Efficient Inference of Gaussian Process Modulated Renewal Processes with Application to Medical Event Data

The episodic, irregular and asynchronous nature of medical data render them difficult substrates for standard machine learning algorithms. We would like to abstract away this difficulty for the class of time-stamped categorical variables (or events) by modeling them as a renewal process and inferring a probability density over continuous, longitudinal, nonparametric intensity functions modulating that process. Several methods exist for inferring such a density over intensity functions, but either their constraints and assumptions prevent their use with our potentially bursty event streams, or their time complexity renders their use intractable on our long-duration observations of high-resolution events, or both. In this paper we present a new and efficient method for inferring a distribution over intensity functions that uses direct numeric integration and smooth interpolation over Gaussian processes. We demonstrate that our direct method is up to twice as accurate and two orders of magnitude more efficient than the best existing method (thinning). Importantly, the direct method can infer intensity functions over the full range of bursty to memoryless to regular events, which thinning and many other methods cannot. Finally, we apply the method to clinical event data and demonstrate the face-validity of the abstraction, which is now amenable to standard learning algorithms.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Application of Wavelet Decomposition to Document Line Segmentation

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): I.7, I.7.5.In this paper an approach to document line segmentation is presented. The algorithm is based on a wavelet transform of the horizontal projective profile of the document image. The projective profile is examined as a one-dimensional discrete signal which is decomposed using the pyramidal wavelet algorithm up to a precise scale, where local minima and maxima are discovered. These local extrema, projected into the input signal, correspond to the spacing between document lines and to the pivots of the lines. The method has been tested on a broad set of printed and handwritten documents and proven to be stable and efficient

Promoting cooperation by preventing exploitation: The role of network structure

A growing body of empirical evidence indicates that social and cooperative behavior can be affected by cognitive and neurological factors, suggesting the existence of state-based decision-making mechanisms that may have emerged by evolution. Motivated by these observations, we propose a simple mechanism of anonymous network interactions identified as a form of generalized reciprocity - a concept organized around the premise "help anyone if helped by someone", and study its dynamics on random graphs. In the presence of such mechanism, the evolution of cooperation is related to the dynamics of the levels of investments (i.e. probabilities of cooperation) of the individual nodes engaging in interactions. We demonstrate that the propensity for cooperation is determined by a network centrality measure here referred to as neighborhood importance index and discuss relevant implications to natural and artificial systems. To address the robustness of the state-based strategies to an invasion of defectors, we additionally provide an analysis which redefines the results for the case when a fraction of the nodes behave as unconditional defectors.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Adaptive Document Image Binarization with Application in Processing Astronomical Logbooks

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): I.7, I.7.5.Recently, the digitalization of the astronomical scientific heritage has been considered an important task that can facilitate much researches in astronomy. The creation of digital libraries and databases of astronomical photographic plates brings up the problem of digitalization astronomical logbooks, since the data contained in them is crucial for the usage of the plates. An optical character recognition (OCR) system for the handwritten numerical data is needed in order to speed up the process of database creation and extension. In this paper document image binarization is considered since it is a critical stage for the subsequent steps in an OCR software system. A specific method is proposed which outmatches the state-of-the-art techniques in the case of the images of interest.This work has been partially supported by Grant No. DO02-275/2008, Bulgarian NSF, Ministry of Education and Science

Processing of Byzantine Neume Notation in Ancient Historical Manuscripts

This article presents the principal results of the doctoral thesis “Recognition of neume notation in historical documents” by Lasko Laskov (Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), successfully defended before the Specialized Academic Council for Informatics and Mathematical Modelling on 07 June 2010.Byzantine neume notation is a specific form of note script, used by the Orthodox Christian Church since ancient times until nowadays for writing music and musical forms in sacred documents. Such documents are an object of extensive scientific research and naturally with the development of computer and information technologies the need of a software tool which can assist these efforts is needed. In this paper a set of algorithms for processing and analysis of Byzantine neume notation are presented which include document image segmentation, character feature vector extraction, classifier learning and character recognition. The described algorithms are implemented as an integrated scientific software system.* This work has been partly supported by Grant No. DTK 02/54, Bulgarian Science Fund, Ministry of Education, Youth and Science

ARTICULATING THE HEART OF DARKNESS: A PSYCHOMETRIC AND BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOPATHY AND SADISM

Psychopathy and sadism, personality constructs largely characterized by antagonistic tendencies, share several similar traits and behaviors such as cruelty, callousness, and antisocial behavior. Due to this overlap, it remains unclear whether sadism is simply a facet of psychopathy, or they represent distinct but related constructs. The degree of overlap and distinction between these traits has yet to be empirically and thoroughly examined; therefore, the present project had two overarching interconnected aims: 1) Investigate the degree of psychometric overlap between psychopathy and sadism, and 2) examine potential behavioral distinctions between psychopathy and sadism. In Study 1, participants completed an online battery of questionnaires including the most commonly used sadism measures to examine its factor structure and nomological network (Aim 1). A four-factor structure that was independent from psychopathy was ultimately identified. In Study 2, participants completed an aggression task online to examine the ways in which psychopathy and sadism differentially (or similarly) relate to aggressive behavior (Aim 2). The egocentricity and antisocial facets of psychopathy were positively related to aggression during the task. Contrary to hypotheses, none of the sadism factors were related to task aggression, yet there was a significant interaction between Factor 2 of sadism and condition. This project has the potential to provide valuable insights to theories of antagonistic personality traits and improve clinical and forensic assessment procedures