The success of kernel-based learning methods depend on the choice of kernel. Recently, kernel learning methods have been proposed that use data to select the most appropriate kernel, usually by combining a set of base kernels. We introduce a new algorithm for kernel learning that combines a {\em continuous set of base kernels}, without the common step of discretizing the space of base kernels. We demonstrate that our new method achieves state-of-the-art performance across a variety of real-world datasets. Furthermore, we explicitly demonstrate the importance of combining the right dictionary of kernels, which is problematic for methods based on a finite set of base kernels chosen a priori. Our method is not the first approach to work with continuously parameterized kernels. However, we show that our method requires substantially less computation than previous such approaches, and so is more amenable to multiple dimensional parameterizations of base kernels, which we demonstrate.

In this paper, we present a novel decentralised management technique that allows electricity micro-storage devices, deployed within individual homes as part of a smart electricity grid, to converge to profitable and efficient behaviours. Specifically, we propose the use of software agents, residing on the users' smart meters, to automate and optimise the charging cycle of micro-storage devices in the home to minimise its costs, and we present a study of both the theoretical underpinnings and the implications of a practical solution, of using software agents for such micro-storage management. First, by formalising the strategic choice each agent makes in deciding when to charge its battery, we develop a game-theoretic framework within which we can analyse the competitive equilibria of an electricity grid populated by such agents and hence predict the best consumption profile for that population given their battery properties and individual load profiles. Our framework also allows us to compute theoretical bounds on the amount of storage that will be adopted by the population. Second, to analyse the practical implications of micro-storage deployments in the grid, we present a novel algorithm that each agent can use to optimise its battery storage profile in order to minimise its owner's costs. This algorithm uses a learning strategy that allows it to adapt as the price of electricity changes in real-time, and we show that the adoption of these strategies results in the system converging to the theoretical equilibria. Finally, we empirically evaluate the adoption of our micro-storage management technique within a complex setting, based on the UK electricity market, where agents may have widely varying load profiles, battery types, and learning rates. In this case, our approach yields savings of up to 14% in energy cost for an average consumer using a storage device with a capacity of less than 4.5 kWh and up to a 7% reduction in carbon emissions resulting from electricity generation (with only domestic consumers adopting micro-storage and, commercial and industrial consumers not changing their demand). Moreover, corroborating our theoretical bound, an equilibrium is shown to exist where no more than 48% of households would wish to own storage devices and where social welfare would also be improved (yielding overall annual savings of nearly £1.5B).

In this paper a method is proposed for performance evaluation of road traffic control systems. The method is designed to be implemented in an on-line simulation environment, which enables optimisation of adaptive traffic control strategies. Performance measures are computed using a fuzzy cellular traffic model, formulated as a hybrid system combining cellular automata and fuzzy calculus. Experimental results show that the introduced method allows the performance to be evaluated using imprecise traffic measurements. Moreover, the fuzzy definitions of performance measures are convenient for uncertainty determination in traffic control decisions.

Data mining is a new concept & an exploration and analysis of large data sets, in order to discover meaningful patterns and rules. Many organizations are now using the data mining techniques to find out meaningful patterns from the database. The present paper studies how data mining techniques can be apply to the large database. These data mining techniques give certain behavioral pattern from the database. The results which come after analysis of the database are useful for organization. This paper examines the result after applying association rule mining technique, rule induction technique and Apriori algorithm. These techniques are applied to the database of shopping mall. Market basket analysis is performing by the above mentioned techniques and some important results are found such as buying behavior.

We consider a class of sparse learning problems in high dimensional feature space regularized by a structured sparsity-inducing norm which incorporates prior knowledge of the group structure of the features. Such problems often pose a considerable challenge to optimization algorithms due to the non-smoothness and non-separability of the regularization term. In this paper, we focus on two commonly adopted sparsity-inducing regularization terms, the overlapping Group Lasso penalty $l_1/l_2$-norm and the $l_1/l_\infty$-norm. We propose a unified framework based on the augmented Lagrangian method, under which problems with both types of regularization and their variants can be efficiently solved. As the core building-block of this framework, we develop new algorithms using an alternating partial-linearization/splitting technique, and we prove that the accelerated versions of these algorithms require $O(\frac{1}{\sqrt{\epsilon}})$ iterations to obtain an $\epsilon$-optimal solution. To demonstrate the efficiency and relevance of our algorithms, we test them on a collection of data sets and apply them to two real-world problems to compare the relative merits of the two norms.

Networks or graphs can easily represent a diverse set of data sources that are characterized by interacting units or actors. Social networks, representing people who communicate with each other, are one example. Communities or clusters of highly connected actors form an essential feature in the structure of several empirical networks. Spectral clustering is a popular and computationally feasible method to discover these communities. The stochastic blockmodel [Social Networks 5 (1983) 109--137] is a social network model with well-defined communities; each node is a member of one community. For a network generated from the Stochastic Blockmodel, we bound the number of nodes "misclustered" by spectral clustering. The asymptotic results in this paper are the first clustering results that allow the number of clusters in the model to grow with the number of nodes, hence the name high-dimensional. In order to study spectral clustering under the stochastic blockmodel, we first show that under the more general latent space model, the eigenvectors of the normalized graph Laplacian asymptotically converge to the eigenvectors of a "population" normalized graph Laplacian. Aside from the implication for spectral clustering, this provides insight into a graph visualization technique. Our method of studying the eigenvectors of random matrices is original.

Many of the conditions in which technology is required to adapt cannot be anticipated during its design stage, creating a significant challenge for the designer. Inspired by the study of a range of biological systems, we propose that degeneracy - the realization of multiple, functionally versatile components with contextually overlapping functional redundancy - will support adaptation in technologies because it effects pervasive flexibility, evolutionary innovation, and homeostatic robustness. We provide examples of degeneracy in a number of rudimentary living technologies from military socio-technical systems to swarm robotics and we present design principles - including protocols, loose regulatory coupling, and functional versatility - that allow degeneracy to arise in both biological and man-made systems. Keywords: pervasive adaptation, degeneracy, living technologies, distributed robustness 1. Introduction Unanticipated requirements can arise throughout a technology's life and are a notoriously difficult engineering problem and a challenging research topic because past routines and contingency plans will be of limited utility. Dealing with new challenges requires exploration, diversity, and bethedging: principles that are common to any discipline in which responses to novelty determine competitive success.

Adaptation to changing environments is a hallmark of biological systems. Diversity in traits is necessary for adaptation and can influence the survival of a population faced with novelty. In habitats that remain stable over many generations, stabilizing selection reduces trait differences within populations, thereby appearing to remove the diversity needed for heritable adaptive responses in new environments. Paradoxically, field studies have documented numerous populations under long periods of stabilizing selection and evolutionary stasis that have rapidly evolved under changed environmental conditions. In this article, we review how cryptic genetic variation (CGV) resolves this diversity paradox by allowing populations in a stable environment to gradually accumulate hidden genetic diversity that is revealed as trait differences when environments change. Instead of being in conflict, environmental stasis supports CGV accumulation and thus appears to facilitate rapid adaptation in new environments as suggested by recent CGV studies. Similarly, degeneracy has been found to support both genetic and non-genetic adaptation at many levels of biological organization. Degenerate, as opposed to diverse or redundant, ensembles appear functionally redundant in certain environmental contexts but functionally diverse in others. CGV and degeneracy paradigms for adaptation are integrated in this review, revealing a common set of principles that support adaptation at multiple levels of biological organization. Though a discussion of simulation studies, molecular-based experimental systems, principles from population genetics, and field experiments, we demonstrate that CGV and degeneracy reflect complementary top-down and bottom-up, respectively, conceptualizations of the same basic phenomenon and arguably capture a universal feature of biological adaptive processes.

The sparsity is controlled by the values of k and can be viewed as a design parameter. In machine learning applications, e.g., principal component analysis, this problem is motivated from the following perturbation formulation of matrix A: A Ā E, (1.2) where A is the empirical covariance matrix, Ā is the true covariance matrix, and E is a random perturbation due to having only a finite number of empirical samples. If we assume that the largest eigenvector x of Ā is sparse, then a natural question is to recover x from the noisy observation A when the error E is "small". In this context, the problem (1.1) is also referred to as sparse principal component analysis (sparse PCA). 1 In general, problem (1.1) is non-convex. In fact, it is also NPhard because it can be reduced to the subset selection problem for ordinary least squares regression (Moghaddam et al., 2006), which is known to be NP hard.

It is now well known that decentralised optimisation can be formulated as a potential game, and game-theoretical learning algorithms can be used to find an optimum. One of the most common learning techniques in game theory is fictitious play. However fictitious play is founded on an implicit assumption that opponents' strategies are stationary. We present a novel variation of fictitious play that allows the use of a more realistic model of opponent strategy. It uses a heuristic approach, from the online streaming data literature, to adaptively update the weights assigned to recently observed actions. We compare the results of the proposed algorithm with those of stochastic and geometric fictitious play in a simple strategic form game, a vehicle target assignment game and a disaster management problem. In all the tests the rate of convergence of the proposed algorithm was similar or better than the variations of fictitious play we compared it with. The new algorithm therefore improves the performance of game-theoretical learning in decentralised optimisation.