UNTIE learns representations of coupled categorical data.
problem Challenges in learning from unlabeled categorical data with complex couplings.
method UNTIE approach for unsupervised representation learning of heterogeneous couplings.
result UNTIE significantly improves categorical data representations on 25 diverse datasets.
Paper introduces Categorical Normalizing Flows for better handling of categorical data.
problem Limited application of normalizing flows on categorical data due to lack of intrinsic order.
method Categorical Normalizing Flows use continuous transformations to model latent relations in categorical data, optimizing both continuous representation and model likelihood.
result GraphCNF, a permutation-invariant generative model, outperforms state-of-the-art on molecule generation.
CADM proposes a cluster-specific distance metric for categorical data clustering.
problem Inadequate distance metrics for categorical data, especially varying within clusters.
method Cluster-customized adaptive distance metric for categorical data.
result Achieved competitive performance in categorical data clustering.
Bayesian model improves categorization of explosions from sparse data.
problem Challenges in categorizing explosions from limited data.
method Bayesian update to Event Categorization Matrix model with Bayesian Decision Theory.
result Consistent gains in overall accuracy and lower false negative rates.
Study categorizes mutual funds using natural language processing from unstructured data.
problem Categorizing mutual funds using unstructured data for financial analysis.
method Used natural language processing models to classify mutual funds from their investment strategy descriptions.
result High accuracy in categorizing mutual funds using NLP from unstructured data.
Paper introduces new methods for modeling categorical data.
problem Training generative models on categorical data like text and segmentation.
method Argmax Flows and Multinomial Diffusion models.
result Models outperform existing methods in log-likelihood.
Proposes a new classifier for causal discovery in categorical data.
problem Causal discovery for categorical data.
method Classification with optimal label permutation (COLP) and simple learning algorithm.
result Favorable performance compared to state-of-the-art methods.
A new method clusters categorical data by learning their optimal order and distance.
problem Clustering categorical data lacks a well-defined metric space.
method Order distance metric learning for categorical data.
result Superior clustering accuracy on categorical and mixed datasets.
Categorical bundles provide a natural framework for gauge theories involving multiple gauge groups. Unlike the case of traditional bundles there are distinct notions of triviality, and hence also of local triviality, for categorical bundles. We study categorical principal bundles that are product bundles in the categor…
StructureBoost improves gradient boosting for complex categorical variables efficiently.
problem Efficiently handling complex categorical variables with known structure.
method Two methods to overcome computational obstacles in SCDT enumeration for structured categorical variables.
result StructureBoost outperforms existing packages on complex categorical problems.
Develops a new method for decision trees using categorical variable structure.
problem Lack of structure in treating categorical variables as predictors.
method Introduces a mathematical framework to represent categorical structure and generalizes decision trees to utilize this structure.
result Improves prediction accuracy on weather data using the new method.
We present a technique for clustering categorical data by generating many dissimilarity matrices and averaging over them. We begin by demonstrating our technique on low dimensional categorical data and comparing it to several other techniques that have been proposed. Then we give conditions under which our method shoul…
New model uses attention for in-context learning of categorical data.
problem Learning from categorical data in context.
method Attention-based network with self-attention and cross-attention layers, using functional gradient descent.
result Model can perform multi-step inference for categorical observations.
Machine learning categorizes mutual funds for better investment strategies.
problem Identifying similar mutual funds for diversified investment applications.
method Machine learning to learn and reproduce a well-regarded categorization system.
result Machine learning can learn and reproduce a categorization system that is widely regarded.
Probabilistic learning for binary classification with categorical variables.
problem Binary classification with categorical covariates.
method Probabilistic analysis and two algorithms for learning boolean functions.
result Effective learning of boolean functions from binary data.
Multivariate categorical data occur in many applications of machine learning. One of the main difficulties with these vectors of categorical variables is sparsity. The number of possible observations grows exponentially with vector length, but dataset diversity might be poor in comparison. Recent models have gained sig…
New method simplifies Bayesian analysis for categorical data.
problem Difficulties in scaling GLMs for categorical data due to non-conjugacy or posterior dependencies.
method Defining CB models with binary approximations for tractable inference.
result Fast and scalable inference for thousands of categories, outperforming competitors.
nTreeClus clusters categorical sequences using tree-based learners and k-mers.
problem Challenges in clustering categorical and sequential data.
method nTreeClus uses Tree-based Learners, k-mers, and autoregressive models for categorical time series.
result nTreeClus outperformed baseline methods in various validation metrics.
Cluster analysis is one of the essential tasks in data mining and knowledge discovery. Each type of data poses unique challenges in achieving relatively efficient partitioning of the data into homogeneous groups. While the algorithms for numeric data are relatively well studied in the literature, there are still challe…
New method uniquely identifies causal structure from ordinal data.
problem Challenges in causal discovery for categorical data, especially direction of relationships.
method Exploits ordinal information to uniquely identify causal structure.
result Favorable and robust performance compared to state-of-the-art methods.
A framework estimates categorical distributions under constraints, ensuring generality and uniqueness.
problem Estimating categorical distributions summarizing sample data under marginal constraints.
method Theoretical framework + Iterative Proportional Fitting (IPF) to estimate the distribution.
result A unique categorical distribution of Maximum Entropy under marginal constraints exists and is estimated.
AdaCat improves density estimation and planning in autoregressive models.
problem Efficiently modeling sharp density changes in continuous data.
method Adaptive Categorical Discretization (AdaCat) for autoregressive models.
result Improves density estimation and planning in various data types.
This study compares machine learning methods for high-cardinality categorical variables.
problem Machine learning struggles with high-cardinality categorical variables.
method Empirical comparison of tree-boosting, deep neural networks, and linear mixed effects models.
result Tree-boosting with random effects outperforms deep neural networks with random effects.
This work redefines data-centric AI by unifying categorical and cochain notions.
problem The need to rethink data notions for data-centric AI.
method Proposes unifying principles from categorical and cochain notions of data.
result Unified definition of data impacts machine learning development, implementation, and utilization.
This paper proposes a method to reduce complexity in GLMs with categorical predictors.
problem Wasteful, hard-to-interpret, and prone to overfitting of traditional one-hot encoding for high-cardinality categorical predictors.
method Clustering categories of categorical predictors through a numerical method that preserves or improves accuracy while reducing the number of coefficients.
result Clustering categories of categorical predictors reduces complexity substantially without harming accuracy.
Unified CI test for categorical and ordinal data maintains power in high dimensions.
problem Rapid degradation of statistical power in existing CI tests for high-dimensional conditioning variables.
method Unified CI test for categorical and ordinal data, maintaining reasonable calibration and power in high dimensions.
result Our test outperforms existing baselines in model testing and structure learning for dense directed graphical models.
cGAP visualizes high-dimensional categorical data with interpretable geometric structure.
problem Lack of visualization tools for high-dimensional categorical data.
method cGAP uses Homogeneity Analysis (HOMALS) to embed data in a 3D space and maps it to colors.
result cGAP reveals coherent clusters, outliers, and local-to-global structure in categorical data.
cGAP visualizes high-dimensional categorical data with interpretable geometric structure.
problem Lack of visualization tools for high-dimensional categorical data.
method cGAP uses Homogeneity Analysis (HOMALS) to embed data in a 3D space and maps it to colors for visualization.
result cGAP reveals coherent clusters, outliers, and local-to-global structure in categorical data.
New algorithms for latent class analysis using regularized spectral clustering.
problem Identifying latent classes within populations from categorical data.
method Developed two new algorithms using a regularized Laplacian matrix to estimate latent classes.
result Our algorithms provide consistent latent class analysis under mild conditions and can accurately infer the number of latent classes.
Spectral clustering adapted for mixed data types without preprocessing.
problem Clustering mixed data types (numerical and categorical).
method Adding extra nodes for categories, leading to a linear-time algorithm.
result Linear-time spectral clustering for categorical-only data.
The paper proposes a method to analyze categorical feature interactions in large datasets using graph covariance and LLMs.
problem Analyzing complex datasets with numerous categorical features and timestamps.
method Binarization of categorical features using one-hot encoding, computation of graph covariance, identifying significant feature pairs, and using LLMs to generate explanations.
result The method identifies meaningful feature pairs and potential data stories underlying categorical feature interactions.
Efficient optimisation of black-box problems that comprise both continuous and categorical inputs is important, yet poses significant challenges. We propose a new approach, Continuous and Categorical Bayesian Optimisation (CoCaBO), which combines the strengths of multi-armed bandits and Bayesian optimisation to select …
We consider the problem of sequential learning from categorical observations bounded in [0,1]. We establish an ordering between the Dirichlet posterior over categorical outcomes and a Gaussian posterior under observations with N(0,1) noise. We establish that, conditioned upon identical data with at least two observatio…
Metric learning has been successful in learning new metrics adapted to numerical datasets. However, its development on categorical data still needs further exploration. In this paper, we propose a method, called CPML for \emph{categorical projected metric learning}, that tries to efficiently~(i.e. less computational ti…
Improves Group Lasso for categorical data by reducing dimensionality and selecting models.
problem Sparse modelling of categorical data is challenging, especially for high dimensions.
method Two-step procedure: first, reduce dimensionality using Group Lasso; second, select final model using an information criterion on clustered levels.
result The method produces a sparse solution and performs better than state-of-the-art algorithms in prediction accuracy and model dimension.
Generative model for high-dimensional categorical data using Gaussian-Dirichlet fields.
problem Efficiently modeling and predicting high-dimensional categorical data.
method Combines Dirichlet and Gaussian processes for spatio-temporal modeling.
result Model accurately approximates categorical data in unobserved locations.
A framework for measuring differences in categorical data.
problem Measuring differences between categorical variables.
method Introduces a general framework for efficient and flexible implementation of distances for categorical variables.
result Framework allows for incorporation of existing distances and introduces new formulations.
Human categorization is one of the most important and successful targets of cognitive modeling in psychology, yet decades of development and assessment of competing models have been contingent on small sets of simple, artificial experimental stimuli. Here we extend this modeling paradigm to the domain of natural images…
ctsfeatures R package analyzes categorical time series data.
problem Lack of tools for analyzing categorical time series data.
method Provides functions for extracting statistical features and constructing graphs.
result Package enables traditional machine learning tasks on categorical time series.
A novel graph spectral method for mixed categorical and numerical data.
problem Feature learning for mixed data types (numerical and categorical).
method Graph spectral decomposition of the graph Laplacian to model probabilistic dependence structure.
result Increased separability and clusterability of observations in the transformed feature space.
A new gradient estimator for categorical distributions reduces bias and variance.
problem Intractability of gradients for categorical distributions in discrete latent variable models.
method CatLog-Derivative trick and IndeCateR gradient estimator.
result IndeCateR reduces bias and variance of gradients for categorical distributions.
CardiCat generates synthetic data for high-cardinality tabular datasets.
problem Learning complexities of high-cardinality categorical features in tabular data.
method Substitutes one-hot encoding with regularized dual encoder-decoder embedding layers.
result Generates high-quality synthetic data with a smaller parameter space.
New GP kernel handles mixed-categorical data, improving model accuracy.
problem Improving Gaussian process models for mixed-categorical data.
method Extends continuous exponential kernels to handle mixed-categorical variables.
result The proposed GP model gives higher likelihood and smaller residual error.
Method reduces categorical data to lower dimensions using density matrices.
problem Dimensionality reduction for categorical data.
method Density-matrix construction from class-conditional frequencies; spectral embedding.
result Low-dimensional spectral embeddings with controlled rank.
Many learning algorithms require categorical data to be transformed into real vectors before it can be used as input. Often, categorical variables are encoded as one-hot (or dummy) vectors. However, this mode of representation can be wasteful since it adds many low-signal regressors, especially when the number of uniqu…
The paper derives a formula for factorizing categorical data to improve Bayes classifiers.
problem Improving the accuracy of Bayes classifiers by effectively factoring multidimensional data.
method Derives an explicit formula for calculating the marginal likelihood of a factorized categorical dataset.
result The derived formula can be used to select the best factorization for constructing a Bayes classifier.
flexBART improves BART for categorical predictors by creating flexible tree partitions.
problem Limitation of BART in handling categorical predictors with one-hot encoding.
method flexBART re-implements BART with regression trees that can assign multiple levels to both branches of a decision tree node, and proposes a new decision rule prior for spatial data.
result flexBART often yields improved predictive performance and scales better to larger datasets than existing BART implementations.
We propose a method to train generative adversarial networks on mutivariate feature vectors representing multiple categorical values. In contrast to the continuous domain, where GAN-based methods have delivered considerable results, GANs struggle to perform equally well on discrete data. We propose and compare several …