OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Are NLP Models really able to Solve Simple Math Word Problems?
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2021
Year: 2021

The problem of designing NLP solvers for math word problems (MWP) has seen sustained research activity and steady gains in the test accuracy. Since existing solvers achieve high performance on the benchmark datasets for elementary level MWPs containing one-unknown arithmetic word problems, such problems are often considered "solved" with the bulk of research attention moving to more complex MWPs. In this paper, we restrict our attention to English MWPs taught in grades four and lower. We provide strong evidence that the existing MWP solvers rely on shallow heuristics to achieve high performance on the benchmark datasets. To this end, we show that MWP solvers that do not have access to the question asked in the MWP can still solve a large fraction of MWPs. Similarly, models that treat MWPs as bag-of-words can also achieve surprisingly high accuracy. Further, we introduce a challenge dataset, SVAMP, created by applying carefully chosen variations over examples sampled from existing datasets. The best accuracy achieved by state-of-the-art models is substantially lower on SVAMP, thus showing that much remains to be done even for the simplest of the MWPs.
Latent Space Explorations of Singing Voice Synthesis using DDSP
Venue: arXiv cs.SD 2021
Year: 2021

Machine learning based singing voice models require large datasets and lengthy training times. In this work we present a lightweight architecture, based on the Differentiable Digital Signal Processing (DDSP) library, that is able to output song-like utterances conditioned only on pitch and amplitude, after twelve hours of training using small datasets of unprocessed audio. The results are promising, as both the melody and the singer's voice are recognizable. In addition, we present two zero-configuration tools to train new models and experiment with them. Currently we are exploring the latent space representation, which is included in the DDSP library, but not in the original DDSP examples. Our results indicate that the latent space improves both the identification of the singer as well as the comprehension of the lyrics. Our code is available at https://github.com/juanalonso/DDSP-singing-experiments with links to the zero-configuration notebooks, and our sound examples are at https://juanalonso.github.io/DDSP-singing-experiments/ .
Automatic Romanization of Arabic Bibliographic Records
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2021
Year: 2021

International library standards require cataloguers to tediously input Romanization of their catalogue records for the benefit of library users without specific language expertise. In this paper, we present the first reported results on the task of automatic Romanization of undiacritized Arabic bibliographic entries. This complex task requires the modeling of Arabic phonology, morphology, and even semantics. We collected a 2.5M word corpus of parallel Arabic and Romanized bibliographic entries, and benchmarked a number of models that vary in terms of complexity and resource dependence. Our best system reaches 89.3% exact word Romanization on a blind test set. We make our data and code publicly available.
Sentinel: A Hyper-Heuristic for the Generation of Mutant Reduction Strategies
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2021
Year: 2021

Mutation testing is an effective approach to evaluate and strengthen software test suites, but its adoption is currently limited by the mutants' execution computational cost. Several strategies have been proposed to reduce this cost (a.k.a. mutation cost reduction strategies), however none of them has proven to be effective for all scenarios since they often need an ad-hoc manual selection and configuration depending on the software under test (SUT). In this paper, we propose a novel multi-objective evolutionary hyper-heuristic approach, dubbed Sentinel, to automate the generation of optimal cost reduction strategies for every new SUT. We evaluate Sentinel by carrying out a thorough empirical study involving 40 releases of 10 open-source real-world software systems and both baseline and state-of-the-art strategies as a benchmark. We execute a total of 4,800 experiments, and evaluate their results with both quality indicators and statistical significance tests, following the most recent best practice in the literature. The results show that strategies generated by Sentinel outperform the baseline strategies in 95% of the cases always with large effect sizes. They also obtain statistically significantly better results than state-of-the-art strategies in 88% of the cases, with large effect sizes for 95% of them. Also, our study reveals that the mutation strategies generated by Sentinel for a given software version can be used without any loss in quality for subsequently developed versions in 95% of the cases. These results show that Sentinel is able to automatically generate mutation strategies that reduce mutation testing cost without affecting its testing effectiveness (i.e. mutation score), thus taking off from the tester's shoulders the burden of manually selecting and configuring strategies for each SUT.
Explaining and Improving BERT Performance on Lexical Semantic Change Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2021
Year: 2021

Type- and token-based embedding architectures are still competing in lexical semantic change detection. The recent success of type-based models in SemEval-2020 Task 1 has raised the question why the success of token-based models on a variety of other NLP tasks does not translate to our field. We investigate the influence of a range of variables on clusterings of BERT vectors and show that its low performance is largely due to orthographic information on the target word, which is encoded even in the higher layers of BERT representations. By reducing the influence of orthography we considerably improve BERT's performance.
Robust and generalizable embryo selection based on artificial intelligence and time-lapse image sequences
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

Assessing and selecting the most viable embryos for transfer is an essential part of in vitro fertilization (IVF). In recent years, several approaches have been made to improve and automate the procedure using artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning. Based on images of embryos with known implantation data (KID), AI models have been trained to automatically score embryos related to their chance of achieving a successful implantation. However, as of now, only limited research has been conducted to evaluate how embryo selection models generalize to new clinics and how they perform in subgroup analyses across various conditions. In this paper, we investigate how a deep learning-based embryo selection model using only time-lapse image sequences performs across different patient ages and clinical conditions, and how it correlates with traditional morphokinetic parameters. The model was trained and evaluated based on a large dataset from 18 IVF centers consisting of 115,832 embryos, of which 14,644 embryos were transferred KID embryos. In an independent test set, the AI model sorted KID embryos with an area under the curve (AUC) of a receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.67 and all embryos with an AUC of 0.95. A clinic hold-out test showed that the model generalized to new clinics with an AUC range of 0.60-0.75 for KID embryos. Across different subgroups of age, insemination method, incubation time, and transfer protocol, the AUC ranged between 0.63 and 0.69. Furthermore, model predictions correlated positively with blastocyst grading and negatively with direct cleavages. The fully automated iDAScore v1.0 model was shown to perform at least as good as a state-of-the-art manual embryo selection model. Moreover, full automatization of embryo scoring implies fewer manual evaluations and eliminates biases due to inter- and intraobserver variation.
Automating the GDPR Compliance Assessment for Cross-border Personal Data Transfers in Android Applications
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2021
Year: 2021

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to ensure that all personal data processing activities are fair and transparent for the European Union (EU) citizens, regardless of whether these are carried out within the EU or anywhere else. To this end, it sets strict requirements to transfer personal data outside the EU. However, checking these requirements is a daunting task for supervisory authorities, particularly in the mobile app domain due to the huge number of apps available and their dynamic nature. In this paper, we propose a fully automated method to assess the compliance of mobile apps with the GDPR requirements for cross-border personal data transfers. We have applied the method to the top-free 10,080 apps from the Google Play Store. The results reveal that there is still a very significant gap between what app providers and third-party recipients do in practice and what is intended by the GDPR. A substantial 56% of analysed apps are potentially non-compliant with the GDPR cross-border transfer requirements.
Siamese Infrared and Visible Light Fusion Network for RGB-T Tracking
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Due to the different photosensitive properties of infrared and visible light, the registered RGB-T image pairs shot in the same scene exhibit quite different characteristics. This paper proposes a siamese infrared and visible light fusion Network (SiamIVFN) for RBG-T image-based tracking. SiamIVFN contains two main subnetworks: a complementary-feature-fusion network (CFFN) and a contribution-aggregation network (CAN). CFFN utilizes a two-stream multilayer convolutional structure whose filters for each layer are partially coupled to fuse the features extracted from infrared images and visible light images. CFFN is a feature-level fusion network, which can cope with the misalignment of the RGB-T image pairs. Through adaptively calculating the contributions of infrared and visible light features obtained from CFFN, CAN makes the tracker robust under various light conditions. Experiments on two RGB-T tracking benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed SiamIVFN has achieved state-of-the-art performance. The tracking speed of SiamIVFN is 147.6FPS, the current fastest RGB-T fusion tracker.
Synthesizing Correlated Randomness using Algebraic Structured Codes
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

In this problem, Alice and Bob, are provided $X_{1}^{n}$ and $X_{2}^{n}$ that are IID $p_{X_1 X_2}$. Alice and Bob can communicate to Charles over (noiseless) links of rate $R_1$ and $R_2$, respectively. Their goal is to enable Charles generate samples $Y^{n}$ such that the triple $(X_{1}^{n},X_{2}^{n},Y^{n})$ has a PMF that is close, in total variation, to $\prod p_{X_1 X_2 Y}$. In addition, the three parties may posses shared common randomness at rate $C$. We address the problem of characterizing the set of rate triples $(R_1,R_2,C)$ for which the above goal can be accomplished. We build on our recent findings and propose a new coding scheme based on coset codes. We analyze its information-theoretic performance and derive a new inner bound. We identify examples for which the derived inner bound is analytically proven to contain rate triples that are not achievable via any known unstructured code based coding techniques. Our findings build on a variant of soft-covering which generalizes its applicability to the algebraic structured code ensembles. This adds to the advancement of the use structured codes in network information theory.
Information Maximization Clustering via Multi-View Self-Labelling
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Image clustering is a particularly challenging computer vision task, which aims to generate annotations without human supervision. Recent advances focus on the use of self-supervised learning strategies in image clustering, by first learning valuable semantics and then clustering the image representations. These multiple-phase algorithms, however, increase the computational time and their final performance is reliant on the first stage. By extending the self-supervised approach, we propose a novel single-phase clustering method that simultaneously learns meaningful representations and assigns the corresponding annotations. This is achieved by integrating a discrete representation into the self-supervised paradigm through a classifier net. Specifically, the proposed clustering objective employs mutual information, and maximizes the dependency between the integrated discrete representation and a discrete probability distribution. The discrete probability distribution is derived though the self-supervised process by comparing the learnt latent representation with a set of trainable prototypes. To enhance the learning performance of the classifier, we jointly apply the mutual information across multi-crop views. Our empirical results show that the proposed framework outperforms state-of-the-art techniques with the average accuracy of 89.1% and 49.0%, respectively, on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100/20 datasets. Finally, the proposed method also demonstrates attractive robustness to parameter settings, making it ready to be applicable to other datasets.
Test case generation for agent-based models: A systematic literature review
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2021
Year: 2021

Agent-based models play an important role in simulating complex emergent phenomena and supporting critical decisions. In this context, a software fault may result in poorly informed decisions that lead to disastrous consequences. The ability to rigorously test these models is therefore essential. In this systematic literature review, we answer five research questions related to the key aspects of test case generation in agent-based models: What are the information artifacts used to generate tests? How are these tests generated? How is a verdict assigned to a generated test? How is the adequacy of a generated test suite measured? What level of abstraction of an agent-based model is targeted by a generated test? Our results show that whilst the majority of techniques are effective for testing functional requirements at the agent and integration levels of abstraction, there are comparatively few techniques capable of testing society-level behaviour. Additionally, we identify a need for more thorough evaluation using realistic case studies that feature challenging properties associated with a typical agent-based model.
PatchNet -- Short-range Template Matching for Efficient Video Processing
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Object recognition is a fundamental problem in many video processing tasks, accurately locating seen objects at low computation cost paves the way for on-device video recognition. We propose PatchNet, an efficient convolutional neural network to match objects in adjacent video frames. It learns the patchwise correlation features instead of pixel features. PatchNet is very compact, running at just 58MFLOPs, $5\times$ simpler than MobileNetV2. We demonstrate its application on two tasks, video object detection and visual object tracking. On ImageNet VID, PatchNet reduces the flops of R-FCN ResNet-101 by 5x and EfficientDet-D0 by 3.4x with less than 1% mAP loss. On OTB2015, PatchNet reduces SiamFC and SiamRPN by 2.5x with no accuracy loss. Experiments on Jetson Nano further demonstrate 2.8x to 4.3x speed-ups associated with flops reduction. Code is open sourced at https://github.com/RalphMao/PatchNet.
A Neural Network for Semigroups
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

Tasks like image reconstruction in computer vision, matrix completion in recommender systems and link prediction in graph theory, are well studied in machine learning literature. In this work, we apply a denoising autoencoder-based neural network architecture to the task of completing partial multiplication (Cayley) tables of finite semigroups. We suggest a novel loss function for that task based on the algebraic nature of the semigroup data. We also provide a software package for conducting experiments similar to those carried out in this work. Our experiments showed that with only about 10% of the available data, it is possible to build a model capable of reconstructing a full Cayley from only half of it in about 80% of cases.
Continual Learning for Recurrent Neural Networks: an Empirical Evaluation
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

Learning continuously during all model lifetime is fundamental to deploy machine learning solutions robust to drifts in the data distribution. Advances in Continual Learning (CL) with recurrent neural networks could pave the way to a large number of applications where incoming data is non stationary, like natural language processing and robotics. However, the existing body of work on the topic is still fragmented, with approaches which are application-specific and whose assessment is based on heterogeneous learning protocols and datasets. In this paper, we organize the literature on CL for sequential data processing by providing a categorization of the contributions and a review of the benchmarks. We propose two new benchmarks for CL with sequential data based on existing datasets, whose characteristics resemble real-world applications. We also provide a broad empirical evaluation of CL and Recurrent Neural Networks in class-incremental scenario, by testing their ability to mitigate forgetting with a number of different strategies which are not specific to sequential data processing. Our results highlight the key role played by the sequence length and the importance of a clear specification of the CL scenario.
Building the perfect game -- an empirical study of game modifications
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2021
Year: 2021

Game developers cannot always meet the growing and changing needs of the gaming community, due to the often already overloaded schedules of developers. So-called modders can potentially assist game developers with addressing gamers' needs. Modders are enthusiasts who provide modifications or completely new content for a game. By supporting modders, game developers can meet the rapidly growing and varying needs of their gamer base. Modders have the potential to play a role in extending the life expectancy of a game, thereby saving game developers time and money, and leading to a better overall gaming experience for their gamer base. In this paper, we empirically study the metadata of 9,521 mods of the 20 most-modded games on the Nexus Mods distribution platform. Our goal is to provide useful insights into the modding community of the Nexus Mods distribution platform from a quantitative perspective, and to provide researchers with a solid foundation for future exploration of game mods. In doing so, game developers can potentially reduce development time and cost due to the increased replayability of their games through mods. We find that providing official support for mods can be beneficial for the perceived quality of the mods of a game. In addition, mod users are willing to submit bug reports for a mod. However, they often fail to do this in a systematic manner using the bug reporting tool of the Nexus Mods platform, resulting in low-quality bug reports which are difficult to resolve. Based on our findings, we recommend that game developers who desire an active modding community for their own games provide the modding community with an officially-supported modding tool. In addition, we recommend that mod distribution platforms, such as Nexus Mods, improve their bug reporting system to receive higher quality bug reports.
Multidimensional Generalized Quadrature Index Modulation for 5G Wireless Communications
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

Multidimensional generalized quadrature index modulation scheme is proposed in this paper for conveying extra digital information with the aid of the space, radio frequency (RF) mirrors, and time indices. Explicitly, this proposed scheme cleverly combines another proposed time-indexed generalized quadrature spatial modulation (TI-GQSM) system with media-based modulation (MBM) transmission principle using RF mirrors, and it is referred to as TI-GQSM-MBM scheme. This scheme is attractive because of both the high data rate and the significant performance improvements that can be achieved. The system performance of the proposed schemes in terms of the bit error rate (BER) is evaluated and compared to the performance of the conventional schemes. Simulation results showed that a significant improvement is achieved by the TI-GQSM-MBM scheme as compared to that of TI-GQSM, time-indexed media-based modulation (TI-MBM) and the conventional generalized quadrature spatial modulation (GQSM) schemes for the same rate. It is also demonstrated that the proposed schemes are robust to channel estimation errors (CEEs) as compared to multidimensional generalized spatial modulation (GSM) schemes. Therefore, the proposed schemes can be effectively used as an alternative solution for various 5G and beyond wireless networks.
Privacy Regularization: Joint Privacy-Utility Optimization in Language Models
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

Neural language models are known to have a high capacity for memorization of training samples. This may have serious privacy implications when training models on user content such as email correspondence. Differential privacy (DP), a popular choice to train models with privacy guarantees, comes with significant costs in terms of utility degradation and disparate impact on subgroups of users. In this work, we introduce two privacy-preserving regularization methods for training language models that enable joint optimization of utility and privacy through (1) the use of a discriminator and (2) the inclusion of a triplet-loss term. We compare our methods with DP through extensive evaluation. We show the advantages of our regularizers with favorable utility-privacy trade-off, faster training with the ability to tap into existing optimization approaches, and ensuring uniform treatment of under-represented subgroups.
Defining, Evaluating, Preparing for and Responding to a Cyber Pearl Harbor
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2021
Year: 2021

Despite not having a clear meaning, public perception and awareness makes the term cyber Pearl Harbor an important part of the public discourse. This paper considers what the term has meant and proposes its decomposition based on three different aspects of the historical Pearl Harbor attack, allowing the lessons from Pearl Harbor to be applied to threats and subjects that may not align with all aspects of the 1941 attack. Using these three definitions, prior attacks and current threats are assessed and preparation for and response to cyber Pearl Harbor events is discussed.
Proving and Disproving Programs with Shared Mutable Data
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2021
Year: 2021

We present a tool for verification of deterministic programs with shared mutable references against specifications such as assertions, preconditions, postconditions, and read/write effects. We implement our tool by encoding programs with mutable references into annotated purely functional recursive programs. We then rely on function unfolding and the SMT solver Z3 to prove or disprove safety and to establish program termination. Our tool uses a new translation of programs where frame conditions are encoded using quantifier-free formulas in first-order logic (instead of relying on quantifiers or separation logic). This quantifier-free encoding enables SMT solvers to prove safety or report counterexamples relative to the semantics of procedure specifications. Our encoding is possible thanks to the expressive power of the extended array theory of the Z3 SMT solver. In addition to the ability to report counterexamples, our tool retains efficiency of reasoning about purely functional layers of data structures, providing expressiveness for mutable data but also a significant level of automation for purely functional aspects of software. We illustrate our tool through examples manipulating mutable linked structures and arrays.