Original: A C HAIN G RAPH I NTERPRETATION OF R EAL -W ORLD N EURAL N ETWORKS
Revised: A C HAIN G RAPH I NTERPRETATION OF R EAL -W ORLD N EURAL N ETWORKS

Original: Anonymous authors
Revised: Anonymous authors

Original: Paper under double-blind review
Revised: Paper under double-blind review

Original: A BSTRACT
Revised: A BSTRACT

Original: The last decade has witnessed a boom of deep learning research and applications achieving state-of-the-art results in various domains.
Revised: The last decade has witnessed a boom of deep learning research and applications achieving state-of-the-art results in various domains.

Original: However, most advances have been established empirically, and their theoretical analysis remains lacking.
Revised: However, most advances have been established empirically, and their theoretical analysis remains lacking.

Original: One major issue is that our current interpretation of neural networks (NNs) as function approximators is too generic to support in-depth analysis.
Revised: One major issue is that our current interpretation of neural networks (NNs) as function approximators is too generic to support in-depth analysis.

Original: In this paper, we remedy this by proposing an alternative interpretation that identiﬁes NNs as chain graphs (CGs) and feed-forward as an approximate inference procedure.
Revised: In this paper, we remedy this by proposing an alternative interpretation that identiﬁes NNs as chain graphs (CGs) and feed-forward as an approximate inference procedure.

Original: The CG interpretation speciﬁes the nature of each NN component within the rich theoretical framework of probabilistic graphical models, while at the same time remains general enough to cover real-world NNs with arbitrary depth, multibranching and varied activations, as well as common structures including convolution / recurrent layers, residual block and dropout.
Revised: The CG interpretation speciﬁes the nature of each NN component within the rich theoretical framework of probabilistic graphical models, while at the same time remains general enough to cover real-world NNs with arbitrary depth, multibranching and varied activations, as well as common structures including convolution / recurrent layers, residual block and dropout.

Original: We demonstrate with concrete examples that the CG interpretation can provide novel theoretical support and insights for various NN techniques, as well as derive new deep learning approaches such as the concept of partially collapsed feed-forward inference.
Revised: We demonstrate with concrete examples that the CG interpretation can provide novel theoretical support and insights for various NN techniques, as well as derive new deep learning approaches such as the concept of partially collapsed feed-forward inference.

Original: It is thus a promising framework that deepens our understanding of neural networks and provides a coherent theoretical formulation for future deep learning research.
Revised: It is thus a promising framework that deepens our understanding of neural networks and provides a coherent theoretical formulation for future deep learning research.

Original:  I NTRODUCTION
Revised:  I NTRODUCTION

Original: During the last decade, deep learning (Goodfellow et al., 2016), the study of neural networks (NNs), has achieved ground-breaking results in diverse areas such as computer vision (Krizhevsky et al., 2012;
Revised: During the last decade, deep learning (Goodfellow et al., 2016), the study of neural networks (NNs), has achieved ground-breaking results in diverse areas such as computer vision (Krizhevsky et al., 2012;

Original: He et al., 2016; Long et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2018), natural language processing (Hinton et al., 2012; Vaswani et al., 2017; Devlin et al., 2019), generative modeling (Kingma & Welling, 2014; Goodfellow et al., 2014) and reinforcement learning (Mnih et al., 2015; Silver et al., 2016), and various network designs have been proposed.
Revised: He et al., 2016; Long et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2018), natural language processing (Hinton et al., 2012; Vaswani et al., 2017; Devlin et al., 2019), generative modeling (Kingma & Welling, 2014; Goodfellow et al., 2014) and reinforcement learning (Mnih et al., 2015; Silver et al., 2016), and various network designs have been proposed.

Original: However, neural networks have been treated largely as “black-box” function approximators, and their designs have chieﬂy been found via trialand-error, with little or no theoretical justiﬁcation.
Revised: However, neural networks have been treated largely as “black-box” function approximators, and their designs have chieﬂy been found via trialand-error, with little or no theoretical justiﬁcation.

Original: A major cause that hinders the theoretical analysis is the current overly generic modeling of neural networks as function approximators: simply interpreting a neural network as a composition of parametrized functions provides little insight to decipher the properties of its components or its behavior during the learning process.
Revised: A major cause that hinders the theoretical analysis is the current overly generic modeling of neural networks as function approximators: simply interpreting a neural network as a composition of parametrized functions provides little insight to decipher the nature of its components or its behavior during the learning process.

Original: In this paper, we show that a neural network can actually be interpreted as a probabilistic graphical model (PGM) called chain graph (CG) (Koller & Friedman, 2009), and feed-forward as an efﬁcient approximate probabilistic inference on it.
Revised: In this paper, we show that a neural network can actually be interpreted as a probabilistic graphical model (PGM) called chain graph (CG) (Koller & Friedman, 2009), and feed-forward as an efﬁcient approximate probabilistic inference on it.

Original: This offers speciﬁc interpretations for various neural network components, allowing for in-depth theoretical analysis and derivation of new approaches.
Revised: This offers speciﬁc interpretations for various neural network components, allowing for in-depth theoretical analysis and derivation of new approaches.

Original: 1. R ELATED WORK
Revised: 1. R ELATED WORK

Original: In terms of theoretical understanding of neural networks, a well known result based on the function approximator view is the universal approximation theorem (Goodfellow et al., 2016), however it only establishes the representational power of NNs.
Revised: In terms of theoretical understanding of neural networks, a well known result based on the function approximator view is the universal approximation theorem (Goodfellow et al., 2016), however it only establishes the representational power of NNs.

Original: Also, there have been many efforts on alternative NN interpretations.
Revised: Also, there have been many efforts on alternative NN interpretations.

Original: One prominent approach identiﬁes inﬁnite width NNs as Gaussian processes (Neal, 1996; Lee et al., 2018)
Revised: One prominent approach identiﬁes inﬁnite width NNs as Gaussian processes (Neal, 1996; Lee et al., 2018)

Original: , enabling kernel method analysis (Jacot et al., 2018).
Revised: , enabling kernel method analysis (Jacot et al., 2018).

Original: Other works also employ theories such as optimal transport (Genevay et al., 2017; Chizat & Bach, 2018) or mean ﬁeld (Mei et al., 2019).
Revised: Other works also employ theories such as optimal transport (Genevay et al., 2017; Chizat & Bach, 2018) or mean ﬁeld (Mei et al., 2019).

Original: These approaches lead to interesting ﬁndings, however they tend to only hold under limited or unrealistic settings and have difﬁculties interpreting practical real-world NNs.
Revised: These approaches lead to interesting ﬁndings, however they tend to only hold under limited or unrealistic settings and have difﬁculties interpreting practical real-world NNs.

Original: Alternatively, some existing works study the post-hoc interpretability (Lipton, 2018), proposing methods to analyze the empirical behavior of trained neural networks: activation maximization (Erhan et al., 2009), typical input synthesis (Nguyen et al., 2016), deconvolution (Zeiler & Fergus, 2014), layer-wise relevance propagation (Bach et al., 2015), etc.
Revised: Alternatively, some existing works study the post-hoc interpretability (Lipton, 2018), proposing methods to analyze the empirical behavior of trained neural networks: activation maximization (Erhan et al., 2009), typical input synthesis (Nguyen et al., 2016), deconvolution (Zeiler & Fergus, 2014), layer-wise relevance propagation (Bach et al., 2015), etc.

Original: These methods can offer valuable insights to the practical behavior of neural networks, however they represent distinct approaches and focuses, and are all limited within the function approximator view.
Revised: These methods can offer valuable insights to the practical behavior of neural networks, however they represent distinct approaches and focuses, and are all limited within the function approximator view.

Original: Our work links neural networks to probabilistic graphical models (Koller & Friedman, 2009), a rich theoretical framework that models and visualizes probabilistic systems composed of random variables (RVs) and their interdependencies.
Revised: Our work links neural networks to probabilistic graphical models (Koller & Friedman, 2009), a rich theoretical framework that models and visualizes probabilistic systems composed of random variables (RVs) and their interdependencies.

Original: There are several types of graphical models.
Revised: There are several types of graphical models.

Original: The chain graph model (Koller & Friedman, 2009) used in our work is a general form that unites directed and undirected variants, visualized as a partially directed acyclic graph (PDAG).
Revised: The chain graph model (Koller & Friedman, 2009) used in our work is a general form that unites directed and undirected variants, visualized as a partially directed acyclic graph (PDAG).

Original: Interestingly, there exists a series of works on constructing hierarchical graphical models for data-driven learning problems, such as sigmoid belief network (Neal, 1992), deep belief network (Hinton et al., 2006), deep
Revised: Interestingly, there exists a series of works on constructing hierarchical graphical models for data-driven learning problems, such as sigmoid belief network (Neal, 1992), deep belief network (Hinton et al., 2006), deep

Original: Boltzmann machine (Salakhutdinov & Hinton, 2012) and sum product network (Poon & Domingos, 2011).
Revised: Boltzmann machine (Salakhutdinov & Hinton, 2012) and sum product network (Poon & Domingos, 2011).

Original: As alternatives to neural networks, these models have shown promising potentials for generative modeling and unsupervised learning.
Revised: As alternatives to neural networks, these models have shown promising potentials for generative modeling and unsupervised learning.

Original: Nevertheless, they are yet to demonstrate competitive performances over neural network for discriminative learning.
Revised: Nevertheless, they are yet to demonstrate competitive performances over neural network for discriminative learning.

Original: Neural networks and graphical models have so far been treated as two distinct approaches in general.
Revised: Neural networks and graphical models have so far been treated as two distinct approaches in general.

Original: Existing works that combine them (Zheng et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2018; Lample et al., 2016) treat either neural networks as function approximators for amortized inference, or graphical models as post-processing steps.
Revised: Existing works that combine them (Zheng et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2018; Lample et al., 2016) treat either neural networks as function approximators for amortized inference, or graphical models as post-processing steps.

Original: Some consider neural networks as graphical models with deterministic hidden nodes (Buntine, 1994).
Revised: Some consider neural networks as graphical models with deterministic hidden nodes (Buntine, 1994).

Original: However this is an atypical degenerate regime.
Revised: However this is an atypical degenerate regime.

Original: To the best of our knowledge, our work provides the ﬁrst rigorous and comprehensive formulation of a (non-degenerate) graphical model interpretation for neural networks in practical use.
Revised: To the best of our knowledge, our work provides the ﬁrst rigorous and comprehensive formulation of a (non-degenerate) graphical model interpretation for neural networks in practical use.

Original: 1. O UR CONTRIBUTIONS
Revised: 1. O UR CONTRIBUTIONS

Original: The main contributions of our work are summarized as follows:
Revised: The main contributions of our work are summarized as follows:

Original: • We propose a layered chain graph representation of neural networks, interpret feed-forward as an approximate probabilistic inference procedure, and show that this interpretation provides an extensive coverage of practical NN components (Section 2); • To illustrate its advantages, we show with concrete examples (residual block, RNN, dropout) that the chain graph interpretation enables coherent and in-depth theoretical support, and provides additional insights to various empirically established network structures (Section 3); • Furthermore, we demonstrate the potential of the chain graph interpretation for discovering new approaches by using it to derive a novel stochastic inference method named partially collapsed feed-forward, and establish experimentally its empirical effectiveness (Section 4).
Revised: • We propose a layered chain graph representation of neural networks, interpret feed-forward as an approximate probabilistic inference procedure, and show that this interpretation provides an extensive coverage of practical NN components (Section 2); • To illustrate its advantages, we show with concrete examples (residual block, RNN, dropout) that the chain graph interpretation enables coherent and in-depth theoretical support, and provides additional insights to various empirically established network structures (Section 3); • Furthermore, we demonstrate the potential of the chain graph interpretation for discovering new approaches by using it to derive a novel stochastic inference method named partially collapsed feed-forward, and establish experimentally its empirical effectiveness (Section 4).

Original:  C HAIN GRAPH INTERPRETATION OF NEURAL NETWORKS
Revised:  C HAIN GRAPH INTERPRETATION OF NEURAL NETWORKS

Original: Without further delay, we derive the chain graph interpretation of neural networks in this section.
Revised: Without further delay, we derive the chain graph interpretation of neural networks in this section.

Original: We will state and discuss the main results here and leave the proofs in the appendix.
Revised: We will state and discuss the main results here and leave the proofs in the appendix.

Original: 2. T HE LAYERED CHAIN GRAPH REPRESENTATION
Revised: 2. T HE LAYERED CHAIN GRAPH REPRESENTATION

Original: We start by formulating the so called layered chain graph that corresponds to neural networks we use in practice: Consider a system represented by L layers of random variables ( X 1 , . . .
Revised: We start by formulating the so called layered chain graph that corresponds to neural networks we use in practice: Consider a system represented by L layers of random variables ( X 1 , . . .

Original: , X L ) , where
Revised: , X L ) , where

Original: X li is the i -th variable node in the l -th layer, and denote N l the number of nodes in layer l .
Revised: X li is the i -th variable node in the l -th layer, and denote N l the number of nodes in layer l .

Original: We assume that nodes X li in the same layer l have the same distribution type characterized by a feature function T l that can be multidimensional.
Revised: We assume that nodes X li in the same layer l have the same distribution type characterized by a feature function T l that can be multidimensional.

Original: Also, we assume that the layers are ordered topologically and denote Pa ( X l ) the parent layers of X l .
Revised: Also, we assume that the layers are ordered topologically and denote Pa ( X l ) the parent layers of X l .

Original: To ease our discussion, we assume that X 1 is the input layer and X L the output layer (our formulation can easily extend to multi-input/output cases).
Revised: To ease our discussion, we assume that X 1 is the input layer and X L the output layer (our formulation can easily extend to multi-input/output cases).

Original: A layered chain graph is then deﬁned as follows:
Revised: A layered chain graph is then deﬁned as follows:

Original: Deﬁnition 1.
Revised: Deﬁnition 1.

Original: A layered chain graph that involves L layers of random variables ( X 1 , . . .
Revised: A layered chain graph that involves L layers of random variables ( X 1 , . . .

Original: , X L ) is a chain graph that encodes the overall distribution P ( X 2 , . . .
Revised: , X L ) is a chain graph that encodes the overall distribution P ( X 2 , . . .

Original: , X L | X 1 ) such that:
Revised: , X L | X 1 ) such that:

Original: It can be factored into layerwise chain components P
Revised: It can be factored into layerwise chain components P

Original: ( X l | Pa ( X l )) following the topological order, and nodes X li within each chain
Revised: ( X l | Pa ( X l )) following the topological order, and nodes X li within each chain

Original: component P
Revised: component P

Original: ( X l |
Revised: ( X l |

Original: Pa ( X l
Revised: Pa ( X l

Original: ) are
Revised: ) are

Original: conditionally independent
Revised: conditionally independent

Original: given their parents (this results in bipartite chain components), thus allowing for further decomposition into nodewise conditional distributions P ( X li | Pa ( X l )) .
Revised: given their parents (this results in bipartite chain components), thus allowing for further decomposition into nodewise conditional distributions P ( X li | Pa ( X l )) .

Original: This means we have
Revised: This means we have

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: For each layer l with parent layers Pa ( X l
Revised: For each layer l with parent layers Pa ( X l

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: X p n } , p 1 , . .
Revised: X p n } , p 1 , . .

Original: , p n ∈ { 1 , . .
Revised: , p n ∈ { 1 , . .

Original: , l − 1 } , its nodewise conditional distributions P ( X li | Pa ( X l )) are modeled by pairwise conditional random ﬁelds (CRFs) with with unary ( b li ) and pairwise ( W p,lj,i ) weights (as we will see, they actually correspond to biases and weights in NN layers):
Revised: , l − 1 } , its nodewise conditional distributions P ( X li | Pa ( X l )) are modeled by pairwise conditional random ﬁelds (CRFs) with with unary ( b li ) and pairwise ( W p,lj,i ) weights (as we will see, they actually correspond to biases and weights in NN layers):

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Figure 1 Left illustrates an example three-layer network as layered chain graph and its chain component factorization.
Revised: Figure 1 Left illustrates an example three-layer network as layered chain graph and its chain component factorization.

Original: For exponential family distributions (Koller & Friedman, 2009), the general form in Eq.
Revised: For exponential family distributions (Koller & Friedman, 2009), the general form in Eq.

Original: (2)is simply  P ( X li | Pa ( X l ))
Revised: (2) simply becomes P ( X li | Pa ( X l ))

Original: ∝ exp (cid:0) T l ( X li ) · e li
Revised: ∝ exp (cid:0) T l ( X li ) · e li

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: ( X
Revised: X

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: , T p n ( X p n ) (cid:1)(cid:1) .
Revised: , T p n ( X p n ) (cid:1)(cid:1) .

Original: 2. F EED - FORWARD AS APPROXIMATE PROBABILISTIC INFERENCE
Revised: 2. F EED - FORWARD AS APPROXIMATE PROBABILISTIC INFERENCE

Original: To identify layered chain graphs with real-world neural networks, we need to show that they can behave the same way during inference and learning.
Revised: To identify layered chain graphs with real-world neural networks, we need to show that they can behave the same way during inference and learning.

Original: For this, we establish the fact that feed-forward can actually be seen as performing an approximate probabilistic inference on a layered chain graph:
Revised: For this, we establish the fact that feed-forward can actually be seen as performing an approximate probabilistic inference on a layered chain graph:

Original: Given an input sample ˜ x 1 , we consider the problem of inferring the marginal distribution Q li of a node X li and its expected features q li , deﬁned as
Revised: Given an input sample ˜ x 1 , we consider the problem of inferring the marginal distribution Q li of a node X li and its expected features q li , deﬁned as

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Consider a non-input layer l with parent layers p 1 , . .
Revised: Consider a non-input layer l with parent layers p 1 , . .

Original: . , p n , the independence assumptions encoded by the layered chain graph lead to the following recursive expression for marginal distributions Q :
Revised: . , p n , the independence assumptions encoded by the layered chain graph lead to the following recursive expression for marginal distributions Q :

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: However, the above expression is in general intractable, as it integrates over the entire admissible states of all parents nodes in Pa ( X l ) .
Revised: However, the above expression is in general intractable, as it integrates over the entire admissible states of all parents nodes in Pa ( X l ) .

Original: To proceed further, simplifying approximations are needed.
Revised: To proceed further, simplifying approximations are needed.

Original: Interestingly, by using linear approximations, we can obtain the following results (in case of discrete random variable the integration in Eq.
Revised: Interestingly, by using linear approximations, we can obtain the following results (in case of discrete random variable the integration in Eq.

Original: 7 is replaced by summation):
Revised: 7 is replaced by summation):

Original: Proposition 1.
Revised: Proposition 1.

Original: If we make the assumptions that the corresponding expressions are approximately linear w.r.t.
Revised: If we make the assumptions that the corresponding expressions are approximately linear w.r.t.

Original: parent features T p 1 ( X p 1 ) , . . .
Revised: parent features T p 1 ( X p 1 ) , . . .

Original: , T p n
Revised: , T p n

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: p n ) , we obtain the following approximations:
Revised: p n ) , we obtain the following approximations:

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Especially, Eq.
Revised: Especially, Eq.

Original: (7) is a feed-forward expression for expected features q li with activation function g l determined by T l and f l , i.e. the distribution type of random variable nodes in layer l .
Revised: (7) is a feed-forward expression for expected features q li with activation function g l determined by T l and f l , i.e. the distribution type of random variable nodes in layer l .

Original: The proof is provided in Appendix A.1.
Revised: The proof is provided in Appendix A.1.

Original: This allows us to identify feed-forward as an approximate probabilistic inference procedure for layered chain graphs.
Revised: This allows us to identify feed-forward as an approximate probabilistic inference procedure for layered chain graphs.

Original: For learning, the loss function is typically a function of ( Q L , q L ) obtainable via feed-forward, and we can follow the same classical neural network parameter update using stochastic gradient descent and backpropagation.
Revised: For learning, the loss function is typically a function of ( Q L , q L ) obtainable via feed-forward, and we can follow the same classical neural network parameter update using stochastic gradient descent and backpropagation.

Original: The linear approximations, needed for feed-forward, is coarse and only accurate for small pairwise weights ( (cid:107) W (cid:107) (cid:28) 1 ) or already linear regions. This might justify weight decay beyond the general “anti-overﬁt” argument and the empirical superiority of piecewise linear activations like ReLU (Nair & Hinton, 2010). Conversely, as a source of error, it might explain some “failure cases” of neural networks such as their vulnerability against adversarial samples, see e.g., Goodfellow et al.
Revised: Thus we are able to replicate the exact neural network training process with this layered chain graph framework.

Original: The following corollary provides concrete examples of some common activation functions
Revised: The following corollary provides concrete examples of some common activation functions

Original: g
Revised: g

Original: (we emphasize their names in bold, detailed formulations and proofs are given in Appendix A.2):
Revised: (we emphasize their names in bold, detailed formulations and proofs are given in Appendix A.2):

Original: Corollary 2.
Revised: Corollary 2.

Original: We have the following node distribution - activation function correspondences
Revised: We have the following node distribution - activation function correspondences:

Original: Binary nodes taking values { α, β } results in sigmoidal activations, especially, we obtain sigmoid with α = 0 , β = 1 and tanh with α = − 1 , β = 1 ( α, β are interchangeable); 2.
Revised: Binary nodes taking values { α, β } results in sigmoidal activations, especially, we obtain sigmoid with α = 0 , β = 1 and tanh with α = − 1 , β = 1 ( α, β are interchangeable); 2.

Original: Multilabel nodes characterized by label indicator features result in the softmax activation; 3.
Revised: Multilabel nodes characterized by label indicator features result in the softmax activation; 3.

Original: Variants of (leaky) rectiﬁed Gaussian distributions ( T li ( X li ) =
Revised: Variants of (leaky) rectiﬁed Gaussian distributions ( T li ( X li ) =

Original: X li = max( (cid:15)Y li , Y li ) with Y li ∼ N (cid:0) e li , ( s li ( e li )) 2 (cid:1) ) can approximate activations such as softplus ( (cid:15) = 0 , s li ≈ 1 . 7761 ) and (cid:15) -leaky rectiﬁed linear unit (ReLU) ( s li = tanh( e li ) ) including ReLU ( (cid:15) = 0 ) and identity ( (cid:15) = 1 ).
Revised: X li = max( (cid:15)Y li , Y li ) with Y li ∼ N (cid:0) e li , ( s li ( e li )) 2 (cid:1) ) can approximate activations such as softplus ( (cid:15) = 0 , s li ≈ 1 . 7761 ) and (cid:15) -leaky rectiﬁed linear unit (ReLU) ( s li = tanh( e li ) ) including ReLU ( (cid:15) = 0 ) and identity ( (cid:15) = 1 ).

Original: Figure 1 Right illustrates activation functions approximated by various rectiﬁed Gaussian variants.
Revised: Figure 1 Right illustrates activation functions approximated by various rectiﬁed Gaussian variants.

Original: We also plotted (in orange) an alternative approximation of ReLU with sigmoid-modulated standard deviation proposed by Nair & Hinton (2010) which is less accurate around the kink at the origin.
Revised: We also plotted (in orange) an alternative approximation of ReLU with sigmoid-modulated standard deviation proposed by Nair & Hinton (2010) which is less accurate around the kink at the origin.

Revised: The linear approximations, needed for feed-forward, is coarse and only accurate for small pairwise weights ( (cid:107) W (cid:107) (cid:28) 1 ) or already linear regions.

Revised: This might justify weight decay beyond the general “anti-overﬁt” argument and the empirical superiority of piecewise linear activations like ReLU (Nair & Hinton, 2010).

Revised: Conversely, as a source of error, it might explain some “failure cases” of neural networks such as their vulnerability against adversarial samples, see e.g., Goodfellow et al.

Original: 2. G ENERALITY OF THE CHAIN GRAPH INTERPRETATION
Revised: G ENERALITY OF THE CHAIN GRAPH INTERPRETATION

Original: The chain graph interpretation formulated in Sections 2.1 and 2.2 is a general framework that can describe many  network structures.
Revised: The chain graph interpretation formulated in Sections 2.1 and 2.2 is a general framework that can describe many practical network structures.

Original: To demonstrate this, we list here a wide range of neural network designs (marked in bold) that are chain graph interpretable.
Revised: To demonstrate this, we list here a wide range of neural network designs (marked in bold) that are chain graph interpretable.

Original: • In terms of network architecture, it is clear that the chain graph interpretation can model networks of arbitrary depth, and with general multi-branched structures such as inception modules (Szegedy et al., 2015) or residual blocks (He et al., 2016;
Revised: • In terms of network architecture, it is clear that the chain graph interpretation can model networks of arbitrary depth, and with general multi-branched structures such as inception modules (Szegedy et al., 2015) or residual blocks (He et al., 2016;

Original: He et al., 2016) discussed in Section 3.1.
Revised: He et al., 2016) discussed in Section 3.1.

Original: Also, it is possible to built up recurrent neural networks (RNNs) for sequential data learning, as we will see in Section 3.2.
Revised: Also, it is possible to built up recurrent neural networks (RNNs) for sequential data learning, as we will see in Section 3.2.

Original: Furthermore, the modularity of chain components justiﬁes transfer learning via partial reuse of pre-trained networks , e.g., backbones trained for image classiﬁcation can be reused for segmentation (Chen et al., 2018).
Revised: Furthermore, the modularity of chain components justiﬁes transfer learning via partial reuse of pre-trained networks , e.g., backbones trained for image classiﬁcation can be reused for segmentation (Chen et al., 2018).

Original: • In terms of layer structure, we are free to employ sparse connection patterns and shared/ﬁxed weight, so that we can obtain not only dense connections , but also connections like convolution , average pooling or skip connections .
Revised: • In terms of layer structure, we are free to employ sparse connection patterns and shared/ﬁxed weight, so that we can obtain not only dense connections , but also connections like convolution , average pooling or skip connections .

Original: Moreover, as shown in Section 3.3, dropout can be reproduced by introducing and sampling from auxiliary random variables, and normalization layers like batch normalization (Ioffe & Szegedy, 2015) can be seen as reparametrizations of node distributions and fall within the general form (Eq.
Revised: Moreover, as shown in Section 3.3, dropout can be reproduced by introducing and sampling from auxiliary random variables, and normalization layers like batch normalization (Ioffe & Szegedy, 2015) can be seen as reparametrizations of node distributions and fall within the general form (Eq.

Original: Finally, we can extend the layered chain graph model to allow for intra-layer connections, which enables non-bipartite CRF layers which are typically used on output layers for structured prediction tasks like image segmentation (Zheng et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2018) or named entity recognition (Lample et al., 2016).
Revised: Finally, we can extend the layered chain graph model to allow for intra-layer connections, which enables non-bipartite CRF layers which are typically used on output layers for structured prediction tasks like image segmentation (Zheng et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2018) or named entity recognition (Lample et al., 2016).

Original: However, feed-forward is no longer applicable through these intra-connected layers.
Revised: However, feed-forward is no longer applicable through these intra-connected layers.

Original: • Node distributions can be chosen freely, leading to a variety of nonlinearities (e.g., Corollary 2).
Revised: • Node distributions can be chosen freely, leading to a variety of nonlinearities (e.g., Corollary 2).

Original:  S ELECTED CASE STUDIES OF EXISTING NEURAL NETWORK DESIGNS
Revised:  S ELECTED CASE STUDIES OF EXISTING NEURAL NETWORK DESIGNS

Original: The proposed chain graph interpretation offers a detailed description of the underlying mechanism of neural networks.
Revised: The proposed chain graph interpretation offers a detailed description of the underlying mechanism of neural networks.

Original: This allows us to obtain novel theoretical support and insights for various network designs which are consistent within a uniﬁed framework.
Revised: This allows us to obtain novel theoretical support and insights for various network designs which are consistent within a uniﬁed framework.

Original: We illustrate this with the following concrete examples where we perform in-depth analysis based on the chain graph formulation.
Revised: We illustrate this with the following concrete examples where we perform in-depth analysis based on the chain graph formulation.

Original: 3. R ESIDUAL BLOCK AS REFINEMENT MODULE
Revised: 3. R ESIDUAL BLOCK AS REFINEMENT MODULE

Original: The residual block, proposed originally in He et al.
Revised: The residual block, proposed originally in He et al.

Original: and improved later (He et al., 2016) with the preactivation form, is an effective design for building up very deep networks.
Revised: and improved later (He et al., 2016) with the preactivation form, is an effective design for building up very deep networks.

Original: Here we show that a preactivation residual block corresponds to a reﬁnement module within a chain graph.
Revised: Here we show that a preactivation residual block corresponds to a reﬁnement module within a chain graph.

Original: We use modules to refer to encapsulations of layered chain subgraphs as input–output mappings without specifying their internal structures.
Revised: We use modules to refer to encapsulations of layered chain subgraphs as input–output mappings without specifying their internal structures.

Original: A reﬁnement module is deﬁned as follows:
Revised: A reﬁnement module is deﬁned as follows:

Original: Deﬁnition 2.
Revised: Deﬁnition 2.

Original: Given a base submodule from layer X l − 1 to layer X l , a reﬁnement module augments this base submodule with a side branch that chains a copy of the base submodule (sharing weight with its original) from X l − 1 to a duplicated layer ˜
Revised: Given a base submodule from layer X l − 1 to layer X l , a reﬁnement module augments this base submodule with a side branch that chains a copy of the base submodule (sharing weight with its original) from X l − 1 to a duplicated layer ˜

Original: X l , and then a reﬁning submodule from ˜ X
Revised: X l , and then a reﬁning submodule from ˜ X

Original: l to X l .
Revised: l to X l .

Original: [Figure]
Revised: [Figure]

Original: Proposition 3.
Revised: Proposition 3.

Original: A reﬁnement module corresponds to a preactivation residual block.
Revised: A reﬁnement module corresponds to a preactivation residual block.

Original: We provide a proof in Appendix A.3 and illustrate this correspondence in Figure 2.
Revised: We provide a proof in Appendix A.3 and illustrate this correspondence in Figure 2.

Original: An interesting remark is that the reﬁnement process can be recursive: the base submodule of a reﬁnement module can be a reﬁnement module itself.
Revised: An interesting remark is that the reﬁnement process can be recursive: the base submodule of a reﬁnement module can be a reﬁnement module itself.

Original: This results in a sequence of consecutive residual blocks.
Revised: This results in a sequence of consecutive residual blocks.

Original: While a vanilla layered chain component encodes a generalized linear model during feed-forward (c.f. Eqs.
Revised: While a vanilla layered chain component encodes a generalized linear model during feed-forward (c.f. Eqs.

Original: , the reﬁnement process introduces a nonlinear extension term to the previously linear output preactivation, effectively increasing the representational power.
Revised: , the reﬁnement process introduces a nonlinear extension term to the previously linear output preactivation, effectively increasing the representational power.

Original: This provides a theoretical justiﬁcation to the empirical improvement generally observed when using residual blocks.
Revised: This provides a possible explanation to the empirical improvement generally observed when using residual blocks.

Original: Note that it is also possible to interpret the original postactivation residual blocks, however in a somewhat artiﬁcial manner, as it requires deﬁning identity connections with manually ﬁxed weights.
Revised: Note that it is also possible to interpret the original postactivation residual blocks, however in a somewhat artiﬁcial manner, as it requires deﬁning identity connections with manually ﬁxed weights.

Original: 3. R ECURRENT NEURAL NETWORKS
Revised: 3. R ECURRENT NEURAL NETWORKS

Original: Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) (Goodfellow et al., 2016) are widely used for handling sequential data.
Revised: Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) (Goodfellow et al., 2016) are widely used for handling sequential data.

Original: An unrolled recurrent neural network can be interpreted as a dynamic layered chain graph constructed as follows: a given base layered chain graph is copied for each time step, then these copies are connected together through recurrent chain components following the Markov assumption (Koller & Friedman, 2009): each recurrent layer X l,t at time t is connected by its corresponding layer X l,t − 1 from the previous time step t − 1 .
Revised: An unrolled recurrent neural network can be interpreted as a dynamic layered chain graph constructed as follows: a given base layered chain graph is copied for each time step, then these copies are connected together through recurrent chain components following the Markov assumption (Koller & Friedman, 2009): each recurrent layer X l,t at time t is connected by its corresponding layer X l,t − 1 from the previous time step t − 1 .

Original: Especially, denoting Pa t ( X l,t ) the non-recurrent parent layers of X l,t in the base chain graph, we can easily interpret the following two variants:
Revised: Especially, denoting Pa t ( X l,t ) the non-recurrent parent layers of X l,t in the base chain graph, we can easily interpret the following two variants:

Original: Proposition 4.
Revised: Proposition 4.

Original: Given a recurrent chain component that encodes P ( X l,t | Pa t ( X l,t ) , X l,t − 1 ) ,
Revised: Given a recurrent chain component that encodes P ( X l,t | Pa t ( X l,t ) , X l,t − 1 ) ,

Original: It corresponds to a simple (or vanilla / Elman) recurrent layer (Goodfellow et al., 2016) if the connection from X l,t − 1 to X l,t is dense; 2.
Revised: It corresponds to a simple (or vanilla / Elman) recurrent layer (Goodfellow et al., 2016) if the connection from X l,t − 1 to X l,t is dense; 2.

Original: It corresponds to an independently RNN (IndRNN) (Li et al., 2018) layer if the conditional independence assumptions among the nodes X l,ti within layer l are kept through time: ∀ 
Revised: It corresponds to an independently RNN (IndRNN) (Li et al., 2018) layer if the conditional independence assumptions among the nodes X l,ti within layer l are kept through time: ∀ i ∈ { 1 ,

Original: i ∈ { 1 , . . . , N l } , P ( X l,t i | Pa t ( X l,t ) , X l,t − 1 ) =
Revised: . . . , N l } , P ( X l,t i | Pa t ( X l,t ) , X l,t − 1 ) =

Original: P ( X l,t i | Pa t ( X l,t ) , X l,t − 1 i ) .
Revised: P ( X l,t i | Pa t ( X l,t ) , X l,t − 1 i ) .

Original: We provide a proof in Appendix A.4 and illustrates both variants in Figure 3.
Revised: We provide a proof in Appendix A.4 and illustrates both variants in Figure 3.

Original: [Figure]
Revised: [Figure]

Original: The simple recurrent layer, despite its exhaustive dense recurrent connection, is known to suffer from vanishing/exploding gradient and can not handle long sequences.
Revised: The simple recurrent layer, despite its exhaustive dense recurrent connection, is known to suffer from vanishing/exploding gradient and can not handle long sequences.

Original: The commonly used long-short term memory (Hochreiter & Schmidhuber, 1997) and gated recurrent unit (Cho et al., 2014) alleviate this issue via long term memory cells and gating.
Revised: The commonly used long-short term memory (Hochreiter & Schmidhuber, 1997) and gated recurrent unit (Cho et al., 2014) alleviate this issue via long term memory cells and gating.

Original: However, they tend to result in bloated structures, and still cannot handle very long sequences (Li et al., 2018).
Revised: However, they tend to result in bloated structures, and still cannot handle very long sequences (Li et al., 2018).

Original: On the other hand, IndRNNs can process much longer sequences and signiﬁcantly outperform not only simple RNNs, but also LSTMbased variants (Li et al., 2018; 2019).
Revised: On the other hand, IndRNNs can process much longer sequences and signiﬁcantly outperform not only simple RNNs, but also LSTMbased variants (Li et al., 2018; 2019).

Original: This indicates that the assumption of intra-layer conditional independence through time, analogue to the local receptive ﬁelds of convolutional neural networks, could be an essential sparse network design tailored for sequential modeling.
Revised: This indicates that the assumption of intra-layer conditional independence through time, analogue to the local receptive ﬁelds of convolutional neural networks, could be an essential sparse network design tailored for sequential modeling.

Original: 3. D ROPOUT
Revised: 3. D ROPOUT

Original: Dropout (Srivastava et al., 2014) is a practical stochastic regularization method commonly used especially for regularizing fully connected layers.
Revised: Dropout (Srivastava et al., 2014) is a practical stochastic regularization method commonly used especially for regularizing fully connected layers.

Original: As we see in the following proposition, from the chain graph point of view, dropout corresponds to introducing Bernoulli auxiliary random variables that serve as noise generators for feed-forward during training:
Revised: As we see in the following proposition, from the chain graph point of view, dropout corresponds to introducing Bernoulli auxiliary random variables that serve as noise generators for feed-forward during training:

Original: Proposition 5.
Revised: Proposition 5.

Original: Adding dropout with drop rate 1 − p l to layer l corresponds to the following chain graph construction: for each node X li in layer l we introduce an auxiliary Bernoulli random variable
Revised: Adding dropout with drop rate 1 − p l to layer l corresponds to the following chain graph construction: for each node X li in layer l we introduce an auxiliary Bernoulli random variable

Original: D li ∼ Bernoulli ( p l ) and multiply it with the pairwise interaction terms in all preactivations (Eq.
Revised: D li ∼ Bernoulli ( p l ) and multiply it with the pairwise interaction terms in all preactivations (Eq.

Original: (3) ) involving X li as parent (this makes D li a parent of all child nodes of X li and extend their pairwise interactions with X li to ternary ones).
Revised: (3) ) involving X li as parent (this makes D li a parent of all child nodes of X li and extend their pairwise interactions with X li to ternary ones).

Original: The behavior of dropout is reproduced  if:
Revised: The behavior of dropout is reproduced exactly if:

Original: • During training, we sample auxiliary nodes D li during each feed-forward.
Revised: • During training, we sample auxiliary nodes D li during each feed-forward.

Original: This results in dropping each activation q li of node X li with probability 1 − p l ; • At test time, we marginalize auxiliary nodes D li during each feed-forward.
Revised: This results in dropping each activation q li of node X li with probability 1 − p l ; • At test time, we marginalize auxiliary nodes D li during each feed-forward.

Original: This leads to deterministic evaluations with a constant scaling of p l for the node activations q li .
Revised: This leads to deterministic evaluations with a constant scaling of p l for the node activations q li .

Original: We provide a proof in Appendix A.5.
Revised: We provide a proof in Appendix A.5.

Original: Note that among other things, this chain graph interpretation of dropout provides a theoretical justiﬁcation of the constant scaling at test time.
Revised: Note that among other things, this chain graph interpretation of dropout provides a theoretical justiﬁcation of the constant scaling at test time.

Original: This was originally proposed as a heuristic in Srivastava et al.
Revised: This was originally proposed as a heuristic in Srivastava et al.

Original: (2014) to maintain consistent behavior.
Revised: (2014) to maintain consistent behavior after training.

Original:  P ARTIALLY COLLAPSED FEED - FORWARD
Revised:  P ARTIALLY COLLAPSED FEED - FORWARD

Original: The theoretical formulation provided by the chain graph interpretation can also be used to derive new approaches for neural networks.
Revised: The theoretical formulation provided by the chain graph interpretation can also be used to derive new approaches for neural networks.

Original: It allows us to create new deep learning methods following a coherent framework that provides speciﬁc semantics to the building blocks of neural networks.
Revised: It allows us to create new deep learning methods following a coherent framework that provides speciﬁc semantics to the building blocks of neural networks.

Original: Moreover, we can make use of the abundant existing work from the PGM ﬁeld, which also serves as a rich source of inspiration.
Revised: Moreover, we can make use of the abundant existing work from the PGM ﬁeld, which also serves as a rich source of inspiration.

Original: As a concrete example, we derive in this section a new stochastic inference procedure called partially collapsed feed-forward (PCFF) using the chain graph formulation.
Revised: As a concrete example, we derive in this section a new stochastic inference procedure called partially collapsed feed-forward (PCFF) using the chain graph formulation.

Original: 4. PCFF: CHAIN GRAPH FORMULATION
Revised: 4. PCFF: CHAIN GRAPH FORMULATION

Original: A layered chain graph, which can represent a neural network, is itself a probabilistic graphical model that encodes an overall distribution conditioned on the input.
Revised: A layered chain graph, which can represent a neural network, is itself a probabilistic graphical model that encodes an overall distribution conditioned on the input.

Original: This means that, to achieve stochastic behavior, we can directly draw samples from this distribution, instead of introducing additional “noise generators” like in dropout.
Revised: This means that, to achieve stochastic behavior, we can directly draw samples from this distribution, instead of introducing additional “noise generators” like in dropout.

Original: In fact, given the globally directed structure of layered chain graph, and the fact that the conditioned input nodes are ancestral nodes without parent, it is a wellknown PGM result that we can apply forward sampling (or ancestral sampling)
Revised: In fact, given the globally directed structure of layered chain graph, and the fact that the conditioned input nodes are ancestral nodes without parent, it is a wellknown PGM result that we can apply forward sampling (or ancestral sampling)

Original: (Koller & Friedman, 2009) to efﬁciently generate samples: given an input sample ˜ x 1 , we follow the topological order and sample each non-input node X li using its nodewise distribution (Eq.
Revised: (Koller & Friedman, 2009) to efﬁciently generate samples: given an input sample ˜ x 1 , we follow the topological order and sample each non-input node X li using its nodewise distribution (Eq.

Original: (2)) conditioned on the samples ( x p 1 , . . .
Revised: (2)) conditioned on the samples ( x p 1 , . . .

Original: , x p n ) of its parents.
Revised: , x p n ) of its parents.

Original: Compared to feed-forward, forward sampling also performs a single forward pass, but generates instead an unbiased stochastic sample estimate.
Revised: Compared to feed-forward, forward sampling also performs a single forward pass, but generates instead an unbiased stochastic sample estimate.

Original: While in general an unbiased estimate is preferable and the stochastic behavior can also introduce regularization during training (Srivastava et al., 2014), forward sampling can not directly replace feed-forward, since the sampling operation is not differentiable and will jeopardize the gradient ﬂow during backpropagation.
Revised: While in general an unbiased estimate is preferable and the stochastic behavior can also introduce regularization during training (Srivastava et al., 2014), forward sampling can not directly replace feed-forward, since the sampling operation is not differentiable and will jeopardize the gradient ﬂow during backpropagation.

Original: To tackle this, one idea is to apply the reparametrization trick (Kingma &
Revised: To tackle this, one idea is to apply the reparametrization trick (Kingma &

Original: Welling, 2014) on continuous random variables (for discrete RVs the Gumbel softmax trick (Jang et al., 2017) can be used but requires additional continuous relaxation).
Revised: Welling, 2014) on continuous random variables (for discrete RVs the Gumbel softmax trick (Jang et al., 2017) can be used but requires additional continuous relaxation).

Original: An alternative solution is to only sample part of the nodes as in the case of dropout.
Revised: An alternative solution is to only sample part of the nodes as in the case of dropout.

Original: The proposed partially collapse feed-forward follows the second idea: we simply “mix up” feedforward and forward sampling, so that for each forward inference during training, we randomly select a portion of nodes to sample and the rest to compute deterministically with feed-forward.
Revised: The proposed partially collapse feed-forward follows the second idea: we simply “mix up” feedforward and forward sampling, so that for each forward inference during training, we randomly select a portion of nodes to sample and the rest to compute deterministically with feed-forward.

Original: Thus for a node X l i with parents ( X p 1 , . . .
Revised: Thus for a node X l i with parents ( X p 1 , . . .

Original: , X p n ) , its forward inference update becomes
Revised: , X p n ) , its forward inference update becomes

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: if collapsed (feed
Revised: if collapsed (feed

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Following the collapsed sampling (Koller & Friedman, 2009) terminology, we call this method the partially collapsed feed-forward (PCFF).
Revised: Following the collapsed sampling (Koller & Friedman, 2009) terminology, we call this method the partially collapsed feed-forward (PCFF).

Original: PCFF is a generalization over feed-forward and forward sampling, which can be seen as its fully collapsed / uncollapsed extremes.
Revised: PCFF is a generalization over feed-forward and forward sampling, which can be seen as its fully collapsed / uncollapsed extremes.

Original: Furthermore, it offers a bias–variance trade-off, and can be combined with the reparametrization trick to achieve unbiased estimates with full sampling, while simultaneously maintaining the gradient ﬂow.
Revised: Furthermore, it offers a bias–variance trade-off, and can be combined with the reparametrization trick to achieve unbiased estimates with full sampling, while simultaneously maintaining the gradient ﬂow.

Original: 4. PCFF: EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
Revised: 4. PCFF: EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

Original: In the previous sections, we have been discussing existing approaches whose empirical evaluations have been thoroughly covered by prior work.
Revised: In the previous sections, we have been discussing existing approaches whose empirical evaluations have been thoroughly covered by prior work.

Original: The novel PCFF approach proposed in this section, however, requires experiments to check its practical effectiveness.
Revised: The novel PCFF approach proposed in this section, however, requires experiments to check its practical effectiveness.

Original: For this we conduct here a series of experiments 1 .
Revised: For this we conduct here a series of experiments 1 .

Original: Our emphasis is to understand the behavior of PCFF under various contexts and not to achieve best result for any speciﬁc task.
Revised: Our emphasis is to understand the behavior of PCFF under various contexts and not to achieve best result for any speciﬁc task.

Original: We only use chain graph interpretable components, and we adopt the reparameterization trick (Kingma & Welling, 2014) for ReLU PCFF samples.
Revised: We only use chain graph interpretable components, and we adopt the reparameterization trick (Kingma & Welling, 2014) for ReLU PCFF samples.

Original: The following experiments show that PCFF is overall an effective stochastic regularization method.
Revised: The following experiments show that PCFF is overall an effective stochastic regularization method.

Original: Compared to dropout, it tends to produce more consistent performance improvement, and can sometimes outperform dropout.
Revised: Compared to dropout, it tends to produce more consistent performance improvement, and can sometimes outperform dropout.

Original: This conﬁrms that our chain graph based reasoning has successfully found an interesting novel deep learning method.
Revised: This conﬁrms that our chain graph based reasoning has successfully found an interesting novel deep learning method.

Original: [Figure]
Revised: [Figure]

Original: sample rates.
Revised: sample rates.

Original: All reported results are average values of three runs.
Revised: All reported results are average values of three runs.

Original: Compared to dropout, PCFF can achieve comparable results, and tend to deliver more consistent improvements.
Revised: Compared to dropout, PCFF can achieve comparable results, and tend to deliver more consistent improvements.

Original: Simple dense network We start with a simple network with two dense hidden layers ofnodes to classify MNIST (Lecun et al., 1998) and FashionMNIST (Xiao et al., 2017) images.
Revised: Simple dense network We start with a simple network with two dense hidden layers ofnodes to classify MNIST (Lecun et al., 1998) and FashionMNIST (Xiao et al., 2017) images.

Original: We use PyTorch (Paszke et al., 2017), train with stochastic gradient descent (learning rate 0 .
Revised: We use PyTorch (Paszke et al., 2017), train with stochastic gradient descent (learning rate 0 .

Original: 01 , momentum 0 .
Revised: 01 , momentum 0 .

Original: 9 ), and set up 20% of training data as validation set for performance monitoring and early-stopping.
Revised: 9 ), and set up 20% of training data as validation set for performance monitoring and early-stopping.

Original: We set drop rate to 0.5 for dropout, and for PCFF we set the sample rate to 0.4 for tanh and 1.0 (full sampling) for ReLU.
Revised: We set drop rate to 0.5 for dropout, and for PCFF we set the sample rate to 0.4 for tanh and 1.0 (full sampling) for ReLU.

Original: Figure 

Revised: Figure

Original: Left reports the test errors with different activation functions and stochastic regularizations.
Revised: Left reports the test errors with different activation functions and stochastic regularizations.

Original: We see that dropout and PCFF are overall comparable, and both improve the results in most cases.
Revised: We see that dropout and PCFF are overall comparable, and both improve the results in most cases.

Original: Also, the ReLU activation consistently produces better results that tanh.
Revised: Also, the ReLU activation consistently produces better results that tanh.

Original: Additional experiments show that PCFF and dropout can be used together, which sometimes yields improved performance.
Revised: Additional experiments show that PCFF and dropout can be used together, which sometimes yields improved performance.

Original: Convolutional residual network To ﬁgure out the applicability of PCFF in convolutional residual networks, we experiment on CIFAR-10 (Krizhevsky, 2009) image classiﬁcation.
Revised: Convolutional residual network To ﬁgure out the applicability of PCFF in convolutional residual networks, we experiment on CIFAR-10 (Krizhevsky, 2009) image classiﬁcation.

Original: For this we adapt an existing implementation (Idelbayev) to use the pre-activation variant.
Revised: For this we adapt an existing implementation (Idelbayev) to use the preactivation variant.

Original: We focus on the ResNet structure, and follow the original learning rate schedule except for setting up a validation set of 10% training data to monitor training performance.
Revised: We focus on the ResNet structure, and follow the original learning rate schedule except for setting up a validation set of 10% training data to monitor training performance.

Original: Figure 

Revised: Figure

Original: Right summarizes the test errors under different drop/sample rates.
Revised: Right summarizes the test errors under different drop/sample rates.

Original: We observe that in this case PCFF can improve the performance over a wide range of sample rates, whereas dropout is only effective with drop rate 0 .
Revised: We observe that in this case PCFF can improve the performance over a wide range of sample rates, whereas dropout is only effective with drop rate 0 .

Original: 1 , and large drop rates in this case signiﬁcantly deteriorate the performance.
Revised: 1 , and large drop rates in this case signiﬁcantly deteriorate the performance.

Original: We also observe a clear trade-off of the PCFF sample rate, where a partial sampling of 0.3 yields the best result.
Revised: We also observe a clear trade-off of the PCFF sample rate, where a partial sampling of 0.3 yields the best result.

Original: Independently RNN We complete our empirical evaluations of PCFF with an RNN test case.
Revised: Independently RNN We complete our empirical evaluations of PCFF with an RNN test case.

Original: For this we used IndRNNs with 6 layers to solve the sequential/permuted MNIST classiﬁcation problems based on an existing Implementation 2 provided by the authors of IndRNN (Li et al., 2018; 2019).
Revised: For this we used IndRNNs with 6 layers to solve the sequential/permuted MNIST classiﬁcation problems based on an existing Implementation 2 provided by the authors of IndRNN (Li et al., 2018; 2019).

Original: We tested over dropout with drop rate 0.1 and PCFF with sample rate 0.1 and report the average test accuracy of three runs.
Revised: We tested over dropout with drop rate 0.1 and PCFF with sample rate 0.1 and report the average test accuracy of three runs.

Original: We notice that, while in the permuted MNIST case both dropout (0.9203) and PCFF (0.9145) improves the result (0.9045), in the sequential MNIST case, dropout (0.9830) seems to worsen the performance (0.9841) whereas PCFF (0.9842) delivers comparable result.
Revised: We notice that, while in the permuted MNIST case both dropout (0.9203) and PCFF (0.9145) improves the result (0.9045), in the sequential MNIST case, dropout (0.9830) seems to worsen the performance (0.9841) whereas PCFF (0.9842) delivers comparable result.

Original:  C ONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS
Revised:  C ONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS

Original: In this work, we show that neural networks can be interpreted as layered chain graphs, and that feedforward can be viewed as an approximate inference procedure for these models.
Revised: In this work, we show that neural networks can be interpreted as layered chain graphs, and that feedforward can be viewed as an approximate inference procedure for these models.

Original: This chain graph interpretation provides a uniﬁed theoretical framework that elucidates the underlying mechanism of real-world neural networks and provide coherent and in-depth theoretical support for a wide range of empirically established network designs.
Revised: This chain graph interpretation provides a uniﬁed theoretical framework that elucidates the underlying mechanism of real-world neural networks and provides coherent and in-depth theoretical support for a wide range of empirically established network designs.

Original: Furthermore, it also offers a solid foundation to derive new deep learning approaches, with the additional help from the rich existing work on PGMs.
Revised: Furthermore, it also offers a solid foundation to derive new deep learning approaches, with the additional help from the rich existing work on PGMs.

Original: It is thus a promising alternative neural network interpretation that deepens our theoretical understanding and unveils a new perspective for future deep learning research.
Revised: It is thus a promising alternative neural network interpretation that deepens our theoretical understanding and unveils a new perspective for future deep learning research.

Original: In the future, we plan to investigate a number of open questions that stem from this work, especially:
Revised: In the future, we plan to investigate a number of open questions that stem from this work, especially:

Original: • Is the current chain graph interpretation sufﬁcient to capture the full essence of neural networks?
Revised: • Is the current chain graph interpretation sufﬁcient to capture the full essence of neural networks?

Original: Based on the current results, we are reasonably optimistic that the proposed interpretation can cover an essential part of the neural network mechanism.
Revised: Based on the current results, we are reasonably optimistic that the proposed interpretation can cover an essential part of the neural network mechanism.

Original: However, compared to the function approximator view, it only covers a subset of existing approaches.
Revised: However, compared to the function approximator view, it only covers a subset of existing techniques.

Original: Is this subset good enough?
Revised: Is this subset good enough?

Original: • On a related note: can we ﬁnd chain graph interpretations for other important network designs (or otherwise some chain graph interpretable alternatives with comparable or better performance)?
Revised: • On a related note: can we ﬁnd chain graph interpretations for other important network designs (or otherwise some chain graph interpretable alternatives with comparable or better performance)?

Original: The current work provides a good start, but it is by no means an exhaustive study.
Revised: The current work provides a good start, but it is by no means an exhaustive study.

Original: • Finally, what other new deep learning models and procedures can we build up based on the chain graph framework?
Revised: • Finally, what other new deep learning models and procedures can we build up based on the chain graph framework?

Original: The partially collapsed feed-forward inference proposed in this work is just a simple illustrative example, and we believe that many other promising deep learning techniques can be
Revised: The partially collapsed feed-forward inference proposed in this work is just a simple illustrative example, and we believe that many other promising deep learning techniques can be

Original: derived from
Revised: derived from

Original: the proposed chain graph interpretation.
Revised: the proposed chain graph interpretation.

Original: A P ROOFS
Revised: A P ROOFS

Original:  P ROOF OF P ROPOSITION
Revised:  P ROOF OF P ROPOSITION

Original: The main idea behind the proof is that for a linear function, its expectation can be moved inside and directly applied on its arguments.
Revised: The main idea behind the proof is that for a linear function, its expectation can be moved inside and directly applied on its arguments.

Original: With this in mind let’s start the actual deductions:
Revised: With this in mind let’s start the actual deductions:

Original: • To obtain Eq.
Revised: • To obtain Eq.

Original: (6), we start from Eqs.
Revised: (6), we start from Eqs.

Original: (5) and (2):
Revised: (5) and (2):

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Now
Revised: Now

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: we make the assumption that the following mapping is approximately linear:
Revised: we make the assumption that the following mapping is approximately linear:

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: This allows us to move the expectation inside, resulting in (racall the deﬁnition of q in Eq.
Revised: This allows us to move the expectation inside, resulting in (racall the deﬁnition of q in Eq.

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: • To obtain Eq.
Revised: • To obtain Eq.

Original: (7), we go through a similar procedure (for discrete RVs we replace integrations by summations): FromEqs.(4), (5) and (2) we have
Revised: (7), we go through a similar procedure (for discrete RVs we replace integrations by summations): FromEqs.(4), (5) and (2) we have

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Deﬁning the activation function g l as (thus e li corresponds to the preactivation)
Revised: Deﬁning the activation function g l as (thus e li corresponds to the preactivation)

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: we then have
Revised: we then have

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Again, we make another assumption that the following mapping is approximately linear:
Revised: Again, we make another assumption that the following mapping is approximately linear:

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: This leads to the following approximation in a similar fashion:
Revised: This leads to the following approximation in a similar fashion:

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: A. P ROOF ( AND OTHER DETAILS ) OF C OROLLARY
Revised: A. P ROOF ( AND OTHER DETAILS ) OF C OROLLARY

Original: Let’s consider a node X li connected by parent layers X p 1 , . . .
Revised: Let’s consider a node X li connected by parent layers X p 1 , . . .

Original: , X p n .
Revised: , X p n .

Original: To lessen the notations we use the shorthands e li for e li (cid:0) T p 1 ( X p 1 ) , . .
Revised: To lessen the notations we use the shorthands e li for e li (cid:0) T p 1 ( X p 1 ) , . .

Original: , T p n ( X p n ) (cid:1) and ¯ e li for e li ( q p 1 , . . .
Revised: , T p n ( X p n ) (cid:1) and ¯ e li for e li ( q p 1 , . . .

Original: , q p n ) .
Revised: , q p n ) .

Original: For the binary case we have
Revised: For the binary case we have

Original: [Equation] [Equation]
Revised: [Equation] [Equation]

Original: with the partition function
Revised: with the partition function

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: that makes sure P ( X li | Pa ( X l )) is normalized.
Revised: that makes sure P ( X li | Pa ( X l )) is normalized.

Original: This means that, since X li can either be α or β , we can equivalently write ( σ : x (cid:55)→ 1 / (1 + exp( − x )) denotes the sigmoid function)
Revised: This means that, since X li can either be α or β , we can equivalently write ( σ : x (cid:55)→ 1 / (1 + exp( − x )) denotes the sigmoid function)

Original: [Equation] [Equation]
Revised: [Equation] [Equation]

Original: Using the feed-forward expression (Eq.
Revised: Using the feed-forward expression (Eq.

Original: (7)), we have
Revised: (7)), we have

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Especially,
Revised: Especially,

Original: When α = 0 , β = 1 , we have q li ≈ σ (¯ e li );
Revised: When α = 0 , β = 1 , we have q li ≈ σ (¯ e li );

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: When α = − 1 , β = 1 , we have q li ≈ tanh(¯ e li ) .
Revised: When α = − 1 , β = 1 , we have q li ≈ tanh(¯ e li ) .

Original: Furthermore, the roles of α and β are interchangeable.
Revised: Furthermore, the roles of α and β are interchangeable.

Original: For the multilabel case, let’s assume that the node X li can take one of the c labels { 1 , . .
Revised: For the multilabel case, let’s assume that the node X li can take one of the c labels { 1 , . .

Original: , c } .
Revised: , c } .

Original: In this case, we have an indicator feature function which outputs a length- c feature vector
Revised: In this case, we have an indicator feature function which outputs a length- c feature vector

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: This means that for any given label j ∈ { 1 , . .
Revised: This means that for any given label j ∈ { 1 , . .

Original: , c } , T l ( j ) is a one-hot vector indicating the j -th position.
Revised: , c } , T l ( j ) is a one-hot vector indicating the j -th position.

Original: Also, e li and ¯ e li will both be vectors of length c , and we denote e li,j and ¯ e li,j their j -th entries.
Revised: Also, e li and ¯ e li will both be vectors of length c , and we denote e li,j and ¯ e li,j their j -th entries.

Original: We have then
Revised: We have then

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: with the normalizer (i.e. partition function)
Revised: with the normalizer (i.e. partition function)

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: This means that
Revised: This means that

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: and, using the feed-forward expression (Eq. (7)), we have
Revised: and, using the feed-forward expression (Eq. (7)), we have

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: i.e. the expected features q li of the multi-labeled node X li is a length- c vector that encodes the result of a softmax activation.
Revised: i.e. the expected features q li of the multi-labeled node X li is a length- c vector that encodes the result of a softmax activation.

Original: 3. The analytical forms of the activation functions are quite complicated for rectiﬁed Gaussian
Revised: 3. The analytical forms of the activation functions are quite complicated for rectiﬁed Gaussian

Original: nodes.
Revised: nodes.

Original: Luckily, it is straight-forward to sample from rectiﬁed Gaussian distributions (get Gaussian samples, then rectify).
Revised: Luckily, it is straight-forward to sample from rectiﬁed Gaussian distributions (get Gaussian samples, then rectify).

Original: meaning that we can easily evaluate them numerically with sample averages.
Revised: meaning that we can easily evaluate them numerically with sample averages.

Original: A resulting visualization is displayed in Figure 1 Right.
Revised: A resulting visualization is displayed in Figure 1 Right.

Original: Speciﬁcally:
Revised: Speciﬁcally:

Original: • The ReLU nonlinearity can be approximated reasonably well by a rectiﬁed Gaussian node with no leak ( (cid:15) = 0 ) and tanh -modulated standard deviation ( s li = tanh( e li ) ), as shown by the red plot in Figure 1 Right; • Similar to the ReLU case, the leaky ReLU nonlinearity can be approximated by a leaky ( (cid:15) (cid:54) = 0 )
Revised: • The ReLU nonlinearity can be approximated reasonably well by a rectiﬁed Gaussian node with no leak ( (cid:15) = 0 ) and tanh -modulated standard deviation ( s li = tanh( e li ) ), as shown by the red plot in Figure 1 Right; • Similar to the ReLU case, the leaky ReLU nonlinearity can be approximated by a leaky ( (cid:15) (cid:54) = 0 )

Original: rectiﬁed Gaussian node with tanh -modulated standard deviation ( s li = tanh( e li ) ).
Revised: rectiﬁed Gaussian node with tanh -modulated standard deviation ( s li = tanh( e li ) ).

Original: See the green plot in Figure 1 Right which depict the case with leaky factor (cid:15) = 1 / 3 ; • We discover that a rectiﬁed Gaussian node with no leak ( (cid:15) = 0 ) and an appropriately-chosen constant standard deviation s li can closely approximate the softplus nonlinearity (see the blue plot in Figure 1 Right).
Revised: See the green plot in Figure 1 Right which depict the case with leaky factor (cid:15) = 1 / 3 ; • We discover that a rectiﬁed Gaussian node with no leak ( (cid:15) = 0 ) and an appropriately-chosen constant standard deviation s li can closely approximate the softplus nonlinearity (see the blue plot in Figure 1 Right).

Original: We numerically evaluate s li = 1 .
Revised: We numerically evaluate s li = 1 .

Original: 776091849725427 to minimize the maximum pointwise approximation error.
Revised: 776091849725427 to minimize the maximum pointwise approximation error.

Original: Averaging over more samples would of course lead to more accurate (visually thinner) plots, however in Figure 

Revised: Averaging over more samples would of course lead to more accurate (visually thinner) plots, however in Figure

Original: Right we deliberately only average over 200 samples, because we also want to visualize their stochastic behaviors: the perceived thickness of a plot can provide a hint to the output sample variance given the preactivation e li .
Revised: Right we deliberately only average over 200 samples, because we also want to visualize their stochastic behaviors: the perceived thickness of a plot can provide a hint to the output sample variance given the preactivation e li .

Original: A. P ROOF OF P ROPOSITION
Revised: A. P ROOF OF P ROPOSITION

Original: Given a reﬁnement module (c.f. Deﬁnition 2) that augments a base submodule m from layer X l −to layer X l using a reﬁning submodule r from ˜ X
Revised: Given a reﬁnement module (c.f. Deﬁnition 2) that augments a base submodule m from layer X l −to layer X l using a reﬁning submodule r from ˜ X

Original: l to layer X l , denote g l the activation function corresponding to the distribution of nodes in layer X l , we assume that these two submodules alone would represent the following mappings during feed-forward
Revised: l to layer X l , denote g l the activation function corresponding to the distribution of nodes in layer X l , we assume that these two submodules alone would represent the following mappings during feed-forward

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: where e m and e r represent the output preactivations of the base submodule and the reﬁning submodule respectively.
Revised: where e m and e r represent the output preactivations of the base submodule and the reﬁning submodule respectively.

Original: Then, given an input activation q l − 1 from X l − 1 , the output preactivation of the overall reﬁnement module should sum up contributions from both the main and the side branches (c.f. Eq.
Revised: Then, given an input activation q l − 1 from X l − 1 , the output preactivation of the overall reﬁnement module should sum up contributions from both the main and the side branches (c.f. Eq.

Original: (3)), meaning that the reﬁnement module computes the output as
Revised: (3)), meaning that the reﬁnement module computes the output as

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: with ˜ q l the output of the duplicated base submodule with shared weight, given by
Revised: with ˜ q l the output of the duplicated base submodule with shared weight, given by

Original: [Equation] [Equation]
Revised: [Equation] [Equation]

Original: We have thus ( Id denotes the identity function)
Revised: We have thus ( Id denotes the identity function)

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: where the function Id + e r ◦ g l describes a preactivation residual block that arises naturally from the reﬁnement module structure.
Revised: where the function Id + e r ◦ g l describes a preactivation residual block that arises naturally from the reﬁnement module structure.

Original: A. P ROOF OF P ROPOSITION
Revised: A. P ROOF OF P ROPOSITION

Original: To match the typical deep learning formulations and ease the derivation, we assume that the base layered chain graph has a sequential structure, meaning that Pa t ( X l,t ) contains only X l − 1 ,t , and we have
Revised: To match the typical deep learning formulations and ease the derivation, we assume that the base layered chain graph has a sequential structure, meaning that Pa t ( X l,t ) contains only X l − 1 ,t , and we have

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: When the connection from X l,t − 1 to X l,t is dense, we have that for each i ∈ { 1 , . . .
Revised: When the connection from X l,t − 1 to X l,t is dense, we have that for each i ∈ { 1 , . . .

Original: , N l } ,
Revised: , N l } ,

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Thus the feed-forward update for layer l at time t is
Revised: Thus the feed-forward update for layer l at time t is

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: which corresponds to the update of a simple recurrent layer.
Revised: which corresponds to the update of a simple recurrent layer.

Original: The assumption of intra-layer conditional independence through time means that we have
Revised: The assumption of intra-layer conditional independence through time means that we have

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: which in terms of preactivation function means that for each i ∈ { 1 , . .
Revised: which in terms of preactivation function means that for each i ∈ { 1 , . .

Original: . , N l } , e
Revised: . , N l } , e

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: In this case the feed-forward update for layer l at time t is
Revised: In this case the feed-forward update for layer l at time t is

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: which corresponds to the update of an independently RNN layer (c.f. Eq.
Revised: which corresponds to the update of an independently RNN layer (c.f. Eq.

Original: (2) of Li et al.
Revised: (2) of Li et al.

Original: A. P ROOF OF P ROPOSITION
Revised: A. P ROOF OF P ROPOSITION

Original: Again, to match the typical deep learning formulations and ease the derivation, we assume that the layered chain graph has a sequential structure, meaning that X l is only the parent layer of X l +1 .
Revised: Again, to match the typical deep learning formulations and ease the derivation, we assume that the layered chain graph has a sequential structure, meaning that X l is only the parent layer of X l +1 .

Original: With the introduction of the auxiliary Bernoulli RVs D l , the l + 1 -th chain component represents
Revised: With the introduction of the auxiliary Bernoulli RVs D l , the l + 1 -th chain component represents

Original: [Equation] [Equation]
Revised: [Equation] [Equation]

Original: with
Revised: with

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: • For a feed-forward pass during training, we draw a sample d li for each Bernoulli RV D li , and the feed-forward update for layer l + 1 becomes
Revised: • For a feed-forward pass during training, we draw a sample d li for each Bernoulli RV D li , and the feed-forward update for layer l + 1 becomes

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: Since d li = 1 with probability p l and d li = 0 with probability 1 − p l , each activation q li will be “dropped out” (i.
Revised: Since d li = 1 with probability p l and d li = 0 with probability 1 − p l , each activation q li will be “dropped out” (i.

Original: e
Revised: e

Original: d l i q l i = 0 ) with probability 1 − p l (this affects all q l +1 j simultaneously).
Revised: d l i q l i = 0 ) with probability 1 − p l (this affects all q l +1 j simultaneously).

Original: • For a feed-forward pass at test time, we marginalize each Bernoulli RV D li .
Revised: • For a feed-forward pass at test time, we marginalize each Bernoulli RV D li .

Original: Since we have
Revised: Since we have

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: the feed-forward update for layer l + 1 in this case becomes
Revised: the feed-forward update for layer l + 1 in this case becomes

Original: [Equation]
Revised: [Equation]

Original: where we see the appearance of the constant scale p l
Revised: where we see the appearance of the constant scale p l

Original: B R EMARK ON INPUT MODELING
Revised: B R EMARK ON INPUT MODELING

Original: A technical detail that was not elaborated in the discussion of chain graph interpretation (Section 2) is the input modeling: How to encode an input data sample?
Revised: A technical detail that was not elaborated in the discussion of chain graph interpretation (Section 2) is the input modeling: How to encode an input data sample?

Original: Ordinarily, an input data sample is treated as a sample drawn from a carefully chosen distribution that represents the input.
Revised: Ordinarily, an input data sample is treated as a sample drawn from some distribution that represents the input.

Original: In our case however, since the feed-forward process only pass through feature expectations, we can also directly interpret an input data sample as a feature expectation, meaning as a resulting average rather than a single sample.
Revised: In our case however, since the feed-forward process only pass through feature expectations, we can also directly interpret an input data sample as a feature expectation, meaning as a resulting average rather than a single sample.

Original: Using this fact, Shen et al.
Revised: Using this fact, Shen et al.

Original: (2019) propose the “soft clamping” approach to encode real valued input taken from an interval, such as pixel intensity, simply as an expected value of a binary node which chooses between the interval boundary values.
Revised: (2019) propose the “soft clamping” approach to encode real valued input taken from an interval, such as pixel intensity, simply as an expected value of a binary node which chooses between the interval boundary values.

Original: Furthermore, since only the conditional distribution P ( X 2 , . . .
Revised: This said, since only the conditional distribution P ( X 2 , . . .

Original: , X L | X 1 ) is modeled, our discriminative setting actually do not require specifying an input distribution P ( X 1 ) .
Revised: , X L | X 1 ) is modeled, our discriminative setting actually do not require specifying an input distribution P ( X 1 ) .