Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #239800. 	[Title] Ensemble Learning and Evidence Maximization [Abstract] Ensemble learning by variational free energy minimization is a tool introduced to neural networks by Hinton and van Camp in which learning is described in terms of the optimization of an ensemble of parameter vectors. The optimized ensemble is an approximation to the posterior probability distribution of the parameters. This tool has now been applied to a variety of statistical inference problems. In this paper I study a linear regression model with both parameters and hyper-parameters. I demonstrate that the evidence approximation for the optimization of regularization constants can be derived in detail from a free energy minimization viewpoint. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1131267. 	[Title] Parallel Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. [Abstract] Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) samplers have proved remarkably popular as tools for Bayesian computation. However, problems can arise in their application when the density of interest is high dimensional and strongly correlated. In these circumstances the sampler may be slow to traverse the state space and mixing is poor. In this article we offer a partial solution to this problem. The state space of the Markov chain is augmented to accommodate multiple chains in parallel. Updates to individual chains are based around a genetic style crossover operator acting on `parent' states drawn from the population of chains. This process makes efficient use of gradient information implicitly encoded within the distribution of states across the population. Empirical studies support the claim that the crossover operator acting on a parallel population of chains improves mixing. This is illustrated with an example of sampling a high dimensional posterior probability density from a complex predictive model. By adopting a latent variable approach the methodology is extended to deal with variable selection and model averaging in high dimensions. This is illustrated with an example of knot selection for a spline interpolant. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #46468. 	[Title] A Statistical Approach to Decision Tree Modeling [Abstract] A statistical approach to decision tree modeling is described. In this approach, each decision in the tree is modeled parametrically as is the process by which an output is generated from an input and a sequence of decisions. The resulting model yields a likelihood measure of goodness of fit, allowing ML and MAP estimation techniques to be utilized. An efficient algorithm is presented to estimate the parameters in the tree. The model selection problem is presented and several alternative proposals are considered. A hidden Markov version of the tree is described for data sequences that have temporal dependencies. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #24966. 	[Title] A Practical Bayesian Framework for Backprop Networks [Abstract] A quantitative and practical Bayesian framework is described for learning of mappings in feedforward networks. The framework makes possible: (1) objective comparisons between solutions using alternative network architectures; (2) objective stopping rules for network pruning or growing procedures; (3) objective choice of magnitude and type of weight decay terms or additive regularisers (for penalising large weights, etc.); (4) a measure of the effective number of well-determined parameters in a model; (5) quantified estimates of the error bars on network parameters and on network output; (6) objective comparisons with alternative learning and interpolation models such as splines and radial basis functions. The Bayesian `evidence' automatically embodies `Occam's razor,' penalising over-flexible and over-complex models. The Bayesian approach helps detect poor underlying assumptions in learning models. For learning models well matched to a problem, a good correlation between generalisation ability and the Bayesian evidence is obtained. This paper makes use of the Bayesian framework for regularisation and model comparison described in the companion paper `Bayesian interpolation' (MacKay, 1991a). This framework is due to Gull and Skilling (Gull, 1989a). Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #755082. 	[Title] DRAFT Cluster-Weighted Modeling for Time Series Prediction and Characterization [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1131149. 	[Title] Least Absolute Shrinkage is Equivalent to Quadratic Penalization [Abstract] Adaptive ridge is a special form of ridge regression, balancing the quadratic penalization on each parameter of the model. This paper shows the equivalence between adaptive ridge and lasso (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator). This equivalence states that both procedures produce the same estimate. Least absolute shrinkage can thus be viewed as a particular quadratic penalization. From this observation, we derive an EM algorithm to compute the lasso solution. We finally present a series of applications of this type of algorithm in regres sion problems: kernel regression, additive modeling and neural net training. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1136397. 	[Title] State Reconstruction for Determining Predictability in Driven Nonlinear Acoustical Systems [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #202639. 	[Title] PREDICTING SUNSPOTS AND EXCHANGE RATES WITH CONNECTIONIST NETWORKS [Abstract] We investigate the effectiveness of connectionist networks for predicting the future continuation of temporal sequences. The problem of overfitting, particularly serious for short records of noisy data, is addressed by the method of weight-elimination: a term penalizing network complexity is added to the usual cost function in back-propagation. The ultimate goal is prediction accuracy. We analyze two time series. On the benchmark sunspot series, the networks outperform traditional statistical approaches. We show that the network performance does not deteriorate when there are more input units than needed. Weight-elimination also manages to extract some part of the dynamics of the notoriously noisy currency exchange rates and makes the network solution interpretable. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #145176. 	[Title] Bayesian Non-linear Modelling for the Prediction Competition [Abstract] The 1993 energy prediction competition involved the prediction of a series of building energy loads from a series of environmental input variables. Non-linear regression using `neural networks' is a popular technique for such modeling tasks. Since it is not obvious how large a time-window of inputs is appropriate, or what preprocessing of inputs is best, this can be viewed as a regression problem in which there are many possible input variables, some of which may actually be irrelevant to the prediction of the output variable. Because a finite data set will show random correlations between the irrelevant inputs and the output, any conventional neural network (even with reg-ularisation or `weight decay') will not set the coefficients for these junk inputs to zero. Thus the irrelevant variables will hurt the model's performance. The Automatic Relevance Determination (ARD) model puts a prior over the regression parameters which embodies the concept of relevance. This is done in a simple and `soft' way by introducing multiple regularisation constants, one associated with each input. Using Bayesian methods, the regularisation constants for junk inputs are automatically inferred to be large, preventing those inputs from causing significant overfitting. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1105433. 	[Title] Priors for Infinite Networks [Abstract] Technical Report CRG-TR-94-1 Department of Computer Science University of Toronto 10 King's College Road Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4 Abstract Bayesian inference begins with a prior distribution for model parameters that is meant to capture prior beliefs about the relationship being modeled. For multilayer perceptron networks, where the parameters are the connection weights, the prior lacks any direct meaning | what matters is the prior over functions computed by the network that is implied by this prior over weights. In this paper, I show that priors over weights can be defined in such a way that the corresponding priors over functions reach reasonable limits as the number of hidden units in the network goes to infinity. When using such priors, there is thus no need to limit the size of the network in order to avoid "overfitting". The infinite network limit also provides insight into the properties of different priors. A Gaussian prior for hidden-to-output weights results in a Gaussian process prior for functions, which can be smooth, Brownian, or fractional Brownian, depending on the hidden unit activation function and the prior for input-to-hidden weights. Quite different effects can be obtained using priors based on non-Gaussian stable distributions. In networks with more than one hidden layer, a combination of Gaussian and non-Gaussian priors appears most interesting. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #124828. 	[Title] Ensemble Training: Some Recent Experiments with Postal Zip Data [Abstract] Recent findings suggest that a classification scheme based on an ensemble of networks is an effective way to address overfitting. We study optimal methods for training an ensemble of networks. Some recent experiments on Postal Zip-code character data suggest that weight decay may not be an optimal method for controlling the variance of a classifier. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #92065. 	[Title] ADAPTIVE REGULARIZATION [Abstract] Regularization, e.g., in the form of weight decay, is important for training and optimization of neural network architectures. In this work we provide a tool based on asymptotic sampling theory, for iterative estimation of weight decay parameters. The basic idea is to do a gradient descent in the estimated generalization error with respect to the regularization parameters. The scheme is implemented in our Designer Net framework for network training and pruning, i.e., is based on the diagonal Hessian approximation. The scheme does not require essential computational overhead in addition to what is needed for training and pruning. The viability of the approach is demonstrated in an experiment concerning prediction of the chaotic Mackey-Glass series. We find that the optimized weight decays are relatively large for densely connected networks in the initial pruning phase, while they decrease as pruning proceeds. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1104300. 	[Title] Efficient Stochastic Source Coding and an Application to a Bayesian Network Source Model [Abstract] Brendan J. Frey and Geoffrey E. Hinton 1997. Efficient stochastic source coding and an application to a Bayesian network source model. The Computer Journal 40, 157-165. In this paper, we introduce a new algorithm called "bits-back coding" that makes stochastic source codes efficient. For a given one-to-many source code, we show that this algorithm can actually be more efficient than the algorithm that always picks the shortest codeword. Optimal efficiency is achieved when codewords are chosen according to the Boltzmann distribution based on the codeword lengths. It turns out that a commonly used technique for determining parameters | maximum likelihood estimation | actually minimizes the bits-back coding cost when codewords are chosen according to the Boltzmann distribution. A tractable approximation to maximum likelihood estimation | the generalized expectation maximization algorithm | minimizes the bits-back coding cost. After presenting a binary Bayesian network model that assigns exponentially many codewords to each symbol, we show how a tractable approximation to the Boltzmann distribution can be used for bits-back coding. We illustrate the performance of bits-back coding using using nonsynthetic data with a binary Bayesian network source model that produces 2 60 possible codewords for each input symbol. The rate for bits-back coding is nearly one half of that obtained by picking the shortest codeword for each symbol. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1717. 	[Title] On Convergence Properties of the EM Algorithm for Gaussian Mixtures [Abstract] We build up the mathematical connection between the "Expectation-Maximization" (EM) algorithm and gradient-based approaches for maximum likelihood learning of finite Gaussian mixtures. We show that the EM step in parameter space is obtained from the gradient via a projection matrix P , and we provide an explicit expression for the matrix. We then analyze the convergence of EM in terms of special properties of P and provide new results analyzing the effect that P has on the likelihood surface. Based on these mathematical results, we present a comparative discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of EM and other algorithms for the learning of Gaussian mixture models. This report describes research done at the Center for Biological and Computational Learning and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Support for the Center is provided in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation under contract ASC-9217041. Support for the laboratory's artificial intelligence research is provided in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense under Office of Naval Research contract N00000-00-A-0000. The authors were also supported by the HK RGC Earmarked Grant CUHK250/94E, by a grant from the McDonnell-Pew Foundation, by a grant from ATR Human Information Processing Research Laboratories, by a grant from Siemens Corporation, and by grant N00014-90-1-0777 from the Office of Naval Research. Michael I. Jordan is an NSF Presidential Young Investigator. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1136310. 	[Title] The Expectation-Maximization Algorithm for MAP Estimation [Abstract] The Expectation-Maximization algorithm given by Dempster et al (1977) has enjoyed considerable popularity for solving MAP estimation problems. This note gives a simple derivation of the algorithm, due to Luttrell (1994), that better illustrates the convergence properties of the algorithm and its variants. The algorithm is illustrated with two examples: pooling data from multiple noisy sources and fitting a mixture density. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #116790. 	[Title] Sequential Update of Bayesian Network Structure [Abstract] There is an obvious need for improving the performance and accuracy of a Bayesian network as new data is observed. Because of errors in model construction and changes in the dynamics of the domains, we cannot afford to ignore the information in new data. While sequential update of parameters for a fixed structure can be accomplished using standard techniques, sequential update of network structure is still an open problem. In this paper, we investigate sequential update of Bayesian networks were both parameters and structure are expected to change. We introduce a new approach that allows for the flexible manipulation of the tradeoff between the quality of the learned networks and the amount of information that is maintained about past observations. We formally describe our approach including the necessary modifications to the scoring functions for learning Bayesian networks, evaluate its effectiveness through and empirical study, and extend it to the case of missing data. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #641976. 	[Title] A comparison of some error estimates for neural network models  Summary [Abstract] We discuss a number of methods for estimating the standard error of predicted values from a multi-layer perceptron. These methods include the delta method based on the Hessian, bootstrap estimators, and the "sandwich" estimator. The methods are described and compared in a number of examples. We find that the bootstrap methods perform best, partly because they capture variability due to the choice of starting weights. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #32698. 	[Title] Ensemble Learning for Hidden Markov Models [Abstract] The standard method for training Hidden Markov Models optimizes a point estimate of the model parameters. This estimate, which can be viewed as the maximum of a posterior probability density over the model parameters, may be susceptible to over-fitting, and contains no indication of parameter uncertainty. Also, this maximum may be unrepresentative of the posterior probability distribution. In this paper we study a method in which we optimize an ensemble which approximates the entire posterior probability distribution. The ensemble learning algorithm requires the same resources as the traditional Baum-Welch algorithm. The traditional training algorithm for hidden Markov models is an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm (Dempster et al. 1977) known as the Baum-Welch algorithm. It is a maximum likelihood method, or, with a simple modification, a penalized maximum likelihood method, which can be viewed as maximizing a posterior probability density over the model parameters. Recently, Hinton and van Camp (1993) developed a technique known as ensemble learning (see also MacKay (1995) for a review). Whereas maximum a posteriori methods optimize a point estimate of the parameters, in ensemble learning an ensemble is optimized, so that it approximates the entire posterior probability distribution over the parameters. The objective function that is optimized is a variational free energy (Feynman 1972) which measures the relative entropy between the approximating ensemble and the true distribution. In this paper we derive and test an ensemble learning algorithm for hidden Markov models, building on Neal Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #40124. 	[Title] Probabilistic Networks: New Models and New Methods [Abstract] In this paper I describe the implementation of a probabilistic regression model in BUGS. BUGS is a program that carries out Bayesian inference on statistical problems using a simulation technique known as Gibbs sampling. It is possible to implement surprisingly complex regression models in this environment. I demonstrate the simultaneous inference of an interpolant and an input-dependent noise level. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #671293. 	[Title] Selecting Input Variables Using Mutual Information and Nonparametric Density Estimation [Abstract] In learning problems where a connectionist network is trained with a finite sized training set, better generalization performance is often obtained when unneeded weights in the network are eliminated. One source of unneeded weights comes from the inclusion of input variables that provide little information about the output variables. We propose a method for identifying and eliminating these input variables. The method first determines the relationship between input and output variables using nonparametric density estimation and then measures the relevance of input variables using the information theoretic concept of mutual information. We present results from our method on a simple toy problem and a nonlinear time series. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #65212. 	[Title] Bayesian Training of Backpropagation Networks by the Hybrid Monte Carlo Method [Abstract] It is shown that Bayesian training of backpropagation neural networks can feasibly be performed by the "Hybrid Monte Carlo" method. This approach allows the true predictive distribution for a test case given a set of training cases to be approximated arbitrarily closely, in contrast to previous approaches which approximate the posterior weight distribution by a Gaussian. In this work, the Hybrid Monte Carlo method is implemented in conjunction with simulated annealing, in order to speed relaxation to a good region of parameter space. The method has been applied to a test problem, demonstrating that it can produce good predictions, as well as an indication of the uncertainty of these predictions. Appropriate weight scaling factors are found automatically. By applying known techniques for calculation of "free energy" differences, it should also be possible to compare the merits of different network architectures. The work described here should also be applicable to a wide variety of statistical models other than neural networks. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #63549. 	[Title] A Practical Monte Carlo Implementation of Bayesian Learning [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1105344. 	[Title] In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 8  Gaussian Processes for Regression [Abstract] The Bayesian analysis of neural networks is difficult because a simple prior over weights implies a complex prior distribution over functions. In this paper we investigate the use of Gaussian process priors over functions, which permit the predictive Bayesian analysis for fixed values of hyperparameters to be carried out exactly using matrix operations. Two methods, using optimization and averaging (via Hybrid Monte Carlo) over hyperparameters have been tested on a number of challenging problems and have produced excellent results. 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 #1104449. 	[Title] Using Neural Networks for Descriptive Statistical Analysis of Educational Data [Abstract] In this paper we discuss the methodological issues of using a class of neural networks called Mixture Density Networks (MDN) for discriminant analysis. MDN models have the advantage of having a rigorous probabilistic interpretation, and they have proven to be a viable alternative as a classification procedure in discrete domains. We will address both the classification and interpretive aspects of discriminant analysis, and compare the approach to the traditional method of linear discrimin- ants as implemented in standard statistical packages. We show that the MDN approach adopted performs well in both aspects. Many of the observations made are not restricted to the particular case at hand, and are applicable to most applications of discriminant analysis in educational research. fl URL: http://www.cs.Helsinki.FI/research/cosco/ Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1152194. 	[Title]  [Abstract] Draft A Brief Introduction to Neural Networks Richard D. De Veaux Lyle H. Ungar Williams College University of Pennsylvania Abstract Artificial neural networks are being used with increasing frequency for high dimensional problems of regression or classification. This article provides a tutorial overview of neural networks, focusing on back propagation networks as a method for approximating nonlinear multivariable functions. We explain, from a statistician's vantage point, why neural networks might be attractive and how they compare to other modern regression techniques. KEYWORDS: nonparametric regression; function approximation; backpropagation. 1 Introduction Networks that mimic the way the brain works; computer programs that actually LEARN patterns; forecasting without having to know statistics. These are just some of the many claims and attractions of artificial neural networks. Neural networks (we will henceforth drop the term artificial, unless we need to distinguish them from biological neural networks) seem to be everywhere these days, and at least in their advertising, are able to do all that statistics can do without all the fuss and bother of having to do anything except buy a piece of software. Neural networks have been successfully used for many different applications including robotics, chemical process control, speech recognition, optical character recognition, credit card fraud detection, interpretation of chemical spectra and vision for autonomous navigation of vehicles. (Pointers to the literature are given at the end of this article.) In this article we will attempt to explain how one particular type of neural network, feedforward networks with sigmoidal activation functions ("backpropagation networks") actually works, how it is "trained", and how it compares with some more well known statistical techniques. As an example of why someone would want to use a neural network, consider the problem of recognizing hand written ZIP codes on letters. This is a classification problem, where the 1 Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1140547. 	[Title] Localist Attractor Networks [Abstract] Attractor networks, which map a continuous input space to a discrete output space, are useful for pattern completion, cleaning up noisy or missing features in an input. However, designing a net to have a given set of attractors is notoriously tricky; training procedures are CPU intensive and often produce spurious attractors and ill-conditioned attractor basins. These difficulties occur because each connection in the network participates in the encoding of multiple attractors. We describe an alternative formulation of attractor networks in which the encoding of knowledge is local, not distributed. Although localist attractor nets have similar dynamics to their distributed counterparts, they are much easier to work with and interpret. We propose a statistical formulation of localist attractor net dynamics, which yields a convergence proof and a mathematical interpretation of model parameters. We present simulation experiments that explore the behavior of lo-calist attractor nets, showing that they produce a gang effectthe presence of an attractor enhances the attractor basins of neighboring attractorsand that spurious attractors occur only at points of symmetry in state space. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #62274. 	[Title] A Comparison of New and Old Algorithms for A Mixture Estimation Problem [Abstract] We investigate the problem of estimating the proportion vector which maximizes the likelihood of a given sample for a mixture of given densities. We adapt a framework developed for supervised learning and give simple derivations for many of the standard iterative algorithms like gradient projection and EM. In this framework, the distance between the new and old proportion vectors is used as a penalty term. The square distance leads to the gradient projection update, and the relative entropy to a new update which we call the exponentiated gradient update (EG ). Curiously, when a second order Taylor expansion of the relative entropy is used, we arrive at an update EM which, for = 1, gives the usual EM update. Experimentally, both the EM -update and the EG -update for &gt; 1 outperform the EM algorithm and its variants. We also prove a polynomial bound on the rate of convergence of the EG algorithm. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1106370. 	[Title] The Effective Size of a Neural Network: A Principal Component Approach [Abstract] Often when learning from data, one attaches a penalty term to a standard error term in an attempt to prefer simple models and prevent overfitting. Current penalty terms for neural networks, however, often do not take into account weight interaction. This is a critical drawback since the effective number of parameters in a network usually differs dramatically from the total number of possible parameters. In this paper, we present a penalty term that uses Principal Component Analysis to help detect functional redundancy in a neural network. Results show that our new algorithm gives a much more accurate estimate of network complexity than do standard approaches. As a result, our new term should be able to improve techniques that make use of a penalty term, such as weight decay, weight pruning, feature selection, Bayesian, and prediction-risk tech niques. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #197452. 	[Title] Best-First Model Merging for Dynamic Learning and Recognition [Abstract] Best-first model merging is a general technique for dynamically choosing the structure of a neural or related architecture while avoiding overfitting. It is applicable to both learning and recognition tasks and often generalizes significantly better than fixed structures. We demonstrate the approach applied to the tasks of choosing radial basis functions for function learning, choosing local affine models for curve and constraint surface modelling, and choosing the structure of a balltree or bumptree to maximize efficiency of access. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #23116. 	[Title] Bayesian Methods for Adaptive Models [Abstract]  Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #62417. 	[Title] Free energy coding  In [Abstract] In this paper, we introduce a new approach to the problem of optimal compression when a source code produces multiple codewords for a given symbol. It may seem that the most sensible codeword to use in this case is the shortest one. However, in the proposed free energy approach, random codeword selection yields an effective codeword length that can be less than the shortest codeword length. If the random choices are Boltzmann distributed, the effective length is optimal for the given source code. The expectation-maximization parameter estimation algorithms minimize this effective codeword length. We illustrate the performance of free energy coding on a simple problem where a compression factor of two is gained by using the new method. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #35922. 	[Title] Mean Field Theory for Sigmoid Belief Networks [Abstract] We develop a mean field theory for sigmoid belief networks based on ideas from statistical mechanics. Our mean field theory provides a tractable approximation to the true probability distribution in these networks; it also yields a lower bound on the likelihood of evidence. We demonstrate the utility of this framework on a benchmark problem in statistical pattern recognition|the classification of handwritten digits. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #71904. 	[Title] Free Energy Minimization Algorithm for Decoding and Cryptanalysis three binary vectors: s of length N [Abstract] where A is a binary matrix. Our task is to infer s given z and A, and given assumptions about the statistical properties of s and n. This problem arises in the decoding of a noisy signal transmitted using a linear code A, and in the inference of the sequence of a linear feedback shift register (LFSR) from noisy observations [1, 2]. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #131042. 	[Title] Efficient Implementation of Gaussian Processes [Abstract] Neural networks and Bayesian inference provide a useful framework within which to solve regression problems. However their parameterization means that the Bayesian analysis of neural networks can be difficult. In this paper, we investigate a method for regression using Gaussian process priors which allows exact Bayesian analysis using matrix manipulations. We discuss the workings of the method in detail. We will also detail a range of mathematical and numerical techniques that are useful in applying Gaussian processes to general problems including efficient approximate matrix inversion methods developed by Skilling. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #95718. 	[Title] Developments in Probabilistic Modelling with Neural Networks|Ensemble Learning [Abstract] In this paper I give a review of ensemble learning using a simple example. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1121254. 	[Title] On Structured Variational Approximations [Abstract] The problem of approximating a probability distribution occurs frequently in many areas of applied mathematics, including statistics, communication theory, machine learning, and the theoretical analysis of complex systems such as neural networks. Saul and Jordan (1996) have recently proposed a powerful method for efficiently approximating probability distributions known as structured variational approximations. In structured variational approximations, exact algorithms for probability computation on tractable substructures are combined with variational methods to handle the interactions between the substructures which make the system as a whole intractable. In this note, I present a mathematical result which can simplify the derivation of struc tured variational approximations in the exponential family of distributions. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #95719. 	[Title] Choice of Basis for Laplace Approximation [Abstract] Maximum a posteriori optimization of parameters and the Laplace approximation for the marginal likelihood are both basis-dependent methods. This note compares two choices of basis for models parameterized by probabilities, showing that it is possible to improve on the traditional choice, the probability simplex, by transforming to the `softmax' basis. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #390889. 	[Title] A HIERARCHICAL COMMUNITY OF EXPERTS [Abstract] We describe a directed acyclic graphical model that contains a hierarchy of linear units and a mechanism for dynamically selecting an appropriate subset of these units to model each observation. The non-linear selection mechanism is a hierarchy of binary units each of which gates the output of one of the linear units. There are no connections from linear units to binary units, so the generative model can be viewed as a logistic belief net (Neal 1992) which selects a skeleton linear model from among the available linear units. We show that Gibbs sampling can be used to learn the parameters of the linear and binary units even when the sampling is so brief that the Markov chain is far from equilibrium. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #27627. 	[Title] Information-based objective functions for active data selection [Abstract] Learning can be made more efficient if we can actively select particularly salient data points. Within a Bayesian learning framework, objective functions are discussed which measure the expected informativeness of candidate measurements. Three alternative specifications of what we want to gain information about lead to three different criteria for data selection. All these criteria depend on the assumption that the hypothesis space is correct, which may prove to be their main weakness. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #145134. 	[Title] Brief Papers Computing Second Derivatives in Feed-Forward Networks: A Review [Abstract] The calculation of second derivatives is required by recent training and analysis techniques of connectionist networks, such as the elimination of superfluous weights, and the estimation of confidence intervals both for weights and network outputs. We here review and develop exact and approximate algorithms for calculating second derivatives. For networks with jwj weights, simply writing the full matrix of second derivatives requires O(jwj 2 ) operations. For networks of radial basis units or sigmoid units, exact calculation of the necessary intermediate terms requires of the order of 2h + 2 backward/forward-propagation passes where h is the number of hidden units in the network. We also review and compare three approximations (ignoring some components of the second derivative, numerical differentiation, and scoring). Our algorithms apply to arbitrary activation functions, networks, and error functions (for instance, with connections that skip layers, or radial basis functions, or cross-entropy error and Softmax units, etc.). Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #4335. 	[Title] A VIEW OF THE EM ALGORITHM THAT JUSTIFIES INCREMENTAL, SPARSE, AND OTHER VARIANTS [Abstract] The EM algorithm performs maximum likelihood estimation for data in which some variables are unobserved. We present a function that resembles negative free energy and show that the M step maximizes this function with respect to the model parameters and the E step maximizes it with respect to the distribution over the unobserved variables. From this perspective, it is easy to justify an incremental variant of the EM algorithm in which the distribution for only one of the unobserved variables is recalculated in each E step. This variant is shown empirically to give faster convergence in a mixture estimation problem. A variant of the algorithm that exploits sparse conditional distributions is also described, and a wide range of other variant algorithms are also seen to be possible. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1106671. 	[Title] Bayesian Learning in Feed Forward Neural Networks [Abstract] Bayesian methods are applicable to complex modeling tasks. In this review, the principles of Bayesian inference are presented and applied to neural network models. Several approximate implementations are discussed, and their advantages over conventional fre-quentist model training and selection are outlined. It is argued that Bayesian methods are preferable to traditional approaches, although empirical evidence for this is still sparse. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #19697. 	[Title] Keeping Neural Networks Simple by Minimizing the Description Length of the Weights [Abstract] Supervised neural networks generalize well if there is much less information in the weights than there is in the output vectors of the training cases. So during learning, it is important to keep the weights simple by penalizing the amount of information they contain. The amount of information in a weight can be controlled by adding Gaussian noise and the noise level can be adapted during learning to optimize the trade-off between the expected squared error of the network and the amount of information in the weights. We describe a method of computing the derivatives of the expected squared error and of the amount of information in the noisy weights in a network that contains a layer of non-linear hidden units. Provided the output units are linear, the exact derivatives can be computed efficiently without time-consuming Monte Carlo simulations. The idea of minimizing the amount of information that is required to communicate the weights of a neural network leads to a number of interesting schemes for encoding the weights. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #131318. 	[Title] FLAT MINIMA Neural Computation 9(1):1-42 (1997) [Abstract] We present a new algorithm for finding low complexity neural networks with high generalization capability. The algorithm searches for a "flat" minimum of the error function. A flat minimum is a large connected region in weight-space where the error remains approximately constant. An MDL-based, Bayesian argument suggests that flat minima correspond to "simple" networks and low expected overfitting. The argument is based on a Gibbs algorithm variant and a novel way of splitting generalization error into underfitting and overfitting error. Unlike many previous approaches, ours does not require Gaussian assumptions and does not depend on a "good" weight prior instead we have a prior over input/output functions, thus taking into account net architecture and training set. Although our algorithm requires the computation of second order derivatives, it has backprop's order of complexity. Automatically, it effectively prunes units, weights, and input lines. Various experiments with feedforward and recurrent nets are described. In an application to stock market prediction, flat minimum search outperforms (1) conventional backprop, (2) weight decay, (3) "optimal brain surgeon" / "optimal brain damage". We also provide pseudo code of the algorithm (omitted from the NC-version). Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1123576. 	[Title] Density Networks and their Application to Protein Modelling [Abstract] I define a latent variable model in the form of a neural network for which only target outputs are specified; the inputs are unspecified. Although the inputs are missing, it is still possible to train this model by placing a simple probability distribution on the unknown inputs and maximizing the probability of the data given the parameters. The model can then discover for itself a description of the data in terms of an underlying latent variable space of lower dimensionality. I present preliminary results of the application of these models to protein data. Please summarise all the given information.

Above are papers related to the following paper: [Paper_ID] Paper #1154042. 	[Title] 5 Bayesian estimation 5.1 Introduction [Abstract] This chapter takes a different standpoint to address the problem of learning. We will here reason only in terms of probability, and make extensive use of the chain rule known as "Bayes' rule". A fast definition of the basics in probability is provided in appendix A for quick reference. Most of this chapter is a review of the methods of Bayesian learning applied to our modelling purposes. Some original analyses and comments are also provided in section 5.8, 5.11 and 5.12. There is a latent rivalry between "Bayesian" and "Orthodox" statistics. It is by no means our intention to enter this kind of controversy. We are perfectly willing to accept orthodox as well as unorthodox methods, as long as they are scientifically sound and provide good results when applied to learning tasks. The same disclaimer applies to the two frameworks presented here. They have been the object of heated controversy in the past 3 years in the neural networks community. We will not take side, but only present both frameworks, with their strong points and their weaknesses. In the context of this work, the "Bayesian frameworks" are especially interesting as the provide some continuous update rules that can be used during regularised cost minimisation to yield an automatic selection of the regularisation level. Unlike the methods presented in chapter 3, it is not necessary to try several regularisation levels and perform as many optimisations. The Bayesian framework is the only one in which training is achieved through a one-pass optimisation procedure. Please summarise all the given information.

Paper #239800 has the title `Ensemble Learning and Evidence Maximization  
` and the abstract `Ensemble learning by variational free energy minimization is a tool introduced to neural networks by Hinton and van Camp in which learning is described in terms of the optimization of an ensemble of parameter vectors. The optimized ensemble is an approximation to the posterior probability distribution of the parameters. This tool has now been applied to a variety of statistical inference problems. In this paper I study a linear regression model with both parameters and hyper-parameters. I demonstrate that the evidence approximation for the optimization of regularization constants can be derived in detail from a free energy minimization viewpoint. 
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Question: Which category should Paper #239800 be classified as ?
You can select one from ['Neural_Networks', 'Case_Based', 'Theory', 'Reinforcement_Learning', 'Probabilistic_Methods', 'Rule_Learning', 'Genetic_Algorithms'].


Paper #239800 has the title `Ensemble Learning and Evidence Maximization  
` and the abstract `Ensemble learning by variational free energy minimization is a tool introduced to neural networks by Hinton and van Camp in which learning is described in terms of the optimization of an ensemble of parameter vectors. The optimized ensemble is an approximation to the posterior probability distribution of the parameters. This tool has now been applied to a variety of statistical inference problems. In this paper I study a linear regression model with both parameters and hyper-parameters. I demonstrate that the evidence approximation for the optimization of regularization constants can be derived in detail from a free energy minimization viewpoint. 
`.
Question: Which category should Paper #239800 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