225 research outputs found
Improving the Scalability of XCS-Based Learning Classifier Systems
Using evolutionary intelligence and machine learning techniques, a broad
range of intelligent machines have been designed to perform different
tasks. An intelligent machine learns by perceiving its environmental status
and taking an action that maximizes its chances of success.
Human beings have the ability to apply knowledge learned from a
smaller problem to more complex, large-scale problems of the same or a
related domain, but currently the vast majority of evolutionary machine
learning techniques lack this ability. This lack of ability to apply the already
learned knowledge of a domain results in consuming more than
the necessary resources and time to solve complex, large-scale problems
of the domain. As the problem increases in size, it becomes difficult and
even sometimes impractical (if not impossible) to solve due to the needed
resources and time. Therefore, in order to scale in a problem domain, a
systemis needed that has the ability to reuse the learned knowledge of the
domain and/or encapsulate the underlying patterns in the domain.
To extract and reuse building blocks of knowledge or to encapsulate
the underlying patterns in a problem domain, a rich encoding is needed,
but the search space could then expand undesirably and cause bloat, e.g.
as in some forms of genetic programming (GP). Learning classifier systems
(LCSs) are a well-structured evolutionary computation based learning
technique that have pressures to implicitly avoid bloat, such as fitness
sharing through niche based reproduction.
The proposed thesis is that an LCS can scale to complex problems in
a domain by reusing the learnt knowledge from simpler problems of the
domain and/or encapsulating the underlying patterns in the domain. Wilsonâs
XCS is used to implement and test the proposed systems, which is a well-tested,
online learning and accuracy based LCS model. To extract the reusable building
blocks of knowledge, GP-tree like, code-fragments are introduced, which are more
than simply another representation (e.g. ternary or real-valued alphabets). This
thesis is extended to capture the underlying patterns in a problemusing a cyclic
representation. Hard problems are experimented to test the newly developed scalable
systems and compare them with benchmark techniques.
Specifically, this work develops four systems to improve the scalability
of XCS-based classifier systems. (1) Building blocks of knowledge are extracted
fromsmaller problems of a Boolean domain and reused in learning
more complex, large-scale problems in the domain, for the first time. By
utilizing the learnt knowledge from small-scale problems, the developed
XCSCFC (i.e. XCS with Code-Fragment Conditions) system readily solves
problems of a scale that existing LCS and GP approaches cannot, e.g. the
135-bitMUX problem. (2) The introduction of the code fragments in classifier
actions in XCSCFA (i.e. XCS with Code-Fragment Actions) enables the
rich representation of GP, which when couples with the divide and conquer
approach of LCS, to successfully solve various complex, overlapping
and niche imbalance Boolean problems that are difficult to solve using numeric
action based XCS. (3) The underlying patterns in a problem domain
are encapsulated in classifier rules encoded by a cyclic representation. The
developed XCSSMA system produces general solutions of any scale n for
a number of important Boolean problems, for the first time in the field of
LCS, e.g. parity problems. (4) Optimal solutions for various real-valued
problems are evolved by extending the existing real-valued XCSR system
with code-fragment actions to XCSRCFA. Exploiting the combined power
of GP and LCS techniques, XCSRCFA successfully learns various continuous
action and function approximation problems that are difficult to learn
using the base techniques.
This research work has shown that LCSs can scale to complex, largescale
problems through reusing learnt knowledge. The messy nature, disassociation of
message to condition order, masking, feature construction, and reuse of extracted
knowledge add additional abilities to the XCS family of LCSs. The ability to use
rich encoding in antecedent GP-like codefragments or consequent cyclic representation
leads to the evolution of accurate, maximally general and compact solutions in learning
various complex Boolean as well as real-valued problems. Effectively exploiting
the combined power of GP and LCS techniques, various continuous action
and function approximation problems are solved in a simple and straight
forward manner.
The analysis of the evolved rules reveals, for the first time in XCS, that
no matter how specific or general the initial classifiers are, all the optimal
classifiers are converged through the mechanism âbe specific then generalizeâ
near the final stages of evolution. Also that standard XCS does not use
all available information or all available genetic operators to evolve optimal
rules, whereas the developed code-fragment action based systems effectively use figure
and ground information during the training process.
Thiswork has created a platformto explore the reuse of learnt functionality,
not just terminal knowledge as present, which is needed to replicate human capabilities
Toward precision medicine with nanopore technology
Currently, when patients are diagnosed with cancer, they often receive a treatment based on the type and stage of the tumor. However, different patients may respond to the same treatment differently, due to the variation in their genomic alteration profile. Thus, it is essential to understand the effect of genomic alterations on cancer drug efficiency and engineer devices to monitor these changes for therapeutic response prediction. Nanopore-based detection technology features devices containing a nanometer-scale pore embedded in a thin membrane that can be utilized for DNA sequencing, biosensing, and detection of biological or chemical modifications on single molecules. Overall, this project aims to evaluate the capability of the biological nanopore, alpha-hemolysin, as a biosensor for genetic and epigenetic biomarkers of cancer. Specifically, we utilized the nanopore to (1) study the effect of point mutations on C-kit1 G-quadruplex formation and its response to CX-5461 cancer drug; (2) evaluate the nanopore\u27s ability to detect cytosine methylation in label-dependent and label-independent manners; and (3) detect circulating-tumor DNA collected from lung cancer patients\u27 plasma for disease detection and treatment response monitoring. Compared to conventional techniques, nanopore assays offer increased flexibility and much shorter processing time
Performance-oriented dependency parsing
In the last decade a lot of dependency parsers have been developed. This book describes the motivation for the development of yet another parser - MDParser. The state of the art is presented and the deficits of the current developments are discussed. The main problem of the current parsers is that the task of dependency parsing is treated independently of what happens before and after it. However, in practice parsing is rarely done for the sake of parsing itself, but rather in order to use the results in a follow-up application. Additionally, current parsers are accuracy-oriented and focus only on the quality of the results, neglecting other important properties, especially efficiency. The evaluation of some NLP technologies is sometimes as difficult as the task itself. For dependency parsing it was long thought not to be the case, however, some recent works show that the current evaluation possibilities are limited. This book proposes a methodology to account for the weaknesses and combine the strengths of the current approaches. Finally, MDParser is evaluated against other state-of-the-art parsers. The results show that it is the fastest parser currently available and it is able to process plain text, which other parsers usually cannot. The results are slightly behind the top accuracies in the field, however, it is demonstrated that it is not decisive for applications
Multi Layer Analysis
This thesis presents a new methodology to analyze one-dimensional signals
trough a new approach called Multi Layer Analysis, for short MLA. It also
provides some new insights on the relationship between one-dimensional signals
processed by MLA and tree kernels, test of randomness and signal processing
techniques. The MLA approach has a wide range of application to the fields of
pattern discovery and matching, computational biology and many other areas of
computer science and signal processing. This thesis includes also some
applications of this approach to real problems in biology and seismology
Mathematical Problems in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering
With increasing requirements for energy, resources and space, rock engineering projects are being constructed more often and are operated in large-scale environments with complex geology. Meanwhile, rock failures and rock instabilities occur more frequently, and severely threaten the safety and stability of rock engineering projects. It is well-recognized that rock has multi-scale structures and involves multi-scale fracture processes. Meanwhile, rocks are commonly subjected simultaneously to complex static stress and strong dynamic disturbance, providing a hotbed for the occurrence of rock failures. In addition, there are many multi-physics coupling processes in a rock mass. It is still difficult to understand these rock mechanics and characterize rock behavior during complex stress conditions, multi-physics processes, and multi-scale changes. Therefore, our understanding of rock mechanics and the prevention and control of failure and instability in rock engineering needs to be furthered. The primary aim of this Special Issue âMathematical Problems in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineeringâ is to bring together original research discussing innovative efforts regarding in situ observations, laboratory experiments and theoretical, numerical, and big-data-based methods to overcome the mathematical problems related to rock mechanics and rock engineering. It includes 12 manuscripts that illustrate the valuable efforts for addressing mathematical problems in rock mechanics and rock engineering
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