Statistical physics, mixtures of distributions, and the EM algorithm

We show that there are strong relationships between approaches to optmization and learning based on statistical physics or mixtures of experts. In particular, the EM algorithm can be interpreted as converging either to a local maximum of the mixtures model or to a saddle point solution to the statistical physics system. An advantage of the statistical physics approach is that it naturally gives rise to a heuristic continuation method, deterministic annealing, for finding good solutions

Probabilistic Motion Estimation Based on Temporal Coherence

We develop a theory for the temporal integration of visual motion motivated by psychophysical experiments. The theory proposes that input data are temporally grouped and used to predict and estimate the motion flows in the image sequence. This temporal grouping can be considered a generalization of the data association techniques used by engineers to study motion sequences. Our temporal-grouping theory is expressed in terms of the Bayesian generalization of standard Kalman filtering. To implement the theory we derive a parallel network which shares some properties of cortical networks. Computer simulations of this network demonstrate that our theory qualitatively accounts for psychophysical experiments on motion occlusion and motion outliers.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figure

Factors Influencing the Completion of the High School Equivalency Program By Black Female Inmates

There is limited available research to date that has investigated the factors influencing the completion of the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) by Black female inmates. A high school education is an important subject explored by researchers when studying females in prison. This predictive correlational study used archival data to determine if age, length of sentence, type of crime, and family status influenced Black female inmates’ HEP completion rates. A logistic regression analysis was used to examine 100 Black female inmates in state prison. After completing the investigation, it was determined the criterion variable of age was statistically significant in predicting the completion the HEP by Black female inmates; however, the other criterion variables including length of sentence, type of crime, and family status were not statistically significant in predicting the completion of the HEP by Black female inmates