OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
CARE: Lightweight Attack Resilient Secure Boot Architecturewith Onboard Recovery for RISC-V based SOC
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2021
Year: 2021

Recent technological advancements have proliferated the use of small embedded devices for collecting, processing, and transferring the security-critical information. The Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled remote access and control of these network-connected devices. Consequently, an attacker can exploit security vulnerabilities and compromise these devices. In this context, the secure boot becomes a useful security mechanism to verify the integrity and authenticity of the software state of the devices. However, the current secure boot schemes focus on detecting the presence of potential malware on the device but not on disinfecting and restoring the soft-ware to a benign state. This manuscript presents CARE- the first secure boot framework that provides detection, resilience, and onboard recovery mechanism for the com-promised devices. The framework uses a prototype hybrid CARE: Code Authentication and Resilience Engine to verify the software state and restore it to a benign state. It uses Physical Memory Protection (PMP) and other security enchaining techniques of RISC-V processor to pro-vide resilience from modern attacks. The state-of-the-art comparison and performance analysis results indicate that the proposed secure boot framework provides a promising resilience and recovery mechanism with very little 8 % performance and resource overhead
Machine-Learning Mathematical Structures
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

We review, for a general audience, a variety of recent experiments on extracting structure from machine-learning mathematical data that have been compiled over the years. Focusing on supervised machine-learning on labeled data from different fields ranging from geometry to representation theory, from combinatorics to number theory, we present a comparative study of the accuracies on different problems. The paradigm should be useful for conjecture formulation, finding more efficient methods of computation, as well as probing into certain hierarchy of structures in mathematics.
Characterizing Discourse about COVID-19 Vaccines: A Reddit Version of the Pandemic Story
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2021
Year: 2021

It has been one year since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is that vaccines developed by several manufacturers are being actively distributed worldwide. However, as more and more vaccines become available to the public, various concerns related to vaccines become the primary barriers that may hinder the public from getting vaccinated. Considering the complexities of these concerns and their potential hazards, this study aims to offer a clear understanding about different population groups' underlying concerns when they talk about COVID-19 vaccines, particular those active on Reddit. The goal is achieved by applying LDA and LIWC to characterizing the pertaining discourse with insights generated through a combination of quantitative and qualitative comparisons. Findings include: 1) during the pandemic, the proportion of Reddit comments predominated by conspiracy theories outweighed that of any other topics; 2) each subreddit has its own user bases, so information posted in one subreddit may not reach those from other subreddits; 3) since users' concerns vary across time and subreddits, communication strategies must be adjusted according to specific needs. The results of this study manifest challenges as well as opportunities in the process of designing effective communication and immunization programs.
Tuiteamos o pongamos un tuit? Investigating the Social Constraints of Loanword Integration in Spanish Social Media
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2021
Year: 2021

Speakers of non-English languages often adopt loanwords from English to express new or unusual concepts. While these loanwords may be borrowed unchanged, speakers may also integrate the words to fit the constraints of their native language, e.g. creating Spanish "tuitear" from English "tweet." Linguists have often considered the process of loanword integration to be more dependent on language-internal constraints, but sociolinguistic constraints such as speaker background remain only qualitatively understood. We investigate the role of social context and speaker background in Spanish speakers' use of integrated loanwords on social media. We find first that newspaper authors use the integrated forms of loanwords and native words more often than social media authors, showing that integration is associated with formal domains. In social media, we find that speaker background and expectations of formality explain loanword and native word integration, such that authors who use more Spanish and who write to a wider audience tend to use integrated verb forms more often. This study shows that loanword integration reflects not only language-internal constraints but also social expectations that vary by conversation and speaker.
NNStreamer: Efficient and Agile Development of On-Device AI Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

We propose NNStreamer, a software system that handles neural networks as filters of stream pipelines, applying the stream processing paradigm to deep neural network applications. A new trend with the wide-spread of deep neural network applications is on-device AI. It is to process neural networks on mobile devices or edge/IoT devices instead of cloud servers. Emerging privacy issues, data transmission costs, and operational costs signify the need for on-device AI, especially if we deploy a massive number of devices. NNStreamer efficiently handles neural networks with complex data stream pipelines on devices, significantly improving the overall performance with minimal efforts. Besides, NNStreamer simplifies implementations and allows reusing off-the-shelf media filters directly, which reduces developmental costs significantly. We are already deploying NNStreamer for a wide range of products and platforms, including the Galaxy series and various consumer electronic devices. The experimental results suggest a reduction in developmental costs and enhanced performance of pipeline architectures and NNStreamer. It is an open-source project incubated by Linux Foundation AI, available to the public and applicable to various hardware and software platforms.
Minimum-volume Multichannel Nonnegative matrix factorization for blind source separation
Venue: arXiv cs.SD 2021
Year: 2021

Multichannel blind audio source separation aims to recover the latent sources from their multichannel mixtures without supervised information. One state-of-the-art blind audio source separation method, named independent low-rank matrix analysis (ILRMA), unifies independent vector analysis (IVA) and nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). However, the spectra matrix produced from NMF may not find a compact spectral basis. It may not guarantee the identifiability of each source as well. To address this problem, here we propose to enhance the identifiability of the source model by a minimum-volume prior distribution. We further regularize a multichannel NMF (MNMF) and ILRMA respectively with the minimum-volume regularizer. The proposed methods maximize the posterior distribution of the separated sources, which ensures the stability of the convergence. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods compared with auxiliary independent vector analysis, MNMF, ILRMA and its extensions.
Revisiting Driver Anonymity in ORide
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2021
Year: 2021

Ride Hailing Services (RHS) have become a popular means of transportation, and with its popularity comes the concerns of privacy of riders and drivers. ORide is a privacy-preserving RHS proposed at the USENIX Security Symposium 2017 and uses Somewhat Homomorphic Encryption (SHE). In their protocol, a rider and all drivers in a zone send their encrypted coordinates to the RHS Service Provider (SP) who computes the squared Euclidean distances between them and forwards them to the rider. The rider decrypts these and selects the optimal driver with least Euclidean distance. In this work, we demonstrate a location-harvesting attack where an honest-but-curious rider, making only a single ride request, can determine the exact coordinates of about half the number of responding drivers even when only the distance between the rider and drivers are given. The significance of our attack lies in inferring locations of other drivers in the zone, which are not (supposed to be) revealed to the rider as per the protocol. We validate our attack by running experiments on zones of varying sizes in arbitrarily selected big cities. Our attack is based on enumerating lattice points on a circle of sufficiently small radius and eliminating solutions based on conditions imposed by the application scenario. Finally, we propose a modification to ORide aimed at thwarting our attack and show that this modification provides sufficient driver anonymity while preserving ride matching accuracy.
JITuNE: Just-In-Time Hyperparameter Tuning for Network Embedding Algorithms
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

Network embedding (NE) can generate succinct node representations for massive-scale networks and enable direct applications of common machine learning methods to the network structure. Various NE algorithms have been proposed and used in a number of applications, such as node classification and link prediction. NE algorithms typically contain hyperparameters that are key to performance, but the hyperparameter tuning process can be time consuming. It is desirable to have the hyperparameters tuned within a specified length of time. Although AutoML methods have been applied to the hyperparameter tuning of NE algorithms, the problem of how to tune hyperparameters in a given period of time is not studied for NE algorithms before. In this paper, we propose JITuNE, a just-in-time hyperparameter tuning framework for NE algorithms. Our JITuNE framework enables the time-constrained hyperparameter tuning for NE algorithms by employing the tuning over hierarchical network synopses and transferring the knowledge obtained on synopses to the whole network. The hierarchical generation of synopsis and a time-constrained tuning method enable the constraining of overall tuning time. Extensive experiments demonstrate that JITuNE can significantly improve performances of NE algorithms, outperforming state-of-the-art methods within the same number of algorithm runs.
New Low Rank Optimization Model and Convex Approach for Robust Spectral Compressed Sensing
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

This paper investigates recovery of an undamped spectrally sparse signal and its spectral components from a set of regularly spaced samples within the framework of spectral compressed sensing and super-resolution. We show that the existing Hankel-based optimization methods suffer from the fundamental limitation that the prior of undampedness cannot be exploited. We propose a new low rank optimization model partially inspired by forward-backward processing for line spectral estimation and show its capability in restricting the spectral poles on the unit circle. We present convex relaxation approaches with the model and show their provable accuracy and robustness to bounded and sparse noise. All our results are generalized from the 1-D to arbitrary-dimensional spectral compressed sensing. Numerical simulations are provided that corroborate our analysis and show efficiency of our model and advantageous performance of our approach in improved accuracy and resolution as compared to the state-of-the-art Hankel and atomic norm methods.
Adaptive Remote Sensing Image Attribute Learning for Active Object Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

In recent years, deep learning methods bring incredible progress to the field of object detection. However, in the field of remote sensing image processing, existing methods neglect the relationship between imaging configuration and detection performance, and do not take into account the importance of detection performance feedback for improving image quality. Therefore, detection performance is limited by the passive nature of the conventional object detection framework. In order to solve the above limitations, this paper takes adaptive brightness adjustment and scale adjustment as examples, and proposes an active object detection method based on deep reinforcement learning. The goal of adaptive image attribute learning is to maximize the detection performance. With the help of active object detection and image attribute adjustment strategies, low-quality images can be converted into high-quality images, and the overall performance is improved without retraining the detector.
Evaluating User Experiences in Mixed Reality
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2021
Year: 2021

Measure user experience in MR (i.e., AR/VR) user studies is essential. Researchers apply a wide range of measuring methods using objective (e.g., biosignals, time logging), behavioral (e.g., gaze direction, movement amplitude), and subjective (e.g., standardized questionnaires) metrics. Many of these measurement instruments were adapted from use-cases outside of MR but have not been validated for usage in MR experiments. However, researchers are faced with various challenges and design alternatives when measuring immersive experiences. These challenges become even more diverse when running out-of-the lab studies. Measurement methods of VR experience recently received much attention. For example, research has started embedding questionnaires in the VE for various applications, allowing users to stay closer to the ongoing experience while filling out the survey. However, there is a diversity in the interaction methods and practices on how the assessment procedure is conducted. This diversity in methods underlines a missing shared agreement of standardized measurement tools for VR experiences. AR research strongly orients on the research methods from VR, e.g., using the same type of subjective questionnaires. However, some crucial technical differences require careful considerations during the evaluation. This workshop at CHI 2021 provides a foundation to exchange expertise and address challenges and opportunities of research methods in MR user studies. By this, our workshop launches a discussion of research methods that should lead to standardizing assessment methods in MR user studies. The outcomes of the workshop will be aggregated into a collective special issue journal article.
From hand to brain and back: Grip forces deliver insight into the functional plasticity of somatosensory processes
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2021
Year: 2021

The human somatosensory cortex is intimately linked to other central brain functions such as vision, audition, mechanoreception, and motor planning and control. These links are established through brain learning, and display a considerable functional plasticity. This latter fulfills an important adaptive role and ensures, for example, that humans are able to reliably manipulate and control objects in the physical world under constantly changing conditions in their immediate sensory environment. Variations in human grip force are a direct reflection of this specific kind of functional plasticity. Data from preliminary experiments where wearable wireless sensor technology (sensor gloves) was exploited to measure human grip force variations under varying sensory input conditions (eyes open or shut, soft music or hard music during gripping) are discussed here to show the extent to which grip force sensing permits quantifying somatosensory brain interactions and their functional plasticity. Experiments to take this preliminary work further are suggested. Implications for robotics, in particular the development of end-effector robots for upper limb movement planning and control, are brought forward.
Stable Matching for Selection of Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces in Multiuser MISO Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

In this letter, we present an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) selection strategy for multiple IRSs aided multiuser multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems. In particular, we pose the IRS selection problem as a stable matching problem. A two stage user-IRS assignment algorithm is proposed, where the main objective is to carry out a stable user-IRS matching, such that the sum rate of the system is improved. The first stage of the proposed algorithm employs a well-known Gale Shapley matching designed for the stable marriage problem. However, due to interference in multiuser systems, the matching obtained after the first stage may not be stable. To overcome this issue, one-sided (i.e., only IRSs) blocking pairs (BPs) are identified in the second stage of the proposed algorithm, where the BP is a pair of IRSs which are better off after exchanging their partners. Thus, the second stage validates the stable matching in the proposed algorithm. Numerical results show that the proposed assignment achieves better sum rate performance compared to distance-based and random matching algorithms.
Evaluating Online and Offline Accuracy Traversal Algorithms for k-Complete Neural Network Architectures
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

Architecture sizes for neural networks have been studied widely and several search methods have been offered to find the best architecture size in the shortest amount of time possible. In this paper, we study compact neural network architectures for binary classification and investigate improvements in speed and accuracy when favoring overcomplete architecture candidates that have a very high-dimensional representation of the input. We hypothesize that an overcomplete model architecture that creates a relatively high-dimensional representation of the input will be not only be more accurate but would also be easier and faster to find. In an NxM search space, we propose an online traversal algorithm that finds the best architecture candidate in O(1) time for best case and O(N) amortized time for average case for any compact binary classification problem by using k-completeness as heuristics in our search. The two other offline search algorithms we implement are brute force traversal and diagonal traversal, which both find the best architecture candidate in O(NxM) time. We compare our new algorithm to brute force and diagonal searching as a baseline and report search time improvement of 52.1% over brute force and of 15.4% over diagonal search to find the most accurate neural network architecture when given the same dataset. In all cases discussed in the paper, our online traversal algorithm can find an accurate, if not better, architecture in significantly shorter amount of time.
Joint Beamforming and Location Optimization for Secure Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks with UAV-Carried Intelligent Reflecting Surface
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

This paper considers unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-carried intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) for secure data collection in wireless sensor networks. An eavesdropper (Eve) lurks within the vicinity of the main receiver (Bob) while several randomly placed sensor nodes beamform collaboratively to the UAV-carried IRS that reflects the signal to the main receiver (Bob). The design objective is to maximise the achievable secrecy rate in the noisy communication channel by jointly optimizing the collaborative beamforming weights of the sensor nodes, the trajectory of the UAV and the reflection coefficients of the IRS elements. By designing the IRS reflection coefficients with and without the knowledge of the eavesdropper's channel, we develop a non-iterative sub-optimal solution for the secrecy rate maximization problem. It has been shown analytically that the UAV flight time and the randomness in the distribution of the sensor nodes, obtained by varying the sensor distribution area, can greatly affect secrecy performance. In addition, the maximum allowable number of IRS elements as well as a bound on the attainable average secrecy rate of the IRS aided noisy communication channel have also been derived. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithms compared to the existing schemes.
Tailored Learning-Based Scheduling for Kubernetes-Oriented Edge-Cloud System
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2021
Year: 2021

Kubernetes (k8s) has the potential to merge the distributed edge and the cloud but lacks a scheduling framework specifically for edge-cloud systems. Besides, the hierarchical distribution of heterogeneous resources and the complex dependencies among requests and resources make the modeling and scheduling of k8s-oriented edge-cloud systems particularly sophisticated. In this paper, we introduce KaiS, a learning-based scheduling framework for such edge-cloud systems to improve the long-term throughput rate of request processing. First, we design a coordinated multi-agent actor-critic algorithm to cater to decentralized request dispatch and dynamic dispatch spaces within the edge cluster. Second, for diverse system scales and structures, we use graph neural networks to embed system state information, and combine the embedding results with multiple policy networks to reduce the orchestration dimensionality by stepwise scheduling. Finally, we adopt a two-time-scale scheduling mechanism to harmonize request dispatch and service orchestration, and present the implementation design of deploying the above algorithms compatible with native k8s components. Experiments using real workload traces show that KaiS can successfully learn appropriate scheduling policies, irrespective of request arrival patterns and system scales. Moreover, KaiS can enhance the average system throughput rate by 14.3% while reducing scheduling cost by 34.7% compared to baselines.
Performance Analysis and Improvement of Parallel Differential Evolution
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2021
Year: 2021

Differential evolution (DE) is an effective global evolutionary optimization algorithm using to solve global optimization problems mainly in a continuous domain. In this field, researchers pay more attention to improving the capability of DE to find better global solutions, however, the computational performance of DE is also a very interesting aspect especially when the problem scale is quite large. Firstly, this paper analyzes the design of parallel computation of DE which can easily be executed in Math Kernel Library (MKL) and Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). Then the essence of the exponential crossover operator is described and we point out that it cannot be used for better parallel computation. Later, we propose a new exponential crossover operator (NEC) that can be executed parallelly with MKL/CUDA. Next, the extended experiments show that the new crossover operator can speed up DE greatly. In the end, we test the new parallel DE structure, illustrating that the former is much faster.
Generalized Image Reconstruction over T-Algebra
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is well known for its capability of dimension reduction and data compression. However, when using PCA for compressing/reconstructing images, images need to be recast to vectors. The vectorization of images makes some correlation constraints of neighboring pixels and spatial information lost. To deal with the drawbacks of the vectorizations adopted by PCA, we used small neighborhoods of each pixel to form compounded pixels and use a tensorial version of PCA, called TPCA (Tensorial Principal Component Analysis), to compress and reconstruct a compounded image of compounded pixels. Our experiments on public data show that TPCA compares favorably with PCA in compressing and reconstructing images. We also show in our experiments that the performance of TPCA increases when the order of compounded pixels increases.