Marginal MAP inference involves making MAP predictions in systems defined with latent variables or missing information. It is significantly more difficult than pure marginalization and MAP tasks, for which a large class of efficient and convergent variational algorithms, such as dual decomposition, exist. In this work, we generalize dual decomposition to a generic power sum inference task, which includes marginal MAP, along with pure marginalization and MAP, as special cases. Our method is based on a block coordinate descent algorithm on a new convex decomposition bound, that is guaranteed to converge monotonically, and can be parallelized efficiently. We demonstrate our approach on marginal MAP queries defined on real-world problems from the UAI approximate inference challenge, showing that our framework is faster and more reliable than previous methods.
Variational upper bounds on MAP and the partition function, along with algorithms for providing fast, convergent optimization, have been widely studied in the last decade. In MAP, dual decomposition and linear programming methods have become a dominating approach, with numerous optimization techniques @cite_16 @cite_11 @cite_1 @cite_4 @cite_6 @cite_21 @cite_12 , and methods to tighten the approximations @cite_22 @cite_10 .
@cite_4 @cite_22 @cite_21 @cite_1 @cite_6 @cite_16 @cite_10 @cite_12 @cite_11
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In this paper, we study decomposition methods based on separable approximations for minimizing the augmented Lagrangian. In particular, we study and compare the diagonal quadratic approximation method DQAM of Mulvey and Ruszczynski [A diagonal quadratic approximation method for large scale linear programs, Oper. Res. Lett. 12 1992, pp. 205–215] and the parallel coordinate descent method PCDM of Richtarik and Takac [Parallel coordinate descent methods for big data optimization. Technical report, November 2012. arXiv:1212.0873]. We show that the two methods are equivalent for feasibility problems up to the selection of a step-size parameter. Furthermore, we prove an improved complexity bound for PCDM under strong convexity, and show that this bound is at least 8L′ Lω−12 times better than the best known bound for DQAM, where ω is the degree of partial separability and L’ and L are the maximum and average of the block Lipschitz constants of the gradient of the quadratic penalty appearing in the augmented Lagrangian. We present a novel dual decomposition approach to MAP inference with highly connected discrete graphical models. Decompositions into cyclic k-fan structured subproblems are shown to significantly tighten the Lagrangian relaxation relative to the standard local polytope relaxation, while enabling efficient integer programming for solving the subproblems. Additionally, we introduce modified update rules for maximizing the dual function that avoid oscillations and converge faster to an optimum of the relaxed problem, and never get stuck in nonoptimal fixed points. We consider a bilevel optimization approach for parameter learning in nonsmooth variational models. Existing approaches solve this problem by applying implicit differentiation to a sufficiently smooth approximation of the nondifferentiable lower level problem. We propose an alternative method based on differentiating the iterations of a nonlinear primal–dual algorithm. Our method computes exact (sub)gradients and can be applied also in the nonsmooth setting. We show preliminary results for the case of multi-label image segmentation. In this paper we present a new approach for tightening upper bounds on the partition function. Our upper bounds are based on fractional covering bounds on the entropy function, and result in a concave program to compute these bounds and a convex program to tighten them. To solve these programs effectively for general region graphs we utilize the entropy barrier method, thus decomposing the original programs by their dual programs and solve them with dual block optimization scheme. The entropy barrier method provides an elegant framework to generalize the message-passing scheme to high-order region graph, as well as to solve the block dual steps in closed-form. This is a key for computational relevancy for large problems with thousands of regions. Many-objective problems (MAPs) have put forward a number of challenges to classical Pareto-dominance based multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) for the past few years. Recently, researchers have suggested that MOEA D (multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition) can work for MAPs. However, there exist two difficulties in applying MOEA D to solve MAPs directly. One is that the number of constructed weight vectors is not arbitrary and the weight vectors are mainly distributed on the boundary of weight space for MAPs. The other is that the relationship between the optimal solution of subproblem and its weight vector is nonlinear for the Tchebycheff decomposition approach used by MOEA D. To deal with these two difficulties, we propose an improved MOEA D with uniform decomposition measurement and the modified Tchebycheff decomposition approach (MOEA D-UDM) in this paper. Firstly, a novel weight vectors initialization method based on the uniform decomposition measurement is introduced to obtain uniform weight vectors in any amount, which is one of great merits to use our proposed algorithm. The modified Tchebycheff decomposition approach, instead of the Tchebycheff decomposition approach, is used in MOEA D-UDM to alleviate the inconsistency between the weight vector of subproblem and the direction of its optimal solution in the Tchebycheff decomposition approach. The proposed MOEA D-UDM is compared with two state-of-the-art MOEAs, namely MOEA D and UMOEA D on a number of MAPs. Experimental results suggest that the proposed MOEA D-UDM outperforms or performs similarly to the other compared algorithms in terms of hypervolume and inverted generational distance metrics on different types of problems. The effects of uniform weight vector initializing method and the modified Tchebycheff decomposition are also studied separately. For variational problems of the form Infv∈V f(Av)+g(v) , we propose a dual method which decouples the difficulties relative to the functionals f and g from the possible ill-conditioning effects of the linear operator A. The approach is based on the use of an Augmented Lagrangian functional and leads to an efficient and simply implementable algorithm. We study also the finite element approximation of such problems, compatible with the use of our algorithm. The method is finally applied to solve several problems of continuum mechanics. Maximum a-posteriori (MAP) inference is an important task for many applications. Although the standard formulation gives rise to a hard combinatorial optimization problem, several effective approximations have been proposed and studied in recent years. We focus on linear programming (LP) relaxations, which have achieved state-of-the-art performance in many applications. However, optimization of the resulting program is in general challenging due to non-smoothness and complex non-separable constraints. Therefore, in this work we study the benefits of augmenting the objective function of the relaxation with strong convexity. Specifically, we introduce strong convexity by adding a quadratic term to the LP relaxation objective. We provide theoretical guarantees for the resulting programs, bounding the difference between their optimal value and the original optimum. Further, we propose suitable optimization algorithms and analyze their convergence. A number of linear programming relaxations have been proposed for finding most likely settings of the variables (MAP) in large probabilistic models. The relaxations are often succinctly expressed in the dual and reduce to dierent types of reparameterizations of the original model. The dual objectives are typically solved by performing local block coordinate descent steps. In this work, we show how to perform block coordinate descent on spanning trees of the graphical model. We also show how all of the earlier dual algorithms are related to each other, giving transformations from one type of reparameterization to another while maintaining monotonicity relative to a common objective function. Finally, we quantify when the MAP solution can and cannot be decoded directly from the dual LP relaxation. 0. Background Notes.- 1. Continuous Partitions of Unity.- 2. Absolutely Continuous Functions.- 3. Some Compactness Theorems.- 4. Weak Convergence and Asymptotic Center of Bounded Sequences.- 5. Closed Convex Hulls and the Mean-Value Theorem.- 6. Lower Semicontinuous Convex Functions and Projections of Best Approximation.- 7. A Concise Introduction to Convex Analysis.- 1. Set-Valued Maps.- 1. Set-Valued Maps and Continuity Concepts.- 2. Examples of Set-Valued Maps.- 3. Continuity Properties of Maps with Closed Convex Graph.- 4. Upper Hemicontinuous Maps and the Convergence Theorem.- 5. Hausdorff Topology.- 6. The Selection Problem.- 7. The Minimal Selection.- 8. Chebishev Selection.- 9. The Barycentric Selection.- 10. Selection Theorems for Locally Selectionable Maps.- 11. Michael's Selection Theorem.- 12. The Approximate Selection Theorem and Kakutani's Fixed Point Theorem.- 13. (7-Selectionable Maps.- 14. Measurable Selections.- 2. Existence of Solutions to Differential Inclusions.- 1. Convex Valued Differential Inclusions.- 2. Qualitative Properties of the Set of Trajectories of Convex-Valued Differential Inclusions.- 3. Nonconvex-Valued Differential Inclusions.- 4. Differential Inclusions with Lipschitzean Maps and the Relaxation Theorem.- 5. The Fixed-Point Approach.- 6. The Lower Semicontinuous Case.- 3. Differential Inclusions with Maximal Monotone Maps.- 1. Maximal Monotone Maps.- 2. Existence and Uniqueness of Solutions to Differential Inclusions with Maximal Monotone Maps.- 3. Asymptotic Behavior of Trajectories and the Ergodic Theorem.- 4. Gradient Inclusions.- 5. Application: Gradient Methods for Constrained Minimization Problems.- 4. Viability Theory: The Nonconvex Case.- 1. Bouligand's Contingent Cone.- 2. Viable and Monotone Trajectories.- 3. Contingent Derivative of a Set-Valued Map.- 4. The Time Dependent Case.- 5. A Continuous Version of Newton's Method.- 6. A Viability Theorem for Continuous Maps with Nonconvex Images..- 7. Differential Inclusions with Memory.- 5. Viability Theory and Regulation of Controled Systems: The Convex Case.- 1. Tangent Cones and Normal Cones to Convex Sets.- 2. Viability Implies the Existence of an Equilibrium.- 3. Viability Implies the Existence of Periodic Trajectories.- 4. Regulation of Controled Systems Through Viability.- 5. Walras Equilibria and Dynamical Price Decentralization.- 6. Differential Variational Inequalities.- 7. Rate Equations and Inclusions.- 6. Liapunov Functions.- 1. Upper Contingent Derivative of a Real-Valued Function.- 2. Liapunov Functions and Existence of Equilibria.- 3. Monotone Trajectories of a Differential Inclusion.- 4. Construction of Liapunov Functions.- 5. Stability and Asymptotic Behavior of Trajectories.- Comments.