2330317
Semi-Supervised Discriminant Analysis using robust path-based similarity
Linear discriminant analysis (LDA), which works by maximizing the within-class similarity and minimizing the between-class similarity simultaneously, is a popular dimensionality reduction technique in pattern recognition and machine learning. In real-world applications when labeled data are limited, LDA does not work well. Under many situations, however, it is easy to obtain unlabeled data in large quantities. In this paper, we propose a novel dimensionality reduction method, called semi-supervised discriminant analysis (SSDA), which can utilize both labeled and unlabeled data to perform dimensionality reduction in the semi-supervised setting. Our method uses a robust path-based similarity measure to capture the manifold structure of the data and then uses the obtained similarity to maximize the separability between different classes. A kernel extension of the proposed method for nonlinear dimensionality reduction in the semi-supervised setting is also presented. Experiments on face recognition demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
4832713
Heteroscedastic Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis with Semi-supervised Extension
Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is a commonly used method for dimensionality reduction. Despite its successes, it has limitations under some situations, including the small sample size problem, the homoscedasticity assumption that different classes have the same Gaussian distribution, and its inability to produce probabilistic output and handle missing data. In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised and heteroscedastic extension of probabilistic LDA, called S2HPLDA, which aims at overcoming all these limitations under a common principled framework. Moreover, we apply automatic relevance determination to determine the required dimensionality of the low-dimensional space for dimensionality reduction. We empirically compare our method with several related probabilistic subspace methods on some face and object databases. Very promising results are obtained from the experiments showing the effectiveness of our proposed method.
15044843
Learning from facial aging patterns for automatic age estimation
Age Specific Human-Computer Interaction (ASHCI) has vast potential applications in daily life. However, automatic age estimation technique is still underdeveloped. One of the main reasons is that the aging effects on human faces present several unique characteristics which make age estimation a challenging task that requires non-standard classification approaches. According to the speciality of the facial aging effects, this paper proposes the AGES (AGing pattErn Subspace) method for automatic age estimation. The basic idea is to model the aging pattern, which is defined as a sequence of personal aging face images, by learning a representative subspace. The proper aging pattern for an unseen face image is then determined by the projection in the subspace that can best reconstruct the face image, while the position of the face image in that aging pattern will indicate its age. The AGES method has shown encouraging performance in the comparative experiments either as an age estimator or as an age range estimator.
4846997
Semi-supervised Discriminant Analysis Via CCCP
Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is commonly used for dimensionality reduction. In real-world applications where labeled data are scarce, LDA does not work very well. However, unlabeled data are often available in large quantities. We propose a novel semi-supervised discriminant analysis algorithm called SSDA$_{\mathit{CCCP}}$. We utilize unlabeled data to maximize an optimality criterion of LDA and use the constrained concave-convex procedure to solve the optimization problem. The optimization procedure leads to estimation of the class labels for the unlabeled data. We propose a novel confidence measure for selecting those unlabeled data points with high confidence. The selected unlabeled data can then be used to augment the original labeled data set for performing LDA. We also propose a variant of SSDA$_{\mathit{CCCP}}$, called M-SSDA$_{\mathit{CCCP}}$, which adopts the manifold assumption to utilize the unlabeled data. Extensive experiments on many benchmark data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods.
2385031
Semi-Supervised Multi-Task Regression
Labeled data are needed for many machine learning applications but the amount available in some applications is scarce. Semi-supervised learning and multi-task learning are two of the approaches that have been proposed to alleviate this problem. In this paper, we seek to integrate these two approaches for regression applications. We first propose a new supervised multi-task regression method called SMTR, which is based on Gaussian processes (GP) with the assumption that the kernel parameters for all tasks share a common prior. We then incorporate unlabeled data into SMTR by changing the kernel function of the GP prior to a data-dependent kernel function, resulting in a semi-supervised extension of SMTR, called SSMTR. Moreover, we incorporate pairwise information into SSMTR to further boost the learning performance for applications in which such information is available. Experiments conducted on two commonly used data sets for multi-task regression demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods.
4002740
Selectivity Estimation by Batch-Query based Histogram and Parametric Method
Histograms are used extensively for selectivity estimation and approximate query processing. Workload-aware dynamic histograms can self-tune itself based on query feedback without scanning or sampling the underlaying datasets in a systematic and comprehensive way. Dynamic histograms allocate more buckets not only for the areas with most skewed data distribution but also according to users' interest. However, it takes long time to 'warm-up' (i.e., a large number of queries need to be processed before the histogram can provide a satisfactory coverage and accuracy). Thus, it is less effective to adapt with workload pattern changes. In this paper, we propose a novel online query scheduling algorithm which can significantly reduce the warm-up time for dynamic histograms. A parametric method is proposed to remedy the problem of inaccurate query selectivity estimation for the areas with poor histogram coverage. Experimental results demonstrate a significant effectiveness and accuracy improvement of our approach.
34552917
A new dynamic Bayesian network for integrating multiple data in estimating gene networks
We propose a novel method for estimating a gene regulatory network from both gene expression data and transcription factor binding location data. Based on dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) models, our method has two advantages. First, structural expectation maximization algorithm is embedded into a DBN framework, allowing it to learn the network with unknown structure and incomplete data, which cannot be tackled by expectation maximization algorithm. Second, since learning only from gene expression data is not enough to accurately estimate a gene network, we incorporate transcription factor binding location data through a structure prior. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by the analysis of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae cell cycle data. The experimental results show that this new approach suits for dealing with missing values. Furthermore, combination of heterogeneous data from multiple sources ensures that our results are more accurate than those recovered from gene expression data alone.
12120268
Performance of Coded pi/2 NS-8QAM Modulation
Spectrum and Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of a coded π/2 phase shift Non-Square (NS) 8 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) system are studied in this letter. The modulation process of this scheme removes all 180° phase shift between adjacent constellation points and contains inherent memory which can be treated as a type of inner coding in coded system. Simulation results show that this modulation scheme has much lower spectrum regrowth and better BER performance when passing through nonlinear channel compared with conventional mode.
2366521
Observant and Proactive Communication in Multi-agent Teamwork
This paper investigates effective human team cooperation and incorporated the findings into multi-agent teamwork. We describe how to give agents the same cooperative capabilities, observability and proactivity, that humans use. We show how agents can use observation of the environment and of teammates' actions to estimate the teammates' beliefs without generating unnecessary messages; we also show how agents can anticipate information needs among the team members and proactively communicate the information. Finally, we present two experiments that explore the effectiveness and the scalability of the use of observability and proactivity.
18823520
A Pursuit-Evasion Algorithm Based on Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning
This paper proposed a pursuit-evasion algorithm based on the Option method from hierarchical reinforcement learning and applied it into multi-robot pursuit-evasion game in 2D-Dynamic environment. The algorithm efficiency is studied by comparing it with Q-learning. We decompose the complex task with option method, and divide the learning process into two parts: High-level learning and Low-level learning, then design a new mechanism in order to make the learning process perform parallel. The simulation result shows the Option algorithm can efficiently reduce the complexity of pursuit-evasion task, avoid traditional reinforcement learning curse of dimensionality, and improve the learning result.