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Variable dimension data? • /r/MachineLearning

@machinelearnbot

You could do K-nearest neighbor's interpolation to give the empty 0 values a "guess" to how they would look like to the nearest neighbors. How well this would work is really just based on the properties of the data. If dimension k can be predicted by some association with a dimension j, and this relationship with k and j is fairly strong throughout the data, then it's worth trying. If it's all over the place, this hack won't help at all, perhaps it would even make very unreliable predictions.


Chained Gaussian Processes

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Gaussian process models are flexible, Bayesian non-parametric approaches to regression. Properties of multivariate Gaussians mean that they can be combined linearly in the manner of additive models and via a link function (like in generalized linear models) to handle non-Gaussian data. However, the link function formalism is restrictive, link functions are always invertible and must convert a parameter of interest to a linear combination of the underlying processes. There are many likelihoods and models where a non-linear combination is more appropriate. We term these more general models Chained Gaussian Processes: the transformation of the GPs to the likelihood parameters will not generally be invertible, and that implies that linearisation would only be possible with multiple (localized) links, i.e. a chain. We develop an approximate inference procedure for Chained GPs that is scalable and applicable to any factorized likelihood. We demonstrate the approximation on a range of likelihood functions.


Kernel Distribution Embeddings: Universal Kernels, Characteristic Kernels and Kernel Metrics on Distributions

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Kernel mean embeddings have recently attracted the attention of the machine learning community. They map measures $\mu$ from some set $M$ to functions in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) with kernel $k$. The RKHS distance of two mapped measures is a semi-metric $d_k$ over $M$. We study three questions. (I) For a given kernel, what sets $M$ can be embedded? (II) When is the embedding injective over $M$ (in which case $d_k$ is a metric)? (III) How does the $d_k$-induced topology compare to other topologies on $M$? The existing machine learning literature has addressed these questions in cases where $M$ is (a subset of) the finite regular Borel measures. We unify, improve and generalise those results. Our approach naturally leads to continuous and possibly even injective embeddings of (Schwartz-) distributions, i.e., generalised measures, but the reader is free to focus on measures only. In particular, we systemise and extend various (partly known) equivalences between different notions of universal, characteristic and strictly positive definite kernels, and show that on an underlying locally compact Hausdorff space, $d_k$ metrises the weak convergence of probability measures if and only if $k$ is continuous and characteristic.


Loss minimization and parameter estimation with heavy tails

arXiv.org Machine Learning

This work studies applications and generalizations of a simple estimation technique that provides exponential concentration under heavy-tailed distributions, assuming only bounded low-order moments. We show that the technique can be used for approximate minimization of smooth and strongly convex losses, and specifically for least squares linear regression. For instance, our $d$-dimensional estimator requires just $\tilde{O}(d\log(1/\delta))$ random samples to obtain a constant factor approximation to the optimal least squares loss with probability $1-\delta$, without requiring the covariates or noise to be bounded or subgaussian. We provide further applications to sparse linear regression and low-rank covariance matrix estimation with similar allowances on the noise and covariate distributions. The core technique is a generalization of the median-of-means estimator to arbitrary metric spaces.


Learning Sparse Low-Threshold Linear Classifiers

arXiv.org Machine Learning

We consider the problem of learning a non-negative linear classifier with a $1$-norm of at most $k$, and a fixed threshold, under the hinge-loss. This problem generalizes the problem of learning a $k$-monotone disjunction. We prove that we can learn efficiently in this setting, at a rate which is linear in both $k$ and the size of the threshold, and that this is the best possible rate. We provide an efficient online learning algorithm that achieves the optimal rate, and show that in the batch case, empirical risk minimization achieves this rate as well. The rates we show are tighter than the uniform convergence rate, which grows with $k^2$.


Learning Sparse Additive Models with Interactions in High Dimensions

arXiv.org Machine Learning

A function $f: \mathbb{R}^d \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is referred to as a Sparse Additive Model (SPAM), if it is of the form $f(\mathbf{x}) = \sum_{l \in \mathcal{S}}\phi_{l}(x_l)$, where $\mathcal{S} \subset [d]$, $|\mathcal{S}| \ll d$. Assuming $\phi_l$'s and $\mathcal{S}$ to be unknown, the problem of estimating $f$ from its samples has been studied extensively. In this work, we consider a generalized SPAM, allowing for second order interaction terms. For some $\mathcal{S}_1 \subset [d], \mathcal{S}_2 \subset {[d] \choose 2}$, the function $f$ is assumed to be of the form: $$f(\mathbf{x}) = \sum_{p \in \mathcal{S}_1}\phi_{p} (x_p) + \sum_{(l,l^{\prime}) \in \mathcal{S}_2}\phi_{(l,l^{\prime})} (x_{l},x_{l^{\prime}}).$$ Assuming $\phi_{p},\phi_{(l,l^{\prime})}$, $\mathcal{S}_1$ and, $\mathcal{S}_2$ to be unknown, we provide a randomized algorithm that queries $f$ and exactly recovers $\mathcal{S}_1,\mathcal{S}_2$. Consequently, this also enables us to estimate the underlying $\phi_p, \phi_{(l,l^{\prime})}$. We derive sample complexity bounds for our scheme and also extend our analysis to include the situation where the queries are corrupted with noise -- either stochastic, or arbitrary but bounded. Lastly, we provide simulation results on synthetic data, that validate our theoretical findings.


Cluster Analysis –Motivation, Theory & Practical Application

#artificialintelligence

I am a seasoned Analytics professional with 14 years of professional experience. I have industry experience of impactful and actionable analytics. I am a keen trainer, who believes that training is all about making users understand the concepts. If students remain confused after the training, the training is useless. I ensure that after my training, students (or partcipants) are crystal clear on how to use the learning in their business scenarios.


Study Identifies Key Factors Associated With Dementia Pathogenesis

#artificialintelligence

Recent research has identified independent predictors of dementia to include age at diagnosis, transient ischemic attack and stroke status, and years of education, with vascular factors playing a greater role in disease pathogenesis than previously thought. The findings were presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). In the abstract, the researchers wrote that dementia encompasses a broad set of neurologic diseases, producing progressive declines in memory and/or thinking faculties, sometimes alongside personality and emotional disturbances. "Worldwide, approximately 35.6 million people have dementia, and this number is only expected to grow due to an aging population," they wrote. "Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to predict who will develop dementia, let alone what type. This makes it difficult to mobilize various preventive strategies supported by mounting evidence."


Learning Vector Quantization for Machine Learning - Machine Learning Mastery

#artificialintelligence

A downside of K-Nearest Neighbors is that you need to hang on to your entire training dataset. The Learning Vector Quantization algorithm (or LVQ for short) is an artificial neural network algorithm that lets you choose how many training instances to hang onto and learns exactly what those instances should look like. In this post you will discover the Learning Vector Quantization algorithm. This post was written for developers and assumes no background in statistics or mathematics. The post focuses on how the algorithm works and how to use it for predictive modeling problems.


First Contact With TensorFlow Prof. Jordi Torres – UPC & BSC

#artificialintelligence

In TensorFlow, during the training process of the models, the parameters are maintained in the memory as variables. When a variable is created, you can use a tensor defined as a parameter of the function as an initial value, which can be a constant or a random value.