In view of the paradigm shift that makes science ever more data-driven, we consider deterministic scientific hypotheses as uncertain data. This vision comprises a probabilistic database (p-DB) design methodology for the systematic construction and management of U-relational hypothesis DBs, viz., @math -DBs. It introduces hypothesis management as a promising new class of applications for p-DBs. We illustrate the potential of @math -DB as a tool for deep predictive analytics.
Also related to the @math -DB vision is the topic of conditioning a p-DB. It has been firstly addressed by Koch and Olteanu motivated by data cleaning applications @cite_1 . They have introduced the assert operation to implement, as in AI, a kind of knowledge compilation, viz., world elimination in face of constraints (e.g., FDs). For hypothesis management, nonetheless, we need to apply by asserting observed data (not constraints). In @math , we present an example that settles the kind of conditioning problem that is relevant to @math -DB . In order to provide a concrete feel of our vision, in the next sections we present preliminary results on our methodology for constructing an @math -DB on top of MayBMS .
@cite_1
2564886761 2169600045 2952367005 2155723829
In this paper, we study the dominance relation under a stochastic setting. Let @math be a set of @math colored stochastic points in @math , each of which is associated with an existence probability. We investigate the problem of computing the probability that a realization of @math contains inter-color dominances, which we call the (CSD) problem. We propose the first algorithm to solve the CSD problem for @math in @math time. On the other hand, we prove that, for @math , even the CSD problem with a restricted color pattern is #P-hard. In addition, even if the existence probabilities are restricted to be @math , the problem remains #P-hard for @math . A simple FPRAS is then provided to approximate the desired probability in any dimension. We also study a variant of the CSD problem in which the dominance relation is considered with respect to not only the standard basis but any orthogonal basis of @math . Specifically, this variant, which we call the free-basis colored stochastic dominance (FBCSD) problem, considers the probability that a realization of @math contains inter-color dominances with respect to any orthogonal basis of @math . We show that the CSD problem is polynomial-time reducible to the FBCSD problem in the same dimension, which proves the #P-hardness of the latter for @math . Conversely, we reduce the FBCSD problem in @math to the CSD problem in @math , by which an @math time algorithm for the former is obtained. Past research on probabilistic databases has studied the problem of answering queries on a static database. Application scenarios of probabilistic databases however often involve the conditioning of a database using additional information in the form of new evidence. The conditioning problem is thus to transform a probabilistic database of priors into a posterior probabilistic database which is materialized for subsequent query processing or further refinement. It turns out that the conditioning problem is closely related to the problem of computing exact tuple confidence values. It is known that exact confidence computation is an NP-hard problem. This has led researchers to consider approximation techniques for confidence computation. However, neither conditioning nor exact confidence computation can be solved using such techniques. In this paper we present efficient techniques for both problems. We study several problem decomposition methods and heuristics that are based on the most successful search techniques from constraint satisfaction, such as the Davis-Putnam algorithm. We complement this with a thorough experimental evaluation of the algorithms proposed. Our experiments show that our exact algorithms scale well to realistic database sizes and can in some scenarios compete with the most efficient previous approximation algorithms. Past research on probabilistic databases has studied the problem of answering queries on a static database. Application scenarios of probabilistic databases however often involve the conditioning of a database using additional information in the form of new evidence. The conditioning problem is thus to transform a probabilistic database of priors into a posterior probabilistic database which is materialized for subsequent query processing or further refinement. It turns out that the conditioning problem is closely related to the problem of computing exact tuple confidence values. It is known that exact confidence computation is an NP-hard problem. This has led researchers to consider approximation techniques for confidence computation. However, neither conditioning nor exact confidence computation can be solved using such techniques. In this paper we present efficient techniques for both problems. We study several problem decomposition methods and heuristics that are based on the most successful search techniques from constraint satisfaction, such as the Davis-Putnam algorithm. We complement this with a thorough experimental evaluation of the algorithms proposed. Our experiments show that our exact algorithms scale well to realistic database sizes and can in some scenarios compete with the most efficient previous approximation algorithms. We discuss vision as a sensory modality for systems that interact flexibly with uncontrolled environments. Instead of trying to build a generic vision system that produces task-independent representations, we argue in favor of task-specific, learn-able representations. This concept is illustrated by two examples of our own work. First, our RLVC algorithm performs reinforcement learning directly on the visual input space. To make this very large space manageable, RLVC interleaves the reinforcement learner with a supervised classification algorithm that seeks to split perceptual states so as to reduce perceptual aliasing. This results in an adaptive discretization of the perceptual space based on the presence or absence of visual features. Its extension, RLJC, additionally handles continuous action spaces. In contrast to the minimalistic visual representations produced by RLVC and RLJC, our second method learns structural object models for robust object detection and pose estimation by probabilistic inference. To these models, the method associates grasp experiences autonomously learned by trial and error. These experiences form a non-parametric representation of grasp success likelihoods over gripper poses, which we call a grasp density. Thus, object detection in a novel scene simultaneously produces suitable grasping options.