In this article, we investigate the possibility of cross-language communication using a synergy of words and pictures on mobile devices. Communicating with only pictures is in itself a very powerful strategy, but is limited in expressiveness. On the other hand, words can express everything you could wish to say, but they are cumbersome to work with on mobile devices, and need to be translated in order for their meaning to be understood. Automatic translations can contain errors that pervert the communication process, and this may undermine the users’ confidence when expressing themselves across language barriers. Our idea is to create a user interface for cross-language communication that uses pictures as the primary mode of input, and words to express the detailed meaning. This interface creates a visual process of communication that occurs on two heterogeneous channels that can support each other. We implemented this user interface as application on the Apple iPad tablet, and performed a set of experiments to determine its usefulness as a translation aid for travellers.

Rank minimization has attracted a lot of attention due to its robustness in data recovery. To overcome the computational difficulty, rank is often replaced with nuclear norm. For several rank minimization problems, such a replacement has been theoretically proven to be valid, i.e., the solution to nuclear norm minimization problem is also the solution to rank minimization problem. Although it is easy to believe that such a replacement may not always be valid, no concrete example has ever been found. We argue that such a validity checking cannot be done by numerical computation and show, by analyzing the noiseless latent low rank representation (LatLRR) model, that even for very simple rank minimization problems the validity may still break down. As a by-product, we find that the solution to the nuclear norm minimization formulation of LatLRR is non-unique. Hence the results of LatLRR reported in the literature may be questionable.

This work uses the L-system to construct a tree structure for the text sequence and derives its complexity. It serves as a measure of structural complexity of the text. It is applied to anomaly detection in data transmission.

We consider the traffic data reconstruction problem. Suppose we have the traffic data of an entire city that are incomplete because some road data are unobserved. The problem is to reconstruct the unobserved parts of the data. In this paper, we propose a new method to reconstruct incomplete traffic data collected from various traffic sensors. Our approach is based on Markov random field modeling of road traffic. The reconstruction is achieved by using mean-field method and a machine learning method. We numerically verify the performance of our method using realistic simulated traffic data for the real road network of Sendai, Japan.

As the education fees are becoming more expensive, more students apply for scholarships. Consequently, hundreds and even thousands of applications need to be handled by the sponsor. To solve the problems, some alternatives based on several attributes (criteria) need to be selected. In order to make a decision on such fuzzy problems, Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making (FMDAM) can be applied. In this study, Unified Modeling Language (UML) in FMADM with TOPSIS and Weighted Product (WP) methods is applied to select the candidates for academic and non-academic scholarships at Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga. Data used were a crisp and fuzzy data. The results show that TOPSIS and Weighted Product FMADM methods can be used to select the most suitable candidates to receive the scholarships since the preference values applied in this method can show applicants with the highest eligibility

We consider large-scale Markov decision processes (MDPs) with parameter uncertainty, under the robust MDP paradigm. Previous studies showed that robust MDPs, based on a minimax approach to handle uncertainty, can be solved using dynamic programming for small to medium sized problems. However, due to the "curse of dimensionality", MDPs that model real-life problems are typically prohibitively large for such approaches. In this work we employ a reinforcement learning approach to tackle this planning problem: we develop a robust approximate dynamic programming method based on a projected fixed point equation to approximately solve large scale robust MDPs. We show that the proposed method provably succeeds under certain technical conditions, and demonstrate its effectiveness through simulation of an option pricing problem. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to scale up the robust MDPs paradigm.

A conceptual area is divided into units or barangays, each was allowed to evolve under a physical constraint. A risk assessment method was then used to identify the flood risk in each community using the following risk factors: the area's urbanized area ratio, literacy rate, mortality rate, poverty incidence, radio/TV penetration, and state of structural and non-structural measures. Vulnerability is defined as a weighted-sum of these components. A penalty was imposed for reduced vulnerability. Optimization comparison was done with MatLab's Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing; results showed 'extreme' solutions and realistic designs, for simulated annealing and genetic algorithm, respectively.

In this report a computational study of ConceptNet 4 is performed using tools from the field of network analysis. Part I describes the process of extracting the data from the SQL database that is available online, as well as how the closure of the input among the assertions in the English language is computed. This part also performs a validation of the input as well as checks for the consistency of the entire database. Part II investigates the structural properties of ConceptNet 4. Different graphs are induced from the knowledge base by fixing different parameters. The degrees and the degree distributions are examined, the number and sizes of connected components, the transitivity and clustering coefficient, the cores, information related to shortest paths in the graphs, and cliques. Part III investigates non-overlapping, as well as overlapping communities that are found in ConceptNet 4. Finally, Part IV describes an investigation on rules.

In modeling multivariate time series, it is important to allow time-varying smoothness in the mean and covariance process. In particular, there may be certain time intervals exhibiting rapid changes and others in which changes are slow. If such time-varying smoothness is not accounted for, one can obtain misleading inferences and predictions, with over-smoothing across erratic time intervals and under-smoothing across times exhibiting slow variation. This can lead to mis-calibration of predictive intervals, which can be substantially too narrow or wide depending on the time. We propose a locally adaptive factor process for characterizing multivariate mean-covariance changes in continuous time, allowing locally varying smoothness in both the mean and covariance matrix. This process is constructed utilizing latent dictionary functions evolving in time through nested Gaussian processes and linearly related to the observed data with a sparse mapping. Using a differential equation representation, we bypass usual computational bottlenecks in obtaining MCMC and online algorithms for approximate Bayesian inference. The performance is assessed in simulations and illustrated in a financial application.

This paper generalizes beta divergence beyond its classical form associated with power variance functions of Tweedie models. Generalized form is represented by a compact definite integral as a function of variance function of the exponential dispersion model. This compact integral form simplifies derivations of many properties such as scaling, translation and expectation of the beta divergence. Further, we show that beta divergence and (half of) the statistical deviance are equivalent measures.