In this paper, we construct and investigate a hierarchy of spatio-temporal formalisms that result from various combinations of propositional spatial and temporal logics such as the propositional temporal logic PTL, the spatial logics RCC-8, BRCC-8, S4u and their fragments. The obtained results give a clear picture of the trade-off between expressiveness and computational realisability within the hierarchy. We demonstrate how different combining principles as well as spatial and temporal primitives can produce NP-, PSPACE-, EXPSPACE-, 2EXPSPACE-complete, and even undecidable spatio-temporal logics out of components that are at most NP- or PSPACE-complete.

Recently, Mahoney and Orecchia demonstrated that popular diffusion-based procedures to compute a quick \emph{approximation} to the first nontrivial eigenvector of a data graph Laplacian \emph{exactly} solve certain regularized Semi-Definite Programs (SDPs). In this paper, we extend that result by providing a statistical interpretation of their approximation procedure. Our interpretation will be analogous to the manner in which $\ell_2$-regularized or $\ell_1$-regularized $\ell_2$-regression (often called Ridge regression and Lasso regression, respectively) can be interpreted in terms of a Gaussian prior or a Laplace prior, respectively, on the coefficient vector of the regression problem. Our framework will imply that the solutions to the Mahoney-Orecchia regularized SDP can be interpreted as regularized estimates of the pseudoinverse of the graph Laplacian. Conversely, it will imply that the solution to this regularized estimation problem can be computed very quickly by running, e.g., the fast diffusion-based PageRank procedure for computing an approximation to the first nontrivial eigenvector of the graph Laplacian. Empirical results are also provided to illustrate the manner in which approximate eigenvector computation \emph{implicitly} performs statistical regularization, relative to running the corresponding exact algorithm.

Partial-monitoring games constitute a mathematical framework for sequential decision making problems with imperfect feedback: The learner repeatedly chooses an action, opponent responds with an outcome, and then the learner suffers a loss and receives a feedback signal, both of which are fixed functions of the action and the outcome. The goal of the learner is to minimize his total cumulative loss. We make progress towards the classification of these games based on their minimax expected regret. Namely, we classify almost all games with two outcomes and finite number of actions: We show that their minimax expected regret is either zero, $\widetilde{\Theta}(\sqrt{T})$, $\Theta(T^{2/3})$, or $\Theta(T)$ and we give a simple and efficiently computable classification of these four classes of games. Our hope is that the result can serve as a stepping stone toward classifying all finite partial-monitoring games.

We consider in this paper the problem of supervised metric learning on normalized histograms. Normalized histograms arise frequently in natural language processing, computer vision, bioinformatics and more generally areas involving complex datatypes. Objects of interest in such areas are usually simplified and each represented as a bag of smaller features. The occurrence frequencies of each of these features in the considered object can then be represented as a histogram. For instance, the representation of images as histograms of pixel colors, SIFT or GIST features (Lowe 1 1999, Oliva and Torralba 2001, Douze et al. 2009); texts as bags-of-words or topic allocations (Joachims 2002, Blei et al. 2003, Blei and Lafferty 2009); sequences as n-grams counts (Leslie et al. 2002) and graphs as histograms of subgraphs (Kashima et al. 2003) all follow this principle. Various distances have been proposed in the statistics and machine learning literatures to compare two histograms(Deza and Deza 2009,§14), (Rachev 1991). Our focus is in this paper is on the family of transportation distances, which is both well motivated theoretically (Villani 2003, §7), (Rachev 1991, §5) and works well empirically (Rubner et al. 1997; 2000, Pele and Werman 2009). Transportation distances are particularly popular in computer vision, where, after the influential work of Rubner et al. (1997), they were called Earth Mover's Distances (EMD). Transportation distances in machine learning can be thought of as metadistances that build upon a metric on the features to form a distance on histograms of features.

The power of sparse signal modeling with learned over-complete dictionaries has been demonstrated in a variety of applications and fields, from signal processing to statistical inference and machine learning. However, the statistical properties of these models, such as under-fitting or over-fitting given sets of data, are still not well characterized in the literature. As a result, the success of sparse modeling depends on hand-tuning critical parameters for each data and application. This work aims at addressing this by providing a practical and objective characterization of sparse models by means of the Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle -- a well established information-theoretic approach to model selection in statistical inference. The resulting framework derives a family of efficient sparse coding and dictionary learning algorithms which, by virtue of the MDL principle, are completely parameter free. Furthermore, such framework allows to incorporate additional prior information to existing models, such as Markovian dependencies, or to define completely new problem formulations, including in the matrix analysis area, in a natural way. These virtues will be demonstrated with parameter-free algorithms for the classic image denoising and classification problems, and for low-rank matrix recovery in video applications.

We consider the Gödel bimodal logic determined by fuzzy Kripke models where both the propositions and the accessibility relation are infinitely valued over the standard Gödel algebra[0,1] and prove strong completeness of Fischer Servi intuitionistic modal logic IK plus the prelinearity axiom with respect to this semantics. We axiomatize also the bimodal analogues of T, S4, and S5 obtained by restricting to models over frames satisfying the [0,1]-valued versions of the structural properties which characterize these logics. As application of the completeness theorems we obtain a representation theorem for bimodal Gödel algebras. In a previous paper [6], we have considered a semantics for Gödel modal logic based on fuzzy Kripke models where both the propositions and the accessibility relation take values in the standard Gödel algebra [0,1], we call these Gödel-Kripke models, and we have provided strongly complete axiomatizations for the unimodal fragments of this logic with respect to validity and semantic entailment from countable theories. Similar results were obtained for the unimodal Gödel analogues of the classical modal logics T and S4 determined by Gödel-Kripke models over frames satisfying, respectively, the [0,1]-valued version of reflexivity, or reflexivity and transitivity. The axiomatization of the unimodal Gödel analogues of S5 remains open.

In answer-set programming (ASP), the solutions of a problem are encoded in dedicated models, called answer sets, of a logical theory. These answer sets are computed from the program that represents the theory by means of an ASP solver and returned to the user as sets of ground first-order literals. As this type of representation is often cumbersome for the user to interpret, tools like ASPVIZ and IDPDraw were developed that allow for visualising answer sets. The tool Kara, introduced in this paper, follows these approaches, using ASP itself as a language for defining visualisations of interpretations. Unlike existing tools that position graphic primitives according to static coordinates only, Kara allows for more high-level specifications, supporting graph structures, grids, and relative positioning of graphical elements. Moreover, generalising the functionality of previous tools, Kara provides modifiable visualisations such that interpretations can be manipulated by graphically editing their visualisations. This is realised by resorting to abductive reasoning techniques. Kara is part of SeaLion, a forthcoming integrated development environment (IDE) for ASP.

We report about the current state and designated features of the tool SeaLion, aimed to serve as an integrated development environment (IDE) for answer-set programming (ASP). A main goal of SeaLion is to provide a user-friendly environment for supporting a developer to write, evaluate, debug, and test answer-set programs. To this end, new support techniques have to be developed that suit the requirements of the answer-set semantics and meet the constraints of practical applicability. In this respect, SeaLion benefits from the research results of a project on methods and methodologies for answer-set program development in whose context SeaLion is realised. Currently, the tool provides source-code editors for the languages of Gringo and DLV that offer syntax highlighting, syntax checking, and a visual program outline. Further implemented features are support for external solvers and visualisation as well as visual editing of answer sets. SeaLion comes as a plugin of the popular Eclipse platform and provides itself interfaces for future extensions of the IDE.

Technology has had an unquestionable impact on the way people watch sports. Along with this technological evolution has come a higher standard to ensure a good viewing experience for the casual sports fan. It can be argued that the pervasion of statistical analysis in sports serves to satiate the fan's desire for detailed sports statistics. The goal of statistical analysis in sports is a simple one: to eliminate subjective analysis. In this paper, we review previous work that attempts to analyze various aspects in sports by using ideas from Markov Chains, Bayesian Inference and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. The unifying goal of these works is to achieve an accurate representation of the player's ability, the sport, or the environmental effects on the player's performance. With the prevalence of cheap computation, it is possible that using techniques in Artificial Intelligence could improve the result of statistical analysis in sport. This is best illustrated when evaluating football using Neuro Dynamic Programming, a Control Theory paradigm heavily based on theory in Stochastic processes. The results from this method suggest that statistical analysis in sports may benefit from using ideas from the area of Control Theory or Machine Learning

We consider the discrete-time infinite-horizon optimal control problem formalized by Markov Decision Processes (Puterman, 1994; Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis, 1996). We revisit the work of Bertsekas and Ioffe (1996), that introduced λ Policy Iteration, a family of algorithms parameterized by λ that generalizes the standard algorithms Value Iteration and Policy Iteration, and has some deep connections with the Temporal Differences algorithm TD(λ) described by Sutton and Barto (1998). We deepen the original theory developped by the authors by providing convergence rate bounds which generalize standard bounds for Value Iteration described for instance by Puterman (1994). Then, the main contribution of this paper is to develop the theory of this algorithm when it is used in an approximate form and show that this is sound. Doing so, we extend and unify the separate analyses developped by Munos for Approximate Value Iteration (Munos, 2007) and Approximate Policy Iteration (Munos, 2003). Eventually, we revisit the use of this algorithm in the training of a Tetris playing controller as originally done by Bertsekas and Ioffe (1996). We provide an original performance bound that can be applied to such an undiscounted control problem. Our empirical results are different from those of Bertsekas and Ioffe (which were originally qualified as "paradoxical" and "intriguing"), and much more conform to what one would expect from a learning experiment. We discuss the possible reason for such a difference.