4,610 research outputs found
Positive Definite Kernels in Machine Learning
This survey is an introduction to positive definite kernels and the set of
methods they have inspired in the machine learning literature, namely kernel
methods. We first discuss some properties of positive definite kernels as well
as reproducing kernel Hibert spaces, the natural extension of the set of
functions associated with a kernel defined
on a space . We discuss at length the construction of kernel
functions that take advantage of well-known statistical models. We provide an
overview of numerous data-analysis methods which take advantage of reproducing
kernel Hilbert spaces and discuss the idea of combining several kernels to
improve the performance on certain tasks. We also provide a short cookbook of
different kernels which are particularly useful for certain data-types such as
images, graphs or speech segments.Comment: draft. corrected a typo in figure
A Geometric Variational Approach to Bayesian Inference
We propose a novel Riemannian geometric framework for variational inference
in Bayesian models based on the nonparametric Fisher-Rao metric on the manifold
of probability density functions. Under the square-root density representation,
the manifold can be identified with the positive orthant of the unit
hypersphere in L2, and the Fisher-Rao metric reduces to the standard L2 metric.
Exploiting such a Riemannian structure, we formulate the task of approximating
the posterior distribution as a variational problem on the hypersphere based on
the alpha-divergence. This provides a tighter lower bound on the marginal
distribution when compared to, and a corresponding upper bound unavailable
with, approaches based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence. We propose a novel
gradient-based algorithm for the variational problem based on Frechet
derivative operators motivated by the geometry of the Hilbert sphere, and
examine its properties. Through simulations and real-data applications, we
demonstrate the utility of the proposed geometric framework and algorithm on
several Bayesian models
Out-of-sample generalizations for supervised manifold learning for classification
Supervised manifold learning methods for data classification map data samples
residing in a high-dimensional ambient space to a lower-dimensional domain in a
structure-preserving way, while enhancing the separation between different
classes in the learned embedding. Most nonlinear supervised manifold learning
methods compute the embedding of the manifolds only at the initially available
training points, while the generalization of the embedding to novel points,
known as the out-of-sample extension problem in manifold learning, becomes
especially important in classification applications. In this work, we propose a
semi-supervised method for building an interpolation function that provides an
out-of-sample extension for general supervised manifold learning algorithms
studied in the context of classification. The proposed algorithm computes a
radial basis function (RBF) interpolator that minimizes an objective function
consisting of the total embedding error of unlabeled test samples, defined as
their distance to the embeddings of the manifolds of their own class, as well
as a regularization term that controls the smoothness of the interpolation
function in a direction-dependent way. The class labels of test data and the
interpolation function parameters are estimated jointly with a progressive
procedure. Experimental results on face and object images demonstrate the
potential of the proposed out-of-sample extension algorithm for the
classification of manifold-modeled data sets
Conic Optimization Theory: Convexification Techniques and Numerical Algorithms
Optimization is at the core of control theory and appears in several areas of
this field, such as optimal control, distributed control, system
identification, robust control, state estimation, model predictive control and
dynamic programming. The recent advances in various topics of modern
optimization have also been revamping the area of machine learning. Motivated
by the crucial role of optimization theory in the design, analysis, control and
operation of real-world systems, this tutorial paper offers a detailed overview
of some major advances in this area, namely conic optimization and its emerging
applications. First, we discuss the importance of conic optimization in
different areas. Then, we explain seminal results on the design of hierarchies
of convex relaxations for a wide range of nonconvex problems. Finally, we study
different numerical algorithms for large-scale conic optimization problems.Comment: 18 page
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