions when treating interference as noise, using successive interference cancellation decoding, and using joint decoding. The gains in coverage and achievable rate using the optimal decoder are analyzed in terms of ensemble averages using stochastic geometry. In a spatial network where the nodes are distributed according to a Poisson point process and the channel path loss exponent is $\beta > 2$, it is shown that the density of users that can be supported by treating interference as noise can scale no faster than $B^{2/\beta}$ as the bandwidth $B$ grows, while the density of users can scale linearly with $B$ under optimal decoding.
1102.2881
Modified Orthogonal Matching Pursuit Algorithm for Cognitive Radio Wideband Spectrum Sensing
cs.IT math.IT
Sampling rate is the bottleneck for spectrum sensing over multi-GHz bandwidth. Recent progress in compressed sensing (CS) initialized several sub-Nyquist rate approaches to overcome the problem. However, efforts to design CS reconstruction algorithms for wideband spectrum sensing are very limited. It is possible to further reduce the sampling rate requirement and improve reconstruction performance via algorithms considering prior knowledge of cognitive radio spectrum usages. In this paper, we group the usages of cognitive radio spectrum into three categories and propose a modified orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm for wideband spectrum sensing. Simulation results show that this modified OMP algorithm outperforms two modified basis pursuit de-noising (BPDN) algorithms in terms of reconstruction performance and computation time.
1102.2890
Some Notes on Quantum Information Theory and Emerging Computing Technologies
cs.IT math.IT quant-ph
It is considered an interdependence of the theory of quantum computing and some perspective information technologies. A couple of illustrative and useful examples are discussed. The reversible computing from very beginning had the serious impact on the design of quantum computers and it is revisited first. Some applications of ternary circuits are also quite instructive and it may be useful in the quantum information theory.
1102.2891
Usage Bibliometrics
cs.DL astro-ph.IM cs.IR physics.soc-ph
Scholarly usage data provides unique opportunities to address the known shortcomings of citation analysis. However, the collection, processing and analysis of usage data remains an area of active research. This article provides a review of the state-of-the-art in usage-based informetric, i.e. the use of usage data to study the scholarly process.
1102.2904
The Asymptotic Limits of Interference in Multicell Networks with Channel Aware Scheduling
cs.IT math.IT
Interference is emerging as a fundamental bottleneck in many important wireless communication scenarios, including dense cellular networks and cognitive networks with spectrum sharing by multiple service providers. Although multipleantenna (MIMO) signal processing is known to offer useful degrees of freedom to cancel interference, extreme-value theoretic analysis recently showed that, even in the absence of MIMO processing, the scaling law of the capacity in the number of users for a multi-cell network with and without inter-cell interference was asymptotically identical provided a simple signal to noise and interference ratio (SINR) maximizing scheduler is exploited. This suggests that scheduling can help reduce inter-cell interference substantially, thus possibly limiting the need for multiple-antenna processing. However, the convergence limits of interference after scheduling in a multi-cell setting are not yet identified. In this paper1 we analyze such limits theoretically. We consider channel statistics under Rayleigh fading with equal path loss for all users or with unequal path loss. We uncover two surprisingly different behaviors for such systems. For the equal path loss case, we show that scheduling alone can cause the residual interference to converge to zero for large number of users. With unequal path loss however, the interference are shown to converge in average to a nonzero constant. Simulations back our findings.
1102.2928
Density Evolution Analysis of Node-Based Verification-Based Algorithms in Compressed Sensing
cs.IT math.IT
In this paper, we present a new approach for the analysis of iterative node-based verification-based (NB-VB) recovery algorithms in the context of compressive sensing. These algorithms are particularly interesting due to their low complexity (linear in the signal dimension $n$). The asymptotic analysis predicts the fraction of unverified signal elements at each iteration $\ell$ in the asymptotic regime where $n \rightarrow \infty$. The analysis is similar in nature to the well-known density evolution technique commonly used to analyze iterative decoding algorithms. To perform the analysis, a message-passing interpretation of NB-VB algorithms is provided. This interpretation lacks the extrinsic nature of standard message-passing algorithms to which density evolution is usually applied. This requires a number of non-trivial modifications in the analysis. The analysis tracks the average performance of the recovery algorithms over the ensembles of input signals and sensing matrices as a function of $\ell$. Concentration results are devised to demonstrate that the performance of the recovery algorithms applied to any choice of the input signal over any realization of the sensing matrix follows the deterministic results of the analysis closely. Simulation results are also provided which demonstrate that the proposed asymptotic analysis matches the performance of recovery algorithms for large but finite values of $n$. Compared to the existing technique for the analysis of NB-VB algorithms, which is based on numerically solving a large system of coupled differential equations, the proposed method is much simpler and more accurate.
1102.2933
A FEniCS-Based Programming Framework for Modeling Turbulent Flow by the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations
cs.CE physics.comp-ph physics.flu-dyn
Finding an appropriate turbulence model for a given flow case usually calls for extensive experimentation with both models and numerical solution methods. This work presents the design and implementation of a flexible, programmable software framework for assisting with numerical experiments in computational turbulence. The framework targets Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes models, discretized by finite element methods. The novel implementation makes use of Python and the FEniCS package, the combination of which leads to compact and reusable code, where model- and solver-specific code resemble closely the mathematical formulation of equations and algorithms. The presented ideas and programming techniques are also applicable to other fields that involve systems of nonlinear partial differential equations. We demonstrate the framework in two applications and investigate the impact of various linearizations on the convergence properties of nonlinear solvers for a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model.
1102.2935
Fundamental Limits of Infinite Constellations in MIMO Fading Channels
cs.IT math.IT
The fundamental and natural connection between the infinite constellation (IC) dimension and the best diversity order it can achieve is investigated in this paper. In the first part of this work we develop an upper bound on the diversity order of IC's for any dimension and any number of transmit and receive antennas. By choosing the right dimensions, we prove in the second part of this work that IC's in general and lattices in particular can achieve the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff of finite constellations. This work gives a framework for designing lattices for multiple-antenna channels using lattice decoding.
1102.2936
Decoding by Embedding: Correct Decoding Radius and DMT Optimality
cs.IT math.IT
The closest vector problem (CVP) and shortest (nonzero) vector problem (SVP) are the core algorithmic problems on Euclidean lattices. They are central to the applications of lattices in many problems of communications and cryptography. Kannan's \emph{embedding technique} is a powerful technique for solving the approximate CVP, yet its remarkable practical performance is not well understood. In this paper, the embedding technique is analyzed from a \emph{bounded distance decoding} (BDD) viewpoint. We present two complementary analyses of the embedding technique: We establish a reduction from BDD to Hermite SVP (via unique SVP), which can be used along with any Hermite SVP solver (including, among others, the Lenstra, Lenstra and Lov\'asz (LLL) algorithm), and show that, in the special case of LLL, it performs at least as well as Babai's nearest plane algorithm (LLL-aided SIC). The former analysis helps to explain the folklore practical observation that unique SVP is easier than standard approximate SVP. It is proven that when the LLL algorithm is employed, the embedding technique can solve the CVP provided that the noise norm is smaller than a decoding radius $\lambda_1/(2\gamma)$, where $\lambda_1$ is the minimum distance of the lattice, and $\gamma \approx O(2^{n/4})$. This substantially improves the previously best known correct decoding bound $\gamma \approx {O}(2^{n})$. Focusing on the applications of BDD to decoding of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, we also prove that BDD of the regularized lattice is optimal in terms of the diversity-multiplexing gain tradeoff (DMT), and propose practical variants of embedding decoding which require no knowledge of the minimum distance of the lattice and/or further improve the error performance.
1102.2939
On the Decoding Complexity of Cyclic Codes Up to the BCH Bound
cs.IT math.IT
The standard algebraic decoding algorithm of cyclic codes $[n,k,d]$ up to the BCH bound $t$ is very efficient and practical for relatively small $n$ while it becomes unpractical for large $n$ as its computational complexity is $O(nt)$. Aim of this paper is to show how to make this algebraic decoding computationally more efficient: in the case of binary codes, for example, the complexity of the syndrome computation drops from $O(nt)$ to $O(t\sqrt n)$, and that of the error location from $O(nt)$ to at most $\max \{O(t\sqrt n), O(t^2\log(t)\log(n))\}$.
1102.2946
A Large Deviations Result for Aggregation of Independent Noisy Observations
cs.IT math.IT
Sensing and aggregation of noisy observations should not be considered as separate issues. The quality of collective estimation involves a difficult tradeoff between sensing quality which increases by increasing the number of sensors, and aggregation quality which typically decreases if the number of sensors is too large. We examine a strategy for optimal aggregation for an ensemble of independent sensors with constrained system capacity. We show that in the large capacity limit larger scale aggregation always outperforms smaller scale aggregation at higher noise levels, while below a critical value of noise, there exist moderate scale aggregation levels at which optimal estimation is realized.
1102.2950
Kron Reduction of Graphs with Applications to Electrical Networks
math.CO cs.DM cs.SY math-ph math.MP math.OC
Consider a weighted and undirected graph, possibly with self-loops, and its corresponding Laplacian matrix, possibly augmented with additional diagonal elements corresponding to the self-loops. The Kron reduction of this graph is again a graph whose Laplacian matrix is obtained by the Schur complement of the original Laplacian matrix with respect to a subset of nodes. The Kron reduction process is ubiquitous in classic circuit theory and in related disciplines such as electrical impedance tomography, smart grid monitoring, transient stability assessment in power networks, or analysis and simulation of induction motors and power electronics. More general applications of Kron reduction occur in sparse matrix algorithms, multi-grid solvers, finite--element analysis, and Markov chains. The Schur complement of a Laplacian matrix and related concepts have also been studied under different names and as purely theoretic problems in the literature on linear algebra. In this paper we propose a general graph-theoretic framework for Kron reduction that leads to novel and deep insights both on the mathematical and the physical side. We show the applicability of our framework to various practical problem setups arising in engineering applications and computation. Furthermore, we provide a comprehensive and detailed graph-theoretic analysis of the Kron reduction process encompassing topological, algebraic, spectral, resistive, and sensitivity analyses. Throughout our theoretic elaborations we especially emphasize the practical applicability of our results.
1102.2955
Quantum interference channels
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
The discrete memoryless interference channel is modelled as a conditional probability distribution with two outputs depending on two inputs and has widespread applications in practical communication scenarios. In this paper, we introduce and study the quantum interference channel, a generalization of a two-input, two-output memoryless channel to the setting of quantum Shannon theory. We discuss three different coding strategies and obtain corresponding achievable rate regions for quantum interference channels. We calculate the capacity regions in the special cases of "very strong" and "strong" interference. The achievability proof in the case of "strong" interference exploits a novel quantum simultaneous decoder for two-sender quantum multiple access channels. We formulate a conjecture regarding the existence of a quantum simultaneous decoder in the three-sender case and use it to state the rates achievable by a quantum Han-Kobayashi strategy.
1102.2969
Efficient and scalable geometric hashing method for searching protein 3D structures
cs.DB q-bio.QM
As the structural databases continue to expand, efficient methods are required to search similar structures of the query structure from the database. There are many previous works about comparing protein 3D structures and scanning the database with a query structure. However, they generally have limitations on practical use because of large computational and storage requirements. We propose two new types of queries for searching similar sub-structures on the structural database: LSPM (Local Spatial Pattern Matching) and RLSPM (Reverse LSPM). Between two types of queries, we focus on RLSPM problem, because it is more practical and general than LSPM. As a naive algorithm, we adopt geometric hashing techniques to RLSPM problem and then propose our proposed algorithm which improves the baseline algorithm to deal with large-scale data and provide an efficient matching algorithm. We employ the sub-sampling and Z-ordering to reduce the storage requirement and execution time, respectively. We conduct our experiments to show the correctness and reliability of the proposed method. Our experiment shows that the true positive rate is at least 0.8 using the reliability measure.
1102.2975
Decentralized Restless Bandit with Multiple Players and Unknown Dynamics
math.OC cs.LG cs.SY math.PR
We consider decentralized restless multi-armed bandit problems with unknown dynamics and multiple players. 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. Players activating the same arm at the same time collide and suffer from reward loss. The objective is to maximize the long-term reward by designing a decentralized arm selection policy to address unknown reward models and collisions among players. A decentralized policy is constructed that achieves a regret with logarithmic order when an arbitrary nontrivial bound on certain system parameters is known. When no knowledge about the system is available, we extend the policy to achieve a regret arbitrarily close to the logarithmic order. The result finds applications in communication networks, financial investment, and industrial engineering.
1102.2984
Hybrid Model for Solving Multi-Objective Problems Using Evolutionary Algorithm and Tabu Search
cs.AI
This paper presents a new multi-objective hybrid model that makes cooperation between the strength of research of neighborhood methods presented by the tabu search (TS) and the important exploration capacity of evolutionary algorithm. This model was implemented and tested in benchmark functions (ZDT1, ZDT2, and ZDT3), using a network of computers.
1102.2986
Sidon Sequences and Doubly Periodic Two-Dimensional Synchronization Patterns
cs.IT math.IT
Sidon sequences and their generalizations have found during the years and especially recently various applications in coding theory. One of the most important applications of these sequences is in the connection of synchronization patterns. A few constructions of two-dimensional synchronization patterns are based on these sequences. In this paper we present sufficient conditions that a two-dimensional synchronization pattern can be transformed into a Sidon sequence. We also present a new construction for Sidon sequences over an alphabet of size q(q-1), where q is a power of a prime.
1102.3002
Secure Multiplex Network Coding
cs.IT cs.CR math.IT
In the secure network coding for multicasting, there is loss of information rate due to inclusion of random bits at the source node. We show a method to eliminate that loss of information rate by using multiple statistically independent messages to be kept secret from an eavesdropper. The proposed scheme is an adaptation of Yamamoto et al.'s secure multiplex coding to the secure network coding.