South America
A latent shared-component generative model for real-time disease surveillance using Twitter data
Souza, Roberto C. S. N. P., de Brito, Denise E. F, Assunção, Renato M., Meira, Wagner Jr
Exploiting the large amount of available data for addressing relevant social problems has been one of the key challenges in data mining. Such efforts have been recently named "data science for social good" and attracted the attention of several researchers and institutions. We give a contribution in this objective in this paper considering a difficult public health problem, the timely monitoring of dengue epidemics in small geographical areas. We develop a generative simple yet effective model to connect the fluctuations of disease cases and disease-related Twitter posts. We considered a hidden Markov process driving both, the fluctuations in dengue reported cases and the tweets issued in each region. We add a stable but random source of tweets to represent the posts when no disease cases are recorded. The model is learned through a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that produces the posterior distribution of the relevant parameters. Using data from a significant number of large Brazilian towns, we demonstrate empirically that our model is able to predict well the next weeks of the disease counts using the tweets and disease cases jointly.
A DEEP analysis of the META-DES framework for dynamic selection of ensemble of classifiers
Cruz, Rafael M. O., Sabourin, Robert, Cavalcanti, George D. C.
Dynamic ensemble selection (DES) techniques work by estimating the level of competence of each classifier from a pool of classifiers. Only the most competent ones are selected to classify a given test sample. Hence, the key issue in DES is the criterion used to estimate the level of competence of the classifiers in predicting the label of a given test sample. In order to perform a more robust ensemble selection, we proposed the META-DES framework using meta-learning, where multiple criteria are encoded as meta-features and are passed down to a meta-classifier that is trained to estimate the competence level of a given classifier. In this technical report, we present a step-by-step analysis of each phase of the framework during training and test. We show how each set of meta-features is extracted as well as their impact on the estimation of the competence level of the base classifier. We show that using the dynamic selection of linear classifiers through the META-DES framework, we can solve complex nonlinear classification problems where other combination techniques such as AdaBoost cannot. Introduction Multiple Classifier Systems (MCS) aim to combine classifiers in order to increase the recognition accuracy in pattern recognition systems [1, 2]. MCS are composed of three phases [3]: (1) Generation, (2) Selection, and (3) Integration. In the first phase, a pool of classifiers is generated. In the second phase, a single classifier or a subset having the best classifiers of the pool is(are) selected. We refer to the subset of classifiers as the Ensemble of Classifiers (EoC).
Knowledge-Based Textual Inference via Parse-Tree Transformations
Bar-Haim, Roy, Dagan, Ido, Berant, Jonathan
Textual inference is an important component in many applications for understanding natural language. Classical approaches to textual inference rely on logical representations for meaning, which may be regarded as "external" to the natural language itself. However, practical applications usually adopt shallower lexical or lexical-syntactic representations, which correspond closely to language structure. In many cases, such approaches lack a principled meaning representation and inference framework. We describe an inference formalism that operates directly on language-based structures, particularly syntactic parse trees. New trees are generated by applying inference rules, which provide a unified representation for varying types of inferences. We use manual and automatic methods to generate these rules, which cover generic linguistic structures as well as specific lexical-based inferences. We also present a novel packed data-structure and a corresponding inference algorithm that allows efficient implementation of this formalism. We proved the correctness of the new algorithm and established its efficiency analytically and empirically. The utility of our approach was illustrated on two tasks: unsupervised relation extraction from a large corpus, and the Recognizing Textual Entailment (RTE) benchmarks.
Non-normal modalities in variants of Linear Logic
Porello, Daniele, Troquard, Nicolas
This article presents modal versions of resource-conscious logics. We concentrate on extensions of variants of Linear Logic with one minimal non-normal modality. In earlier work, where we investigated agency in multi-agent systems, we have shown that the results scale up to logics with multiple non-minimal modalities. Here, we start with the language of propositional intuitionistic Linear Logic without the additive disjunction, to which we add a modality. We provide an interpretation of this language on a class of Kripke resource models extended with a neighbourhood function: modal Kripke resource models. We propose a Hilbert-style axiomatization and a Gentzen-style sequent calculus. We show that the proof theories are sound and complete with respect to the class of modal Kripke resource models. We show that the sequent calculus admits cut elimination and that proof-search is in PSPACE. We then show how to extend the results when non-commutative connectives are added to the language. Finally, we put the logical framework to use by instantiating it as logics of agency. In particular, we propose a logic to reason about the resource-sensitive use of artefacts and illustrate it with a variety of examples.
ITSAT: An Efficient SAT-Based Temporal Planner
Rankooh, Masood Feyzbakhsh, Ghassem-Sani, Gholamreza
Planning as satisfiability is known as an efficient approach to deal with many types of planning problems. However, this approach has not been competitive with the state-space based methods in temporal planning. This paper describes ITSAT as an efficient SAT-based (satisfiability based) temporal planner capable of temporally expressive planning. The novelty of ITSAT lies in the way it handles temporal constraints of given problems without getting involved in the difficulties of introducing continuous variables into the corresponding satisfiability problems. We also show how, as in SAT-based classical planning, carefully devised preprocessing and encoding schemata can considerably improve the efficiency of SAT-based temporal planning. We present two preprocessing methods for mutex relation extraction and action compression. We also show that the separation of causal and temporal reasoning enables us to employ compact encodings that are based on the concept of parallel execution semantics. Although such encodings have been shown to be quite effective in classical planning, ITSAT is the first temporal planner utilizing this type of encoding. Our empirical results show that not only does ITSAT outperform the state-of-the-art temporally expressive planners, it is also competitive with the fast temporal planners that cannot handle required concurrency.
Multi-Objective Optimization for Self-Adjusting Weighted Gradient in Machine Learning Tasks
Miranda, Conrado Silva, Von Zuben, Fernando José
Much of the focus in machine learning research is placed in creating new architectures and optimization methods, but the overall loss function is seldom questioned. This paper interprets machine learning from a multi-objective optimization perspective, showing the limitations of the default linear combination of loss functions over a data set and introducing the hypervolume indicator as an alternative. It is shown that the gradient of the hypervolume is defined by a self-adjusting weighted mean of the individual loss gradients, making it similar to the gradient of a weighted mean loss but without requiring the weights to be defined a priori. This enables an inner boosting-like behavior, where the current model is used to automatically place higher weights on samples with higher losses but without requiring the use of multiple models. Results on a denoising autoencoder show that the new formulation is able to achieve better mean loss than the direct optimization of the mean loss, providing evidence to the conjecture that self-adjusting the weights creates a smoother loss surface.
AAAI Conferences Calendar
This page includes forthcoming AAAI sponsored conferences, conferences presented by AAAI Affiliates, and conferences held in cooperation with AAAI. AI Magazine also maintains a calendar listing that includes nonaffiliated conferences at www.aaai.org/Magazine/calendar.php. LPNMR 2015 will be held 27-30 September, 2015, in Third AAAI Conference on Human International Joint Conference on Lexington, Kentucky USA Computation and Crowdsourcing. HCOMP 2015 will be held November be held July 25-August 1, 2015 in 8-11 in San Diego, California. The AAAI Fall Twenty-Ninth International Florida be held 21-23 February, 2016, in Symposium Series will be held November AI Research Society Conference.
The Angry Birds AI Competition
Renz, Jochen (The Australian National University) | Ge, Xiaoyu (The Australian National University) | Gould, Stephen (The Australian National University) | Zhang, Peng (The Australian National University)
The aim of the Angry Birds AI competition (AIBIRDS) is to build intelligent agents that can play new Angry Birds levels better than the best human players. This is surprisingly difficult for AI as it requires similar capabilities to what intelligent systems need for successfully interacting with the physical world, one of the grand challenges of AI. As such the competition offers a simplified and controlled environment for developing and testing the necessary AI technologies, a seamless integration of computer vision, machine learning, knowledge representation and reasoning, reasoning under uncertainty, planning, and heuristic search, among others. Over the past three years there have been significant improvements, but we are still a long way from reaching the ultimate aim and, thus, there are great opportunities for participants in this competition.
A Cognitively Inspired Approach for Knowledge Representation and Reasoning in Knowledge-Based Systems
Carbonera, Joel Luis (UFRGS) | Abel, Mara (UFRGS)
The classical theory assumes that each concept is represented by a set of features In this thesis, I investigate a hybrid knowledge representation that are shared by all the instances that are abstracted by approach that combines classic knowledge the concept. In this way, concepts can be viewed as rules representations, such as rules and ontologies, for classifying objects based on features. The prototype theory, with other cognitively plausible representations, on the other hand, states that concepts are represented such as prototypes and exemplars. The resulting through a typical instance, which has the typical features of framework can combine the strengths of the instances of the concept. Finally, the exemplar theory assumes each approach of knowledge representation, avoiding that each concept is represented by a set of exemplars their weaknesses. It can be used for developing of it. These exemplars are real entities that were previously knowledge-based systems that combine logicbased experienced by the agent. In theories based on prototypes or reasoning and similarity-based reasoning in exemplars, the categorization of a given entity is performed problem-solving processes.
Cost-Optimal and Net-Benefit Planning — A Parameterised Complexity View
Aghighi, Meysam (Linköping University) | Bäckström, Christer (Linköping University)
Cost-optimal planning (COP) uses action costs and asks for a minimum-cost plan. It is sometimes assumed that there is no harm in using actions with zero cost or rational cost. Classical complexity analysis does not contradict this assumption; planning is PSPACE-complete regardless of whether action costs are positive or non-negative, integer or rational. We thus apply parameterised complexity analysis to shed more light on this issue. Our main results are the following. COP is [W2]-complete for positive integer costs, i.e. it is no harder than finding a minimum-length plan, but it is paraNP-hard if the costs are non-negative integers or positive rationals. This is a very strong indication that the latter cases are substantially harder. Net-benefit planning (NBP) additionally assigns goal utilities and asks for a plan with maximum difference between its utility and its cost. NBP is paraNP-hard even when action costs and utilities are positive integers, suggesting that it is harder than COP. In addition, we also analyse a large number of subclasses, using both the PUBS restrictions and restricting the number of preconditions and effects.