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.
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…
Categorical variables are a natural choice for representing discrete structure in the world. However, stochastic neural networks rarely use categorical latent variables due to the inability to backpropagate through samples. In this work, we present an efficient gradient estimator that replaces the non-differentiable sa…
New model for multi-layer categorical data improves latent class analysis.
problem Traditional latent class analysis for single-layer categorical data is insufficient for multi-layer data.
method Developed a multi-layer latent class model (multi-layer LCM) and three spectral methods for estimation.
result The debiased sum of Gram matrices method performs best in estimating latent classes.
The paper proposes a test to determine the number of latent classes in ordinal categorical data.
problem Determining the correct number of latent classes in latent class models with ordinal categorical data.
method The test statistic centers the largest singular value of a normalized residual matrix by a simple sample-size adjustment.
result The test statistic converges to zero under the null hypothesis and exceeds a fixed positive constant under an under-fitted alternative.
New method learns disentangled discrete representations using categorical variational autoencoders.
problem Learning disentangled representations from discrete latent spaces.
method Replaced standard Gaussian VAE with a categorical VAE to mitigate rotational invariance.
result Categorical distributions improve learning of disentangled representations.
In this paper we introduce evidence transfer for clustering, a deep learning method that can incrementally manipulate the latent representations of an autoencoder, according to external categorical evidence, in order to improve a clustering outcome. By evidence transfer we define the process by which the categorical ou…
A new model estimates mixed memberships for categorical data with weighted responses.
problem Limited applicability of existing GoM model to weighted categorical data.
method Proposes Weighted Grade of Membership (WGoM) model, relaxing distribution constraints.
result WGoM can describe any response matrix with finite distinct elements.
ESRLCM clusters similar responses, more broadly than traditional models.
problem Clustering multivariate categorical data with common response patterns.
method Bayesian Equivalence Set Restricted Latent Class Model (ESRLCM).
result ESRLCM identifies clusters with similar item response probabilities.
A new method for generative modeling of discrete data using geometric latent subspaces.
problem Learning generative models for discrete data with statistical dependencies.
method Geometric latent-subspace framework in exponential parameter space of product manifolds of categorical distributions.
result Low-dimensional latent space encodes statistical dependencies and accurately models high-dimensional discrete data.
In this work we present Discrete Attend Infer Repeat (Discrete-AIR), a Recurrent Auto-Encoder with structured latent distributions containing discrete categorical distributions, continuous attribute distributions, and factorised spatial attention. While inspired by the original AIR model andretaining AIR model's capabi…
Scalable GP model tackles big data, categorical factors, and multiple responses.
problem Handling big datasets, categorical inputs, and multiple responses in Gaussian processes.
method Latent variable Gaussian process (LVGP) with variational inference for scalability and interpretability.
result The method scales well for large datasets and outperforms state-of-the-art methods.
Developed DLCM for more accurate clustering of categorical data.
problem Restrictive conditional independence assumption in traditional LCMs.
method Bayesian Dependent Latent Class Model (DLCM) that allows conditional dependence.
result DLCMs are effective in applications with time series, overlapping items, and structural zeroes.
Paper proposes CIV estimator for categorical instruments in small sample settings.
problem Estimation with categorical instruments in settings with few observations per category.
method CIV estimator leveraging regularization assumption for latent categorical variable.
result CIV estimator is asymptotically normal, efficient, and semiparametrically efficient under homoskedasticity.
A new method for categorical variational inference using discrete normalizing flows.
problem Challenges in optimizing variational approximations for discrete latent variables.
method Differentiable reparameterization using a mixture of discrete normalizing flows.
result Improves optimization of evidence lower bound and reduces sensitivity to hyperparameters.
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.
CARMS improves gradient estimation for categorical variables.
problem Accurately backpropagating gradients through categorical variables.
method CARMS combines REINFORCE with antithetic sampling to create unbiased gradient estimators.
result CARMS outperforms competing methods on various tasks.
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.
New gradient estimators for discrete variables improve model training.
problem Training models with discrete latent variables is challenging due to high gradient variance.
method Introduced novel gradient estimators based on importance sampling and statistical couplings, extending to categorical variables.
result Proposed gradient estimators outperform previous methods in systematic experiments.
We consider analysis of relational data (a matrix), in which the rows correspond to subjects (e.g., people) and the columns correspond to attributes. The elements of the matrix may be a mix of real and categorical. Each subject and attribute is characterized by a latent binary feature vector, and an inferred matrix map…
New approach predicts under latent shifts using high-dimensional images.
problem Prediction under latent subgroup shifts with high-dimensional observations.
method Recognition-parametrised model (RPM) for identifying causal latent structure.
result Successfully adapts predictions for high-dimensional image data.
Combines boosting and latent Gaussian models for better predictions.
problem Boosting's assumptions and latent Gaussian models' limitations.
method Integrates tree-boosting and latent Gaussian models.
result Increased prediction accuracy in simulations and real-world data.
This paper generalizes graph representation for diverse data types.
problem Representing and querying hybrid data types in a unified way.
method Introducing a directed Tensor-Typed Multi-Graph with embeddings.
result Unified representation for visual, linguistic, and auditory data.
A new model for latent class analysis with weighted responses.
problem Limitation of latent class model for real-world data with continuous or negative responses.
method Proposed a novel generative model, the weighted latent class model (WLCM).
result The proposed WLCM is more realistic and general than the latent class model.
We propose a novel approach to train a multi-modal policy from mixed demonstrations without their behavior labels. We develop a method to discover the latent factors of variation in the demonstrations. Specifically, our method is based on the variational autoencoder with a categorical latent variable. The encoder infer…
A new method for optimizing models with categorical variables using diffusion.
problem Optimizing models with categorical variables, especially in discrete distributions.
method Introducing ReDGE, a diffusion-based soft reparameterization method for categorical distributions.
result ReDGE consistently matches or outperforms existing gradient-based methods in experiments.
Improves robustness of information bottleneck framework with sparsity-inducing prior.
problem Fixed-dimensional priors restrict flexibility and restrict robustness.
method Sparsity-inducing spike-slab categorical prior that learns dimension distribution per data point.
result Improves accuracy and robustness compared to traditional priors and other methods.
We study the problem of recovering the latent ground truth labeling of a structured instance with categorical random variables in the presence of noisy observations. We present a new approximate algorithm for graphs with categorical variables that achieves low Hamming error in the presence of noisy vertex and edge obse…
MMbeddings reduces categorical embeddings by treating them as latent effects, significantly decreasing parameters and mitigating overfitting.
problem Large cardinalities in categorical embeddings lead to high parameter counts and overfitting.
method MMbeddings treats embeddings as latent random effects in a variational autoencoder framework, reducing parameter count and mitigating overfitting.
result MMbeddings consistently outperforms traditional embeddings across various tasks, demonstrating its potential in machine learning applications.
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.
A new catnat function improves gradient descent for categorical variables.
problem Gradient descent challenges with discrete latent categorical variables.
method Replaced softmax with catnat, a hierarchical binary split function.
result Catnat function offers significant advantages in gradient descent.
Categorical distributions are ubiquitous in machine learning, e.g., in classification, language models, and recommendation systems. However, when the number of possible outcomes is very large, using categorical distributions becomes computationally expensive, as the complexity scales linearly with the number of outcome…
A new method measures heterogeneity without needing categorical partitioning or distance measurement.
problem Measuring heterogeneity in non-categorical data requires categorical partitioning and distance measurement, limiting applicability.
method Representational Rényi heterogeneity (RRH) transforms data into a latent space where heterogeneity can be measured without these requirements.
result RRH can generalize existing indices and better responds to changes in mixture component separation and weighting.
We present the Mixed Likelihood Gaussian process latent variable model (GP-LVM), capable of modeling data with attributes of different types. The standard formulation of GP-LVM assumes that each observation is drawn from a Gaussian distribution, which makes the model unsuited for data with e.g. categorical or nominal a…
With the scale of data growing every day, reducing the dimensionality (a.k.a. sketching) of high-dimensional data has emerged as a task of paramount importance. Relevant issues to address in this context include the sheer volume of data that may consist of categorical samples, the typically streaming format of acquisit…
A new model integrates covariates with grade of membership analysis for better latent structure recovery.
problem Improving latent structure recovery in multivariate categorical data analysis.
method Covariate-assisted grade of membership model exploiting shared low-rank simplex geometry.
result Auxiliary covariates can provably improve latent structure recovery, leading to faster convergence rates.
Recent work has explored transforming data sets into smaller, approximate summaries in order to scale Bayesian inference. We examine a related problem in which the parameters of a Bayesian model are very large and expensive to store in memory, and propose more compact representations of parameter values that can be use…
Proposes a VAE variant for ordinal content factors.
problem Isolating ordinal-valued content factors in deep latent variable models.
method Introduces a partially ordered set (poset) structure and a conditional Gaussian spacing prior model.
result Significant improvements in content-style separation over previous non-ordinal approaches.
We present a framework for learning disentangled and interpretable jointly continuous and discrete representations in an unsupervised manner. By augmenting the continuous latent distribution of variational autoencoders with a relaxed discrete distribution and controlling the amount of information encoded in each latent…
Probabilistic hash embeddings improve online learning of categorical features.
problem Online learning of categorical features with changing vocabulary.
method Probabilistic hash embedding (PHE) with Bayesian online learning.
result PHE mitigates forgetting and maintains high performance in online settings.
The main aim of this paper is to inspect the properties of survey based on households inflation expectations, conducted by Reserve Bank of India. It is theorized that the respondents answers are exaggerated by extreme response bias. Latent class analysis has been hailed as a promising technique for studying measurement…
Paper improves variational inference for complex models.
problem Improving statistical accuracy of variational inference in high-dimensional models.
method Developed a general framework for MFVI and proposed a partially grouped VI algorithm.
result Proposed algorithm works and outperforms vanilla MFVI in mixed membership stochastic blockmodel.
New method for efficient marginalization of discrete latent variables in neural networks.
problem Computational challenges in training models with discrete latent variables.
method Parameterizing discrete distributions using sparse mappings (sparsemax and structured variants) to reduce support and enable efficient marginalization.
result Achieved good performance in various tasks with efficient and practical training.
This paper provides a holistic study of how stock prices vary in their response to financial disclosures across different topics. Thereby, we specifically shed light into the extensive amount of filings for which no a priori categorization of their content exists. For this purpose, we utilize an approach from data mini…
Local-HDP learns independent topics for each 3D object category in real-time.
problem Learning independent topics for each 3D object category in real-time.
method Local-Hierarchical Dirichlet Process (Local-HDP) with online variational inference.
result Local-HDP outperforms other approaches in accuracy, scalability, and memory efficiency.
Improved vector quantization using Gaussian mixtures for better codebook utilization.
problem Training instability and information loss in discrete vector quantization.
method Generalized vector quantization with Gaussian mixture model and aggregated categorical posterior evidence lower bound.
result GM-VQ improves codebook utilization and reduces information loss without heuristics.
Generative models unify heterogeneous data for multimodal fusion.
problem Learning effective representations of mixed numerical and categorical data.
method Bayesian approach with exponential family distributions and Laplace-Bernstein approximation.
result Generative models enable fusion of multimodal data for various machine learning tasks.
This paper addresses a boosting method for mapping functionality of neural networks in visual recognition such as image classification and face recognition. We present reversible learning for generating and learning latent features using the network itself. By generating latent features corresponding to hard samples an…