Genre
Faster Query Times for Fully Dynamic k-Center Clustering with Outliers
Given a point set P M from a metric space (M,d)and numbers k,z N, the metric k-center problem with z outliers is to find a set C P of k points such that the maximum distance of all but at most z outlier points of P to their nearest center in C is minimized. We consider this problem in the fully dynamic model, i.e., under insertions and deletions of points, for the case that the metric space has a bounded doubling dimension dim. We utilize a hierarchical data structure to maintain the points and their neighborhoods, which enables us to efficiently find the clusters. In particular, our data structure can be queried at any time to generate a (3 + ε)-approximate solution for input values of k and z in worst-case query time ε O(dim)klognloglog, where is the ratio between the maximum and minimum distance between two points in P. Moreover, it allows insertion/deletion of a point in worst-case update time ε O(dim) lognlog . Our result achieves a significantly faster query time with respect to k and z than the current state-of-theart by Pellizzoni, Pietracaprina, and Pucci [18], which uses ε O(dim)(k+z)2 log query time to obtain a (3+ε)-approximate solution.
Polyhedron Attention Module: Learning Adaptive-order Interactions
Learning feature interactions can be the key for multivariate predictive modeling. ReLU-activated neural networks create piecewise linear prediction models. Other nonlinear activation functions lead to models with only high-order feature interactions, thus lacking of interpretability. Recent methods incorporate candidate polynomial terms of fixed orders into deep learning, which is subject to the issue of combinatorial explosion, or learn the orders that are difficult to adapt to different regions of the feature space. We propose a Polyhedron Attention Module (PAM) to create piecewise polynomial models where the input space is split into polyhedrons which define the different pieces and on each piece the hyperplanes that define the polyhedron boundary multiply to form the interactive terms, resulting in interactions of adaptive order to each piece. PAM is interpretable to identify important interactions in predicting a target. Theoretic analysis shows that PAM has stronger expression capability than ReLU-activated networks. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the superior classification performance of PAM on massive datasets of the click-through rate prediction and PAM can learn meaningful interaction effects in a medical problem.
Label consistency in overfitted generalized k-means
We provide theoretical guarantees for label consistency in generalized k-means problems, with an emphasis on the overfitted case where the number of clusters used by the algorithm is more than the ground truth. We provide conditions under which the estimated labels are close to a refinement of the true cluster labels. We consider both exact and approximate recovery of the labels. Our results hold for any constant-factor approximation to the k-means problem. The results are also model-free and only based on bounds on the maximum or average distance of the data points to the true cluster centers. These centers themselves are loosely defined and can be taken to be any set of points for which the aforementioned distances can be controlled. We show the usefulness of the results with applications to some manifold clustering problems.
Covariance-Aware Private Mean Estimation Without Private Covariance Estimation
Informally, given n& d/α2 samples from such a distribution with mean µand covariance Σ, our estimators output µsuch that k µ µkΣ α, where k kΣ is the Mahalanobis distance. All previous estimators with the same guarantee either require strong a priori bounds on the covariance matrix or require Ω(d3/2) samples. Each of our estimators is based on a simple, general approach to designing differentially private mechanisms, but with novel technical steps to make the estimator private and sample-efficient. Our first estimator samples a point with approximately maximum Tukey depth using the exponential mechanism, but restricted to the set of points of large Tukey depth. Proving that this mechanism is private requires a novel analysis. Our second estimator perturbs the empirical mean of the data set with noise calibrated to the empirical covariance, without releasing the covariance itself. Its sample complexity guarantees hold more generally for subgaussian distributions, albeit with a slightly worse dependence on the privacy parameter. For both estimators, careful preprocessing of the data is required to satisfy differential privacy.