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…
VAIOM models financial returns using continuous input and categorical output.
problem Modeling continuous, noisy, and heterogeneous financial data.
method VAIOM is a decoder-only Transformer that separates input representation from output likelihood.
result VAIOM models outperform fixed single-bar LightGBM baseline in both Test halves.
Interprets neural network classifiers for categorical inputs.
problem Neural networks' interpretability in human-sensitive applications.
method Mapping to physical energy model, expansion of neural network layers.
result Each layer's contribution to classification can be analyzed.
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 …
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.
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.
Applied Data Scientists throughout various industries are commonly faced with the challenging task of encoding high-cardinality categorical features into digestible inputs for machine learning algorithms. This paper describes a Bayesian encoding technique developed for WeWork's lead scoring engine which outputs the pro…
Item response theory (IRT) models for categorical response data are widely used in the analysis of educational data, computerized adaptive testing, and psychological surveys. However, most IRT models rely on both the assumption that categories are strictly ordered and the assumption that this ordering is known a priori…
Extends linear representation hypothesis to categorical and hierarchical concepts in LLMs.
problem Representing concepts without natural contrasts in large language models.
method Formalizes linear representation hypothesis for categorical and hierarchical concepts, proving relationships between concept hierarchy and representation geometry.
result Validated theoretical results on large language models, estimating representations for 900+ concepts.
Develops a new theory of localization in algebraic geometry.
problem Localization of cohomological theories on closed subsets.
method Categorical and algebro-geometric approach, focusing on torsors and translation groupoids.
result Found that localization often results in a torsor of supported refinements rather than a localized class.
Multi-output learning aims to simultaneously predict multiple outputs given an input. It is an important learning problem due to the pressing need for sophisticated decision making in real-world applications. Inspired by big data, the 4Vs characteristics of multi-output imposes a set of challenges to multi-output learn…
Earth observation embeddings can convert discrete biome maps into continuous representations that better capture ecological variation.
problem Biome maps impose categorical boundaries that compress continuous variation in biotic communities.
method Fit a linear classifier on Earth observation embeddings to predict biome labels.
result Continuous biome representation outperforms discrete biome labels for predicting species occurrence.
The study categorizes reward errors in reinforcement learning, finding some can be beneficial.
problem Training language models with imperfect proxy rewards.
method Theoretical analysis of policy gradient optimization and categorization of reward errors.
result Reward errors can be benign or even beneficial, preventing policy from stalling.
Softmax is an output activation function for modeling categorical probability distributions in many applications of deep learning. However, a recent study revealed that softmax can be a bottleneck of representational capacity of neural networks in language modeling (the softmax bottleneck). In this paper, we propose an…
In Bayesian Deep Learning, distributions over the output of classification neural networks are often approximated by first constructing a Gaussian distribution over the weights, then sampling from it to receive a distribution over the softmax outputs. This is costly. We reconsider old work (Laplace Bridge) to construct…
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.
Is all of machine learning supervised to some degree? The field of machine learning has traditionally been categorized pedagogically into supervised vs unsupervised learning; where supervised learning has typically referred to learning from labeled data, while unsupervised learning has typically referred to learning …
Objectives: Text categorization has been used in biomedical informatics for identifying documents containing relevant topics of interest. We developed a simple method that uses a chi-square-based scoring function to determine the likelihood of MEDLINE citations containing genetic relevant topic. Methods: Our procedure …
Most of the parameters in large vocabulary models are used in embedding layer to map categorical features to vectors and in softmax layer for classification weights. This is a bottle-neck in memory constraint on-device training applications like federated learning and on-device inference applications like automatic spe…
AdOBEst-LDP improves privacy-preserving frequency estimation for categorical data.
problem Estimating categorical distributions online while preserving privacy.
method AdOBEst-LDP uses adaptive randomized response mechanism to enhance future data utility.
result AdOBEst-LDP selects optimal subset for LDP mechanism with high probability.
The output scores of a neural network classifier are converted to probabilities via normalizing over the scores of all competing categories. Computing this partition function, Z, is then linear in the number of categories, which is problematic as real-world problem sets continue to grow in categorical types, such as …
Personalized medicine aims at identifying best treatments for a patient with given characteristics. It has been shown in the literature that these methods can lead to great improvements in medicine compared to traditional methods prescribing the same treatment to all patients. Subgroup identification is a branch of per…
Developed R package for creating nomograms for any ML algorithms.
problem Creating nomograms for any machine learning algorithms.
method Formulated a function to transform ML prediction models into nomograms, requiring specific datasets.
result Created 5 types of nomograms for various ML algorithms and predictor types.
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.
Industrial process control systems try to keep an output variable within a given tolerance around a target value. PID control systems have been widely used in industry to control input variables in order to reach this goal. However, this kind of Transfer Function based approach cannot be extended to complex processes w…
We propose learning flexible but interpretable functions that aggregate a variable-length set of permutation-invariant feature vectors to predict a label. We use a deep lattice network model so we can architect the model structure to enhance interpretability, and add monotonicity constraints between inputs-and-outputs.…
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.
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…
This study examines how discretization improves neural forecasting models.
problem Improving predictive performance of neural forecasting models.
method Empirical investigation of data binning techniques on various neural forecasting architectures.
result Data binning almost always improves forecasting accuracy, but the type of binning is less important.
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.
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.
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.
The paper shows how integrating categorical semantics can enhance unsupervised domain translation.
problem Improving unsupervised domain translation between perceptually different domains.
method Learning invariant categorical semantic features in an unsupervised manner and conditioning them on the style encoder.
result Conditioning the style encoder on learned categorical semantics improves translation and stylization.
In a multi-class classification problem, it is standard to model the output of a neural network as a categorical distribution conditioned on the inputs. The output must therefore be positive and sum to one, which is traditionally enforced by a softmax. This probabilistic mapping allows to use the maximum likelihood pri…
Adversarial MoE learns category-specific models for product search.
problem Variations in product features and importance across categories.
method Mixture of Experts with adversarial regularization and soft gating constraints.
result Improved clustering of gate output vectors and shared experts among similar categories.
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.
Develops 2-categorical methods for multi-parameter persistence.
problem Fundamental limitations of traditional persistence modules.
method 2-categorical structures to capture hierarchical interactions.
result New invariants effectively characterize multidimensional topological features.
Transforms classical connections using pushforwards and gauge transformations.
problem Transforming classical connections in categorical settings.
method Constructing pushforwards and applying gauge transformations to decorated path spaces.
result Combines traditional gauge transformation with affine translation.
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.
Unified taxonomy categorizes DL-based MTSAD methods.
problem Lack of systematization in MTSAD research.
method Two-fold approach: derived from methodological studies and reviewed papers.
result Convergence toward Transformer-based and reconstruction/prediction models.
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.
Categorical d-separation criterion simplifies probability graph analysis.
problem Detecting causal relationships in probability distributions.
method Introducing categorical definitions for causal models and d-separation.
result Abstract version of d-separation criterion applies to various probability theories.
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.
CARD models predict the distribution of continuous or categorical responses.
problem Uncertainty in predicting continuous or categorical responses.
method Combines denoising diffusion and conditional mean estimation.
result Outperforms state-of-the-art methods in conditional distribution prediction.
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.
Bayesian optimisation tackles high-dimensional categorical and mixed search spaces.
problem Bayesian optimisation on high-dimensional categorical and mixed search spaces is challenging.
method Combining local optimisation with a tailored kernel design.
result Empirically outperforms current baselines in performance and computational costs.
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…