A convex geometry based blind source separation method for separating nonnegative sources

This paper presents a convex geometry (CG)-based method for blind separation of nonnegative sources. First, the unaccessible source matrix is normalized to be column-sum-to-one by mapping the available observation matrix. Then, its zero-samples are found by searching the facets of the convex hullspanned by the mapped observations. Considering these zerosamples, a quadratic cost function with respect to each row of the unmixing matrix, together with a linear constraint in relation to the involved variables, is proposed. Upon which, an algorithm is presented to estimate the unmixing matrix by solving a classical convex optimization problem. Unlike the traditional blind source separation (BSS) methods, the CG-based method does not require the independence assumption, nor the uncorrelation assumption. Compared with the BSS methods that are specifically designed to distinguish between nonnegative sources, the proposed method requires a weaker sparsity condition. Provided simulation results illustrate the performance of our method

On the conditions for valid objective functions in blind separation of independent and dependent sources

It is well known that independent sources can be blindly detected and separated, one by one, from linear mixtures by identifying local extrema of certain objective functions (contrasts), like negentropy, Non-Gaussianity measures, kurtosis, etc. It was also suggested in [1], and verified in practice in [2,4], that some of these measures remain useful for particular cases with dependent sources, but not much work has been done in this respect and a rigorous theoretical ground still lacks. In this paper, it is shown that, if a specific type of pairwise dependence among sources exists, called Linear Conditional Expectation (LCE) law, then a family of objective functions are valid for their separation. Interestingly, this particular type of dependence arises in modeling material abundances in the spectral unmixing problem of remote sensed images. In this work, a theoretical novel approach is used to analyze Shannon entropy (SE), Non-Gaussianity (NG) measure and absolute moments of arbitrarily order, i.e. Generic Absolute (GA) moments for the separation of sources allowing them to be dependent. We provide theoretical results that show the conditions under which sources are isolated by searching for a maximum or a minimum. Also, simple and efficient algorithms based on Parzen windows estimations of probability density functions (pdfs) and Newton-Raphson iterations are proposed for the separation of dependent or independent sources. A set of simulation results on synthetic data and an application to the blind spectral unmixing problem are provided in order to validate our theoretical results and compare these algorithms against FastICA and a very recently proposed algorithm for dependent sources, the Bounded Component Analysis algorithm (BCA). It is shown that, for dependent sources verifying the LCE law, the NG measure provides the best separation results.Fil: Caiafa, Cesar Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (i); Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentin

Using generic order moments for separation of dependent sources with linear conditional expectations

In this work, we approach the blind separation of dependent sources based only on a set of their linear mixtures. We prove that, when the sources have a pairwise dependence characterized by the linear conditional expectation (LCE) law, we are able to separate them by maximizing or minimizing a Generic Order Moment (GOM) of their mixture. This general measure includes the higher order as well as the fractional moment cases. Our results, not only confirm some of the existing results for the independent sources case but also they allow us to explore new objective functions for Dependent Component Analysis. A set of examples illustrating the consequences of our theory is presented. Also, a comparison of our GOM based algorithm, the classical FASTICA and a very recently proposed algorithm for dependent sources, the Bounded Component Analysis (BCA) algorithm, is shown.Fil: Caiafa, César Federico. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; ArgentinaFil: Kuruoglu, Ercan E.. Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione; Italia. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Italia21ª European Signal Processing ConferenceMarrakechMarruecosEuropean Signal Processing Society (EURASIP

Problems and applications of Discrete and Computational Geometry concerning graphs, polygons, and points in the plane

Esta tesistratasobreproblemasyaplicacionesdelageometríadiscretay computacional enelplano,relacionadosconpolígonos,conjuntosdepuntos y grafos. Después deunprimercapítulointroductorio,enelcapítulo 2 estudiamos una generalizacióndeunfamosoproblemadevisibilidadenelámbitodela O-convexidad. Dadounconjuntodeorientaciones(ángulos) O, decimosque una curvaes O-convexa si suintersecciónconcualquierrectaparalelaauna orientaciónde O es conexa.Cuando O = {0◦, 90◦}, nosencontramosenel caso delaortoconvexidad,consideradodeespecialrelevancia.El O-núcleo de unpolígonoeselconjuntodepuntosdelmismoquepuedenserconectados con cualquierotropuntodelpolígonomedianteunacurva O-convexa.En este trabajoobtenemos,para O = {0◦} y O = {0◦, 90◦}, unalgoritmopara calcular ymantenerel O-núcleodeunpolígonoconformeelconjuntode orientaciones O rota. Dichoalgoritmoproporciona,además,losángulosde rotación paralosqueel O-núcleotieneáreayperímetromáximos. En elcapítulo 3 consideramos unaversiónbicromáticadeunproblema combinatorioplanteadoporNeumann-LarayUrrutia.Enconcreto,de- mostramos quetodoconjuntode n puntosazulesy n puntosrojosenel plano contieneunparbicromáticodepuntostalquetodocírculoquelos tenga ensufronteracontieneensuinterioralmenos n(1− 1 √2 )−o(n) puntos del conjunto.Esteproblemaestáfuertementeligadoalcálculodelosdiagra- mas deVoronoideordensuperiordelconjuntodepuntos,pueslasaristas de estosdiagramascontienenprecisamentetodosloscentrosdeloscírculos que pasanpordospuntosdelconjunto.Porello,nuestralíneadetrabajo actual enesteproblemaconsisteenexplorarestaconexiónrealizandoun estudio detalladodelaspropiedadesdelosdiagramasdeVoronoideorden superior. En loscapítulos 4 y 5, planteamosdosaplicacionesdelateoríadegrafos 6 7 al análisissensorialyalcontroldeltráficoaéreo,respectivamente.Enel primer caso,presentamosunnuevométodoquecombinatécnicasestadísti- cas ygeométricasparaanalizarlasopinionesdelosconsumidores,recogidas a travésdemapeoproyectivo.Estemétodoesunavariacióndelmétodo SensoGraph ypretendecapturarlaesenciadelmapeoproyectivomediante el cálculodelasdistanciaseuclídeasentrelosparesdemuestrasysunor- malización enelintervalo [0, 1]. Acontinuación,aplicamoselmétodoaun ejemplo prácticoycomparamossusresultadosconlosobtenidosmediante métodosclásicosdeanálisissensorialsobreelmismoconjuntodedatos. En elsegundocaso,utilizamoslatécnicadelespectro-coloreadodegrafos para plantearunmodelodecontroldeltráficoaéreoquepretendeoptimizar el consumodecombustibledelosavionesalmismotiempoqueseevitan colisiones entreellos.This thesisdealswithproblemsandapplicationsofdiscreteandcomputa- tional geometryintheplane,concerningpolygons,pointsets,andgraphs. After afirstintroductorychapter,inChapter 2 westudyageneraliza- tion ofafamousvisibilityproblemintheframeworkof O-convexity. Given a setoforientations(angles) O, wesaythatacurveis O-convex if itsin- tersection withanylineparalleltoanorientationin O is connected.When O = {0◦, 90◦}, wefindourselvesinthecaseoforthoconvexity,consideredof specialrelevance.The O-kernel of apolygonisthesubsetofpointsofthe polygonthatcanbeconnectedtoanyotherpointofthepolygonwithan O-convexcurve.Inthisworkweobtain,for O = {0◦} and O = {0◦, 90◦}, an algorithm tocomputeandmaintainthe O-kernelofapolygonasthesetof orientations O rotates. Thisalgorithmalsoprovidestheanglesofrotation that maximizetheareaandperimeterofthe O-kernel. In Chapter 3, weconsiderabichromaticversionofacombinatorialprob- lem posedbyNeumann-LaraandUrrutia.Specifically,weprovethatevery set of n blue and n red pointsintheplanecontainsabichromaticpairof pointssuchthateverycirclehavingthemonitsboundarycontainsatleast n(1 − 1 √2 ) − o(n) pointsofthesetinitsinterior.Thisproblemisclosely related toobtainingthehigherorderVoronoidiagramsofthepointset.The edges ofthesediagramscontain,precisely,allthecentersofthecirclesthat pass throughtwopointsoftheset.Therefore,ourcurrentlineofresearch on thisproblemconsistsonexploringthisconnectionbystudyingindetail the propertiesofhigherorderVoronoidiagrams. In Chapters 4 and 5, weconsidertwoapplicationsofgraphtheoryto sensory analysisandairtrafficmanagement,respectively.Inthefirstcase, weintroduceanewmethodwhichcombinesgeometricandstatisticaltech- niques toanalyzeconsumeropinions,collectedthroughprojectivemapping. This methodisavariationofthemethodSensoGraph.Itaimstocapture 4 5 the essenceofprojectivemappingbycomputingtheEcuclideandistances betweenpairsofsamplesandnormalizingthemtotheinterval [0, 1]. Weap- ply themethodtoareal-lifescenarioandcompareitsperformancewiththe performanceofclassicmethodsofsensoryanalysisoverthesamedataset. In thesecondcase,weusetheSpectrumGraphColoringtechniquetopro- poseamodelforairtrafficmanagementthataimstooptimizetheamount of fuelusedbytheairplanes,whileavoidingcollisionsbetweenthem

Sparse and Unique Nonnegative Matrix Factorization Through Data Preprocessing

Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) has become a very popular technique in machine learning because it automatically extracts meaningful features through a sparse and part-based representation. However, NMF has the drawback of being highly ill-posed, that is, there typically exist many different but equivalent factorizations. In this paper, we introduce a completely new way to obtaining more well-posed NMF problems whose solutions are sparser. Our technique is based on the preprocessing of the nonnegative input data matrix, and relies on the theory of M-matrices and the geometric interpretation of NMF. This approach provably leads to optimal and sparse solutions under the separability assumption of Donoho and Stodden (NIPS, 2003), and, for rank-three matrices, makes the number of exact factorizations finite. We illustrate the effectiveness of our technique on several image datasets.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figure

Raw data pre-processing in the protozoa and metazoa identification by image analysis and multivariate statistical techniques

Different protozoa and metazoa populations develop in the activated sludge wastewater treatment processes and are highly dependent on the operating conditions. In the current work the protozoa and metazoa groups and species most frequent in wastewater treatment plants were studied, mainly the flagellate, sarcodine, and ciliate protozoa as well as the rotifer, gastrotrichia, and oligotrichia metazoa. The work is centered on the survey of the wastewater treatment plant conditions by protozoa and metazoa population using image analysis, discriminant analysis (DA), and neural networks (NNs) techniques, and its main objective was set on the evaluation of the importance of raw data pre-processing techniques in the final results. The main pre-processing techniques herein studied were the raw parameters reduction set by a joint cross-correlation and decision trees (DTs) procedure and two data normalization techniques: logarithmic normalization and standard deviation normalization. Regarding the parameters reduction methodology, the use of a joint DTs and correlation analysis (CA) procedure resulted in 28 and 30% reductions in terms of the initial parameters set for the stalked and non-stalked microorganisms, respectively. Consequently, the use of the reduced parameters set has proven to be a suitable starting point for both the DA and NNs methodologies, although for the DA an initial logarithmic normalization step is advisable. For the NNs analysis a standard deviation normalization procedure could be considered for the non-stalked microorganisms regarding the operating parameters assessment.National Council of Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil (CNPq) BI-EURAM III ALFA co-operation project (European Commission) (UFPE, Recife, Brasil) Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Amoeboid Shape Dynamics on Flat and Topographically Modified Surfaces

I present an analysis of the shape dynamics of the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, a model system for the study of cellular migration. To better understand cellular migration in complicated 3-D environments, cell migration was studied on simple 3-D surfaces, such as cliffs and ridges. D. discoideum interact with surfaces without forming mature focal adhesion complexes. The cellular response to the surface topography was characterized by measuring and looking for patterns in cell shape. Dynamic cell shape is a measure of the interaction between the internal biochemical state of a cell and its external environment. For D. discoideum migrating on flat surfaces, waves of high boundary curvature were observed to travel from the cell front to the cell back. Curvature waves are also easily seen in cells that do not adhere to a surface, such as cells that are electrostatically repelled from the coverslip or cells that are extended over the edge of micro-fabricated cliffs. At the leading edge of adhered cells, these curvature waves are associated with protrusive activity, suggesting that protrusive motion can be thought of as a wave-like process. The wave-like character of protrusions provides a plausible mechanism for the ability of cells to swim in viscous fluids and to navigate complex 3-D topography. Patterning of focal adhesion complexes has previously been implicated in contact guidance (polarization or migration parallel to linear topographical structures). However, significant contact guidance is observed in D. discoideum, which lack focal adhesion complexes. Analyzing the migration of cells on nanogratings of ridges spaced various distances apart, ridges spaced about 1.5 micrometers apart were found to guide cells best. Contact guidance was modeled as an interaction between wave-like processes internal to the cell and the periodicity of the nanograting. The observed wavelength and speed of the oscillations that best couple to the surface are consistent with those of protrusive dynamics. Dynamic sensing via actin or protrusive dynamics might then play a role in contact guidance

Optimization of dispersive coefficients in the homogenization of the wave equation in periodic structures

International audienceWe study dispersive effects of wave propagation in periodic media, which can be modelled by adding a fourth-order term in the homogenized equation. The corresponding fourth-order dispersive tensor is called Burnett tensor and we numerically optimize its values in order to minimize or maximize dispersion. More precisely, we consider the case of a two-phase composite medium with an 8-fold symmetry assumption of the periodicity cell in two space dimensions. We obtain upper and lower bound for the dispersive properties, along with optimal microgeometries