Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MetaSleepLearner: Fast Adaptation of Bio-signals-Based Sleep Stage Classifier to New Individual Subject Using Meta-Learning

Objective: Identifying bio-signals based-sleep stages requires time-consuming and tedious labor of skilled clinicians. Deep learning approaches have been introduced in order to challenge the automatic sleep stage classification conundrum. However, disadvantages can be posed in replacing the clinicians with the automatic system. Thus, we aim to develop a framework, capable of assisting the clinicians and lessening the workload. Methods: We proposed the transfer learning framework entitled MetaSleepLearner, using a Model Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML), in order to transfer the acquired sleep staging knowledge from a large dataset to new individual subject. The capability of MAML was elicited for this task by allowing clinicians to label for a few samples and let the rest be handled by the system. Layer-wise Relevance Propagation (LRP) was also applied to understand the learning course of our approach. Results: In all acquired datasets, in comparison to the conventional approach, MetaSleepLearner achieved a range of 6.15 % to 12.12 % improvement with statistical difference in the mean of both approaches. The illustration of the model interpretation after the adaptation to each subject also confirmed that the performance was directed towards reasonable learning. Conclusion: MetaSleepLearner outperformed the conventional approach as a result from the fine-tuning using the recordings of both healthy subjects and patients. Significance: This is the first paper that investigated a non-conventional pre-training method, MAML, in this task, resulting in a framework for human-machine collaboration in sleep stage classification, easing the burden of the clinicians in labelling the sleep stages through only several epochs rather than an entire recording.
A Centralized Multi-stage Non-parametric Learning Algorithm for Opportunistic Spectrum Access

Owing to the ever-increasing demand in wireless spectrum, Cognitive Radio (CR) was introduced as a technique to attain high spectral efficiency. As the number of secondary users (SUs) connecting to the cognitive radio network is on the rise, there is an imminent need for centralized algorithms that provide high throughput and energy efficiency of the SUs while ensuring minimum interference to the licensed users. In this work, we propose a multi-stage algorithm that - 1) effectively assigns the available channel to the SUs, 2) employs a non-parametric learning framework to estimate the primary traffic distribution to minimize sensing, and 3) proposes an adaptive framework to ensure that the collision to the primary user is below the specified threshold. We provide comprehensive empirical validation of the method with other approaches.
Architecting Noisy Intermediate-Scale Trapped Ion Quantum Computers

Trapped ions (TI) are a leading candidate for building Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) hardware. TI qubits have fundamental advantages over other technologies such as superconducting qubits, including high qubit quality, coherence and connectivity. However, current TI systems are small in size, with 5-20 qubits and typically use a single trap architecture which has fundamental scalability limitations. To progress towards the next major milestone of 50-100 qubit TI devices, a modular architecture termed the Quantum Charge Coupled Device (QCCD) has been proposed. In a QCCD-based TI device, small traps are connected through ion shuttling. While the basic hardware components for such devices have been demonstrated, building a 50-100 qubit system is challenging because of a wide range of design possibilities for trap sizing, communication topology and gate implementations and the need to match diverse application resource requirements.Towards realizing QCCD-based TI systems with 50-100 qubits, we perform an extensive application-driven architectural study evaluating the key design choices of trap sizing, communication topology and operation implementation methods. To enable our study, we built a design toolflow which takes a QCCD architecture’s parameters as input, along with a set of applications and realistic hardware performance models. Our toolflow maps the applications onto the target device and simulates their execution to compute metrics such as application run time, reliability and device noise rates. Using six applications and several hardware design points, we show that trap sizing and communication topology choices can impact application reliability by up to three orders of magnitude. Microarchitectural gate implementation choices influence reliability by another order of magnitude. From these studies, we provide concrete recommendations to tune these choices to achieve highly reliable and performant application executions. With industry and academic efforts underway to build TI devices with 50-100 qubits, our insights have the potential to influence QC hardware in the near-future and accelerate the progress towards practical QC systems.
Low Mach and low Froude number limit for vacuum free boundary problem of all-time classical solutions of 1-D compressible Navier-Stokes equations

In this paper, we study the low Mach and Froude number limit for the all-time classical solution of a fluid-vacuum free boundary problem of one-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations. No smallness of initial data for the existence of all-time solutions are supposed. The uniform estimates of solutions with respect to the Mach number and the Froude number are established for all the time, in particular for high order derivatives of the pressure, which is a novelty in contrast to previous results. The cases of "ill-prepared" initial data and "well-prepared" initial data are both discussed. It is interesting to see, either both the Mach number and the Froude number vanish, or the time goes to infinity, the limiting functions are the same, that is, the steady state. The main difficulty is that, the system is degenerate near the free boundary and contains singular terms. This result can be viewed as the first one on the low Mach and Froude numbers limit for free boundary problems. At the same time, we also establish the all-time existence of the classical solution with sharp convergent rates to the steady state, while previous results are only concerned with the weak or strong solutions.
Learning to Drive Off Road on Smooth Terrain in Unstructured Environments Using an On-Board Camera and Sparse Aerial Images

We present a method for learning to drive on smooth terrain while simultaneously avoiding collisions in challenging off-road and unstructured outdoor environments using only visual inputs. Our approach applies a hybrid model-based and model-free reinforcement learning method that is entirely self-supervised in labeling terrain roughness and collisions using on-board sensors. Notably, we provide both first-person and overhead aerial image inputs to our model. We nd that the fusion of these complementary inputs improves planning foresight and makes the model robust to visual obstructions. Our results show the ability to generalize to environments with plentiful vegetation, various types of rock, and sandy trails. During evaluation, our policy attained 90% smooth terrain traversal and reduced the proportion of rough terrain driven over by 6.1 times compared to a model using only first-person imagery. Video and project details can be found at www.cim. mcgill.ca/mrl/offroad_driving/.
A Mathematical Assessment of the Isolation Tree Method for Data Anomaly Detection in Big Data

We present the mathematical analysis of the Isolation Random Forest Method (IRF Method) for anomaly detection, introduced in {\sc F. ~T. Liu, K. ~M. Ting, Z. -H. Zhou:}, {\it Isolation-based anomaly detection}, TKDD 6 (2012) 3:1--3:39. We prove that the IRF space can be endowed with a probability induced by the Isolation Tree algorithm (iTree). In this setting, the convergence of the IRF method is proved, using the Law of Large Numbers. A couple of counterexamples are presented to show that the method is inconclusive and no certificate of quality can be given, when using it as a means to detect anomalies. Hence, a more robust version of the method is proposed whose mathematical foundation is fully justified. Finally, numerical experiments are presented to compare the performance of the classic method with the proposed one.
Quasi-Newton Solver for Robust Non-Rigid Registration

Imperfect data (noise, outliers and partial overlap) and high degrees of freedom make non-rigid registration a classical challenging problem in computer vision. Existing methods typically adopt the l_p type robust estimator to regularize the fitting and smoothness, and the proximal operator is used to solve the resulting non-smooth problem. However, the slow convergence of these algorithms limits its wide applications. In this paper, we propose a formulation for robust non-rigid registration based on a globally smooth robust estimator for data fitting and regularization, which can handle outliers and partial overlaps. We apply the majorization-minimization algorithm to the problem, which reduces each iteration to solving a simple least-squares problem with L-BFGS. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our method for non-rigid alignment between two shapes with outliers and partial overlap. with quantitative evaluation showing that it outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of registration accuracy and computational speed. The source code is available at https://github.com/Juyong/Fast_RNRR.
Identification of splicing edges in tampered image based on Dichromatic Reflection Model

Imaging is a sophisticated process combining a plenty of photovoltaic conversions, which lead to some spectral signatures beyond visual perception in the final images. Any manipulation against an original image will destroy these signatures and inevitably leave some traces in the final forgery. Therefore we present a novel optic-physical method to discriminate splicing edges from natural edges in a tampered image. First, we transform the forensic image from RGB into color space of S and o1o2. Then on the assumption of Dichromatic Reflection Model, edges in the image are discovered by composite gradient and classified into different types based on their different photometric properties. Finally, splicing edges are reserved against natural ones by a simple logical algorithm. Experiment results show the efficacy of the proposed method.
Posterior Computation with the Gibbs Zig-Zag Sampler

Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling algorithms have dominated the literature on posterior computation. However, MCMC faces substantial hurdles in performing efficient posterior sampling for challenging Bayesian models, particularly in high-dimensional and large data settings. Motivated in part by such hurdles, an intriguing new class of piecewise deterministic Markov processes (PDMPs) has recently been proposed as an alternative to MCMC. One of the most popular types of PDMPs is known as the zig-zag (ZZ) sampler. Such algorithms require a computational upper bound in a Poisson thinning step, with performance improving for tighter bounds. In order to facilitate scaling to larger classes of problems, we propose a general class of Gibbs zig-zag (GZZ) samplers. GZZ allows parameters to be updated in blocks with ZZ applied to certain parameters and traditional MCMC style updates to others. This provides a flexible framework to combine PDMPs with the rich literature on MCMC algorithms. We prove appealing theoretical properties of GZZ and demonstrate it on posterior sampling for logistic models with shrinkage priors for high-dimensional regression and random effects.
Nonlinear effects in memristors with mobile vacancies

Because local concentration of vacancies in any material is bounded, their motion must be accompanied by nonlinear effects. Here, we look for such effects in a simple model for electric field-driven vacancy motion in a memristor, solving the corresponding nonlinear Burgers’ equation with impermeable nonlinear boundary conditions exactly. We find non-monotonous relaxation of the resistance while switching between the stable (‘on’ and ‘off’) states, and qualitatively different dependencies of switching time (under applied current) and relaxation time (under no current) on the memristor length. Our solution can serve as a useful benchmark for simulations of more complex memristor models.
The Effects of Different JSON Representations on Querying Knowledge Graphs

Knowledge Graphs (KGs) have emerged as the de-facto standard for modeling and querying datasets with a graph-like structure in the Semantic Web domain. Our focus is on the performance challenges associated with querying KGs. We developed three informationally equivalent JSON-based representations for KGs, namely, Subject-based Name/Value (JSON-SNV), Documents of Triples (JSON-DT), and Chain-based Name/Value (JSON-CNV). We analyzed the effects of these representations on query performance by storing them on two prominent document-based Data Management Systems (DMSs), namely, MongoDB and Couchbase and executing a set of benchmark queries over them. We also compared the execution times with row-store Virtuoso, column-store Virtuoso, and \mbox{Blazegraph} as three major DMSs with different architectures (aka, RDF-stores). Our results indicate that the representation type has a significant performance impact on query execution. For instance, the JSON-SNV outperforms others by nearly one order of magnitude to execute subject-subject join queries. This and the other results presented in this paper can assist in more accurate benchmarking of the emerging DMSs.
Heuristics for Link Prediction in Multiplex Networks

Link prediction, or the inference of future or missing connections between entities, is a well-studied problem in network analysis. A multitude of heuristics exist for link prediction in ordinary networks with a single type of connection. However, link prediction in multiplex networks, or networks with multiple types of connections, is not a well understood problem. We propose a novel general framework and three families of heuristics for multiplex network link prediction that are simple, interpretable, and take advantage of the rich connection type correlation structure that exists in many real world networks. We further derive a theoretical threshold for determining when to use a different connection type based on the number of links that overlap with an Erdos-Renyi random graph. Through experiments with simulated and real world scientific collaboration, transportation and global trade networks, we demonstrate that the proposed heuristics show increased performance with the richness of connection type correlation structure and significantly outperform their baseline heuristics for ordinary networks with a single connection type.
Leveraging 2D Data to Learn Textured 3D Mesh Generation

Numerous methods have been proposed for probabilistic generative modelling of 3D objects. However, none of these is able to produce textured objects, which renders them of limited use for practical tasks. In this work, we present the first generative model of textured 3D meshes. Training such a model would traditionally require a large dataset of textured meshes, but unfortunately, existing datasets of meshes lack detailed textures. We instead propose a new training methodology that allows learning from collections of 2D images without any 3D information. To do so, we train our model to explain a distribution of images by modelling each image as a 3D foreground object placed in front of a 2D background. Thus, it learns to generate meshes that when rendered, produce images similar to those in its training set. A well-known problem when generating meshes with deep networks is the emergence of self-intersections, which are problematic for many use-cases. As a second contribution we therefore introduce a new generation process for 3D meshes that guarantees no self-intersections arise, based on the physical intuition that faces should push one another out of the way as they move. We conduct extensive experiments on our approach, reporting quantitative and qualitative results on both synthetic data and natural images. These show our method successfully learns to generate plausible and diverse textured 3D samples for five challenging object classes.
Cosmology with the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope -- Synergies with the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time

We explore synergies between the space-based Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and the ground-based Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). In particular, we consider a scenario where the currently envisioned survey strategy for WFIRST's High Latitude Survey (HLS), i.e., 2000 square degrees in four narrow photometric bands is altered in favor of a strategy that combines rapid coverage of the LSST area (to full LSST depth) in one band. We find that a 5-month WFIRST survey in the W-band can cover the full LSST survey area providing high-resolution imaging for >95% of the LSST Year 10 gold galaxy sample. We explore a second, more ambitious scenario where WFIRST spends 1.5 years covering the LSST area. For this second scenario we quantify the constraining power on dark energy equation of state parameters from a joint weak lensing and galaxy clustering analysis, and compare it to an LSST-only survey and to the Reference WFIRST HLS survey. Our survey simulations are based on the WFIRST exposure time calculator and redshift distributions from the CANDELS catalog. Our statistical uncertainties account for higher-order correlations of the density field, and we include a wide range of systematic effects, such as uncertainties in shape and redshift measurements, and modeling uncertainties of astrophysical systematics, such as galaxy bias, intrinsic galaxy alignment, and baryonic physics. Assuming the 5-month WFIRST wide scenario, we find a significant increase in constraining power for the joint LSST+WFIRST wide survey compared to LSST Y10 (FoM(Wwide)= 2.4 FoM(LSST)) and compared to LSST+WFIRST HLS (FoM(Wwide)= 5.5 FoM(HLS)).
Probing topological states through the exact non-Markovian decoherence dynamics of a spin coupled to a spin bath in the real-time domain

In this paper, we explore the decoherence dynamics of a probing spin coupled to a spin bath, where the spin bath is given by a controllable 1D transverse-field Ising chain. The 1D transverse-field Ising chain with free-ends boundary condition is equivalent to a modified Kitaev model with non-local Majorana bound states in its topological phase. We find that the probing spin non-Markovian decoherence dynamics can manifest the topological structure of the spin chain. By controlling the external magnetic field on the Ising chain, we find the close relationships between the quantum phase transitions, the topological edge states, and the non-Markovian dynamics in real-time domain. We also investigate the corresponding quantum entanglement dynamics in this topological system.
Pruning and Sparsemax Methods for Hierarchical Attention Networks

This paper introduces and evaluates two novel Hierarchical Attention Network models [Yang et al., 2016] - i) Hierarchical Pruned Attention Networks, which remove the irrelevant words and sentences from the classification process in order to reduce potential noise in the document classification accuracy and ii) Hierarchical Sparsemax Attention Networks, which replace the Softmax function used in the attention mechanism with the Sparsemax [Martins and Astudillo, 2016], capable of better handling importance distributions where a lot of words or sentences have very low probabilities. Our empirical evaluation on the IMDB Review for sentiment analysis datasets shows both approaches to be able to match the results obtained by the current state-of-the-art (without, however, any significant benefits). All our source code is made available athttps://github.com/jmribeiro/dsl-project.
3D Photography Using Context-Aware Layered Depth Inpainting

We propose a method for converting a single RGB-D input image into a 3D photo, i.e., a multi-layer representation for novel view synthesis that contains hallucinated color and depth structures in regions occluded in the original view. We use a Layered Depth Image with explicit pixel connectivity as underlying representation, and present a learning-based inpainting model that iteratively synthesizes new local color-and-depth content into the occluded region in a spatial context-aware manner. The resulting 3D photos can be efficiently rendered with motion parallax using standard graphics engines. We validate the effectiveness of our method on a wide range of challenging everyday scenes and show less artifacts when compared with the state-of-the-arts.
A Deep-learning-based Method for PIR-based Multi-person Localization

Device-free localization (DFL) based on pyroelectric infrared (PIR) sensors has attracted much attention due to its advantages of low cost, low power consumption, and privacy protection. However, most existing PIR-based DFL methods require high deployment density to achieve high localization accuracy. Recently, a few works proposed that the deployment density can be reduced by deeply analyzing the analog output of PIR sensors. However, these methods can not well handle the localization task in multi-person scenarios yet. In this paper, we propose a novel neural network for PIR-based multi-person localization, which appropriately leverages a series of domain knowledge. Specifically, the proposed network consists of two modules: one is for determining the number of persons and another is for determining their locations. Meanwhile, the module of person counting is further designed as a two-stage network: one stage is for signal separation and another is for single-person detection. The module for localization is also designed as a two-stage network: one stage is for signal extraction and another is for single-person localization. Through the above methods, we succeed to remarkably reduce the deployment density of the traditional PIR-based method by about 76\%, while maintaining the localization accuracy.
Topological Coded Distributed Computing

This paper considers the MapReduce-like coded distributed computing framework originally proposed by Li et al., which uses coding techniques when distributed computing servers exchange their computed intermediate values, in order to reduce the overall traffic load. In their original model, servers are connected via an error-free common communication bus allowing broadcast transmissions. However, this assumption is one of the major limitations for practical implementations since real-world data centers may have network topologies far more involved than a single broadcast bus. We formulate a topological coded distributed computing problem, where the computing servers communicate with each other through some switch network. By using a special instance of fat-tree topologies, referred to as t-ary fat-tree proposed by Al-Fares et al. which can be built by some inexpensive switches, we propose a coded distributed computing scheme to achieve the optimal max-link communication load (defined as the maximum load over all links) over any network topology.