Sparse kernel density estimation technique based on zero-norm constraint

A sparse kernel density estimator is derived based on the zero-norm constraint, in which the zero-norm of the kernel weights is incorporated to enhance model sparsity. The classical Parzen window estimate is adopted as the desired response for density estimation, and an approximate function of the zero-norm is used for achieving mathemtical tractability and algorithmic efficiency. Under the mild condition of the positive definite design matrix, the kernel weights of the proposed density estimator based on the zero-norm approximation can be obtained using the multiplicative nonnegative quadratic programming algorithm. Using the -optimality based selection algorithm as the preprocessing to select a small significant subset design matrix, the proposed zero-norm based approach offers an effective means for constructing very sparse kernel density estimates with excellent generalisation performance

Elastic net prefiltering for two class classification

A two-stage linear-in-the-parameter model construction algorithm is proposed aimed at noisy two-class classification problems. The purpose of the first stage is to produce a prefiltered signal that is used as the desired output for the second stage which constructs a sparse linear-in-the-parameter classifier. The prefiltering stage is a two-level process aimed at maximizing a model’s generalization capability, in which a new elastic-net model identification algorithm using singular value decomposition is employed at the lower level, and then, two regularization parameters are optimized using a particle-swarm-optimization algorithm at the upper level by minimizing the leave-one-out (LOO) misclassification rate. It is shown that the LOO misclassification rate based on the resultant prefiltered signal can be analytically computed without splitting the data set, and the associated computational cost is minimal due to orthogonality. The second stage of sparse classifier construction is based on orthogonal forward regression with the D-optimality algorithm. Extensive simulations of this approach for noisy data sets illustrate the competitiveness of this approach to classification of noisy data problems

Sharp Oracle Inequalities for Aggregation of Affine Estimators

We consider the problem of combining a (possibly uncountably infinite) set of affine estimators in non-parametric regression model with heteroscedastic Gaussian noise. Focusing on the exponentially weighted aggregate, we prove a PAC-Bayesian type inequality that leads to sharp oracle inequalities in discrete but also in continuous settings. The framework is general enough to cover the combinations of various procedures such as least square regression, kernel ridge regression, shrinking estimators and many other estimators used in the literature on statistical inverse problems. As a consequence, we show that the proposed aggregate provides an adaptive estimator in the exact minimax sense without neither discretizing the range of tuning parameters nor splitting the set of observations. We also illustrate numerically the good performance achieved by the exponentially weighted aggregate

An optimal experimental design perspective on redial basis function regression

This paper provides a new look at radial basis function regression that reveals striking similarities with the traditional optimal experimental design framework. We show theoreti- cally and computationally that the so-called relevant vectors derived through the relevance vector machine (RVM) and corresponding to the centers of the radial basis function net- work, are very similar and often identical to the support points obtained through various optimal experimental design criteria like D-optimality. This allows us to provide a sta- tistical meaning to the relevant centers in the context of radial basis function regression, but also opens the door to a variety of ways of approach optimal experimental design in multivariate settings

Regularization and Bayesian Learning in Dynamical Systems: Past, Present and Future

Regularization and Bayesian methods for system identification have been repopularized in the recent years, and proved to be competitive w.r.t. classical parametric approaches. In this paper we shall make an attempt to illustrate how the use of regularization in system identification has evolved over the years, starting from the early contributions both in the Automatic Control as well as Econometrics and Statistics literature. In particular we shall discuss some fundamental issues such as compound estimation problems and exchangeability which play and important role in regularization and Bayesian approaches, as also illustrated in early publications in Statistics. The historical and foundational issues will be given more emphasis (and space), at the expense of the more recent developments which are only briefly discussed. The main reason for such a choice is that, while the recent literature is readily available, and surveys have already been published on the subject, in the author's opinion a clear link with past work had not been completely clarified.Comment: Plenary Presentation at the IFAC SYSID 2015. Submitted to Annual Reviews in Contro