Using techniques from learning theory, we show that any $s$-term DNF over $n$ variables can be computed by a polynomial threshold function of degree $O(n^{1/3} \log s)$. This upper bound matches, up to a logarithmic factor, the longstanding lower bound given by Minsky and Papert in their 1968 book {\em Perceptrons}. As a consequence of this upper bound we obtain the fastest known algorithm for learning polynomial size DNF, one of the central problems in computational learning theory.
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