In the solution discovery variant of a vertex (edge) subset problem $\Pi$ on graphs, we are given an initial configuration of tokens on the vertices (edges) of an input graph $G$ together with a budget $b$. The question is whether we can transform this configuration into a feasible solution of $\Pi$ on $G$ with at most $b$ modification steps. We consider the token sliding variant of the solution discovery framework, where each modification step consists of sliding a token to an adjacent vertex (edge). The framework of solution discovery was recently introduced by Fellows et al. [Fellows et al., ECAI 2023] and for many solution discovery problems the classical as well as the parameterized complexity has been established. In this work, we study the kernelization complexity of the solution discovery variants of Vertex Cover, Independent Set, Dominating Set, Shortest Path, Matching, and Vertex Cut with respect to the parameters number of tokens $k$, discovery budget $b$, as well as structural parameters such as pathwidth.
General state-space models (SSMs) are widely used in statistical machine learning and are among the most classical generative models for sequential time-series data. SSMs, comprising latent Markovian states, can be subjected to variational inference (VI), but standard VI methods like the importance-weighted autoencoder (IWAE) lack functionality for streaming data. To enable online VI in SSMs when the observations are received in real time, we propose maximising an IWAE-type variational lower bound on the asymptotic contrast function, rather than the standard IWAE ELBO, using stochastic approximation. Unlike the recursive maximum likelihood method, which directly maximises the asymptotic contrast, our approach, called online sequential IWAE (OSIWAE), allows for online learning of both model parameters and a Markovian recognition model for inferring latent states. By approximating filter state posteriors and their derivatives using sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods, we create a particle-based framework for online VI in SSMs. This approach is more theoretically well-founded than recently proposed online variational SMC methods. We provide rigorous theoretical results on the learning objective and a numerical study demonstrating the method's efficiency in learning model parameters and particle proposal kernels.
Compromise estimation entails using a weighted average of outputs from several candidate models, and is a viable alternative to model selection when the choice of model is not obvious. As such, it is a tool used by both frequentists and Bayesians, and in both cases, the literature is vast and includes studies of performance in simulations and applied examples. However, frequentist researchers often prove oracle properties, showing that a proposed average asymptotically performs at least as well as any other average comprising the same candidates. On the Bayesian side, such oracle properties are yet to be established. This paper considers Bayesian stacking estimators, and evaluates their performance using frequentist asymptotics. Oracle properties are derived for estimators stacking Bayesian linear and logistic regression models, and combined with Monte Carlo experiments that show Bayesian stacking may outperform the best candidate model included in the stack. Thus, the result is not only a frequentist motivation of a fundamentally Bayesian procedure, but also an extended range of methods available to frequentist practitioners.
Modern applications are increasingly driven by Machine Learning (ML) models whose non-deterministic behavior is affecting the entire application life cycle from design to operation. The pervasive adoption of ML is urgently calling for approaches that guarantee a stable non-functional behavior of ML-based applications over time and across model changes. To this aim, non-functional properties of ML models, such as privacy, confidentiality, fairness, and explainability, must be monitored, verified, and maintained. Existing approaches mostly focus on i) implementing solutions for classifier selection according to the functional behavior of ML models, ii) finding new algorithmic solutions, such as continuous re-training. In this paper, we propose a multi-model approach that aims to guarantee a stable non-functional behavior of ML-based applications. An architectural and methodological approach is provided to compare multiple ML models showing similar non-functional properties and select the model supporting stable non-functional behavior over time according to (dynamic and unpredictable) contextual changes. Our approach goes beyond the state of the art by providing a solution that continuously guarantees a stable non-functional behavior of ML-based applications, is ML algorithm-agnostic, and is driven by non-functional properties assessed on the ML models themselves. It consists of a two-step process working during application operation, where model assessment verifies non-functional properties of ML models trained and selected at development time, and model substitution guarantees continuous and stable support of non-functional properties. We experimentally evaluate our solution in a real-world scenario focusing on non-functional property fairness.
We propose the convex floating body membership problem, which consists of efficiently determining when a query point $a\in\mathbb{R}^d$ belongs to the so-called $\varepsilon$-convex floating body of a given bounded convex domain $K\subset\mathbb{R}^d$. We consider this problem in an approximate setting, i.e., given a parameter $\delta>0$, the query can be answered either way if the Hilbert distance in $K$ of $a$ from the boundary of a relatively-scaled $\varepsilon$-convex floating body is less than $\delta$. We present a data structure for this problem that has storage size $O(\delta^{-d}\varepsilon^{-(d-1)/2})$ and achieves query time of $O({\delta^{-1}}\ln 1/\varepsilon)$. Our construction is motivated by a recent work of Abdelkader and Mount on APM queries, and relies on a comparison of convex floating bodies with balls in the Hilbert metric on $K$.
We consider the linear causal representation learning setting where we observe a linear mixing of $d$ unknown latent factors, which follow a linear structural causal model. Recent work has shown that it is possible to recover the latent factors as well as the underlying structural causal model over them, up to permutation and scaling, provided that we have at least $d$ environments, each of which corresponds to perfect interventions on a single latent node (factor). After this powerful result, a key open problem faced by the community has been to relax these conditions: allow for coarser than perfect single-node interventions, and allow for fewer than $d$ of them, since the number of latent factors $d$ could be very large. In this work, we consider precisely such a setting, where we allow a smaller than $d$ number of environments, and also allow for very coarse interventions that can very coarsely \textit{change the entire causal graph over the latent factors}. On the flip side, we relax what we wish to extract to simply the \textit{list of nodes that have shifted between one or more environments}. We provide a surprising identifiability result that it is indeed possible, under some very mild standard assumptions, to identify the set of shifted nodes. Our identifiability proof moreover is a constructive one: we explicitly provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a node to be a shifted node, and show that we can check these conditions given observed data. Our algorithm lends itself very naturally to the sample setting where instead of just interventional distributions, we are provided datasets of samples from each of these distributions. We corroborate our results on both synthetic experiments as well as an interesting psychometric dataset. The code can be found at //github.com/TianyuCodings/iLCS.
We assume that we observe $N$ independent copies of a diffusion process on a time-interval $[0,2T]$. For a given time $t$, we estimate the transition density $p_t(x,y)$, namely the conditional density of $X_{t + s}$ given $X_s = x$, under conditions on the diffusion coefficients ensuring that this quantity exists. We use a least squares projection method on a product of finite dimensional spaces, prove risk bounds for the estimator and propose an anisotropic model selection method, relying on several reference norms. A simulation study illustrates the theoretical part for Ornstein-Uhlenbeck or square-root (Cox-Ingersoll-Ross) processes.
Despite extensive efforts to create fairer machine learning (ML) datasets, there remains a limited understanding of the practical aspects of dataset curation. Drawing from interviews with 30 ML dataset curators, we present a comprehensive taxonomy of the challenges and trade-offs encountered throughout the dataset curation lifecycle. Our findings underscore overarching issues within the broader fairness landscape that impact data curation. We conclude with recommendations aimed at fostering systemic changes to better facilitate fair dataset curation practices.
Petri Nets (PN) are extensively used as a robust formalism to model concurrent and distributed systems; however, they encounter difficulties in accurately modeling adaptive systems. To address this issue, we defined rewritable PT nets (RwPT) using Maude, a declarative language that ensures consistent rewriting logic semantics. Recently, we proposed a modular approach that employs algebraic operators to build extensive RwPT models. This methodology uses composite node labeling to maintain hierarchical organization through net rewrites and has been shown to be effective. Once stochastic parameters are integrated into the formalism, we introduce an automated procedure to derive a lumped CTMC from the quotient graph generated by a modular RwPT model. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, we present a fault-tolerant manufacturing system as a case study.
As artificial intelligence (AI) models continue to scale up, they are becoming more capable and integrated into various forms of decision-making systems. For models involved in moral decision-making, also known as artificial moral agents (AMA), interpretability provides a way to trust and understand the agent's internal reasoning mechanisms for effective use and error correction. In this paper, we provide an overview of this rapidly-evolving sub-field of AI interpretability, introduce the concept of the Minimum Level of Interpretability (MLI) and recommend an MLI for various types of agents, to aid their safe deployment in real-world settings.
Image segmentation is an important component of many image understanding systems. It aims to group pixels in a spatially and perceptually coherent manner. Typically, these algorithms have a collection of parameters that control the degree of over-segmentation produced. It still remains a challenge to properly select such parameters for human-like perceptual grouping. In this work, we exploit the diversity of segments produced by different choices of parameters. We scan the segmentation parameter space and generate a collection of image segmentation hypotheses (from highly over-segmented to under-segmented). These are fed into a cost minimization framework that produces the final segmentation by selecting segments that: (1) better describe the natural contours of the image, and (2) are more stable and persistent among all the segmentation hypotheses. We compare our algorithm's performance with state-of-the-art algorithms, showing that we can achieve improved results. We also show that our framework is robust to the choice of segmentation kernel that produces the initial set of hypotheses.