Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #65650. 	[Title] Machine Learning 27(1):51-68, 1997. Predicting nearly as well as the best pruning of a decision tree [Abstract] Many algorithms for inferring a decision tree from data involve a two-phase process: First, a very large decision tree is grown which typically ends up "over-fitting" the data. To reduce over-fitting, in the second phase, the tree is pruned using one of a number of available methods. The final tree is then output and used for classification on test data. In this paper, we suggest an alternative approach to the pruning phase. Using a given unpruned decision tree, we present a new method of making predictions on test data, and we prove that our algorithm's performance will not be "much worse" (in a precise technical sense) than the predictions made by the best reasonably small pruning of the given decision tree. Thus, our procedure is guaranteed to be competitive (in terms of the quality of its predictions) with any pruning algorithm. We prove that our procedure is very efficient and highly robust. Our method can be viewed as a synthesis of two previously studied techniques. First, we apply Cesa-Bianchi et al.'s [4] results on predicting using "expert advice" (where we view each pruning as an "expert") to obtain an algorithm that has provably low prediction loss, but that is com-putationally infeasible. Next, we generalize and apply a method developed by Buntine [3], [2] and Willems, Shtarkov and Tjalkens [20], [21] to derive a very efficient implementation of this procedure. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1135746. 	[Title] Learning Markov chains with variable memory length from noisy output [Abstract] The problem of modeling complicated data sequences, such as DNA or speech, often arises in practice. Most of the algorithms select a hypothesis from within a model class assuming that the observed sequence is the direct output of the underlying generation process. In this paper we consider the case when the output passes through a memoryless noisy channel before observation. In particular, we show that in the class of Markov chains with variable memory length, learning is affected by factors, which, despite being super-polynomial, are still small in some practical cases. Markov models with variable memory length, or probabilistic finite suffix automata, were introduced in learning theory by Ron, Singer and Tishby who also described a polynomial time learning algorithm [11, 12]. We present a modification of the algorithm which uses a noise-corrupted sample and has knowledge of the noise structure. The same algorithm is still viable if the noise is not known exactly but a good estimation is available. Finally, some experimental results are presented for removing noise from corrupted English text, and to measure how the performance of the learning algorithm is affected by the size of the noisy sample and the noise rate. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #45189. 	[Title] An Experimental and Theoretical Comparison of Model Selection Methods on simple model selection problems, the [Abstract] We investigate the problem of model selection in the setting of supervised learning of boolean functions from independent random examples. More precisely, we compare methods for finding a balance between the complexity of the hypothesis chosen and its observed error on a random training sample of limited size, when the goal is that of minimizing the resulting generalization error. We undertake a detailed comparison of three well-known model selection methods | a variation of Vapnik's Guaranteed Risk Minimization (GRM), an instance of Rissanen's Minimum Description Length Principle (MDL), and cross validation (CV). We introduce a general class of model selection methods (called penalty-based methods) that includes both GRM and MDL, and provide general methods for analyzing such rules. We provide both controlled experimental evidence and formal theorems to support the following conclusions: * The class of penalty-based methods is fundamentally handicapped in the sense that there exist two types of model selection problems for which every penalty-based method must incur large generalization error on at least one, while CV enjoys small generalization error Despite the inescapable incomparability of model selection methods under certain circumstances, we conclude with a discussion of our belief that the balance of the evidence provides specific reasons to prefer CV to other methods, unless one is in possession of detailed problem-specific information. on both. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #12165. 	[Title] The Power of Team Exploration: Two Robots Can Learn Unlabeled Directed Graphs [Abstract] We show that two cooperating robots can learn exactly any strongly-connected directed graph with n indistinguishable nodes in expected time polynomial in n. We introduce a new type of homing sequence for two robots, which helps the robots recognize certain previously-seen nodes. We then present an algorithm in which the robots learn the graph and the homing sequence simultaneously by actively wandering through the graph. Unlike most previous learning results using homing sequences, our algorithm does not require a teacher to provide counterexamples. Furthermore, the algorithm can use efficiently any additional information available that distinguishes nodes. We also present an algorithm in which the robots learn by taking random walks. The rate at which a random walk on a graph converges to the stationary distribution is characterized by the conductance of the graph. Our random-walk algorithm learns in expected time polynomial in n and in the inverse of the conductance and is more efficient than the homing-sequence algorithm for high-conductance graphs. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #46470. 	[Title] On the Boosting Ability of Top-Down Decision Tree Learning Algorithms provably optimal for decision tree [Abstract] We analyze the performance of top-down algorithms for decision tree learning, such as those employed by the widely used C4.5 and CART software packages. Our main result is a proof that such algorithms are boosting algorithms. By this we mean that if the functions that label the internal nodes of the decision tree can weakly approximate the unknown target function, then the top-down algorithms we study will amplify this weak advantage to build a tree achieving any desired level of accuracy. The bounds we obtain for this amplification show an interesting dependence on the splitting criterion used by the top-down algorithm. More precisely, if the functions used to label the internal nodes have error 1=2 fl as approximations to the target function, then for the splitting criteria used by CART and C4.5, trees of size (1=*) O(1=fl 2 * 2 ) and (1=*) O(log(1=*)=fl 2 ) (respectively) suffice to drive the error below *. Thus (for example), a small constant advantage over random guessing is amplified to any larger constant advantage with trees of constant size. For a new splitting criterion suggested by our analysis, the much stronger fl A preliminary version of this paper appears in Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, pages 459-468, ACM Press, 1996. Authors' addresses: M. Kearns, AT&T Research, 600 Mountain Avenue, Room 2A-423, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974; electronic mail mkearns@research.att.com. Y. Mansour, Department of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; electronic mail mansour@math.tau.ac.il. Y. Mansour was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation, administered by the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities, and by a grant of the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #102406. 	[Title] Learning Sparse Perceptrons [Abstract] We introduce a new algorithm designed to learn sparse perceptrons over input representations which include high-order features. Our algorithm, which is based on a hypothesis-boosting method, is able to PAC-learn a relatively natural class of target concepts. Moreover, the algorithm appears to work well in practice: on a set of three problem domains, the algorithm produces classifiers that utilize small numbers of features yet exhibit good generalization performance. Perhaps most importantly, our algorithm generates concept descriptions that are easy for humans to understand. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #189574. 	[Title] Theory Refinement on Bayesian Networks [Abstract] Theory refinement is the task of updating a domain theory in the light of new cases, to be done automatically or with some expert assistance. The problem of theory refinement under uncertainty is reviewed here in the context of Bayesian statistics, a theory of belief revision. The problem is reduced to an incremental learning task as follows: the learning system is initially primed with a partial theory supplied by a domain expert, and thereafter maintains its own internal representation of alternative theories which is able to be interrogated by the domain expert and able to be incrementally refined from data. Algorithms for refinement of Bayesian networks are presented to illustrate what is meant by "partial theory", "alternative theory representation", etc. The algorithms are an incremental variant of batch learning algorithms from the literature so can work well in batch and incremental mode. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1119751. 	[Title] An Efficient Boosting Algorithm for Combining Preferences [Abstract] The problem of combining preferences arises in several applications, such as combining the results of different search engines. This work describes an efficient algorithm for combining multiple preferences. We first give a formal framework for the problem. We then describe and analyze a new boosting algorithm for combining preferences called RankBoost. We also describe an efficient implementation of the algorithm for a restricted case. We discuss two experiments we carried out to assess the performance of RankBoost. In the first experiment, we used the algorithm to combine different WWW search strategies, each of which is a query expansion for a given domain. For this task, we compare the performance of RankBoost to the individual search strategies. The second experiment is a collaborative-filtering task for making movie recommendations. Here, we present results comparing RankBoost to nearest-neighbor and regression algorithms. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #12182. 	[Title] How to Use Expert Advice (Extended Abstract) [Abstract] We analyze algorithms that predict a binary value by combining the predictions of several prediction strategies, called experts. Our analysis is for worst-case situations, i.e., we make no assumptions about the way the sequence of bits to be predicted is generated. We measure the performance of the algorithm by the difference between the expected number of mistakes it makes on the bit sequence and the expected number of mistakes made by the best expert on this sequence, where the expectation is taken with respect to the randomization in the predictions. We show that the minimum achievable difference is on the order of the square root of the number of mistakes of the best expert, and we give efficient algorithms that achieve this. Our upper and lower bounds have matching leading constants in most cases. We give implications of this result on the performance of batch learning algorithms in a PAC setting which improve on the best results currently known in this context. We also extend our analysis to the case in which log loss is used instead of the expected number of mistakes. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #197783. 	[Title] Adaptive Boosting of Neural Networks for Character Recognition [Abstract] Technical Report #1072, D epartement d'Informatique et Recherche Op erationnelle, Universit e de Montr eal Abstract Boosting is a general method for improving the performance of any learning algorithm that consistently generates classifiers which need to perform only slightly better than random guessing. A recently proposed and very promising boosting algorithm is AdaBoost [5]. It has been applied with great success to several benchmark machine learning problems using rather simple learning algorithms [4], in particular decision trees [1, 2, 6]. In this paper we use AdaBoost to improve the performances of neural networks applied to character recognition tasks. We compare training methods based on sampling the training set and weighting the cost function. Our system achieves about 1.4% error on a data base of online handwritten digits from more than 200 writers. Adaptive boosting of a multi-layer network achieved 2% error on the UCI Letters offline characters data set. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #350362. 	[Title] Improving Regressors using Boosting Techniques [Abstract] In the regression context, boosting and bagging are techniques to build a committee of regressors that may be superior to a single regressor. We use regression trees as fundamental building blocks in bagging committee machines and boosting committee machines. Performance is analyzed on three non-linear functions and the Boston housing database. In all cases, boosting is at least equivalent, and in most cases better than bagging in terms of prediction error. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #101662. 	[Title] Learning from positive data [Abstract] Gold showed in 1967 that not even regular grammars can be exactly identified from positive examples alone. Since it is known that children learn natural grammars almost exclusively from positives examples, Gold's result has been used as a theoretical support for Chomsky's theory of innate human linguistic abilities. In this paper new results are presented which show that within a Bayesian framework not only grammars, but also logic programs are learnable with arbitrarily low expected error from positive examples only. In addition, we show that the upper bound for expected error of a learner which maximises the Bayes' posterior probability when learning from positive examples is within a small additive term of one which does the same from a mixture of positive and negative examples. An Inductive Logic Programming implementation is described which avoids the pitfalls of greedy search by global optimisation of this function during the local construction of individual clauses of the hypothesis. Results of testing this implementation on artificially-generated data-sets are reported. These results are in agreement with the theoretical predictions. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1153183. 	[Title]  [Abstract] General convergence results for linear discriminant updates Abstract The problem of learning linear discriminant concepts can be solved by various mistake-driven update procedures, including the Winnow family of algorithms and the well-known Perceptron algorithm. In this paper we define the general class of quasi-additive algorithms, which includes Perceptron and Winnow as special cases. We give a single proof of convergence that covers much of this class, including both Perceptron and Winnow but also many novel algorithms. Our proof introduces a generic measure of progress that seems to capture much of when and how these algorithms converge. Using this measure, we develop a simple general technique for proving mistake bounds, which we apply to the new algorithms as well as existing algorithms. When applied to known algorithms, our technique automatically produces close variants of existing proofs (and we generally obtain the known bounds, to within constants) thus showing, in a certain sense, that these seem ingly diverse results are fundamentally isomorphic. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #8224. 	[Title] Mingers, 1989 J. Mingers. An empirical comparison of pruning methods for decision tree induction. Machine [Abstract] Ourston and Mooney, 1990b ] D. Ourston and R. J. Mooney. Improving shared rules in multiple category domain theories. Technical Report AI90-150, Artificial Intelligence Labora tory, University of Texas, Austin, TX, December 1990. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #22563. 	[Title] A Comparative Study of ID3 and Backpropagation for English Text-to-Speech Mapping [Abstract] The performance of the error backpropagation (BP) and ID3 learning algorithms was compared on the task of mapping English text to phonemes and stresses. Under the distributed output code developed by Sejnowski and Rosenberg, it is shown that BP consistently out-performs ID3 on this task by several percentage points. Three hypotheses explaining this difference were explored: (a) ID3 is overfitting the training data, (b) BP is able to share hidden units across several output units and hence can learn the output units better, and (c) BP captures statistical information that ID3 does not. We conclude that only hypothesis (c) is correct. By augmenting ID3 with a simple statistical learning procedure, the performance of BP can be approached but not matched. More complex statistical procedures can improve the performance of both BP and ID3 substantially. A study of the residual errors suggests that there is still substantial room for improvement in learning methods for text-to-speech mapping. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #12195. 	[Title] Efficient Learning of Typical Finite Automata from Random Walks (Extended Abstract) [Abstract] This paper describes new and efficient algorithms for learning deterministic finite automata. Our approach is primarily distinguished by two features: (1) the adoption of an average-case setting to model the "typical" labeling of a finite automaton, while retaining a worst-case model for the underlying graph of the automaton, along with (2) a learning model in which the learner is not provided with the means to experiment with the machine, but rather must learn solely by observing the automaton's output behavior on a random input sequence. The main contribution of this paper is in presenting the first efficient algorithms for learning non-trivial classes of automata in an entirely passive learning model. We adopt an on-line learning model in which the learner is asked to predict the output of the next state, given the next symbol of the random input sequence; the goal of the learner is to make as few prediction mistakes as possible. Assuming the learner has a means of resetting the target machine to a fixed start state, we first present an efficient algorithm that makes an expected polynomial number of mistakes in this model. Next, we show how this first algorithm can be used as a subroutine by a second algorithm that also makes a polynomial number of mistakes even in the absence of a reset. Along the way, we prove a number of combinatorial results for randomly labeled automata. We also show that the labeling of the states and the bits of the input sequence need not be truly random, but merely semi-random. Finally, we discuss an extension of our results to a model in which automata are used to represent distributions over binary strings. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #59045. 	[Title] PREDICTION GAMES AND ARCING ALGORITHMS [Abstract] Technical Report 504 December 19, 1997 Statistics Department University of California Berkeley, CA. (4720 Abstract The theory behind the success of adaptive reweighting and combining algorithms (arcing) such as Adaboost (Freund and Schapire [1995].[1996]) and others in reducing generalization error has not been well understood. By formulating prediction, both classification and regression, as a game where one player makes a selection from instances in the training set and the other a convex linear combination of predictors from a finite set, existing arcing algorithms are shown to be algorithms for finding good game strategies. An optimal game strategy finds a combined predictor that minimizes the maximum of the error over the training set. A bound on the generalization error for the combined predictors in terms of their maximum error is proven that is sharper than bounds to date. Arcing algorithms are described that converge to the optimal strategy. Schapire et.al. [1997] offered an explanation of why Adaboost works in terms of its ability to reduce the margin. Comparing Adaboost to our optimal arcing algorithm shows that their explanation is not valid and that the answer lies elsewhere. In this situation the VC-type bounds are misleading. Some empirical results are given to explore the situation. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1153064. 	[Title] Stochastic Logic Programs [Abstract] One way to represent a machine learning algorithm's bias over the hypothesis and instance space is as a pair of probability distributions. This approach has been taken both within Bayesian learning schemes and the framework of U-learnability. However, it is not obvious how an Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) system should best be provided with a probability distribution. This paper extends the results of a previous paper by the author which introduced stochastic logic programs as a means of providing a structured definition of such a probability distribution. Stochastic logic programs are a generalisation of stochastic grammars. A stochastic logic program consists of a set of labelled clauses p : C where p is from the interval [0; 1] and C is a range-restricted definite clause. A stochastic logic program P has a distributional semantics, that is one which assigns a probability distribution to the atoms of each predicate in the Herbrand base of the clauses in P . These probabilities are assigned to atoms according to an SLD-resolution strategy which employs a stochastic selection rule. It is shown that the probabilities can be computed directly for fail-free logic programs and by normalisation for arbitrary logic programs. The stochastic proof strategy can be used to provide three distinct functions: 1) a method of sampling from the Herbrand base which can be used to provide selected targets or example sets for ILP experiments, 2) a measure of the information content of examples or hypotheses; this can be used to guide the search in an ILP system and 3) a simple method for conditioning a given stochastic logic program on samples of data. Functions 1) and 3) are used to measure the generality of hypotheses in the ILP system Progol4.2. This supports an implementation of a Bayesian technique for learning from positive examples only. fl This paper is an extension of a paper with the same title which appeared in [12] Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #107177. 	[Title] Learning to Order Things [Abstract] There are many applications in which it is desirable to order rather than classify instances. Here we consider the problem of learning how to order, given feedback in the form of preference judgments, i.e., statements to the effect that one instance should be ranked ahead of another. We outline a two-stage approach in which one first learns by conventional means a preference function, of the form PREF(u; v), which indicates whether it is advisable to rank u before v. New instances are then ordered so as to maximize agreements with the learned preference function. We show that the problem of finding the ordering that agrees best with a preference function is NP-complete, even under very restrictive assumptions. Nevertheless, we describe a simple greedy algorithm that is guaranteed to find a good approximation. We then discuss an on-line learning algorithm, based on the "Hedge" algorithm, for finding a good linear combination of ranking "experts." We use the ordering algorithm combined with the on-line learning algorithm to find a combination of "search experts," each of which is a domain-specific query expansion strategy for a WWW search engine, and present experimental results that demonstrate the merits of our approach. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1105450. 	[Title] A Fast, Bottom-Up Decision Tree Pruning Algorithm with Near-Optimal Generalization [Abstract] In this work, we present a new bottom-up algorithm for decision tree pruning that is very efficient (requiring only a single pass through the given tree), and prove a strong performance guarantee for the generalization error of the resulting pruned tree. We work in the typical setting in which the given tree T may have been derived from the given training sample S, and thus may badly overfit S. In this setting, we give bounds on the amount of additional generalization error that our pruning suffers compared to the optimal pruning of T . More generally, our results show that if there is a pruning of T with small error, and whose size is small compared to jSj, then our algorithm will find a pruning whose error is not much larger. This style of result has been called an index of resolvability result by Barron and Cover in the context of density estimation. A novel feature of our algorithm is its locality | the decision to prune a subtree is based entirely on properties of that subtree and the sample reaching it. To analyze our algorithm, we develop tools of local uniform convergence, a generalization of the standard notion that may prove useful in other settings. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1116842. 	[Title] Pruning Adaptive Boosting ICML-97 Final Draft [Abstract] The boosting algorithm AdaBoost, developed by Freund and Schapire, has exhibited outstanding performance on several benchmark problems when using C4.5 as the "weak" algorithm to be "boosted." Like other ensemble learning approaches, AdaBoost constructs a composite hypothesis by voting many individual hypotheses. In practice, the large amount of memory required to store these hypotheses can make ensemble methods hard to deploy in applications. This paper shows that by selecting a subset of the hypotheses, it is possible to obtain nearly the same levels of performance as the entire set. The results also provide some insight into the behavior of AdaBoost. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1118764. 	[Title] An Efficient Extension to Mixture Techniques for Prediction and Decision Trees [Abstract] We present a method for maintaining mixtures of prunings of a prediction or decision tree that extends the "node-based" prunings of [Bun90, WST95, HS97] to the larger class of edge-based prunings. The method includes an efficient online weight allocation algorithm that can be used for prediction, compression and classification. Although the set of edge-based prunings of a given tree is much larger than that of node-based prunings, our algorithm has similar space and time complexity to that of previous mixture algorithms for trees. Using the general on-line framework of Freund and Schapire [FS97], we prove that our algorithm maintains correctly the mixture weights for edge-based prunings with any bounded loss function. We also give a similar algorithm for the logarithmic loss function with a corresponding weight allocation algorithm. Finally, we describe experiments comparing node-based and edge-based mixture models for estimating the probability of the next word in English text, which show the ad vantages of edge-based models. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #5038. 	[Title] Using and combining predictors that specialize [Abstract] We study online learning algorithms that predict by combining the predictions of several subordinate prediction algorithms, sometimes called experts. These simple algorithms belong to the multiplicative weights family of algorithms. The performance of these algorithms degrades only logarithmically with the number of experts, making them particularly useful in applications where the number of experts is very large. However, in applications such as text categorization, it is often natural for some of the experts to abstain from making predictions on some of the instances. We show how to transform algorithms that assume that all experts are always awake to algorithms that do not require this assumption. We also show how to derive corresponding loss bounds. Our method is very general, and can be applied to a large family of online learning algorithms. We also give applications to various prediction models including decision graphs and switching experts. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #12210. 	[Title] Efficient Distribution-free Learning of Probabilistic Concepts [Abstract] In this paper we investigate a new formal model of machine learning in which the concept (boolean function) to be learned may exhibit uncertain or probabilistic behavior|thus, the same input may sometimes be classified as a positive example and sometimes as a negative example. Such probabilistic concepts (or p-concepts) may arise in situations such as weather prediction, where the measured variables and their accuracy are insufficient to determine the outcome with certainty. We adopt from the Valiant model of learning [27] the demands that learning algorithms be efficient and general in the sense that they perform well for a wide class of p-concepts and for any distribution over the domain. In addition to giving many efficient algorithms for learning natural classes of p-concepts, we study and develop in detail an underlying theory of learning p-concepts. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #12211. 	[Title] Learning From a Population of Hypotheses [Abstract] We introduce a new formal model in which a learning algorithm must combine a collection of potentially poor but statistically independent hypothesis functions in order to approximate an unknown target function arbitrarily well. Our motivation includes the question of how to make optimal use of multiple independent runs of a mediocre learning algorithm, as well as settings in which the many hypotheses are obtained by a distributed population of identical learning agents. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #84020. 	[Title] Classifiers: A Theoretical and Empirical Study [Abstract] This paper describes how a competitive tree learning algorithm can be derived from first principles. The algorithm approximates the Bayesian decision theoretic solution to the learning task. Comparative experiments with the algorithm and the several mature AI and statistical families of tree learning algorithms currently in use show the derived Bayesian algorithm is consistently as good or better, although sometimes at computational cost. Using the same strategy, we can design algorithms for many other supervised and model learning tasks given just a probabilistic representation for the kind of knowledge to be learned. As an illustration, a second learning algorithm is derived for learning Bayesian networks from data. Implications to incremental learning and the use of multiple models are also discussed. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #101811. 	[Title] Programming Research Group A LEARNABILITY MODEL FOR UNIVERSAL REPRESENTATIONS [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #4660. 	[Title] Context-sensitive learning methods for text categorization [Abstract] Two recently implemented machine learning algorithms, RIPPER and sleeping experts for phrases, are evaluated on a number of large text categorization problems. These algorithms both construct classifiers that allow the "context" of a word w to affect how (or even whether) the presence or absence of w will contribute to a classification. However, RIPPER and sleeping experts differ radically in many other respects: differences include different notions as to what constitutes a context, different ways of combining contexts to construct a classifier, different methods to search for a combination of contexts, and different criteria as to what contexts should be included in such a combination. In spite of these differences, both RIPPER and sleeping experts perform extremely well across a wide variety of categorization problems, generally outperforming previously applied learning methods. We view this result as a confirmation of the usefulness of classifiers that represent contextual information. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1104055. 	[Title] LEARNING BY USING DYNAMIC FEATURE COMBINATION AND SELECTION [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #73146. 	[Title] LEARNING BAYESIAN NETWORKS WITH LOCAL STRUCTURE [Abstract] We examine a novel addition to the known methods for learning Bayesian networks from data that improves the quality of the learned networks. Our approach explicitly represents and learns the local structure in the conditional probability distributions (CPDs) that quantify these networks. This increases the space of possible models, enabling the representation of CPDs with a variable number of parameters. The resulting learning procedure induces models that better emulate the interactions present in the data. We describe the theoretical foundations and practical aspects of learning local structures and provide an empirical evaluation of the proposed learning procedure. This evaluation indicates that learning curves characterizing this procedure converge faster, in the number of training instances, than those of the standard procedure, which ignores the local structure of the CPDs. Our results also show that networks learned with local structures tend to be more complex (in terms of arcs), yet require fewer parameters. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #175291. 	[Title] Actively Searching for an Effective Neural-Network Ensemble [Abstract] A neural-network ensemble is a very successful technique where the outputs of a set of separately trained neural network are combined to form one unified prediction. An effective ensemble should consist of a set of networks that are not only highly correct, but ones that make their errors on different parts of the input space as well; however, most existing techniques only indirectly address the problem of creating such a set. We present an algorithm called Addemup that uses genetic algorithms to explicitly search for a highly diverse set of accurate trained networks. Addemup works by first creating an initial population, then uses genetic operators to continually create new networks, keeping the set of networks that are highly accurate while disagreeing with each other as much as possible. Experiments on four real-world domains show that Addemup is able to generate a set of trained networks that is more accurate than several existing ensemble approaches. Experiments also show that Addemup is able to effectively incorporate prior knowledge, if available, to improve the quality of its ensemble. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #23738. 	[Title] A THEORY OF LEARNING CLASSIFICATION RULES [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #11325. 	[Title] On Learning Multiple Descriptions of a Concept [Abstract] In sparse data environments, greater classification accuracy can be achieved by learning several concept descriptions of the data and combining their classifications. Stochastic search is a general tool which can be used to generate many good concept descriptions (rule sets) for each class in the data. Bayesian probability theory offers an optimal strategy for combining classifications of the individual concept descriptions, and here we use an approximation of that theory. This strategy is most useful when additional data is difficult to obtain and every increase in classification accuracy is important. The primary result of this paper is that multiple concept descriptions are particularly helpful in "flat" hypothesis spaces in which there are many equally good ways to grow a rule, each having similar gain. Another result is experimental evidence that learning multiple rule sets yields more accurate classifications than learning multiple rules for some domains. To demonstrate these behaviors, we learn multiple concept descriptions by adapting HYDRA, a noise-tolerant relational learning algorithm. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #157761. 	[Title] On the Complexity of Function Learning [Abstract] The majority of results in computational learning theory are concerned with concept learning, i.e. with the special case of function learning for classes of functions with range f0; 1g. Much less is known about the theory of learning functions with a larger range such as IN or IR. In particular relatively few results exist about the general structure of common models for function learning, and there are only very few nontrivial function classes for which positive learning results have been exhibited in any of these models. We introduce in this paper the notion of a binary branching adversary tree for function learning, which allows us to give a somewhat surprising equivalent characterization of the optimal learning cost for learning a class of real-valued functions (in terms of a max-min definition which does not involve any "learning" model). Another general structural result of this paper relates the cost for learning a union of function classes to the learning costs for the individual function classes. Furthermore, we exhibit an efficient learning algorithm for learning convex piecewise linear functions from IR d into IR. Previously, the class of linear functions from IR d into IR was the only class of functions with multi-dimensional domain that was known to be learnable within the rigorous framework of a formal model for on-line learning. Finally we give a sufficient condition for an arbitrary class F of functions from IR into IR that allows us to learn the class of all functions that can be written as the pointwise maximum of k functions from F . This allows us to exhibit a number of further nontrivial classes of functions from IR into IR for which there exist efficient learning algorithms. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #79809. 	[Title] MDL and MML Similarities and Differences (Introduction to Minimum Encoding Inference Part III) [Abstract] Tech Report 207 Department of Computer Science, Monash University, Clayton, Vic. 3168, Australia Abstract: This paper continues the introduction to minimum encoding inductive inference given by Oliver and Hand. This series of papers was written with the objective of providing an introduction to this area for statisticians. We describe the message length estimates used in Wallace's Minimum Message Length (MML) inference and Rissanen's Minimum Description Length (MDL) inference. The differences in the message length estimates of the two approaches are explained. The implications of these differences for applications are discussed. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1117249. 	[Title] Large Margin Classification Using the Perceptron Algorithm [Abstract] We introduce and analyze a new algorithm for linear classification which combines Rosenblatt's perceptron algorithm with Helmbold and Warmuth's leave-one-out method. Like Vapnik's maximal-margin classifier, our algorithm takes advantage of data that are linearly separable with large margins. Compared to Vapnik's algorithm, however, ours is much simpler to implement, and much more efficient in terms of computation time. We also show that our algorithm can be efficiently used in very high dimensional spaces using kernel functions. We performed some experiments using our algorithm, and some variants of it, for classifying images of handwritten digits. The performance of our algorithm is close to, but not as good as, the performance of maximal-margin classifiers on the same problem. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #4804. 	[Title] Toward Efficient Agnostic Learning [Abstract] In this paper we initiate an investigation of generalizations of the Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) learning model that attempt to significantly weaken the target function assumptions. The ultimate goal in this direction is informally termed agnostic learning, in which we make virtually no assumptions on the target function. The name derives from the fact that as designers of learning algorithms, we give up the belief that Nature (as represented by the target function) has a simple or succinct explanation. We give a number of positive and negative results that provide an initial outline of the possibilities for agnostic learning. Our results include hardness results for the most obvious generalization of the PAC model to an agnostic setting, an efficient and general agnostic learning method based on dynamic programming, relationships between loss functions for agnostic learning, and an algorithm for a learning problem that involves hidden variables. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #321861. 	[Title] Gambling in a rigged casino: The adversarial multi-armed bandit problem [Abstract] In the multi-armed bandit problem, a gambler must decide which arm of K non-identical slot machines to play in a sequence of trials so as to maximize his reward. This classical problem has received much attention because of the simple model it provides of the trade-off between exploration (trying out each arm to find the best one) and exploitation (playing the arm believed to give the best payoff). Past solutions for the bandit problem have almost always relied on assumptions about the statistics of the slot machines. In this work, we make no statistical assumptions whatsoever about the nature of the process generating the payoffs of the slot machines. We give a solution to the bandit problem in which an adversary, rather than a well-behaved stochastic process, has complete control over the payoffs. In a sequence of T plays, we prove that the expected per-round payoff of our algorithm approaches that of the best arm at the rate O(T 1=2 ), and we give an improved rate of convergence when the best arm has fairly low payoff. We also prove a general matching lower bound on the best possible performance of any algorithm in our setting. In addition, we consider a setting in which the player has a team of experts advising him on which arm to play; here, we give a strategy that will guarantee expected payoff close to that of the best expert. Finally, we apply our result to the problem of learning to play an unknown repeated matrix game against an all-powerful adversary. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #38722. 	[Title] Learning Probabilistic Automata with Variable Memory Length [Abstract] We propose and analyze a distribution learning algorithm for variable memory length Markov processes. These processes can be described by a subclass of probabilistic finite automata which we name Probabilistic Finite Suffix Automata. The learning algorithm is motivated by real applications in man-machine interaction such as handwriting and speech recognition. Conventionally used fixed memory Markov and hidden Markov models have either severe practical or theoretical drawbacks. Though general hardness results are known for learning distributions generated by sources with similar structure, we prove that our algorithm can indeed efficiently learn distributions generated by our more restricted sources. In Particular, we show that the KL-divergence between the distribution generated by the target source and the distribution generated by our hypothesis can be made small with high confidence in polynomial time and sample complexity. We demonstrate the applicability of our algorithm by learning the structure of natural English text and using our hy pothesis for the correction of corrupted text. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #81350. 	[Title] Learning to Use Selective Attention and Short-Term Memory in Sequential Tasks [Abstract] This paper presents U-Tree, a reinforcement learning algorithm that uses selective attention and short-term memory to simultaneously address the intertwined problems of large perceptual state spaces and hidden state. By combining the advantages of work in instance-based (or memory-based) learning and work with robust statistical tests for separating noise from task structure, the method learns quickly, creates only task-relevant state distinctions, and handles noise well. U-Tree uses a tree-structured representation, and is related to work on Prediction Suffix Trees [ Ron et al., 1994 ] , Parti-game [ Moore, 1993 ] , G-algorithm [ Chap-man and Kaelbling, 1991 ] , and Variable Resolution Dynamic Programming [ Moore, 1991 ] . It builds on Utile Suffix Memory [ McCallum, 1995c ] , which only used short-term memory, not selective perception. The algorithm is demonstrated solving a highway driving task in which the agent weaves around slower and faster traffic. The agent uses active perception with simulated eye movements. The environment has hidden state, time pressure, stochasticity, over 21,000 world states and over 2,500 percepts. From this environment and sensory system, the agent uses a utile distinction test to build a tree that represents depth-three memory where necessary, and has just 143 internal statesfar fewer than the 2500 3 states that would have resulted from a fixed-sized history-window ap proach. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1152075. 	[Title]  [Abstract] ARCING THE EDGE Leo Breiman Technical Report 486 , Statistics Department University of California, Berkeley CA. 94720 Abstract Recent work has shown that adaptively reweighting the training set, growing a classifier using the new weights, and combining the classifiers constructed to date can significantly decrease generalization error. Procedures of this type were called arcing by Breiman[1996]. The first successful arcing procedure was introduced by Freund and Schapire[1995,1996] and called Adaboost. In an effort to explain why Adaboost works, Schapire et.al. [1997] derived a bound on the generalization error of a convex combination of classifiers in terms of the margin. We introduce a function called the edge, which differs from the margin only if there are more than two classes. A framework for understanding arcing algorithms is defined. In this framework, we see that the arcing algorithms currently in the literature are optimization algorithms which minimize some function of the edge. A relation is derived between the optimal reduction in the maximum value of the edge and the PAC concept of weak learner. Two algorithms are described which achieve the optimal reduction. Tests on both synthetic and real data cast doubt on the Schapire et.al. There is recent empirical evidence that significant reductions in generalization error can be gotten by growing a number of different classifiers on the same training set and letting these vote for the best class. Freund and Schapire ([1995], [1996] ) proposed an algorithm called AdaBoost which adaptively reweights the training set in a way based on the past history of misclassifications, constructs a new classifier using the current weights, and uses the misclassification rate of this classifier to determine the size of its vote. In a number of empirical studies on many data sets using trees (CART or C4.5) as the base classifier (Drucker and Cortes[1995], Quinlan[1996], Freud and Schapire[1996], Breiman[1996]) AdaBoost produced dramatic decreases in generalization error compared to using a single tree. Error rates were reduced to the point where tests on some well-known data sets gave the result that CART plus AdaBoost did significantly better than any other of the commonly used classification methods (Breiman[1996] ). Meanwhile, empirical results showed that other methods of adaptive resampling (or reweighting) and combining (called "arcing" by Breiman [1996]) also led to low test set error rates. An algorithm called arc-x4 (Breiman[1996]) gave error rates almost identical to Adaboost. Ji and Ma[1997] worked with classifiers consisting of randomly selected hyperplanes and using a different method of adaptive resampling and unweighted voting, also got low error rates. Thus, there are a least three arcing algorithms extant, all of which give excellent classification accuracy. explanation. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #11342. 	[Title] On Pruning and Averaging Decision Trees [Abstract] Pruning a decision tree is considered by some researchers to be the most important part of tree building in noisy domains. While, there are many approaches to pruning, an alternative approach of averaging over decision trees has not received as much attention. We perform an empirical comparison of pruning with the approach of averaging over decision trees. For this comparison we use a computa-tionally efficient method of averaging, namely averaging over the extended fanned set of a tree. Since there are a wide range of approaches to pruning, we compare tree averaging with a traditional pruning approach, along with an optimal pruning approach. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #463825. 	[Title] On the Induction of Intelligible Ensembles [Abstract] Ensembles of classifiers, e.g. decision trees, often exhibit greater predictive accuracy than single classifiers alone. Bagging and boosting are two standard ways of generating and combining multiple classifiers. Unfortunately, the increase in predictive performance is usually linked to a dramatic decrease in intelligibility: ensembles are more or less black boxes comparable to neural networks. So far attempts at pruning of ensembles have not been very successful, approximately reducing ensembles into half. This paper describes a different approach which both tries to keep ensemble-sizes small during induction already and also limits the complexity of single classifiers rigorously. Single classifiers are decision-stumps of a prespecified maximal depth. They are combined by majority voting. Ensembles are induced and pruned by a simple hill-climbing procedure. These ensembles can reasonably be transformed into equivalent decision trees. We conduct some empirical evaluation to investigate both predictive accuracies and classifier complexities. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #411092. 	[Title] LEARNING LOGICAL EXCEPTIONS IN CHESS [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #429781. 	[Title] Mistake-Driven Learning in Text Categorization [Abstract] Learning problems in the text processing domain often map the text to a space whose dimensions are the measured features of the text, e.g., its words. Three characteristic properties of this domain are (a) very high dimensionality, (b) both the learned concepts and the instances reside very sparsely in the feature space, and (c) a high variation in the number of active features in an instance. In this work we study three mistake-driven learning algorithms for a typical task of this nature - text categorization. We argue that these algorithms which categorize documents by learning a linear separator in the feature space have a few properties that make them ideal for this domain. We then show that a quantum leap in performance is achieved when we further modify the algorithms to better address some of the specific characteristics of the domain. In particular, we demonstrate (1) how variation in document length can be tolerated by either normalizing feature weights or by using negative weights, (2) the positive effect of applying a threshold range in training, (3) alternatives in considering feature frequency, and (4) the benefits of discarding features while training. Overall, we present an algorithm, a variation of Littlestone's Winnow, which performs significantly better than any other algorithm tested on this task using a similar feature set. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #67415. 	[Title] On the Learnability of Discrete Distributions (extended abstract) [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #28632. 	[Title] Universal Portfolios With and Without Transaction Costs [Abstract] A constant rebalanced portfolio is an investment strategy which keeps the same distribution of wealth among a set of stocks from period to period. Recently there has been work on on-line investment strategies that are competitive with the best constant rebalanced portfolio determined in hindsight (Cover, 1991; Helmbold et al., 1996; Cover and Ordentlich, 1996a; Cover and Ordentlich, 1996b; Ordentlich and Cover, 1996; Cover, 1996). For the universal algorithm of Cover (Cover, 1991), we provide a simple analysis which naturally extends to the case of a fixed percentage transaction cost (commission), answering a question raised in (Cover, 1991; Helmbold et al., 1996; Cover and Ordentlich, 1996a; Cover and Ordentlich, 1996b; Ordentlich and Cover, 1996; Cover, 1996). In addition, we present a simple randomized implementation that is significantly faster in practice. We conclude by explaining how these algorithms can be applied to other problems, such as combining the predictions of statistical language models, where the resulting guarantees are more striking. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #155736. 	[Title] Worst-case Quadratic Loss Bounds for Prediction Using Linear Functions and Gradient Descent [Abstract] In this paper we study the performance of gradient descent when applied to the problem of on-line linear prediction in arbitrary inner product spaces. We prove worst-case bounds on the sum of the squared prediction errors under various assumptions concerning the amount of a priori information about the sequence to predict. The algorithms we use are variants and extensions of on-line gradient descent. Whereas our algorithms always predict using linear functions as hypotheses, none of our results requires the data to be linearly related. In fact, the bounds proved on the total prediction loss are typically expressed as a function of the total loss of the best fixed linear predictor with bounded norm. All the upper bounds are tight to within constants. Matching lower bounds are provided in some cases. Finally, we apply our results to the problem of on-line prediction for classes of smooth functions. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #2653. 	[Title] A decision-theoretic generalization of on-line learning and an application to boosting how the weight-update rule [Abstract] We consider the problem of dynamically apportioning resources among a set of options in a worst-case on-line framework. The model we study can be interpreted as a broad, abstract extension of the well-studied on-line prediction model to a general decision-theoretic setting. We show that the multiplicative weight-update rule of Littlestone and Warmuth [10] can be adapted to this model yielding bounds that are slightly weaker in some cases, but applicable to a considerably more general class of learning problems. We show how the resulting learning algorithm can be applied to a variety of problems, including gambling, multiple-outcome prediction, repeated games and prediction of points in R n Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #28640. 	[Title] Predicting a binary sequence almost as well as the optimal biased coin [Abstract] We apply the exponential weight algorithm, introduced and Littlestone and Warmuth [17] and by Vovk [24] to the problem of predicting a binary sequence almost as well as the best biased coin. We first show that for the case of the logarithmic loss, the derived algorithm is equivalent to the Bayes algorithm with Jeffrey's prior, that was studied by Xie and Barron under probabilistic assumptions [26]. We derive a uniform bound on the regret which holds for any sequence. We also show that if the empirical distribution of the sequence is bounded away from 0 and from 1, then, as the length of the sequence increases to infinity, the difference between this bound and a corresponding bound on the average case regret of the same algorithm (which is asymptotically optimal in that case) is only 1=2. We show that this gap of 1=2 is necessary by calculating the regret of the min-max optimal algorithm for this problem and showing that the asymptotic upper bound is tight. We also study the application of this algorithm to the square loss and show that the algorithm that is derived in this case is different from the Bayes algorithm and is better than it for prediction in the worst-case. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #28641. 	[Title] Game Theory, On-line Prediction and Boosting [Abstract] We study the close connections between game theory, on-line prediction and boosting. After a brief review of game theory, we describe an algorithm for learning to play repeated games based on the on-line prediction methods of Littlestone and War-muth. The analysis of this algorithm yields a simple proof of von Neumann's famous minmax theorem, as well as a provable method of approximately solving a game. We then show that the on-line prediction model is obtained by applying this game-playing algorithm to an appropriate choice of game and that boosting is obtained by applying the same algorithm to the dual of this game. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #309476. 	[Title] Adaptive Mixtures of Probabilistic Transducers [Abstract] We describe and analyze a mixture model for supervised learning of probabilistic transducers. We devise an on-line learning algorithm that efficiently infers the structure and estimates the parameters of each probabilistic transducer in the mixture. Theoretical analysis and comparative simulations indicate that the learning algorithm tracks the best transducer from an arbitrarily large (possibly infinite) pool of models. We also present an application of the model for inducing a noun phrase recognizer. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #219239. 	[Title] Simulating Access to Hidden Information while Learning [Abstract] We introduce a new technique which enables a learner without access to hidden information to learn nearly as well as a learner with access to hidden information. We apply our technique to solve an open problem of Maass and Turan [18], showing that for any concept class F , the least number of queries sufficient for learning F by an algorithm which has access only to arbitrary equivalence queries is at most a factor of 1= log 2 (4=3) more than the least number of queries sufficient for learning F by an algorithm which has access to both arbitrary equivalence queries and membership queries. Previously known results imply that the 1= log 2 (4=3) in our bound is best possible. We describe analogous results for two generalizations of this model to function learning, and apply those results to bound the difficulty of learning in the harder of these models in terms of the difficulty of learning in the easier model. We bound the difficulty of learning unions of k concepts from a class F in terms of the difficulty of learning F . We bound the difficulty of learning in a noisy environment for deterministic algorithms in terms of the difficulty of learning in a noise-free environment. We apply a variant of our technique to develop an algorithm transformation that allows probabilistic learning algorithms to nearly optimally cope with noise. A second variant enables us to improve a general lower bound of Turan [19] for the PAC-learning model (with queries). Finally, we show that logarithmically many membership queries never help to obtain computationally efficient learning algorithms. fl Supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant F49620-92-J-0515. Most of this work was done while this author was at TU Graz supported by a Lise Meitner Fellowship from the Fonds zur Forderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Austria). Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #167656. 	[Title] BOOSTING AND NAIVE BAYESIAN LEARNING [Abstract] Although so-called naive Bayesian classification makes the unrealistic assumption that the values of the attributes of an example are independent given the class of the example, this learning method is remarkably successful in practice, and no uniformly better learning method is known. Boosting is a general method of combining multiple classifiers due to Yoav Freund and Rob Schapire. This paper shows that boosting applied to naive Bayesian classifiers yields combination classifiers that are representationally equivalent to standard feedforward multilayer perceptrons. (An ancillary result is that naive Bayesian classification is a nonparametric, nonlinear generalization of logistic regression.) As a training algorithm, boosted naive Bayesian learning is quite different from backpropagation, and has definite advantages. Boosting requires only linear time and constant space, and hidden nodes are learned incrementally, starting with the most important. On the real-world datasets on which the method has been tried so far, generalization performance is as good as or better than the best published result using any other learning method. Unlike all other standard learning algorithms, naive Bayesian learning, with and without boosting, can be done in logarithmic time with a linear number of parallel computing units. Accordingly, these learning methods are highly plausible computationally as models of animal learning. Other arguments suggest that they are plausible behaviorally also. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #28649. 	[Title] ON-LINE LEARNING OF LINEAR FUNCTIONS [Abstract] We present an algorithm for the on-line learning of linear functions which is optimal to within a constant factor with respect to bounds on the sum of squared errors for a worst case sequence of trials. The bounds are logarithmic in the number of variables. Furthermore, the algorithm is shown to be optimally robust with respect to noise in the data (again to within a constant factor). Key words. Machine learning; computational learning theory; on-line learning; linear functions; worst-case loss bounds; adaptive filter theory. Subject classifications. 68T05. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #51180. 	[Title] On the Learnability and Usage of Acyclic Probabilistic Finite Automata [Abstract] We propose and analyze a distribution learning algorithm for a subclass of Acyclic Probabilistic Finite Automata (APFA). This subclass is characterized by a certain distinguishability property of the automata's states. Though hardness results are known for learning distributions generated by general APFAs, we prove that our algorithm can efficiently learn distributions generated by the subclass of APFAs we consider. In particular, we show that the KL-divergence between the distribution generated by the target source and the distribution generated by our hypothesis can be made arbitrarily small with high confidence in polynomial time. We present two applications of our algorithm. In the first, we show how to model cursively written letters. The resulting models are part of a complete cursive handwriting recognition system. In the second application we demonstrate how APFAs can be used to build multiple-pronunciation models for spoken words. We evaluate the APFA based pronunciation models on labeled speech data. The good performance (in terms of the log-likelihood obtained on test data) achieved by the APFAs and the little time needed for learning suggests that the learning algorithm of APFAs might be a powerful alternative to commonly used probabilistic models. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #6125. 	[Title] Boosting a weak learning algorithm by majority To be published in Information and Computation [Abstract] We present an algorithm for improving the accuracy of algorithms for learning binary concepts. The improvement is achieved by combining a large number of hypotheses, each of which is generated by training the given learning algorithm on a different set of examples. Our algorithm is based on ideas presented by Schapire in his paper "The strength of weak learnability", and represents an improvement over his results. The analysis of our algorithm provides general upper bounds on the resources required for learning in Valiant's polynomial PAC learning framework, which are the best general upper bounds known today. We show that the number of hypotheses that are combined by our algorithm is the smallest number possible. Other outcomes of our analysis are results regarding the representational power of threshold circuits, the relation between learnability and compression, and a method for parallelizing PAC learning algorithms. We provide extensions of our algorithms to cases in which the concepts are not binary and to the case where the accuracy of the learning algorithm depends on the distribution of the instances. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1116268. 	[Title] The Sources of Increased Accuracy for Two Proposed Boosting Algorithms [Abstract] We introduce two boosting algorithms that aim to increase the generalization accuracy of a given classifier by incorporating it as a level-0 component in a stacked generalizer. Both algorithms construct a complementary level-0 classifier that can only generate coarse hypotheses for the training data. We show that the two algorithms boost generalization accuracy on a representative collection of data sets. The two algorithms are distinguished in that one of them modifies the class targets of selected training instances in order to train the complementary classifier. We show that the two algorithms achieve approximately equal generalization accuracy, but that they create complementary classifiers that display different degrees of accuracy and diversity. Our study provides evidence that it may be useful to investigate families of boosting algorithms that incorporate varying levels of accuracy and diversity, so as to achieve an appropriate mix for a given task and domain. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #27249. 	[Title] Machine Learning Bias, Statistical Bias, and Statistical Variance of Decision Tree Algorithms [Abstract] The term "bias" is widely used|and with different meanings|in the fields of machine learning and statistics. This paper clarifies the uses of this term and shows how to measure and visualize the statistical bias and variance of learning algorithms. Statistical bias and variance can be applied to diagnose problems with machine learning bias, and the paper shows four examples of this. Finally, the paper discusses methods of reducing bias and variance. Methods based on voting can reduce variance, and the paper compares Breiman's bagging method and our own tree randomization method for voting decision trees. Both methods uniformly improve performance on data sets from the Irvine repository. Tree randomization yields perfect performance on the Letter Recognition task. A weighted nearest neighbor algorithm based on the infinite bootstrap is also introduced. In general, decision tree algorithms have moderate-to-high variance, so an important implication of this work is that variance|rather than appropriate or inappropriate machine learning bias|is an important cause of poor performance for decision tree algorithms. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1059953. 	[Title] WORST CASE PREDICTION OVER SEQUENCES UNDER LOG LOSS [Abstract] We consider the game of sequentially assigning probabilities to future data based on past observations under logarithmic loss. We are not making probabilistic assumptions about the generation of the data, but consider a situation where a player tries to minimize his loss relative to the loss of the (with hindsight) best distribution from a target class for the worst sequence of data. We give bounds on the minimax regret in terms of the metric entropies of the target class with respect to suitable distances between distributions. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1106418. 	[Title] Online Learning versus O*ine Learning [Abstract] We present an off-line variant of the mistake-bound model of learning. Just like in the well studied on-line model, a learner in the offline model has to learn an unknown concept from a sequence of elements of the instance space on which he makes "guess and test" trials. In both models, the aim of the learner is to make as few mistakes as possible. The difference between the models is that, while in the on-line model only the set of possible elements is known, in the off-line model the sequence of elements (i.e., the identity of the elements as well as the order in which they are to be presented) is known to the learner in advance. We give a combinatorial characterization of the number of mistakes in the off-line model. We apply this characterization to solve several natural questions that arise for the new model. First, we compare the mistake bounds of an off-line learner to those of a learner learning the same concept classes in the on-line scenario. We show that the number of mistakes in the on-line learning is at most a log n factor more than the off-line learning, where n is the length of the sequence. In addition, we show that if there is an off-line algorithm that does not make more than a constant number of mistakes for each sequence then there is an online algorithm that also does not make more than a constant number of mistakes. The second issue we address is the effect of the ordering of the elements on the number of mistakes of an off-line learner. It turns out that there are sequences on which an off-line learner can guarantee at most one mistake, yet a permutation of the same sequence forces him to err on many elements. We prove, however, that the gap, between the off-line mistake bounds on permutations of the same sequence of n-many elements, cannot be larger than a multiplicative factor of log n, and we present examples that obtain such a gap. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #65653. 	[Title] Pessimistic decision tree pruning based on tree size [Abstract] In this work we develop a new criteria to perform pessimistic decision tree pruning. Our method is theoretically sound and is based on theoretical concepts such as uniform convergence and the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension. We show that our criteria is very well motivated, from the theory side, and performs very well in practice. The accuracy of the new criteria is comparable to that of the current method used in C4.5. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #27250. 	[Title] Why Does Bagging Work? A Bayesian Account and its Implications bagging's success, both in a [Abstract] The error rate of decision-tree and other classification learners can often be much reduced by bagging: learning multiple models from bootstrap samples of the database, and combining them by uniform voting. In this paper we empirically test two alternative explanations for this, both based on Bayesian learning theory: (1) bagging works because it is an approximation to the optimal procedure of Bayesian model averaging, with an appropriate implicit prior; (2) bagging works because it effectively shifts the prior to a more appropriate region of model space. All the experimental evidence contradicts the first hypothesis, and confirms the second. Bagging (Breiman 1996a) is a simple and effective way to reduce the error rate of many classification learning algorithms. For example, in the empirical study described below, it reduces the error of a decision-tree learner in 19 of 26 databases, by 4% on average. In the bagging procedure, given a training set of size s, a "bootstrap" replicate of it is constructed by taking s samples with replacement from the training set. Thus a new training set of the same size is produced, where each of the original examples may appear once, more than once, or not. On average, 63% of the original examples will appear in the bootstrap sample. The learning algorithm is then applied to this training set. This procedure is repeated m times, and the resulting m models are aggregated by uniform voting. Bagging is one of several "multiple model" approaches that have recently received much attention (see, for example, (Chan, Stolfo, & Wolpert 1996)). Other procedures of this type include boosting (Freund & Schapire 1996) and stacking (Wolpert 1992). Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #27895. 	[Title] Bibliography "SMART: Support Management Automated Reasoning Technology for COMPAQ Customer Service," "Instance-Based Learning Algorithms," Machine [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1106172. 	[Title] Category: Control, Navigation and Planning. Key words: Reinforcement learning, Exploration, Hidden state. Prefer oral presentation. [Abstract] This paper presents Fringe Exploration, a technique for efficient exploration in partially observable domains. The key idea, (applicable to many exploration techniques), is to keep statistics in the space of possible short-term memories, instead of in the agent's current state space. Experimental results in a partially observable maze and in a difficult driving task with visual routines show dramatic performance improvements. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #94713. 	[Title] Update rules for parameter estimation in Bayesian networks [Abstract] This paper re-examines the problem of parameter estimation in Bayesian networks with missing values and hidden variables from the perspective of recent work in on-line learning [12]. We provide a unified framework for parameter estimation that encompasses both on-line learning, where the model is continuously adapted to new data cases as they arrive, and the more traditional batch learning, where a pre-accumulated set of samples is used in a one-time model selection process. In the batch case, our framework encompasses both the gradient projection algorithm [2, 3] and the EM algorithm [14] for Bayesian networks. The framework also leads to new on-line and batch parameter update schemes, including a parameterized version of EM. We provide both empirical and theoretical results indicating that parameterized EM allows faster convergence to the maximum likelihood parame ters than does standard EM. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1153148. 	[Title] Learning Classification Trees [Abstract] Algorithms for learning classification trees have had successes in artificial intelligence and statistics over many years. This paper outlines how a tree learning algorithm can be derived using Bayesian statistics. This introduces Bayesian techniques for splitting, smoothing, and tree averaging. The splitting rule is similar to Quinlan's information gain, while smoothing and averaging replace pruning. Comparative experiments with reimplementations of a minimum encoding approach, Quinlan's C4 (Quinlan et al., 1987) and Breiman et al.'s CART (Breiman et al., 1984) show the full Bayesian algorithm can produce Publication: This paper is a final draft submitted for publication to the Statistics and Computing journal; a version with some minor changes appeared in Volume 2, 1992, pages 63-73. more accurate predictions than versions of these other approaches, though pay a computational price. Please summarise all the given information.

Paper #65650 has the title `Machine Learning 27(1):51-68, 1997. Predicting nearly as well as the best pruning of a decision tree  
` and the abstract `Many algorithms for inferring a decision tree from data involve a two-phase process: First, a very large decision tree is grown which typically ends up "over-fitting" the data. To reduce over-fitting, in the second phase, the tree is pruned using one of a number of available methods. The final tree is then output and used for classification on test data. In this paper, we suggest an alternative approach to the pruning phase. Using a given unpruned decision tree, we present a new method of making predictions on test data, and we prove that our algorithm's performance will not be "much worse" (in a precise technical sense) than the predictions made by the best reasonably small pruning of the given decision tree. Thus, our procedure is guaranteed to be competitive (in terms of the quality of its predictions) with any pruning algorithm. We prove that our procedure is very efficient and highly robust. Our method can be viewed as a synthesis of two previously studied techniques. First, we apply Cesa-Bianchi et al.'s [4] results on predicting using "expert advice" (where we view each pruning as an "expert") to obtain an algorithm that has provably low prediction loss, but that is com-putationally infeasible. Next, we generalize and apply a method developed by Buntine [3], [2] and Willems, Shtarkov and Tjalkens [20], [21] to derive a very efficient implementation of this procedure. 
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Question: Which category should Paper #65650 be classified as ?
You can select one from ['Neural_Networks', 'Case_Based', 'Theory', 'Reinforcement_Learning', 'Probabilistic_Methods', 'Rule_Learning', 'Genetic_Algorithms'].


Paper #65650 has the title `Machine Learning 27(1):51-68, 1997. Predicting nearly as well as the best pruning of a decision tree  
` and the abstract `Many algorithms for inferring a decision tree from data involve a two-phase process: First, a very large decision tree is grown which typically ends up "over-fitting" the data. To reduce over-fitting, in the second phase, the tree is pruned using one of a number of available methods. The final tree is then output and used for classification on test data. In this paper, we suggest an alternative approach to the pruning phase. Using a given unpruned decision tree, we present a new method of making predictions on test data, and we prove that our algorithm's performance will not be "much worse" (in a precise technical sense) than the predictions made by the best reasonably small pruning of the given decision tree. Thus, our procedure is guaranteed to be competitive (in terms of the quality of its predictions) with any pruning algorithm. We prove that our procedure is very efficient and highly robust. Our method can be viewed as a synthesis of two previously studied techniques. First, we apply Cesa-Bianchi et al.'s [4] results on predicting using "expert advice" (where we view each pruning as an "expert") to obtain an algorithm that has provably low prediction loss, but that is com-putationally infeasible. Next, we generalize and apply a method developed by Buntine [3], [2] and Willems, Shtarkov and Tjalkens [20], [21] to derive a very efficient implementation of this procedure. 
`.
Question: Which category should Paper #65650 be classified as ?
You can select one from ['Neural_Networks', 'Case_Based', 'Theory', 'Reinforcement_Learning', 'Probabilistic_Methods', 'Rule_Learning', 'Genetic_Algorithms'].

This paper should be classified into: Theory