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.
Bayesian deep learning uses function-space priors to improve model uncertainty and robustness.
problem Bayesian deep learning struggles with model-specific weight-space priors that are hard to interpret and specify.
method Apply a Dirichlet prior in predictive space and perform approximate function-space variational inference.
result The approach improves uncertainty quantification, scalability, and adversarial robustness in large-scale image classification.
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…
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.
SNI framework for mixed-type data imputation interprets and explains missing values.
problem Missing data in mixed-type databases skew analysis results.
method SNI couples statistical priors with neural attention to impute and explain missing values.
result SNI provides interpretable feature dependency diagnostics and soft regularization of attention.
Study proposes learning optimal priors from data for better Bayesian inference.
problem Challenges the use of noninformative uniform priors in Bayesian inference.
method Machine learning approach to learn optimal priors from data using a target function.
result Study models consistently outperformed baseline models in Wikipedia category classification.
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.
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.
This study compares and evaluates categorical kernels for Gaussian process regression.
problem Challenges in designing effective categorical kernels for Gaussian process regression.
method Reproducible comparative study of existing kernels, new evaluation metrics, and clustering-based nested kernels.
result Nested kernels outperform other methods, especially when group structure is unknown or unknown.
This paper describes InfoCatVAE, an extension of the variational autoencoder that enables unsupervised disentangled representation learning. InfoCatVAE uses multimodal distributions for the prior and the inference network and then maximizes the evidence lower bound objective (ELBO). We connect the new ELBO derived for …
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.
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.
Gradient-based methods can be biased by distributional asymmetries in bivariate categorical data.
problem Gradient-based causal discovery methods can be biased by distributional asymmetries in bivariate categorical data.
method Identified and examined two distributional biases: Marginal Distribution Asymmetry and Marginal Distribution Shift Asymmetry. Employed two simple models to demonstrate and control these biases.
result Gradient-based methods can be biased by distributional asymmetries, and these biases can be controlled.
A concise review of recent few-shot meta-learning methods.
problem Mimicking human fast adaptation to new concepts based on prior knowledge.
method Categorized into four branches based on technical characteristics.
result Current challenges and future prospects identified.
Bayesian approach improves neural network classification accuracy and uncertainty.
problem Overconfidence and lack of uncertainty in softmax for classification tasks.
method Model categorical probability using a random variable with a prior distribution.
result Consistent gains in generalization performance across multiple tasks.
Paper develops Bayesian inference for discrete-choice mnp models with Gaussian priors.
problem Estimating parameters of discrete-choice multinomial probit models with Gaussian priors.
method Adapts Fasano and Durante's results to a specific mnp model with zero mean and independent Gaussian priors, simplifying posterior distribution parameters and providing a new variational algorithm.
result Simplified expressions for posterior distribution parameters and a novel variational algorithm.
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.
Bayesian context trees capture complex dependencies in categorical sequences.
problem Complex, long-range dependencies in categorical sequences are not well captured by simple models.
method Parsimonious Bayesian context trees with model-based agglomerative clustering for efficient inference.
result The proposed framework outperforms existing models on real-world data.
This work assesses DNNs for estimating conditional probabilities.
problem Lack of uncertainty characterization in DNNs for probabilistic applications.
method Investigates DNNs' ability to estimate conditional probabilities using synthetic and real-world datasets.
result DNNs' precision in estimating conditional probabilities is influenced by probability density and inter-categorical sparsity.
ERAPS builds prediction sets for time-series data.
problem Uncertainty quantification in complex machine learning methods for time-series data.
method ERAPS is an ensemble-based framework for constructing prediction sets for time-series data, allowing unknown dependencies within features and responses.
result ERAPS demonstrates valid marginal and conditional coverage and yields smaller prediction sets than competing methods.
Proposes a new loss function for learning with noisy labels.
problem Improving model learnability with noisy labels.
method Uses generalized Jensen-Shannon divergence as a noise-robust loss function.
result Shows state-of-the-art results on noisy data.
One of the major shortcomings of variational autoencoders is the inability to produce generations from the individual modalities of data originating from mixture distributions. This is primarily due to the use of a simple isotropic Gaussian as the prior for the latent code in the ancestral sampling procedure for the da…
We present a consensus Monte Carlo algorithm that scales existing Bayesian nonparametric models for clustering and feature allocation to big data. The algorithm is valid for any prior on random subsets such as partitions and latent feature allocation, under essentially any sampling model. Motivated by three case studie…
Review of diffusion priors for solving imaging inverse problems.
problem Solving inverse problems in imaging using diffusion priors.
method Categorizes approaches into explicit approximation and variational inference, sequential monte carlo, and decoupled data consistency.
result Systematic comparison of performance trade-offs across inverse problems.
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…
SFM matches flows on statistical manifolds for better discrete generation.
problem Discrete generation on statistical manifolds with strong prior assumptions.
method Statistical Flow Matching (SFM) on manifold of categorical distributions using Fisher information metric.
result SFM achieves higher sampling quality and likelihood than other models.
Walley's Imprecise Dirichlet Model (IDM) for categorical i.i.d. data extends the classical Dirichlet model to a set of priors. It overcomes several fundamental problems which other approaches to uncertainty suffer from. Yet, to be useful in practice, one needs efficient ways for computing the imprecise=robust sets or i…
Reward-poisoning attacks can force RL agents to learn bad policies, and we categorize and quantify their feasibility.
problem Reward-poisoning attacks can manipulate RL agents to learn undesirable policies.
method Categorize attacks by infinity-norm constraint, provide thresholds for feasibility, and develop adaptive attack strategies.
result Adaptive reward-poisoning attacks can achieve the nefarious policy in polynomial steps, while non-adaptive attacks require exponential steps.
Combines boosting with Gaussian process and mixed effects models.
problem Model misspecifications and independence assumptions in boosting.
method Relaxes zero or linearity assumption in Gaussian process and mixed effects models, and independence assumption in boosting.
result Increased prediction accuracy compared to existing approaches.
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.
Improves joint distribution learning for high-dimensional datasets with complex correlations.
problem Conditional independence assumption limitations in VAE decoders for high-dimensional datasets.
method Cramer-Wold distance regularization and two-step learning method for flexible prior modeling.
result Effective joint distributional learning for high-dimensional datasets with multiple categorical variables.
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.
The problem of multilabel classification when the labels are related through a hierarchical categorization scheme occurs in many application domains such as computational biology. For example, this problem arises naturally when trying to automatically assign gene function using a controlled vocabularies like Gene Ontol…
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.
We define a family of probability distributions for random count matrices with a potentially unbounded number of rows and columns. The three distributions we consider are derived from the gamma-Poisson, gamma-negative binomial, and beta-negative binomial processes. Because the models lead to closed-form Gibbs sampling …
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.
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…
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.
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.
FBC clusters data fairly without needing cluster count.
problem Fairness in clustering groups of different sensitive groups.
method Developed a Bayesian model-based clustering method with a fair prior and efficient MCMC algorithm.
result Reasonably infers the number of clusters and achieves a fair utility trade-off.
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.
We present sparse tree-based and list-based density estimation methods for binary/categorical data. Our density estimation models are higher dimensional analogies to variable bin width histograms. In each leaf of the tree (or list), the density is constant, similar to the flat density within the bin of a histogram. His…
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.