We focus on the two overlapping areas of preference queries and dataset summarization. A (linear) preference query specifies the relative importance of the attributes in a dataset and asks for the tuples that best match those preferences. Dataset summarization is the task of representing an entire dataset by a small, representative subset. Within these areas, we focus on three important sub-problems, significantly advancing the state-of-the-art in each. We begin with an investigation into a new formulation of preference queries, identifying a neglected and important subclass that we call threshold projection queries. While literature typically constrains the attribute preferences (which are real-valued weights) such that their sum is one, we show that this introduces bias when querying by threshold rather than cardinality. Using projection, rather than inner product as in that literature, removes the bias. We then give algorithms for building and querying indices for this class of query, based, in the general case, on geometric duality and halfspace range searching, and, in an important special case, on stereographic projection. In the second part of the dissertation, we investigate the monochromatic reverse top-k (mRTOP) query in two dimensions. A mRTOP query asks for, given a tuple and a dataset, the linear preference queries on the dataset that will include the given tuple. Towards this goal, we consider the novel scenario of building an index to support mRTOP queries, using geometric duality and plane sweep. We show theoretically and empirically that the index is quick to build, small on disk, and very efficient at answering mRTOP queries. As a corollary to these efforts, we defined the top-k rank contour, which encodes the k-ranked tuple for every possible linear preference query. This is tremendously useful in answering mRTOP queries, but also, we posit, of significant independent interest for its relation to myriad related linear preference query problems. Intuitively, the top-k rank contour is the minimum possible representation of knowledge needed to identify the k-ranked tuple for any query, without apriori knowledge of that query. We also introduce k-regret minimizing sets, a very succinct approximation of a numeric dataset. The purpose of the approximation is to represent the entire dataset by just a small subset that nonetheless will contain a tuple within or near to the top-k for any linear preference query. We show that the problem of finding k-regret minimizing sets—and, indeed, the problem in literature that it generalizes—is NP-Hard. Still, for the special case of two dimensions, we provide a fast, exact algorithm based on the top-k rank contour. For arbitrary dimension, we introduce a novel greedy algorithm based on linear programming and randomization that does excellently in our empirical investigation. / Graduate / 0984

On-orbit servicing (OOS) of space systems provides immense benefits by extending their lifetime, by reducing overall cost of space operations, and by adding flexibility to space missions. Refueling is an important aspect of OOS operations. The problem of determining the optimal strategy of refueling multiple satellites in a constellation, by expending minimum fuel during the orbital transfers, is challenging, and requires the solution of a large-scale optimization problem. The conventional notion about a refueling mission is to have a service vehicle visit all fuel-deficient satellites one by one and deliver fuel to them. A recently emerged concept, known as the peer-to-peer (P2P) strategy, is a distributed method of replenishing satellites with fuel. P2P strategy is an integral part of a mixed refueling strategy, in which a service vehicle delivers fuel to part (perhaps half) of the satellites in the constellation, and these satellites, in turn, engage in P2P maneuvers with the remaining satellites. During a P2P maneuver between a fuel-sufficient and a fuel-deficient satellite, one of them performs an orbital transfer to rendezvous with the other, exchanges fuel, and then returns back to its original orbital position. In terms of fuel expended during the refueling process, the mixed strategy outperforms the single service vehicle strategy, particularly with increasing number of satellites in the constellation. This dissertation looks at the problem of P2P refueling problem and proposes new extensions like the Cooperative P2P and Egalitarian P2P strategies. It presents an overview of the methodologies developed to determine the optimal set of orbital transfers required for cooperative and non-cooperative P2P refueling strategies. Results demonstrate that the proposed strategies help in reducing fuel expenditure during the refueling process.

The field of classical planning deals with designing algorithms for generating plans or squences of actions that achieve specific goals. It involves representing a problem domain as a set of state variables, actions and goals, and then developing search algorithms that can explore the state of possible plans to find the one that satisfies the specified goal. Classical planning domains are often NP-hard, meaning that their worst-case complexity grows exponentially with the size of the problem. This means that as the number of state variables, actions and goals in the problem domain increases, the search space grows exponentially, making it very difficult to find a plan that satisfies the specified goal. This thesis is concerned with investigating these NP-hard domains, specifically by simplifying these domains into ones that have a polynomial solving time, creating a general policy of conditions and rules for which actions to take for the simplified domain, and then attempting to apply this policy onto the original domain. This creates a partial policy for the original domain, and the performance of this policy can be measured in order to judge its effectiveness. This can be explained as simplifying an intractable domain into a tractable one, creating a general policy for the tractable domain and then measuring its performance as a partial policy for the intractable domain.

Recommendation systems are information filtering systems that help users effectively and efficiently explore large amount of information and identify items of interest. Accurate predictions of users' interests improve user satisfaction and are beneficial to business or service providers. Researchers have been making tremendous efforts to improve the accuracy of recommendations. Emerging trends of technologies and application scenarios, however, lead to challenges other than accuracy for recommendation systems. Three new challenges include: (1) opinion spam results in untrustworthy content and makes recommendations deceptive; (2) users prefer diversified content; (3) in some applications user behavior data may not be available to infer users' preference. This thesis tackles the above challenges. We identify features of untrustworthy commercial campaigns on a question and answer website, and adopt machine learning-based techniques to implement an adaptive detection system which automatically detects commercial campaigns. We incorporate diversity requirements into a classic theoretical model and develop efficient algorithms with performance guarantees. We propose a novel and robust approach to infer user preference profile from recommendations using copula models. The proposed approach can offer in-depth business intelligence for physical stores that depend on Wi-Fi hotspots for mobile advertisement. / Graduate / 0984 / cchenv@uvic.ca

De nombreux domaines applicatifs conduisent à résoudre des problèmes inverses où le signal ou l'image à reconstruire est à la fois parcimonieux et positif. Si la structure de certains algorithmes de reconstruction parcimonieuse s'adapte directement pour traiter les contraintes de positivité, il n'en va pas de même des algorithmes gloutons orthogonaux comme OMP et OLS. Leur extension positive pose des problèmes d'implémentation car les sous-problèmes de moindres carrés positifs à résoudre ne possèdent pas de solution explicite. Dans la littérature, les algorithmes gloutons positifs (NNOG, pour “Non-Negative Orthogonal Greedy algorithms”) sont souvent considérés comme lents, et les implémentations récemment proposées exploitent des schémas récursifs approchés pour compenser cette lenteur. Dans ce manuscrit, les algorithmes NNOG sont vus comme des heuristiques pour résoudre le problème de minimisation L0 sous contrainte de positivité. La première contribution est de montrer que ce problème est NP-difficile. Deuxièmement, nous dressons un panorama unifié des algorithmes NNOG et proposons une implémentation exacte et rapide basée sur la méthode des contraintes actives avec démarrage à chaud pour résoudre les sous-problèmes de moindres carrés positifs. Cette implémentation réduit considérablement le coût des algorithmes NNOG et s'avère avantageuse par rapport aux schémas approximatifs existants. La troisième contribution consiste en une analyse de reconstruction exacte en K étapes du support d'une représentation K-parcimonieuse par les algorithmes NNOG lorsque la cohérence mutuelle du dictionnaire est inférieure à 1/(2K-1). C'est la première analyse de ce type. / Non-negative sparse approximation arises in many applications fields such as biomedical engineering, fluid mechanics, astrophysics, and remote sensing. Some classical sparse algorithms can be straightforwardly adapted to deal with non-negativity constraints. On the contrary, the non-negative extension of orthogonal greedy algorithms is a challenging issue since the unconstrained least square subproblems are replaced by non-negative least squares subproblems which do not have closed-form solutions. In the literature, non-negative orthogonal greedy (NNOG) algorithms are often considered to be slow. Moreover, some recent works exploit approximate schemes to derive efficient recursive implementations. In this thesis, NNOG algorithms are introduced as heuristic solvers dedicated to L0 minimization under non-negativity constraints. It is first shown that the latter L0 minimization problem is NP-hard. The second contribution is to propose a unified framework on NNOG algorithms together with an exact and fast implementation, where the non-negative least-square subproblems are solved using the active-set algorithm with warm start initialisation. The proposed implementation significantly reduces the cost of NNOG algorithms and appears to be more advantageous than existing approximate schemes. The third contribution consists of a unified K-step exact support recovery analysis of NNOG algorithms when the mutual coherence of the dictionary is lower than 1/(2K-1). This is the first analysis of this kind.