3,435 research outputs found
Perturbation of the Eigenvectors of the Graph Laplacian: Application to Image Denoising
The original contributions of this paper are twofold: a new understanding of
the influence of noise on the eigenvectors of the graph Laplacian of a set of
image patches, and an algorithm to estimate a denoised set of patches from a
noisy image. The algorithm relies on the following two observations: (1) the
low-index eigenvectors of the diffusion, or graph Laplacian, operators are very
robust to random perturbations of the weights and random changes in the
connections of the patch-graph; and (2) patches extracted from smooth regions
of the image are organized along smooth low-dimensional structures in the
patch-set, and therefore can be reconstructed with few eigenvectors.
Experiments demonstrate that our denoising algorithm outperforms the denoising
gold-standards
Metrics for Graph Comparison: A Practitioner's Guide
Comparison of graph structure is a ubiquitous task in data analysis and
machine learning, with diverse applications in fields such as neuroscience,
cyber security, social network analysis, and bioinformatics, among others.
Discovery and comparison of structures such as modular communities, rich clubs,
hubs, and trees in data in these fields yields insight into the generative
mechanisms and functional properties of the graph.
Often, two graphs are compared via a pairwise distance measure, with a small
distance indicating structural similarity and vice versa. Common choices
include spectral distances (also known as distances) and distances
based on node affinities. However, there has of yet been no comparative study
of the efficacy of these distance measures in discerning between common graph
topologies and different structural scales.
In this work, we compare commonly used graph metrics and distance measures,
and demonstrate their ability to discern between common topological features
found in both random graph models and empirical datasets. We put forward a
multi-scale picture of graph structure, in which the effect of global and local
structure upon the distance measures is considered. We make recommendations on
the applicability of different distance measures to empirical graph data
problem based on this multi-scale view. Finally, we introduce the Python
library NetComp which implements the graph distances used in this work
Noise Corruption of Empirical Mode Decomposition and Its Effect on Instantaneous Frequency
Huang's Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is an algorithm for analyzing
nonstationary data that provides a localized time-frequency representation by
decomposing the data into adaptively defined modes. EMD can be used to estimate
a signal's instantaneous frequency (IF) but suffers from poor performance in
the presence of noise. To produce a meaningful IF, each mode of the
decomposition must be nearly monochromatic, a condition that is not guaranteed
by the algorithm and fails to be met when the signal is corrupted by noise. In
this work, the extraction of modes containing both signal and noise is
identified as the cause of poor IF estimation. The specific mechanism by which
such "transition" modes are extracted is detailed and builds on the observation
of Flandrin and Goncalves that EMD acts in a filter bank manner when analyzing
pure noise. The mechanism is shown to be dependent on spectral leak between
modes and the phase of the underlying signal. These ideas are developed through
the use of simple signals and are tested on a synthetic seismic waveform.Comment: 28 pages, 19 figures. High quality color figures available on Daniel
Kaslovsky's website: http://amath.colorado.edu/student/kaslovsk
Non-Asymptotic Analysis of Tangent Space Perturbation
Constructing an efficient parameterization of a large, noisy data set of
points lying close to a smooth manifold in high dimension remains a fundamental
problem. One approach consists in recovering a local parameterization using the
local tangent plane. Principal component analysis (PCA) is often the tool of
choice, as it returns an optimal basis in the case of noise-free samples from a
linear subspace. To process noisy data samples from a nonlinear manifold, PCA
must be applied locally, at a scale small enough such that the manifold is
approximately linear, but at a scale large enough such that structure may be
discerned from noise. Using eigenspace perturbation theory and non-asymptotic
random matrix theory, we study the stability of the subspace estimated by PCA
as a function of scale, and bound (with high probability) the angle it forms
with the true tangent space. By adaptively selecting the scale that minimizes
this bound, our analysis reveals an appropriate scale for local tangent plane
recovery. We also introduce a geometric uncertainty principle quantifying the
limits of noise-curvature perturbation for stable recovery. With the purpose of
providing perturbation bounds that can be used in practice, we propose plug-in
estimates that make it possible to directly apply the theoretical results to
real data sets.Comment: 53 pages. Revised manuscript with new content addressing application
of results to real data set
Locality and low-dimensions in the prediction of natural experience from fMRI
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) provides dynamical access into
the complex functioning of the human brain, detailing the hemodynamic activity
of thousands of voxels during hundreds of sequential time points. One approach
towards illuminating the connection between fMRI and cognitive function is
through decoding; how do the time series of voxel activities combine to provide
information about internal and external experience? Here we seek models of fMRI
decoding which are balanced between the simplicity of their interpretation and
the effectiveness of their prediction. We use signals from a subject immersed
in virtual reality to compare global and local methods of prediction applying
both linear and nonlinear techniques of dimensionality reduction. We find that
the prediction of complex stimuli is remarkably low-dimensional, saturating
with less than 100 features. In particular, we build effective models based on
the decorrelated components of cognitive activity in the classically-defined
Brodmann areas. For some of the stimuli, the top predictive areas were
surprisingly transparent, including Wernicke's area for verbal instructions,
visual cortex for facial and body features, and visual-temporal regions for
velocity. Direct sensory experience resulted in the most robust predictions,
with the highest correlation () between the predicted and
experienced time series of verbal instructions. Techniques based on non-linear
dimensionality reduction (Laplacian eigenmaps) performed similarly. The
interpretability and relative simplicity of our approach provides a conceptual
basis upon which to build more sophisticated techniques for fMRI decoding and
offers a window into cognitive function during dynamic, natural experience.Comment: To appear in: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 20,
Scholkopf B., Platt J. and Hofmann T. (Editors), MIT Press, 200
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