Graph filters are ubiquitous for processing data over graphs. However, most filters obtained from data are point-estimates and may be sensitive to changes in topology or data distributions. Thus, modeling uncertainty in filters is critical to quantify confidence in analyses or improve downstream tasks in low-data regimes. We introduce a Bayesian framework for graph filter design, termed Bayesian graph filters. Given input-output realizations on a graph, we obtain the posterior filter and prior filter precision hyper-parameters via a constrained EM algorithm. The posterior filter leads to uncertainty in its frequency response, which has implications for stability. We study the stability via the integral Lipschitz (IL) property and derive a lower bound for the probability of Bayesian filters being IL. Results show that Bayesian filters can be more stable across the spectrum and under perturbations, provide uncertainty estimates and can outperform point filters on multiple tasks.

Temporal networks arise due to certain dynamics influencing their connections or due to the change in interactions between the nodes themselves, as seen for example in social networks. Such evolution can be algebraically represented by a three-way tensor, which lends itself to using tensor decompositions to study the underpinning factors driving the network evolution. Low rank tensor decompositions have been used for temporal networks but mostly with a focus on downstream tasks and have been seldom used to study the temporal network itself. Here, we use the tensor decomposition to identify a limited number of key mode graphs that can explain the temporal network, and which linear combination can represent its evolution. For this, we put for a novel graph-based tensor decomposition approach where we impose a graph structure on the two modes of the tensor and a smoothness on the temporal dimension. We use these mode graphs to investigate the temporal network and corroborate their usability for network reconstruction and link prediction.

Current spatiotemporal learning methods for complex data exploit the graph structure as an inductive bias to restrict the function space and improve data and computation efficiency. However, these methods work principally on graphs with a fixed size, whereas in several applications there are expanding graphs where new nodes join the network; e.g., new sensors joining a sensor network or new users joining a recommender system. This paper focuses on the non-trivial extension of spatiotemporal methods to this setting, where now it is key to jointly capture both the topological and signal dynamics. Specifically, it considers a graph vector autoregressive (GVAR) model for multivariate time series. The GVAR is a multivariate linear model that leverages a bank of graph filters allowing scalability and data efficiency. To account for the dynamic nature of the graphs, the filters’s parameters are learned on-the-fly via adaptive gradient descent with provable sub-linear regret. Numerical results on both synthetic and real data corroborate the proposed method.

Simplicial convolutional filters can process signals defined over levels of a simplicial complex such as nodes, edges, triangles, and so on with applications in e.g., flow prediction in transportation or financial networks. However, the underlying topology expands over time in a way that new edges and triangles form. For example, in a transportation network, a new connection between two locations is newly built, or in a currency exchange market, two currencies can be exchanged without an intermediate currency that can be understood as a new edge between them. To handle the streaming nature of data, we propose an online prediction for edge flows which generalizes to other higher-order simplicial signals. This is achieved by updating the filter coefficients via an online gradient descent with a provable sub-linear regret relative to the simplicial filter optimized over the whole sequence of edge flows. The update of the filter coefficients associated with the lower and upper Hodge Laplacians can be uncoupled in general. We test the online edge flow prediction on an expanding synthetic simplicial complex and a coauthorship complex showing a close performance to the offline counterpart.

Performing signal processing over graphs requires knowledge of the underlying fixed topology. However, graphs often grow in size with new nodes appearing over time, whose connectivity is typically unknown; hence, making more challenging the downstream tasks in applications like cold start recommendation. We address such a challenge for signal interpolation at the incoming nodes blind to the topological connectivity of the specific node. Specifically, we propose a stochastic attachment model for incoming nodes parameterized by the attachment probabilities and edge weights. We estimate these parameters in a data-driven fashion by relying only on the attachment behaviour of earlier incoming nodes with the goal of interpolating the signal value. We study the non-convexity of the problem at hand, derive conditions when it can be marginally convexified, and propose an alternating projected descent approach between estimating the attachment probabilities and the edge weights. Numerical experiments with synthetic and real data dealing in cold start collaborative filtering corroborate our findings.

Diffusion-based semi-supervised learning on graphs consists of diffusing labeled information of a few nodes to infer the labels on the remaining ones. The performance of these methods heavily relies on the initial labeled set, which is either generated randomly or using heuristics. The first sometimes leads to unsatisfactory results because random labeling has no guarantees to label all classes while heuristic methods only yield a good performance when multiple recursive training stages are possible. In this paper, we put forth a new paradigm for one-shot active semi-supervised learning for graph diffusions. We rephrase active learning as the problem of selecting the output labels from a label propagation model. Subsequently, we develop two methods to solve this problem and label the nodes. The first method assumes there are only a few starting labels and relies on projected compressive sensing to build the label set. The second method drops the assumption of a few starting labels and builds on sparse sensing techniques to label a few nodes. Both methods have solid mathematical grounds in signal processing and require a single training phase. Numerical results on three scenarios corroborate our findings and showcase the improved performance compared with the state of the art.

Document image binarization classifies each pixel in an input document image as either foreground or background under the assumption that the document is pseudo binary in nature. However, noise introduced during acquisition or due to aging or handling of the document can make binarization a challenging task. This paper presents a novel game theory inspired binarization technique for degraded document images. A two-player, non-zero-sum, non-cooperative game is designed at the pixel level to extract the local information, which is then fed to a K-means algorithm to classify a pixel as foreground or background. We also present a preprocessing step that is performed to eliminate the intensity variation that often appears in the background and a post-processing step to refine the results. The method is tested on seven publicly available datasets, namely, DIBCO 2009-14 and 2016. The experimental results show that GiB (Game theory Inspired Binarization) outperforms competing state-of-the-art methods in most cases.