Learning Methods¶

class pracmln.MLNLearn(config=None, **params)¶

Wrapper class for learning using a PRACMLN configuration.

Parameters

config – Instance of a pracmln.PRACMLNConfig class representing a serialized configuration. Any parameter in the config object can be overwritten by a respective entry in the params dict.

Example

>>> conf = PRACMLNConfig('path/to/config/file')
# overrides the MLN and database to be used.
>>> learn = MLNLearn(conf, mln=newmln, db=newdb)

General Parameters¶

Gaussian prior on the formula weights:
This parameter enables MAP-learning (maximum-a-posteriori) with a Gaussian regularization term punishing large weights during learing, which can be controlled via the mean and the standard deviation of the Gaussian:
- prior_stdev=<sigma>: the standard deviation $\sigma$ of the prior
- prior_mean=<mu>: the mean $\mu$ of the prior.
- use_prior=True/False: whether or not the prior should be used.
Typical values of a suitable prior are for example $\mathcal{N}(0.0, 10.0)$

Generative Learning Methods¶

Log-likelihood Learning¶

The standard learning method using maximum likelihood.

Additional parameters:

optimizer: the optimization routine to be used.

Warning

Log-likelihood learning is intractable for most but the smallest examples. If you deal with realistic problems you should consider using a more efficient learning method.

Pseudo-likelihood Learning¶

Learner for the pseudo-log-likelihood learning algorithm.

optimizer: the optimization routine to be used.

Pseudo-likelihood Learning (with Custom Grounding)¶

If the formulas in your model are prevalently conjunctions of literals, this method should be preferred over the previous methods, since it processes such conjunctions in approximately linear time instead of exponential time.

optimizer: the optimization routine to be used.

Composite-likelihood Learning¶

Composite-likelihood Learning is a generalization of both log-likelihood and pseudo-log-likelihood learning, in that it partitions the set of variables in an MRF in subsets of sizes larger than 1, which leads to better accuracy of the learnt model. However, in the current implementation of pracmln, only partitions of size 1 are supported, in which case this method is equivalent to pseudo-log-likelihood learning, but comes with a slightly more efficient implementation.

optimizer: the optimization routine to be used.

Discriminative Learning Methods¶

For most of the likelihood-based learning methods, pracmln provides discriminative variants, which are preferable if the reasoning problem at hand exhibits dedicated input and output variables. Using discriminative learning, one can learn conditional distributions $P(X|Y)$ instead of the join $P(X,Y)$ , which is favorable with respect to model accuracy and computational performance. For all discriminative algorithms, either a set of dedicated query or evidence predicate needs to be specified, i.e. $X$ or $Y$ in the above distribution, depending on whether the predicates occur as evidence or query variables. In addition to the parameters of their generative variants, they have as additional parameters:

qpreds: a list of predicate names that should be treated
as query variables during discriminative learning.
epreds: a list of predicate names that should be treated
as evidence variables during discriminative learning
discr_preds: One of the values pracmln.EVIDENCE_PREDS or
pracmln.QUERY_PREDS, specifying whether qpreds or the epreds parameters should be used.

Discriminative log-likelihood Learning¶

Discriminative variant of log-likelihood learning.

optimizer: the optimization routine to be used.

Warning

Log-likelihood learning is intractable for most but the smallest examples. If you deal with realistic problems you should consider using a more efficient learning method.

Discriminative Pseudo-likelihood Learning¶

Discriminative learner for the pseudo-log-likelihood learning algorithm.

optimizer: the optimization routine to be used.

Discriminative Pseudo-likelihood Learning (with Custom Grounding)¶

Discriminative learner for the pseudo-log-likelihood learning with custom grounding.

optimizer: the optimization routine to be used.

Discriminative Composite-likelihood Learning¶

Discriminative variant of composite likelihood learning.

Optimization Techniques¶

In addition to the learning method, different optimization techniques can be specified in pracmln. The type of the optimizer and their parameters can be specified in the additional parameters text field in the MLN-Learning-Tool by specifying a parameter optimizer=<algo>. Currently, the following optimization techniques are supported.

BFGS (Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno algorithm)¶

Command: optimizer='bfgs'
Additional Parameters:
- maxiter=<int>: Specifies the maximal number of gradient ascent steps.

Note

This is the standard SciPy implementation

Conjugate Gradient¶

Command: optimizer='cg'
Additional Parameters:
- maxiter=<int>: Specifies the maximal number of gradient ascent steps.

Note

This is the standard SciPy implementation