The neocortex is characterized by an extensive system of recurrent excitatory connections between neurons in a given area.

We provide preliminary evidence that eXlstmg algorithms for inferring small-scale gene regulation networks from gene expression data can be adapted to large-scale gene expression data coming from hybridization microarrays. The essential steps are (1) clustering many genes by their expression time-course data into a minimal set of clusters of co-expressed genes, (2) theoretically modeling the various conditions under which the time-courses are measured using a continious-time analog recurrent neural network for the cluster mean time-courses, (3) fitting such a regulatory model to the cluster mean time courses by simulated annealing with weight decay, and (4) analysing several such fits for commonalities in the circuit parameter sets including the connection matrices. This procedure can be used to assess the adequacy of existing and future gene expression time-course data sets for determ ining transcriptional regulatory relationships such as coregulation.

Human reaction times during sensory-motor tasks vary considerably.

We present a class of approximate inference algorithms for graphical models of the QMR-DT type. We give convergence rates for these algorithms andfor the Jaakkola and Jordan (1999) algorithm, and verify these theoretical predictions empirically.

Stochastic fluctuations of voltage-gated ion channels generate current and voltage noise in neuronal membranes. This noise may be a critical determinantof the efficacy of information processing within neural systems. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we carry out a systematic investigation ofthe relationship between channel kinetics and the resulting membrane voltage noise using a stochastic Markov version of the Mainen-Sejnowski model of dendritic excitability in cortical neurons. Our simulations show that kinetic parameters which lead to an increase in membrane excitability (increasing channel densities, decreasing temperature) alsolead to an increase in the magnitude of the sub-threshold voltage noise. Noise also increases as the membrane is depolarized from rest towards threshold. This suggests that channel fluctuations may interfere witha neuron's ability to function as an integrator of its synaptic inputs and may limit the reliability and precision of neural information processing.

We propose a new and efficient technique for incorporating contextual information into object classification. Most of the current techniques face the problem of exponential computation cost. In this paper, we propose a new general framework that incorporates partial context at a linear cost. This technique is applied to microscopic urinalysis image recognition, resulting in a significant improvement of recognition rate over the context free approach. This gain would have been impossible using conventional context incorporation techniques.

Forexample, in the Options framework [1,2], the programmer defines a set of macro actions ("options") and provides a policy for each. Learning algorithms (such as semi-Markov Q learning) can then treat these temporally abstract actions as if they were primitives and learn a policy for selecting among them. Closely related is the HAM framework, in which the programmer constructs a hierarchy of finitestate controllers[3]. Each controller can include non-deterministic states (where the programmer was not sure what action to perform). The HAMQ learning algorithm can then be applied to learn a policy for making choices in the non-deterministic states.

Reinforcement learning in nonstationary environments is generally regarded as an important and yet difficult problem. This paper partially addresses the problem by formalizing a subclass of nonstationary environments.The environment model, called hidden-mode Markov decision process (HM-MDP), assumes that environmental changes are always confined to a small number of hidden modes.

In hyperspectral imagery one pixel typically consists of a mixture of the reflectance spectra of several materials, where the mixture coefficients correspond to the abundances of the constituting materials. Weassume linear combinations of reflectance spectra with some additive normal sensor noise and derive a probabilistic MAP framework for analyzing hyperspectral data. As the material reflectance characteristicsare not know a priori, we face the problem of unsupervised linear unmixing.

Competition in the wireless telecommunications industry is rampant. To maintain profitability,wireless carriers must control chum, the loss of subscribers who switch from one carrier to another. We explore statistical techniques for chum prediction and, based on these predictions.