8,623 research outputs found
Learning Markov Structure by Maximum Entropy Relaxation
We propose a new approach for learning
a sparse graphical model approximation to
a specified multivariate probability distribution
(such as the empirical distribution
of sample data). The selection of sparse
graph structure arises naturally in our approach
through solution of a convex optimization
problem, which differentiates our
method from standard combinatorial approaches.
We seek the maximum entropy relaxation
(MER) within an exponential family,
which maximizes entropy subject to constraints
that marginal distributions on small
subsets of variables are close to the prescribed
marginals in relative entropy. To solve MER,
we present a modified primal-dual interior
point method that exploits sparsity of the
Fisher information matrix in models defined
on chordal graphs. This leads to a tractable,
scalable approach provided the level of relaxation
in MER is sufficient to obtain a thin
graph. The merits of our approach are investigated
by recovering the structure of some
simple graphical models from sample data
High-Dimensional Gaussian Graphical Model Selection: Walk Summability and Local Separation Criterion
We consider the problem of high-dimensional Gaussian graphical model
selection. We identify a set of graphs for which an efficient estimation
algorithm exists, and this algorithm is based on thresholding of empirical
conditional covariances. Under a set of transparent conditions, we establish
structural consistency (or sparsistency) for the proposed algorithm, when the
number of samples n=omega(J_{min}^{-2} log p), where p is the number of
variables and J_{min} is the minimum (absolute) edge potential of the graphical
model. The sufficient conditions for sparsistency are based on the notion of
walk-summability of the model and the presence of sparse local vertex
separators in the underlying graph. We also derive novel non-asymptotic
necessary conditions on the number of samples required for sparsistency
Learning in Markov Random Fields with Contrastive Free Energies
Learning Markov random field (MRF) models is notoriously hard due to the presence of a global normalization factor. In this paper we present a new framework for learning MRF models based on the contrastive free energy (CF) objective function. In this scheme the parameters are updated in an attempt to match the average statistics of the data distribution and a distribution which is (partially or approximately) "relaxed" to the equilibrium distribution. We show that maximum likelihood, mean field, contrastive divergence and pseudo-likelihood objectives can be understood in this paradigm. Moreover, we propose and study a new learning algorithm: the "kstep Kikuchi/Bethe approximation". This algorithm is then tested on a conditional random field model with "skip-chain" edges to model long range interactions in text data. It is demonstrated that with no loss in accuracy, the training time is brought down on average from 19 hours (BP based learning) to 83 minutes, an order of magnitude improvement
Linear and Parallel Learning of Markov Random Fields
We introduce a new embarrassingly parallel parameter learning algorithm for
Markov random fields with untied parameters which is efficient for a large
class of practical models. Our algorithm parallelizes naturally over cliques
and, for graphs of bounded degree, its complexity is linear in the number of
cliques. Unlike its competitors, our algorithm is fully parallel and for
log-linear models it is also data efficient, requiring only the local
sufficient statistics of the data to estimate parameters
Recovery from Linear Measurements with Complexity-Matching Universal Signal Estimation
We study the compressed sensing (CS) signal estimation problem where an input
signal is measured via a linear matrix multiplication under additive noise.
While this setup usually assumes sparsity or compressibility in the input
signal during recovery, the signal structure that can be leveraged is often not
known a priori. In this paper, we consider universal CS recovery, where the
statistics of a stationary ergodic signal source are estimated simultaneously
with the signal itself. Inspired by Kolmogorov complexity and minimum
description length, we focus on a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation
framework that leverages universal priors to match the complexity of the
source. Our framework can also be applied to general linear inverse problems
where more measurements than in CS might be needed. We provide theoretical
results that support the algorithmic feasibility of universal MAP estimation
using a Markov chain Monte Carlo implementation, which is computationally
challenging. We incorporate some techniques to accelerate the algorithm while
providing comparable and in many cases better reconstruction quality than
existing algorithms. Experimental results show the promise of universality in
CS, particularly for low-complexity sources that do not exhibit standard
sparsity or compressibility.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure
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