%P 549-558 %J IEEE Transactions on Information Theory %T On a Variational Norm Tailored to Variable-Basis Approximation Schemes %R 10.1109/TIT.2010.2090198 %A Giorgio Gnecco %A Marcello Sanguineti %D 2011 %I IEEE %L eprints1719 %X A variational norm associated with sets of computational units and used in function approximation, learning from data, and infinite-dimensional optimization is investigated. For sets Gk obtained by varying a vector y of parameters in a fixed-structure computational unit K(-,y) (e.g., the set of Gaussians with free centers and widths), upper and lower bounds on the GK -variation norms of functions having certain integral representations are given, in terms of the ?1-norms of the weighting functions in such representations. Families of functions for which the two norms are equal are described. %K ${cal L}_1$-norm, Approximation schemes, convex hulls, infinite-dimensional optimization, upper and lower bounds, variation with respect to a set %N 1 %V 57