AI Content Generator Jobs

AI Content Generator Jobs — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

  • Shepp–Logan phantom

    Shepp–Logan phantom

    The Shepp–Logan phantom is a standard test image created by Larry Shepp and Benjamin F. Logan for their 1974 paper "The Fourier Reconstruction of a Head Section". It serves as the model of a human head in the development and testing of image reconstruction algorithms. == Definition == The function describing the phantom is defined as the sum of 10 ellipses inside a 2×2 square:

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  • Correspondence analysis

    Correspondence analysis

    Correspondence analysis (CA) is a multivariate statistical technique proposed by Herman Otto Hartley (Hirschfeld) and later developed by Jean-Paul Benzécri. It is conceptually similar to principal component analysis, but applies to categorical rather than continuous data. In a manner similar to principal component analysis, it provides a means of displaying or summarising a set of data in two-dimensional graphical form. Its aim is to display in a biplot any structure hidden in the multivariate setting of the data table. As such it is a technique from the field of multivariate ordination. Since the variant of CA described here can be applied either with a focus on the rows or on the columns it should in fact be called simple (symmetric) correspondence analysis. It is traditionally applied to the contingency table of a pair of nominal variables where each cell contains either a count or a zero value. If more than two categorical variables are to be summarized, a variant called multiple correspondence analysis should be chosen instead. CA may also be applied to binary data given the presence/absence coding represents simplified count data i.e. a 1 describes a positive count and 0 stands for a count of zero. Depending on the scores used CA preserves the chi-square distance between either the rows or the columns of the table. Because CA is a descriptive technique, it can be applied to tables regardless of a significant chi-squared test. Although the χ 2 {\displaystyle \chi ^{2}} statistic used in inferential statistics and the chi-square distance are computationally related they should not be confused since the latter works as a multivariate statistical distance measure in CA while the χ 2 {\displaystyle \chi ^{2}} statistic is in fact a scalar not a metric. == Details == Like principal components analysis, correspondence analysis creates orthogonal components (or axes) and, for each item in a table i.e. for each row, a set of scores (sometimes called factor scores, see Factor analysis). Correspondence analysis is performed on the data table, conceived as matrix C of size m × n where m is the number of rows and n is the number of columns. In the following mathematical description of the method capital letters in italics refer to a matrix while letters in italics refer to vectors. Understanding the following computations requires knowledge of matrix algebra. === Preprocessing === Before proceeding to the central computational step of the algorithm, the values in matrix C have to be transformed. First compute a set of weights for the columns and the rows (sometimes called masses), where row and column weights are given by the row and column vectors, respectively: w m = 1 n C C 1 , w n = 1 n C 1 T C . {\displaystyle w_{m}={\frac {1}{n_{C}}}C\mathbf {1} ,\quad w_{n}={\frac {1}{n_{C}}}\mathbf {1} ^{T}C.} Here n C = ∑ i = 1 n ∑ j = 1 m C i j {\displaystyle n_{C}=\sum _{i=1}^{n}\sum _{j=1}^{m}C_{ij}} is the sum of all cell values in matrix C, or short the sum of C, and 1 {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} } is a column vector of ones with the appropriate dimension. Put in simple words, w m {\displaystyle w_{m}} is just a vector whose elements are the row sums of C divided by the sum of C, and w n {\displaystyle w_{n}} is a vector whose elements are the column sums of C divided by the sum of C. The weights are transformed into diagonal matrices W m = diag ⁡ ( 1 / w m ) {\displaystyle W_{m}=\operatorname {diag} (1/{\sqrt {w_{m}}})} and W n = diag ⁡ ( 1 / w n ) {\displaystyle W_{n}=\operatorname {diag} (1/{\sqrt {w_{n}}})} where the diagonal elements of W n {\displaystyle W_{n}} are 1 / w n {\displaystyle 1/{\sqrt {w_{n}}}} and those of W m {\displaystyle W_{m}} are 1 / w m {\displaystyle 1/{\sqrt {w_{m}}}} respectively i.e. the vector elements are the inverses of the square roots of the masses. The off-diagonal elements are all 0. Next, compute matrix P {\displaystyle P} by dividing C {\displaystyle C} by its sum P = 1 n C C . {\displaystyle P={\frac {1}{n_{C}}}C.} In simple words, Matrix P {\displaystyle P} is just the data matrix (contingency table or binary table) transformed into portions i.e. each cell value is just the cell portion of the sum of the whole table. Finally, compute matrix S {\displaystyle S} , sometimes called the matrix of standardized residuals, by matrix multiplication as S = W m ( P − w m w n ) W n {\displaystyle S=W_{m}(P-w_{m}w_{n})W_{n}} Note, the vectors w m {\displaystyle w_{m}} and w n {\displaystyle w_{n}} are combined in an outer product resulting in a matrix of the same dimensions as P {\displaystyle P} . In words the formula reads: matrix outer ⁡ ( w m , w n ) {\displaystyle \operatorname {outer} (w_{m},w_{n})} is subtracted from matrix P {\displaystyle P} and the resulting matrix is scaled (weighted) by the diagonal matrices W m {\displaystyle W_{m}} and W n {\displaystyle W_{n}} . Multiplying the resulting matrix by the diagonal matrices is equivalent to multiply the i-th row (or column) of it by the i-th element of the diagonal of W m {\displaystyle W_{m}} or W n {\displaystyle W_{n}} , respectively. === Interpretation of preprocessing === The vectors w m {\displaystyle w_{m}} and w n {\displaystyle w_{n}} are the row and column masses or the marginal probabilities for the rows and columns, respectively. Subtracting matrix outer ⁡ ( w m , w n ) {\displaystyle \operatorname {outer} (w_{m},w_{n})} from matrix P {\displaystyle P} is the matrix algebra version of double centering the data. Multiplying this difference by the diagonal weighting matrices results in a matrix containing weighted deviations from the origin of a vector space. This origin is defined by matrix outer ⁡ ( w m , w n ) {\displaystyle \operatorname {outer} (w_{m},w_{n})} . In fact matrix outer ⁡ ( w m , w n ) {\displaystyle \operatorname {outer} (w_{m},w_{n})} is identical with the matrix of expected frequencies in the chi-squared test. Therefore S {\displaystyle S} is computationally related to the independence model used in that test. But since CA is not an inferential method the term independence model is inappropriate here. === Orthogonal components === The table S {\displaystyle S} is then decomposed by a singular value decomposition as S = U Σ V ∗ {\displaystyle S=U\Sigma V^{}\,} where U {\displaystyle U} and V {\displaystyle V} are the left and right singular vectors of S {\displaystyle S} and Σ {\displaystyle \Sigma } is a square diagonal matrix with the singular values σ i {\displaystyle \sigma _{i}} of S {\displaystyle S} on the diagonal. Σ {\displaystyle \Sigma } is of dimension p ≤ ( min ( m , n ) − 1 ) {\displaystyle p\leq (\min(m,n)-1)} hence U {\displaystyle U} is of dimension m×p and V {\displaystyle V} is of n×p. As orthonormal vectors U {\displaystyle U} and V {\displaystyle V} fulfill U ∗ U = V ∗ V = I {\displaystyle U^{}U=V^{}V=I} . In other words, the multivariate information that is contained in C {\displaystyle C} as well as in S {\displaystyle S} is now distributed across two (coordinate) matrices U {\displaystyle U} and V {\displaystyle V} and a diagonal (scaling) matrix Σ {\displaystyle \Sigma } . The vector space defined by them has as number of dimensions p, that is the smaller of the two values, number of rows and number of columns, minus 1. === Inertia === While a principal component analysis may be said to decompose the (co)variance, and hence its measure of success is the amount of (co-)variance covered by the first few PCA axes - measured in eigenvalue -, a CA works with a weighted (co-)variance which is called inertia. The sum of the squared singular values is the total inertia I {\displaystyle \mathrm {I} } of the data table, computed as I = ∑ i = 1 p σ i 2 . {\displaystyle \mathrm {I} =\sum _{i=1}^{p}\sigma _{i}^{2}.} The total inertia I {\displaystyle \mathrm {I} } of the data table can also computed directly from S {\displaystyle S} as I = ∑ i = 1 n ∑ j = 1 m s i j 2 . {\displaystyle \mathrm {I} =\sum _{i=1}^{n}\sum _{j=1}^{m}s_{ij}^{2}.} The amount of inertia covered by the i-th set of singular vectors is ι i {\displaystyle \iota _{i}} , the principal inertia. The higher the portion of inertia covered by the first few singular vectors i.e. the larger the sum of the principal inertiae in comparison to the total inertia, the more successful a CA is. Therefore, all principal inertia values are expressed as portion ϵ i {\displaystyle \epsilon _{i}} of the total inertia ϵ i = σ i 2 / ∑ i = 1 p σ i 2 {\displaystyle \epsilon _{i}=\sigma _{i}^{2}/\sum _{i=1}^{p}\sigma _{i}^{2}} and are presented in the form of a scree plot. In fact a scree plot is just a bar plot of all principal inertia portions ϵ i {\displaystyle \epsilon _{i}} . === Coordinates === To transform the singular vectors to coordinates which preserve the chi-square distances between rows or columns an additional weighting step is necessary. The resulting coordinates are called principal coordinates in CA text books. If principal coordinates are used for

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  • Geographical cluster

    Geographical cluster

    A geographical cluster is a localized anomaly, usually an excess of something given the distribution or variation of something else. Often it is considered as an incidence rate that is unusual in that there is more of some variable than might be expected. Examples would include: a local excess disease rate, a crime hot spot, areas of high unemployment, accident blackspots, unusually high positive residuals from a model, high concentrations of flora or fauna, physical features or events like earthquake epicenters etc... Identifying these extreme regions may be useful in that there could be implicit geographical associations with other variables that can be identified and would be of interest. Pattern detection via the identification of such geographical clusters is a very simple and generic form of geographical analysis that has many applications in many different contexts. The emphasis is on localized clustering or patterning because this may well contain the most useful information. A geographical cluster is different from a high concentration as it is generally second order, involving the factoring in of the distribution of something else. == Geographical cluster detection == Identifying geographical clusters can be an important stage in a geographical analysis. Mapping the locations of unusual concentrations may help identify causes of these. Some techniques include the Geographical Analysis Machine and Besag and Newell's cluster detection method.

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  • Bondy's theorem

    Bondy's theorem

    In mathematics, Bondy's theorem is a bound on the number of elements needed to distinguish the sets in a family of sets from each other. It belongs to the field of combinatorics, and is named after John Adrian Bondy, who published it in 1972. == Statement == The theorem is as follows: Let X be a set with n elements and let A1, A2, ..., An be distinct subsets of X. Then there exists a subset S of X with n − 1 elements such that the sets Ai ∩ S are all distinct. In other words, if we have a 0-1 matrix with n rows and n columns such that each row is distinct, we can remove one column such that the rows of the resulting n × (n − 1) matrix are distinct. == Example == Consider the 4 × 4 matrix [ 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 ] {\displaystyle {\begin{bmatrix}1&1&0&1\\0&1&0&1\\0&0&1&1\\0&1&1&0\end{bmatrix}}} where all rows are pairwise distinct. If we delete, for example, the first column, the resulting matrix [ 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 ] {\displaystyle {\begin{bmatrix}1&0&1\\1&0&1\\0&1&1\\1&1&0\end{bmatrix}}} no longer has this property: the first row is identical to the second row. Nevertheless, by Bondy's theorem we know that we can always find a column that can be deleted without introducing any identical rows. In this case, we can delete the third column: all rows of the 3 × 4 matrix [ 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 ] {\displaystyle {\begin{bmatrix}1&1&1\\0&1&1\\0&0&1\\0&1&0\end{bmatrix}}} are distinct. Another possibility would have been deleting the fourth column. == Learning theory application == From the perspective of computational learning theory, Bondy's theorem can be rephrased as follows: Let C be a concept class over a finite domain X. Then there exists a subset S of X with the size at most |C| − 1 such that S is a witness set for every concept in C. This implies that every finite concept class C has its teaching dimension bounded by |C| − 1.

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  • WaveMaker

    WaveMaker

    WaveMaker is a Java-based low-code development platform designed for building software applications and platforms. The company, WaveMaker Inc., is based in Mountain View, California. The platform is intended to assist enterprises in speeding up their application development and IT modernization initiatives through low-code capabilities. Additionally, for independent software vendors (ISVs), WaveMaker serves as a customizable low-code component that integrates into their products. The WaveMaker Platform is a licensed software platform allowing organizations to establish their own end-to-application platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for the creation and operation of custom apps. It allows developers and business users to create apps that are customizable. These applications can seamlessly consume APIs, visualize data, and automatically adapt to multi-device responsive interfaces. WaveMaker's low-code platform allows organizations to deploy applications on either public or private cloud infrastructure. Containers can be deployed on top of virtual machines or directly on bare metal. The software features a graphical user interface (GUI) console for managing IT app infrastructure, leveraging the capabilities of Docker containerization. The solution offers functionalities for automating application deployment, managing the application lifecycle, overseeing release management, and controlling deployment workflows and access permissions: Apps for web, tablet, and smartphone interfaces Enterprise technologies like Java, Hibernate, Spring, AngularJS, JQuery Docker-provided APIs and CLI Software stack packaging, container provisioning, stack and app upgrading, replication, and fault tolerance == WaveMaker Studio == WaveMaker RAD Platform is built around WaveMaker Studio, a WYSIWYG rapid development tool that allows business users to compose an application using a drag-and-drop method. WaveMaker Studio supports rapid application development (RAD) for the web, similar to what products like PowerBuilder and Lotus Notes provided for client-server computing. WaveMaker Studio allows developers to produce an application once, then automatically adjust it for a particular target platform, whether a PC, mobile phone, or tablet. Applications created using the WaveMaker Studio follow a model–view–controller architecture. WaveMaker Studio has been downloaded more than two million times. The Studio community consists of 30,000 registered users. Applications generated by WaveMaker Studio are licensed under the Apache license. Studio 8 was released on September 25, 2015. The prior version, Studio 7, has some notable development milestones. It was based on AngularJS framework, previous Studio versions (6.7, 6.6, 6.5) use the Dojo Toolkit. Some of the features WaveMaker Studio 7 include: Automatic generation of Hibernate mapping, and Hibernate queries from database schema import. Automatic creation of Enterprise Data Widgets based on schema import. Each widget can display data from a database table as a grid or edit form. Edit form implements create, update, and delete functions automatically. WYSIWYG Ajax development studio runs in a browser. Deployment to Tomcat, IBM WebSphere, Weblogic, JBoss. Mashup tool to assemble web applications based on SOAP, REST and RSS web services, Java Services and databases. Supports existing CSS, HTML and Java code. The ability to deploy a standard Java .war file. == Technologies and frameworks == WaveMaker allows users to build applications that run on "Open Systems Stack" based on the following technologies and frameworks: AngularJS, Bootstrap, NVD3, HTML, CSS, Apache Cordova, Hibernate, Spring, Spring Security, Java. The various supported integrations include: Databases: Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, HSQLDB Authentication: LDAP, Active Directory, CAS, Custom Java Service, Database Version Control: Bitbucket (or Stash), GitHub, Apache Subversion Deployment: Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, WaveMaker Private Cloud (Docker containerization), IBM Web Sphere, Apache Tomcat, SpringSource tcServer, Oracle WebLogic Server, JBoss(WildFly), GlassFish App Stores: Google Play, Apple App Store, Windows Store == History == In 2003, WaveMaker was founded as ActiveGrid. Then, in 2007, it was rebranded as Wavemaker. It was acquired by VMware in 2011. In March 2013, support for the WaveMaker project was discontinued. In May 2013, Pramati Technologies acquired the assets of WaveMaker. In February 2014, Wavemaker Studio 6.7 was released, which was the last open source version of Studio. In September 2014 WaveMaker Inc. launched the WaveMaker RAD Platform, which allowed organizations to run their own application platform for building and running apps. In March 2023, WaveMaker released version 11.5, which includes enhanced low-code development capabilities and new AI-driven tools to streamline the application development process.

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  • Quantum neural network

    Quantum neural network

    Quantum neural networks are computational neural network models which are based on the principles of quantum mechanics. The first ideas on quantum neural computation were published independently in 1995 by Subhash Kak and Ron Chrisley, engaging with the theory of quantum mind, which posits that quantum effects play a role in cognitive function. However, typical research in quantum neural networks involves combining classical artificial neural network models (which are widely used in machine learning for the important task of pattern recognition) with the advantages of quantum information in order to develop more efficient algorithms. One important motivation for these investigations is the difficulty to train classical neural networks, especially in big data applications. The hope is that features of quantum computing such as quantum parallelism or the effects of interference and entanglement can be used as resources. Since the technological implementation of a quantum computer is still in a premature stage, such quantum neural network models are mostly theoretical proposals that await their full implementation in physical experiments. Most Quantum neural networks are developed as feed-forward networks. Similar to their classical counterparts, this structure intakes input from one layer of qubits, and passes that input onto another layer of qubits. This layer of qubits evaluates this information and passes on the output to the next layer. Eventually the path leads to the final layer of qubits. The layers do not have to be of the same width, meaning they don't have to have the same number of qubits as the layer before or after it. This structure is trained on which path to take similar to classical artificial neural networks. This is discussed in a lower section. Quantum neural networks refer to three different categories: Quantum computer with classical data, classical computer with quantum data, and quantum computer with quantum data. == Examples == Quantum neural network research is still in its infancy, and a conglomeration of proposals and ideas of varying scope and mathematical rigor have been put forward. Most of them are based on the idea of replacing classical binary or McCulloch-Pitts neurons with a qubit (which can be called a "quron"), resulting in neural units that can be in a superposition of the state 'firing' and 'resting'. === Quantum perceptrons === A lot of proposals attempt to find a quantum equivalent for the perceptron unit from which neural nets are constructed. A problem is that nonlinear activation functions do not immediately correspond to the mathematical structure of quantum theory, since a quantum evolution is described by linear operations and leads to probabilistic observation. Ideas to imitate the perceptron activation function with a quantum mechanical formalism reach from special measurements to postulating non-linear quantum operators (a mathematical framework that is disputed). A direct implementation of the activation function using the circuit-based model of quantum computation has recently been proposed by Schuld, Sinayskiy and Petruccione based on the quantum phase estimation algorithm. === Quantum networks === At a larger scale, researchers have attempted to generalize neural networks to the quantum setting. One way of constructing a quantum neuron is to first generalise classical neurons and then generalising them further to make unitary gates. Interactions between neurons can be controlled quantumly, with unitary gates, or classically, via measurement of the network states. This high-level theoretical technique can be applied broadly, by taking different types of networks and different implementations of quantum neurons, such as photonically implemented neurons and quantum reservoir processor (quantum version of reservoir computing). Most learning algorithms follow the classical model of training an artificial neural network to learn the input-output function of a given training set and use classical feedback loops to update parameters of the quantum system until they converge to an optimal configuration. Learning as a parameter optimisation problem has also been approached by adiabatic models of quantum computing. Quantum neural networks can be applied to algorithmic design: given qubits with tunable mutual interactions, one can attempt to learn interactions following the classical backpropagation rule from a training set of desired input-output relations, taken to be the desired output algorithm's behavior. The quantum network thus 'learns' an algorithm. === Quantum associative memory === The first quantum associative memory algorithm was introduced by Dan Ventura and Tony Martinez in 1999. The authors do not attempt to translate the structure of artificial neural network models into quantum theory, but propose an algorithm for a circuit-based quantum computer that simulates associative memory. The memory states (in Hopfield neural networks saved in the weights of the neural connections) are written into a superposition, and a Grover-like quantum search algorithm retrieves the memory state closest to a given input. As such, this is not a fully content-addressable memory, since only incomplete patterns can be retrieved. The first truly content-addressable quantum memory, which can retrieve patterns also from corrupted inputs, was proposed by Carlo A. Trugenberger. Both memories can store an exponential (in terms of n qubits) number of patterns but can be used only once due to the no-cloning theorem and their destruction upon measurement. Trugenberger, however, has shown that his probabilistic model of quantum associative memory can be efficiently implemented and re-used multiples times for any polynomial number of stored patterns, a large advantage with respect to classical associative memories. === Classical neural networks inspired by quantum theory === A substantial amount of interest has been given to a "quantum-inspired" model that uses ideas from quantum theory to implement a neural network based on fuzzy logic. == Training == Quantum Neural Networks can be theoretically trained similarly to training classical/artificial neural networks. A key difference lies in communication between the layers of a neural networks. For classical neural networks, at the end of a given operation, the current perceptron copies its output to the next layer of perceptron(s) in the network. However, in a quantum neural network, where each perceptron is a qubit, this would violate the no-cloning theorem. A proposed generalized solution to this is to replace the classical fan-out method with an arbitrary unitary that spreads out, but does not copy, the output of one qubit to the next layer of qubits. Using this fan-out Unitary ( U f {\displaystyle U_{f}} ) with a dummy state qubit in a known state (Ex. | 0 ⟩ {\displaystyle |0\rangle } in the computational basis), also known as an Ancilla bit, the information from the qubit can be transferred to the next layer of qubits. This process adheres to the quantum operation requirement of reversibility. Using this quantum feed-forward network, deep neural networks can be executed and trained efficiently. A deep neural network is essentially a network with many hidden-layers, as seen in the sample model neural network above. Since the Quantum neural network being discussed uses fan-out Unitary operators, and each operator only acts on its respective input, only two layers are used at any given time. In other words, no Unitary operator is acting on the entire network at any given time, meaning the number of qubits required for a given step depends on the number of inputs in a given layer. Since Quantum Computers are notorious for their ability to run multiple iterations in a short period of time, the efficiency of a quantum neural network is solely dependent on the number of qubits in any given layer, and not on the depth of the network. === Cost functions === To determine the effectiveness of a neural network, a cost function is used, which essentially measures the proximity of the network's output to the expected or desired output. In a Classical Neural Network, the weights ( w {\displaystyle w} ) and biases ( b {\displaystyle b} ) at each step determine the outcome of the cost function C ( w , b ) {\displaystyle C(w,b)} . When training a Classical Neural network, the weights and biases are adjusted after each iteration, and given equation 1 below, where y ( x ) {\displaystyle y(x)} is the desired output and a out ( x ) {\displaystyle a^{\text{out}}(x)} is the actual output, the cost function is optimized when C ( w , b ) {\displaystyle C(w,b)} = 0. For a quantum neural network, the cost function is determined by measuring the fidelity of the outcome state ( ρ out {\displaystyle \rho ^{\text{out}}} ) with the desired outcome state ( ϕ out {\displaystyle \phi ^{\text{out}}} ), seen in Equation 2 below. In this case, the Unitary operators are adjusted after each it

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  • Ho–Kashyap algorithm

    Ho–Kashyap algorithm

    The Ho–Kashyap algorithm is an iterative method in machine learning for finding a linear decision boundary that separates two linearly separable classes. It was developed by Yu-Chi Ho and Rangasami L. Kashyap in 1965, and usually presented as a problem in linear programming. == Setup == Given a training set consisting of samples from two classes, the Ho–Kashyap algorithm seeks to find a weight vector w {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} } and a margin vector b {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} } such that: Y w = b {\displaystyle \mathbf {Yw} =\mathbf {b} } where Y {\displaystyle \mathbf {Y} } is the augmented data matrix with samples from both classes (with appropriate sign conventions, e.g., samples from class 2 are negated), w {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} } is the weight vector to be determined, and b {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} } is a positive margin vector. The algorithm minimizes the criterion function: J ( w , b ) = | | Y w − b | | 2 {\displaystyle J(\mathbf {w} ,\mathbf {b} )=||\mathbf {Yw} -\mathbf {b} ||^{2}} subject to the constraint that b > 0 {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} >\mathbf {0} } (element-wise). Given a problem of linearly separating two classes, we consider a dataset of elements { ( x i , y i ) } i ∈ 1 : N {\displaystyle \{(\mathbf {x_{i}} ,y_{i})\}_{i\in 1:N}} where y i ∈ { − 1 , + 1 } {\displaystyle y_{i}\in \{-1,+1\}} . Linearly separating them by a perceptron is equivalent to finding weight and bias w , b {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} ,b} for a perceptron, such that: [ y 1 x 1 1 ⋮ ⋮ y N x N 1 ] [ w b ] > 0 {\displaystyle {\begin{bmatrix}y_{1}\mathbf {x} _{1}&1\\\vdots &\vdots \\y_{N}\mathbf {x} _{N}&1\\\end{bmatrix}}{\begin{bmatrix}\mathbf {w} \\b\end{bmatrix}}>0} == Algorithm == The idea of the Ho–Kashyap algorithm is as follows: Given any b {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} } , the corresponding w {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} } is known: It is simply w = Y + b {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} =\mathbf {Y} ^{+}\mathbf {b} } , where Y + {\displaystyle \mathbf {Y} ^{+}} denotes the Moore–Penrose pseudoinverse of Y {\displaystyle \mathbf {Y} } . Therefore, it only remains to find b {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} } by gradient descent. However, the gradient descent may sometimes decrease some of the coordinates of b {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} } , which may cause some coordinates of b {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} } to become negative, which is undesirable. Therefore, whenever some coordinates of b {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} } would have decreased, those coordinates are unchanged instead. As for the coordinates of b {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} } that would increase, those would increase without issue. Formally, the algorithm is as follows: Initialization: Set b ( 0 ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} (0)} to an arbitrary positive vector, typically b ( 0 ) = 1 {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} (0)=\mathbf {1} } (a vector of ones). Set the iteration counter k = 0 {\displaystyle k=0} . Set w ( 0 ) = Y + b ( 0 ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} (0)=\mathbf {Y} ^{+}\mathbf {b} (0)} Loop until convergence, or until iteration counter exceeds some k m a x {\displaystyle k_{max}} . Error calculation: Compute the error vector: e ( k ) = Y w ( k ) − b ( k ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} (k)=\mathbf {Yw} (k)-\mathbf {b} (k)} . Margin update: Update the margin vector: b ( k + 1 ) = b ( k ) + 2 η k ( e ( k ) + | e ( k ) | ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} (k+1)=\mathbf {b} (k)+2\eta _{k}(\mathbf {e} (k)+|\mathbf {e} (k)|)} where η k {\displaystyle \eta _{k}} is a positive learning rate parameter, and | e ( k ) | {\displaystyle |\mathbf {e} (k)|} denotes the element-wise absolute value. Weight calculation: Compute the weight vector using the pseudoinverse: w ( k + 1 ) = Y + b ( k + 1 ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} (k+1)=\mathbf {Y} ^{+}\mathbf {b} (k+1)} . Convergence check: If | | e ( k ) | | ≤ θ {\displaystyle ||\mathbf {e} (k)||\leq \theta } for some predetermined threshold θ {\displaystyle \theta } (close to zero), then return b ( k + 1 ) , w ( k + 1 ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {b} (k+1),\mathbf {w} (k+1)} . if e ( k ) ≤ 0 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} (k)\leq \mathbf {0} } (all components non-positive), return "Samples not separable.". Return "Algorithm failed to converge in time.". == Properties == If the training data is linearly separable, the algorithm converges to a solution (where e ( k ) = 0 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} (k)=\mathbf {0} } ) in a finite number of iterations. If the data is not linearly separable, the algorithm may or may not ever reach the point where e ( k ) = 0 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} (k)=\mathbf {0} } . However, if it does happen that e ( k ) ≤ 0 {\displaystyle \mathbf {e} (k)\leq \mathbf {0} } at some iteration, this proves non-separability. The convergence rate depends on the choice of the learning rate parameter ρ {\displaystyle \rho } and the degree of linear separability of the data. == Relationship to other algorithms == Perceptron algorithm: Both seek linear separators. The perceptron updates weights incrementally based on individual misclassified samples, while Ho–Kashyap is a batch method that processes all samples to compute the pseudoinverse and updates based on an overall error vector. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA): LDA assumes underlying Gaussian distributions with equal covariances for the classes and derives the decision boundary from these statistical assumptions. Ho–Kashyap makes no explicit distributional assumptions and instead tries to solve a system of linear inequalities directly. Support vector machines (SVM): For linearly separable data, SVMs aim to find the maximum-margin hyperplane. The Ho–Kashyap algorithm finds a separating hyperplane but not necessarily the one with the maximum margin. If the data is not separable, soft-margin SVMs allow for some misclassifications by optimizing a trade-off between margin size and misclassification penalty, while Ho–Kashyap provides a least-squares solution. == Variants == Modified Ho–Kashyap algorithm changes weight calculation step w ( k + 1 ) = Y + b ( k + 1 ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} (k+1)=\mathbf {Y} ^{+}\mathbf {b} (k+1)} to w ( k + 1 ) = w ( k ) + η k Y + | e ( k ) | {\displaystyle \mathbf {w} (k+1)=\mathbf {w} (k)+\eta _{k}\mathbf {Y} ^{+}|\mathbf {e} (k)|} . Kernel Ho–Kashyap algorithm: Applies kernel methods (the "kernel trick") to the Ho–Kashyap framework to enable non-linear classification by implicitly mapping data to a higher-dimensional feature space.

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  • TabPFN

    TabPFN

    TabPFN (Tabular Prior-data Fitted Network) is a machine learning model for tabular datasets proposed in 2022. It uses a transformer architecture. It is intended for supervised classification and regression analysis on tabular datasets, particularly focusing on small- to medium-sized datasets. The latest version, TabPFN-3, was released in May 2026 and supports datasets with up to one million rows and 200 features. == History == TabPFN was first introduced in a 2022 pre-print and presented at ICLR 2023. TabPFN v2 was published in 2025 in Nature by Hollmann and co-authors. The source code is published on GitHub under a modified Apache License and on PyPi. Writing for ICLR blogs, McCarter states that the model has attracted attention due to its performance on small dataset benchmarks. TabPFN v2.5 was released on November 6, 2025. TabPFN-3 was released on May 12, 2026. Prior Labs, founded in 2024, aims to commercialize TabPFN. As of April 2026, the open-source TabPFN repository had more than 6,000 stars on GitHub. == Overview and pre-training == TabPFN supports classification, regression and generative tasks. It leverages "Prior-Data Fitted Networks" models to model tabular data. By using a transformer pre-trained on synthetic tabular datasets, TabPFN avoids benchmark contamination and costs of curating real-world data. TabPFN v2 was pre-trained on approximately 130 million such datasets. Synthetic datasets are generated using causal models or Bayesian neural networks; this can include simulating missing values, imbalanced data, and noise. Random inputs are passed through these models to generate outputs, with a bias towards simpler causal structures. During pre-training, TabPFN predicts the masked target values of new data points given training data points and their known targets, effectively learning a generic learning algorithm that is executed by running a neural network forward pass. The new dataset is then processed in a single forward pass without retraining. The model's transformer encoder processes features and labels by alternating attention across rows and columns. TabPFN v2 handles numerical and categorical features, missing values, and supports tasks like regression and synthetic data generation, while TabPFN-2.5 scales this approach to datasets with up to 50,000 rows and 2,000 features. TabPFN-3 introduced a redesigned architecture with row-compression, an attention-based many-class decoder, native missing-value handling, and inference optimizations such as row chunking and a reduced key-value cache, with benchmark-validated regimes of up to 1 million rows with 200 features, 100,000 rows with 2,000 features, or 1,000 rows with 20,000 features. Since TabPFN is pre-trained, in contrast to other deep learning methods, it does not require costly hyperparameter optimization. == Research == TabPFN is the subject of on-going research. Applications for TabPFN have been investigated for domains such as chemoproteomics, insurance risk classification, and metagenomics. In clinical research, TabPFN was used in a study on the early detection of pancreatic cancer from blood samples, where it was combined with metabolomic data and reported high diagnostic performance. == Applications == TabPFN has been used in industrial and biomedical contexts. Hitachi Ltd. has been reported to use the model for predictive maintenance in rail networks, with its use described as helping to identify track issues earlier and reduce manual inspections. In the biomedical domain, Oxford Cancer Analytics has used TabPFN in the analysis of proteomic data in lung disease research. A 2025 ML Contests report noted that the winners of DrivenData's PREPARE challenge used TabPFN to generate features for gradient-boosted decision tree models. == Limitations == TabPFN has been criticized for its "one large neural network is all you need" approach to modeling problems. Further, its performance is limited in high-dimensional and large-scale datasets. == Scaling Mode == In late November 2025, Prior Labs introduced ‘‘Scaling Mode’’, an operating mode for TabPFN designed to remove the fixed upper bound on training set size. Earlier versions of TabPFN had been optimized and validated primarily for datasets of up to 100,000 rows, whereas Scaling Mode was reported to extend support to substantially larger datasets, with benchmarked experiments on datasets containing up to 10 million rows. According to Prior Labs, Scaling Mode preserves the existing TabPFN architecture, including its alternating row-attention and column-attention design, as well as the same feature-count limits as prior releases. Inference remains based on a single forward pass rather than dataset-specific gradient-descent training, while scalability is described as being constrained primarily by available compute and memory resources. Prior Labs reported benchmark results on an internal collection of datasets ranging from 1 million to 10 million rows across industry and scientific applications. In these benchmarks, Scaling Mode was compared with CatBoost, XGBoost, LightGBM, and TabPFN 2.5 using 50,000-row subsampling. The company stated that predictive performance improved monotonically with increasing training set size and that no diminishing returns from scaling were observed within the tested range. Prior Labs also announced the release through company and executive social media channels. TabPFN-3 later incorporated related scaling improvements, including row chunking and a reduced key-value cache, into the model architecture and inference pipeline.

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  • AirDine

    AirDine

    AirDine was a mobile app within the platform economy where individuals acted as both supplier and customer for a supper club. AirDine discontinued their service after 31 October 2017. == Operations == AirDine was an online marketplace for home dining that connected users that liked to cook with users looking for a dining experience. Users were categorized as "Hosts" and "Guests," both of whom needed to register with AirDine. AirDine acted as a two-sided market for home dining that allowed hosts and guests, and did not act as a restaurant or host any dinners itself. AirDine charged a service fee. Security and safety of the host were not vetted by AirDine and were completely left to users based on published reviews. Profiles included user reviews and shared social connections to build trust among users. AirDine also included a private messaging system.

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  • Deterministic blockmodeling

    Deterministic blockmodeling

    Deterministic blockmodeling is an approach in blockmodeling that does not assume a probabilistic model, and instead relies on the exact or approximate algorithms, which are used to find blockmodel(s). This approach typically minimizes some inconsistency that can occur with the ideal block structure. Such analysis is focused on clustering (grouping) of the network (or adjacency matrix) that is obtained with minimizing an objective function, which measures discrepancy from the ideal block structure. However, some indirect approaches (or methods between direct and indirect approaches, such as CONCOR) do not explicitly minimize inconsistencies or optimize some criterion function. This approach was popularized in the 1970s, due to the presence of two computer packages (CONCOR and STRUCTURE) that were used to "find a permutation of the rows and columns in the adjacency matrix leading to an approximate block structure". The opposite approach to deterministic blockmodeling is a stochastic blockmodeling approach.

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  • Types of artificial neural networks

    Types of artificial neural networks

    Types of neural networks (NN) include a family of techniques. The simplest types have static components, including number of units, number of layers, unit weights and topology. Dynamic NNs evolve via learning. Some types allow/require learning to be "supervised" by the operator, while others operate independently. Some types operate purely in hardware, while others are purely software and run on general purpose computers. The main types are: Transformers: these use attention to analyze every token in the input stream against every other token in the stream. That technique has enabled neural networks to reach the general public via chatbots, code generators and many other forms. Convolutional neural networks (CNN): a FNN that uses kernels and regularization to evade problems in prior generations of NNs. They are typically used to analyze visual and other two-dimensional data. Generative adversarial networks set networks (of varying structure) against each other, each trying to push the other(s) to produce better results such as winning a game or to deceive the opponent about the authenticity of an input. == Feedforward == In feedforward neural networks the information moves from the input to output directly in every layer. There can be hidden layers with or without cycles/loops to sequence inputs. Feedforward networks can be constructed with various types of units, such as binary McCulloch–Pitts neurons, the simplest of which is the perceptron. Continuous neurons, frequently with sigmoidal activation, are used in the context of backpropagation. == Group method of data handling == The Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) features fully automatic structural and parametric model optimization. The node activation functions are Kolmogorov–Gabor polynomials that permit additions and multiplications. It uses a deep multilayer perceptron with eight layers. It is a supervised learning network that grows layer by layer, where each layer is trained by regression analysis. Useless items are detected using a validation set, and pruned through regularization. The size and depth of the resulting network depends on the task. == Autoencoder == An autoencoder, autoassociator or Diabolo network is similar to the multilayer perceptron (MLP) – with an input layer, an output layer and one or more hidden layers connecting them. However, the output layer has the same number of units as the input layer. Its purpose is to reconstruct its own inputs (instead of emitting a target value). Therefore, autoencoders are unsupervised learning models. An autoencoder is used for unsupervised learning of efficient codings, typically for the purpose of dimensionality reduction and for learning generative models of data. == Probabilistic == A probabilistic neural network (PNN) is a four-layer feedforward neural network. The layers are Input, hidden pattern, hidden summation, and output. In the PNN algorithm, the parent probability distribution function (PDF) of each class is approximated by a Parzen window and a non-parametric function. Then, using PDF of each class, the class probability of a new input is estimated and Bayes’ rule is employed to allocate it to the class with the highest posterior probability. It was derived from the Bayesian network and a statistical algorithm called Kernel Fisher discriminant analysis. It is used for classification and pattern recognition. == Time delay == A time delay neural network (TDNN) is a feedforward architecture for sequential data that recognizes features independent of sequence position. In order to achieve time-shift invariance, delays are added to the input so that multiple data points (points in time) are analyzed together. It usually forms part of a larger pattern recognition system. It has been implemented using a perceptron network whose connection weights were trained with back propagation (supervised learning). == Convolutional == A convolutional neural network (CNN, or ConvNet or shift invariant or space invariant) is a class of deep network, composed of one or more convolutional layers with fully connected layers (matching those in typical ANNs) on top. It uses tied weights and pooling layers. In particular, max-pooling. It is often structured via Fukushima's convolutional architecture. They are variations of multilayer perceptrons that use minimal preprocessing. This architecture allows CNNs to take advantage of the 2D structure of input data. Its unit connectivity pattern is inspired by the organization of the visual cortex. Units respond to stimuli in a restricted region of space known as the receptive field. Receptive fields partially overlap, over-covering the entire visual field. Unit response can be approximated mathematically by a convolution operation. CNNs are suitable for processing visual and other two-dimensional data. They have shown superior results in both image and speech applications. They can be trained with standard backpropagation. CNNs are easier to train than other regular, deep, feed-forward neural networks and have many fewer parameters to estimate. Capsule Neural Networks (CapsNet) add structures called capsules to a CNN and reuse output from several capsules to form more stable (with respect to various perturbations) representations. Examples of applications in computer vision include DeepDream and robot navigation. They have wide applications in image and video recognition, recommender systems and natural language processing. == Deep stacking network == A deep stacking network (DSN) (deep convex network) is based on a hierarchy of blocks of simplified neural network modules. It was introduced in 2011 by Deng and Yu. It formulates the learning as a convex optimization problem with a closed-form solution, emphasizing the mechanism's similarity to stacked generalization. Each DSN block is a simple module that is easy to train by itself in a supervised fashion without backpropagation for the entire blocks. Each block consists of a simplified multi-layer perceptron (MLP) with a single hidden layer. The hidden layer h has logistic sigmoidal units, and the output layer has linear units. Connections between these layers are represented by weight matrix U; input-to-hidden-layer connections have weight matrix W. Target vectors t form the columns of matrix T, and the input data vectors x form the columns of matrix X. The matrix of hidden units is H = σ ( W T X ) {\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {H}}=\sigma ({\boldsymbol {W}}^{T}{\boldsymbol {X}})} . Modules are trained in order, so lower-layer weights W are known at each stage. The function performs the element-wise logistic sigmoid operation. Each block estimates the same final label class y, and its estimate is concatenated with original input X to form the expanded input for the next block. Thus, the input to the first block contains the original data only, while downstream blocks' input adds the output of preceding blocks. Then learning the upper-layer weight matrix U given other weights in the network can be formulated as a convex optimization problem: min U T f = ‖ U T H − T ‖ F 2 , {\displaystyle \min _{U^{T}}f=\|{\boldsymbol {U}}^{T}{\boldsymbol {H}}-{\boldsymbol {T}}\|_{F}^{2},} which has a closed-form solution. Unlike other deep architectures, such as DBNs, the goal is not to discover the transformed feature representation. The structure of the hierarchy of this kind of architecture makes parallel learning straightforward, as a batch-mode optimization problem. In purely discriminative tasks, DSNs outperform conventional DBNs. === Tensor deep stacking networks === This architecture is a DSN extension. It offers two important improvements: it uses higher-order information from covariance statistics, and it transforms the non-convex problem of a lower-layer to a convex sub-problem of an upper-layer. TDSNs use covariance statistics in a bilinear mapping from each of two distinct sets of hidden units in the same layer to predictions, via a third-order tensor. While parallelization and scalability are not considered seriously in conventional DNNs, all learning for DSNs and TDSNs is done in batch mode, to allow parallelization. Parallelization allows scaling the design to larger (deeper) architectures and data sets. The basic architecture is suitable for diverse tasks such as classification and regression. == Physics-informed == Such a neural network is designed for the numerical solution of mathematical equations, such as differential, integral, delay, fractional and others. As input parameters, PINN accepts variables (spatial, temporal, and others), transmits them through the network block. At the output, it produces an approximate solution and substitutes it into the mathematical model, considering the initial and boundary conditions. If the solution does not satisfy the required accuracy, one uses the backpropagation and rectify the solution. Besides PINN, other architectures have been developed to produce surrogate models for scientific comput

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  • FERET (facial recognition technology)

    FERET (facial recognition technology)

    The Facial Recognition Technology (FERET) program was a government-sponsored project that aimed to create a large, automatic face-recognition system for intelligence, security, and law enforcement purposes. The program began in 1993 under the combined leadership of Dr. Harry Wechsler at George Mason University (GMU) and Dr. Jonathon Phillips at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, Maryland and resulted in the development of the Facial Recognition Technology (FERET) database. The goal of the FERET program was to advance the field of face recognition technology by establishing a common database of facial imagery for researchers to use and setting a performance baseline for face-recognition algorithms. Potential areas where this face-recognition technology could be used include: Automated searching of mug books using surveillance photos Controlling access to restricted facilities or equipment Checking the credentials of personnel for background and security clearances Monitoring airports, border crossings, and secure manufacturing facilities for particular individuals Finding and logging multiple appearances of individuals over time in surveillance videos Verifying identities at ATM machines Searching photo ID records for fraud detection The FERET database has been used by more than 460 research groups and is currently managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). By 2017, the FERET database has been used to train artificial intelligence programs and computer vision algorithms to identify and sort faces. == History == The origin of facial recognition technology is largely attributed to Woodrow Wilson Bledsoe and his work in the 1960s, when he developed a system to identify faces from a database of thousands of photographs. The FERET program first began as a way to unify a large body of face-recognition technology research under a standard database. Before the program's inception, most researchers created their own facial imagery database that was attuned to their own specific area of study. These personal databases were small and usually consisted of images from less than 50 individuals. The only notable exceptions were the following: Alex Pentland’s database of around 7500 facial images at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Joseph Wilder's database of around 250 individuals at Rutgers University Christoph von der Malsburg’s database of around 100 facial images at the University of Southern California (USC) The lack of a common database made it difficult to compare the results of face recognition studies in the scientific literature because each report involved different assumptions, scoring methods, and images. Most of the papers that were published did not use images from a common database nor follow a standard testing protocol. As a result, researchers were unable to make informed comparisons between the performances of different face-recognition algorithms. In September 1993, the FERET program was spearheaded by Dr. Harry Wechsler and Dr. Jonathon Phillips under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Defense Counterdrug Technology Development Program through DARPA with ARL serving as technical agent. === Phase I === The first facial images for the FERET database were collected from August 1993 to December 1994, a time period known as Phase I. The pictures were initially taken with a 35-mm camera at both GMU and ARL facilities, and the same physical setup was used in each photography session to keep the images consistent. For each individual, the pictures were taken in sets, including two frontal views, a right and left profile, a right and left quarter profile, a right and left half profile, and sometimes at five extra locations. Therefore, a set of images consisted of 5 to 11 images per person. At the end of Phase I, the FERET database had collected 673 sets of images, resulting in over 5000 total images. At the end of Phase I, five organizations were given the opportunity to test their face-recognition algorithm on the newly created FERET database in order to compare how they performed against each other. There five principal investigators were: MIT, led by Alex Pentland Rutgers University, led by Joseph Wilder The Analytic Science Company (TASC), led by Gale Gordon The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, led by Lewis Sadler and Thomas Huang USC, led by Christoph von der Malsburg During this evaluation, three different automatic tests were given to the principal investigators without human intervention: The large gallery test, which served to baseline how algorithms performed against a database when it has not been properly tuned. The false-alarm test, which tested how well the algorithm monitored an airport for suspected terrorists. The rotation test, which measured how well the algorithm performed when the images of an individual in the gallery had different poses compared to those in the probe set. For most of the test trials, the algorithms developed by USC and MIT managed to outperform the other three algorithms for the Phase I evaluation. === Phase II === Phase II began after Phase I, and during this time, the FERET database acquired more sets of facial images. By the start of the Phase II evaluation in March 1995, the database contained 1109 sets of images for a total of 8525 images of 884 individuals. During the second evaluation, the same algorithms from the Phase I evaluation were given a single test. However, the database now contained significantly more duplicate images (463, compared to the previous 60), making the test more challenging. === Phase III === Afterwards, the FERET program entered Phase III where another 456 sets of facial images were added to the database. The Phase III evaluation, which took place in September 1996, aimed to not only gauge the progress of the algorithms since the Phase I assessment but also identify the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm and determine future objectives for research. By the end of 1996, the FERET database had accumulated a total of 14,126 facial images pertaining to 1199 different individuals as well as 365 duplicate sets of images. As a result of the FERET program, researchers were able to establish a common baseline for comparing different face-recognition algorithms and create a large standard database of facial images that is open for research. In 2003, DARPA released a high-resolution, 24-bit color version of the images in the FERET database (existing reference).

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  • Zeuthen strategy

    Zeuthen strategy

    The Zeuthen strategy in cognitive science is a negotiation strategy used by some artificial agents. Its purpose is to measure the willingness to risk conflict. An agent will be more willing to risk conflict if it does not have much to lose in case that the negotiation fails. In contrast, an agent is less willing to risk conflict when it has more to lose. The value of a deal is expressed in its utility. An agent has much to lose when the difference between the utility of its current proposal and the conflict deal is high. When both agents use the monotonic concession protocol, the Zeuthen strategy leads them to agree upon a deal in the negotiation set. This set consists of all conflict free deals, which are individually rational and Pareto optimal, and the conflict deal, which maximizes the Nash product. The strategy was introduced in 1930 by the Danish economist Frederik Zeuthen. == Three key questions == The Zeuthen strategy answers three open questions that arise when using the monotonic concession protocol, namely: Which deal should be proposed at first? On any given round, who should concede? In case of a concession, how much should the agent concede? The answer to the first question is that any agent should start with its most preferred deal, because that deal has the highest utility for that agent. The second answer is that the agent with the smallest value of Risk(i,t) concedes, because the agent with the lowest utility for the conflict deal profits most from avoiding conflict. To the third question, the Zeuthen strategy suggests that the conceding agent should concede just enough raise its value of Risk(i,t) just above that of the other agent. This prevents the conceding agent to have to concede again in the next round. == Risk == Risk ( i , t ) = { 1 U i ( δ ( i , t ) ) = 0 U i ( δ ( i , t ) ) − U i ( δ ( j , t ) ) U i ( δ ( i , t ) ) otherwise {\displaystyle {\text{Risk}}(i,t)={\begin{cases}1&U_{i}(\delta (i,t))=0\\{\frac {U_{i}(\delta (i,t))-U_{i}(\delta (j,t))}{U_{i}(\delta (i,t))}}&{\text{otherwise}}\end{cases}}} Risk(i,t) is a measurement of agent i's willingness to risk conflict. The risk function formalizes the notion that an agent's willingness to risk conflict is the ratio of the utility that agent would lose by accepting the other agent's proposal to the utility that agent would lose by causing a conflict. Agent i is said to be using a rational negotiation strategy if at any step t + 1 that agent i sticks to his last proposal, Risk(i,t) > Risk(j,t). == Sufficient concession == If agent i makes a sufficient concession in the next step, then, assuming that agent j is using a rational negotiation strategy, if agent j does not concede in the next step, he must do so in the step after that. The set of all sufficient concessions of agent i at step t is denoted SC(i, t). == Minimal sufficient concession == δ ′ = arg ⁡ max δ ∈ S C ( A , t ) { U A ( δ ) } {\displaystyle \delta '=\arg \max _{\delta \in {SC(A,t)}}\{U_{A}(\delta )\}} is the minimal sufficient concession of agent A in step t. Agent A begins the negotiation by proposing δ ( A , 0 ) = arg ⁡ max δ ∈ N S U A ( δ ) {\displaystyle \delta (A,0)=\arg \max _{\delta \in {NS}}U_{A}(\delta )} and will make the minimal sufficient concession in step t + 1 if and only if Risk(A,t) ≤ Risk(B,t). Theorem If both agents are using Zeuthen strategies, then they will agree on δ = arg ⁡ max δ ′ ∈ N S { π ( δ ′ ) } , {\displaystyle \delta =\arg \max _{\delta '\in {NS}}\{\pi (\delta ')\},} that is, the deal which maximizes the Nash product. Proof Let δA = δ(A,t). Let δB = δ(B,t). According to the Zeuthen strategy, agent A will concede at step t {\displaystyle t} if and only if R i s k ( A , t ) ≤ R i s k ( B , t ) . {\displaystyle Risk(A,t)\leq Risk(B,t).} That is, if and only if U A ( δ A ) − U A ( δ B ) U A ( δ A ) ≤ U B ( δ B ) − U B ( δ A ) U B ( δ B ) {\displaystyle {\frac {U_{A}(\delta _{A})-U_{A}(\delta _{B})}{U_{A}(\delta _{A})}}\leq {\frac {U_{B}(\delta _{B})-U_{B}(\delta _{A})}{U_{B}(\delta _{B})}}} U B ( δ B ) ( U A ( δ A ) − U A ( δ B ) ) ≤ U A ( δ A ) ( U B ( δ B ) − U B ( δ A ) ) {\displaystyle U_{B}(\delta _{B})(U_{A}(\delta _{A})-U_{A}(\delta _{B}))\leq U_{A}(\delta _{A})(U_{B}(\delta _{B})-U_{B}(\delta _{A}))} U A ( δ A ) U B ( δ B ) − U A ( δ B ) U B ( δ B ) ≤ U A ( δ A ) U B ( δ B ) − U A ( δ A ) U B ( δ A ) {\displaystyle U_{A}(\delta _{A})U_{B}(\delta _{B})-U_{A}(\delta _{B})U_{B}(\delta _{B})\leq U_{A}(\delta _{A})U_{B}(\delta _{B})-U_{A}(\delta _{A})U_{B}(\delta _{A})} − U A ( δ B ) U B ( δ B ) ≤ − U A ( δ A ) U B ( δ A ) {\displaystyle -U_{A}(\delta _{B})U_{B}(\delta _{B})\leq -U_{A}(\delta _{A})U_{B}(\delta _{A})} U A ( δ A ) U B ( δ A ) ≤ U A ( δ B ) U B ( δ B ) {\displaystyle U_{A}(\delta _{A})U_{B}(\delta _{A})\leq U_{A}(\delta _{B})U_{B}(\delta _{B})} π ( δ A ) ≤ π ( δ B ) {\displaystyle \pi (\delta _{A})\leq \pi (\delta _{B})} Thus, Agent A will concede if and only if δ A {\displaystyle \delta _{A}} does not yield the larger product of utilities. Therefore, the Zeuthen strategy guarantees a final agreement that maximizes the Nash Product.

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  • Vladimir Batagelj

    Vladimir Batagelj

    Vladimir Batagelj (born June 14, 1948 in Idrija, Yugoslavia) is a Slovenian mathematician and an emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of Ljubljana. He is known for his work in discrete mathematics and combinatorial optimization, particularly analysis of social networks and other large networks (blockmodeling). == Education and career == Vladimir Batagelj completed his Ph.D. at the University of Ljubljana in 1986 under the direction of Tomaž Pisanski. He stayed at the University of Ljubljana as a professor until his retirement, where he was a professor of sociology and statistics, while also being a chair of the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences. As visiting professor, he was taught at the University of Pittsburgh (1990-91) and at the University of Konstanz (2002). He was also a member of editorial boards of two journals: Informatica and Journal of Social Structure. His work has been cited over 11000 times. His book Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek on blockmodeling, coauthored with Wouter de Nooy and Andrej Mrvar, is Batagelj's most cited work and has over 3300 citations. The book was translated into Chinese and Japanese. The revised and expanded third edition has been published by Cambridge University Press. In 1975, 11 years before completing his PhD, Batagelj published a solo paper in Communications of the ACM. Batagelj authored more than 20 textbooks in Slovenian, covering topics like TeX, combinatorics and discrete mathematics. He has also written extensively in the Slovenian popular science journal Presek. Batagelj has advised 9 Ph.D. students. == Pajek == Batagelj is particularly known for his work on Pajek, a freely available software for analysis and visualization of large networks. He began work on Pajek in 1996 with Andrej Mrvar, who was then his PhD student. == Awards and honors == First prizes for contributions (with Andrej Mrvar) to Graph Drawing Contests in years: 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2005 / Graph Drawing Hall of Fame. In 2007 the book Generalized blockmodeling was awarded the Harrison White Outstanding Book Award by the Mathematical Sociology Section of American Sociological Association In 2007 he was awarded (together with Anuška Ferligoj) the Simmel Award by INSNA. In 2013, Vladimir Batagelj and Andrej Mrvar received the INSNA's William D. Richards Software award for their work on Pajek. == Selected bibliography == Vladimir Batagelj, Social Network Analysis, Large-Scale [1]. in R.A. Meyers, ed., Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, Springer 2009: 8245–8265. Vladimir Batagelj, Complex Networks, Visualization of [2]. in R.A. Meyers, ed., Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, Springer 2009: 1253–1268. Wouter de Nooy, Andrej Mrvar, Vladimir Batagelj, Mark Granovetter (Series Editor), Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences), Cambridge University Press 2005 (ISBN 0-521-60262-9). ESNA in Japanese, TDU, 2010. Patrick Doreian, Vladimir Batagelj, Anuška Ferligoj, Mark Granovetter (Series Editor), Generalized Blockmodeling (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences), Cambridge University Press 2004 (ISBN 0-521-84085-6)

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  • Variable-order Bayesian network

    Variable-order Bayesian network

    Variable-order Bayesian network (VOBN) models provide an important extension of both the Bayesian network models and the variable-order Markov models. VOBN models are used in machine learning in general and have shown great potential in bioinformatics applications. These models extend the widely used position weight matrix (PWM) models, Markov models, and Bayesian network (BN) models. In contrast to the BN models, where each random variable depends on a fixed subset of random variables, in VOBN models these subsets may vary based on the specific realization of observed variables. The observed realizations are often called the context and, hence, VOBN models are also known as context-specific Bayesian networks. The flexibility in the definition of conditioning subsets of variables turns out to be a real advantage in classification and analysis applications, as the statistical dependencies between random variables in a sequence of variables (not necessarily adjacent) may be taken into account efficiently, and in a position-specific and context-specific manner.

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