28,811 research outputs found
Workload-Aware Materialization of Junction Trees
Bayesian networks are popular probabilistic models that capture the conditional dependencies among a set of variables. Inference in Bayesian networks is a fundamental task for answering probabilistic queries over a subset of variables in the data. However, exact inference in Bayesian networks is NP-hard, which has prompted the development of many practical inference methods. In this paper, we focus on improving the performance of the junction-tree algorithm, a well-known method for exact inference in Bayesian networks. In particular, we seek to leverage information in the workload of probabilistic queries to obtain an optimal workload-aware materialization of junction trees, with the aim to accelerate the processing of inference queries. We devise an optimal pseudo-polynomial algorithm to tackle this problem and discuss approximation schemes. Compared to state-of-the-art approaches for efficient processing of inference queries via junction trees, our methods are the first to exploit the information provided in query workloads. Our experimentation on several real-world Bayesian networks confirms the effectiveness of our techniques in speeding-up query processing.Peer reviewe
Label Placement in Road Maps
A road map can be interpreted as a graph embedded in the plane, in which each
vertex corresponds to a road junction and each edge to a particular road
section. We consider the cartographic problem to place non-overlapping road
labels along the edges so that as many road sections as possible are identified
by their name, i.e., covered by a label. We show that this is NP-hard in
general, but the problem can be solved in polynomial time if the road map is an
embedded tree.Comment: extended version of a CIAC 2015 pape
Finding Non-overlapping Clusters for Generalized Inference Over Graphical Models
Graphical models use graphs to compactly capture stochastic dependencies
amongst a collection of random variables. Inference over graphical models
corresponds to finding marginal probability distributions given joint
probability distributions. In general, this is computationally intractable,
which has led to a quest for finding efficient approximate inference
algorithms. We propose a framework for generalized inference over graphical
models that can be used as a wrapper for improving the estimates of approximate
inference algorithms. Instead of applying an inference algorithm to the
original graph, we apply the inference algorithm to a block-graph, defined as a
graph in which the nodes are non-overlapping clusters of nodes from the
original graph. This results in marginal estimates of a cluster of nodes, which
we further marginalize to get the marginal estimates of each node. Our proposed
block-graph construction algorithm is simple, efficient, and motivated by the
observation that approximate inference is more accurate on graphs with longer
cycles. We present extensive numerical simulations that illustrate our
block-graph framework with a variety of inference algorithms (e.g., those in
the libDAI software package). These simulations show the improvements provided
by our framework.Comment: Extended the previous version to include extensive numerical
simulations. See http://www.ima.umn.edu/~dvats/GeneralizedInference.html for
code and dat
An Algorithmic Framework for Labeling Road Maps
Given an unlabeled road map, we consider, from an algorithmic perspective,
the cartographic problem to place non-overlapping road labels embedded in their
roads. We first decompose the road network into logically coherent road
sections, e.g., parts of roads between two junctions. Based on this
decomposition, we present and implement a new and versatile framework for
placing labels in road maps such that the number of labeled road sections is
maximized. In an experimental evaluation with road maps of 11 major cities we
show that our proposed labeling algorithm is both fast in practice and that it
reaches near-optimal solution quality, where optimal solutions are obtained by
mixed-integer linear programming. In comparison to the standard OpenStreetMap
renderer Mapnik, our algorithm labels 31% more road sections in average.Comment: extended version of a paper to appear at GIScience 201
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