Negative binomial related distributions have been widely used in practice. The calculation of the corresponding Fisher information matrices involves the expectation of trigamma function values which can only be calculated numerically and approximately. In this paper, we propose a trigamma-free approach to approximate the expectations involving the trigamma function, along with theoretical upper bounds for approximation errors. We show by numerical studies that our approach is highly efficient and much more accurate than previous methods. We also apply our approach to compute the Fisher information matrices of zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) and beta negative binomial (ZIBNB) probabilistic models, as well as ZIBNB regression models.
Modern ML predictions models are surprisingly accurate in practice and incorporating their power into algorithms has led to a new research direction. Algorithms with predictions have already been used to improve on worst-case optimal bounds for online problems and for static graph problems. With this work, we initiate the study of the complexity of {\em data structures with predictions}, with an emphasis on dynamic graph problems. Unlike the independent work of v.d.~Brand et al.~[arXiv:2307.09961] that aims at upper bounds, our investigation is focused on establishing conditional fine-grained lower bounds for various notions of predictions. Our lower bounds are conditioned on the Online Matrix Vector (OMv) hypothesis. First we show that a prediction-based algorithm for OMv provides a smooth transition between the known bounds, for the offline and the online setting, and then show that this algorithm is essentially optimal under the OMv hypothesis. Further, we introduce and study four different kinds of predictions. (1) For {\em $\varepsilon$-accurate predictions}, where $\varepsilon \in (0,1)$, we show that any lower bound from the non-prediction setting carries over, reduced by a factor of $1-\varepsilon$. (2) For {\em $L$-list accurate predictions}, we show that one can efficiently compute a $(1/L)$-accurate prediction from an $L$-list accurate prediction. (3) For {\em bounded delay predictions} and {\em bounded delay predictions with outliers}, we show that a lower bound from the non-prediction setting carries over, if the reduction fulfills a certain reordering condition (which is fulfilled by many reductions from OMv for dynamic graph problems). This is demonstrated by showing lower and almost tight upper bounds for a concrete, dynamic graph problem, called $\# s \textrm{-} \triangle$, where the number of triangles that contain a fixed vertex $s$ must be reported.
We show that in bipartite graphs a large expansion factor implies very fast dynamic matching. Coupled with known constructions of lossless expanders, this gives a solution to the main open problem in a classical paper of Feldman, Friedman, and Pippenger (SIAM J. Discret. Math., 1(2):158-173, 1988). Application 1: storing sets. We construct 1-query bitprobes that store a dynamic subset $S$ of an $N$ element set. A membership query reads a single bit, whose location is computed in time poly$(\log N, \log (1/\varepsilon))$ time and is correct with probability $1-\epsilon$. Elements can be inserted and removed efficiently in time quasipoly$(\log N)$. Previous constructions were static: membership queries have the same parameters, but each update requires the recomputation of the whole data structure, which takes time poly$(\# S \log N)$. Moreover, the size of our scheme is smaller than the best known constructions for static sets. Application 2: switching networks. We construct explicit constant depth $N$-connectors of essentially minimum size in which the path-finding algorithm runs in time quasipoly$(\log N)$. In the non-explicit construction in Feldman, Friedman and Pippenger (SIAM J. Discret. Math., 1(2):158-173, 1988). and in the explicit construction of Wigderson and Zuckerman (Combinatorica, 19(1):125-138, 1999) the runtime is exponential in $N$.
Synthetic control methods are widely used to estimate the treatment effect on a single treated unit in time series settings. A common approach for estimating synthetic controls is to regress the pre-treatment outcomes of the treated unit on those of untreated control units via ordinary least squares. However, this approach can perform poorly if the pre-treatment fit is not near perfect, whether the weights are normalized or not. In this paper, we introduce a single proxy synthetic control approach, which essentially views the outcomes of untreated control units as proxies of the treatment-free potential outcome of the treated unit, a perspective we formally leverage to construct a valid synthetic control. Under this framework, we establish alternative identification and estimation methodology for synthetic controls and, in turn, for the treatment effect on the treated unit. Notably, unlike a recently proposed proximal synthetic control approach which requires two types of proxies for identification, ours relies on a single type of proxy, thus facilitating its practical relevance. Additionally, we adapt a conformal inference approach to perform inference on the treatment effect, obviating the need for a large number of post-treatment data. Lastly, our framework can accommodate time-varying covariates and nonlinear models, allowing binary and count outcomes. We demonstrate the proposed approach in a simulation study and a real-world application.
Lack of diversity in data collection has caused significant failures in machine learning (ML) applications. While ML developers perform post-collection interventions, these are time intensive and rarely comprehensive. Thus, new methods to track & manage data collection, iteration, and model training are necessary for evaluating whether datasets reflect real world variability. We present designing data, an iterative approach to data collection connecting HCI concepts with ML techniques. Our process includes (1) Pre-Collection Planning, to reflexively prompt and document expected data distributions; (2) Collection Monitoring, to systematically encourage sampling diversity; and (3) Data Familiarity, to identify samples that are unfamiliar to a model using density estimation. We apply designing data to a data collection and modeling task. We find models trained on ''designed'' datasets generalize better across intersectional groups than those trained on similarly sized but less targeted datasets, and that data familiarity is effective for debugging datasets.
The stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE) approach is widely used for modeling large spatial datasets. It is based on representing a Gaussian random field $u$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$ as the solution of an elliptic SPDE $L^\beta u = \mathcal{W}$ where $L$ is a second-order differential operator, $2\beta$ (belongs to natural number starting from 1) is a positive parameter that controls the smoothness of $u$ and $\mathcal{W}$ is Gaussian white noise. A few approaches have been suggested in the literature to extend the approach to allow for any smoothness parameter satisfying $\beta>d/4$. Even though those approaches work well for simulating SPDEs with general smoothness, they are less suitable for Bayesian inference since they do not provide approximations which are Gaussian Markov random fields (GMRFs) as in the original SPDE approach. We address this issue by proposing a new method based on approximating the covariance operator $L^{-2\beta}$ of the Gaussian field $u$ by a finite element method combined with a rational approximation of the fractional power. This results in a numerically stable GMRF approximation which can be combined with the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) method for fast Bayesian inference. A rigorous convergence analysis of the method is performed and the accuracy of the method is investigated with simulated data. Finally, we illustrate the approach and corresponding implementation in the R package rSPDE via an application to precipitation data which is analyzed by combining the rSPDE package with the R-INLA software for full Bayesian inference.
The optimal branch number of MDS matrices makes them a preferred choice for designing diffusion layers in many block ciphers and hash functions. However, in lightweight cryptography, Near-MDS (NMDS) matrices with sub-optimal branch numbers offer a better balance between security and efficiency as a diffusion layer, compared to MDS matrices. In this paper, we study NMDS matrices, exploring their construction in both recursive and nonrecursive settings. We provide several theoretical results and explore the hardware efficiency of the construction of NMDS matrices. Additionally, we make comparisons between the results of NMDS and MDS matrices whenever possible. For the recursive approach, we study the DLS matrices and provide some theoretical results on their use. Some of the results are used to restrict the search space of the DLS matrices. We also show that over a field of characteristic 2, any sparse matrix of order $n\geq 4$ with fixed XOR value of 1 cannot be an NMDS when raised to a power of $k\leq n$. Following that, we use the generalized DLS (GDLS) matrices to provide some lightweight recursive NMDS matrices of several orders that perform better than the existing matrices in terms of hardware cost or the number of iterations. For the nonrecursive construction of NMDS matrices, we study various structures, such as circulant and left-circulant matrices, and their generalizations: Toeplitz and Hankel matrices. In addition, we prove that Toeplitz matrices of order $n>4$ cannot be simultaneously NMDS and involutory over a field of characteristic 2. Finally, we use GDLS matrices to provide some lightweight NMDS matrices that can be computed in one clock cycle. The proposed nonrecursive NMDS matrices of orders 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 can be implemented with 24, 50, 65, 96, and 108 XORs over $\mathbb{F}_{2^4}$, respectively.
Complex interactions between two opposing agents frequently occur in domains of machine learning, game theory, and other application domains. Quantitatively analyzing the strategies involved can provide an objective basis for decision-making. One such critical scenario is shot-taking in football, where decisions, such as whether the attacker should shoot or pass the ball and whether the defender should attempt to block the shot, play a crucial role in the outcome of the game. However, there are currently no effective data-driven and/or theory-based approaches to analyzing such situations. To address this issue, we proposed a novel framework to analyze such scenarios based on game theory, where we estimate the expected payoff with machine learning (ML) models, and additional features for ML models were extracted with a theory-based shot block model. Conventionally, successes or failures (1 or 0) are used as payoffs, while a success shot (goal) is extremely rare in football. Therefore, we proposed the Expected Probability of Shot On Target (xSOT) metric to evaluate players' actions even if the shot results in no goal; this allows for effective differentiation and comparison between different shots and even enables counterfactual shot situation analysis. In our experiments, we have validated the framework by comparing it with baseline and ablated models. Furthermore, we have observed a high correlation between the xSOT and existing metrics. This alignment of information suggests that xSOT provides valuable insights. Lastly, as an illustration, we studied optimal strategies in the World Cup 2022 and analyzed a shot situation in EURO 2020.
This note serves three purposes: (i) we provide a self-contained exposition of the fact that conjunctive queries are not efficiently learnable in the Probably-Approximately-Correct (PAC) model, paying clear attention to the complicating fact that this concept class lacks the polynomial-size fitting property, a property that is tacitly assumed in much of the computational learning theory literature; (ii) we establish a strong negative PAC learnability result that applies to many restricted classes of conjunctive queries (CQs), including acyclic CQs for a wide range of notions of "acyclicity"; (iii) we show that CQs (and UCQs) are efficiently PAC learnable with membership queries.
Graph machine learning has been extensively studied in both academic and industry. However, as the literature on graph learning booms with a vast number of emerging methods and techniques, it becomes increasingly difficult to manually design the optimal machine learning algorithm for different graph-related tasks. To tackle the challenge, automated graph machine learning, which aims at discovering the best hyper-parameter and neural architecture configuration for different graph tasks/data without manual design, is gaining an increasing number of attentions from the research community. In this paper, we extensively discuss automated graph machine approaches, covering hyper-parameter optimization (HPO) and neural architecture search (NAS) for graph machine learning. We briefly overview existing libraries designed for either graph machine learning or automated machine learning respectively, and further in depth introduce AutoGL, our dedicated and the world's first open-source library for automated graph machine learning. Last but not least, we share our insights on future research directions for automated graph machine learning. This paper is the first systematic and comprehensive discussion of approaches, libraries as well as directions for automated graph machine learning.
Self-supervised learning has been widely used to obtain transferrable representations from unlabeled images. Especially, recent contrastive learning methods have shown impressive performances on downstream image classification tasks. While these contrastive methods mainly focus on generating invariant global representations at the image-level under semantic-preserving transformations, they are prone to overlook spatial consistency of local representations and therefore have a limitation in pretraining for localization tasks such as object detection and instance segmentation. Moreover, aggressively cropped views used in existing contrastive methods can minimize representation distances between the semantically different regions of a single image. In this paper, we propose a spatially consistent representation learning algorithm (SCRL) for multi-object and location-specific tasks. In particular, we devise a novel self-supervised objective that tries to produce coherent spatial representations of a randomly cropped local region according to geometric translations and zooming operations. On various downstream localization tasks with benchmark datasets, the proposed SCRL shows significant performance improvements over the image-level supervised pretraining as well as the state-of-the-art self-supervised learning methods.