OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Explainable Decision Making with Lean and Argumentative Explanations
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2022
Year: 2022

It is widely acknowledged that transparency of automated decision making is crucial for deployability of intelligent systems, and explaining the reasons why some decisions are "good" and some are not is a way to achieving this transparency. We consider two variants of decision making, where "good" decisions amount to alternatives (i) meeting "most" goals, and (ii) meeting "most preferred" goals. We then define, for each variant and notion of "goodness" (corresponding to a number of existing notions in the literature), explanations in two formats, for justifying the selection of an alternative to audiences with differing needs and competences: lean explanations, in terms of goals satisfied and, for some notions of "goodness", alternative decisions, and argumentative explanations, reflecting the decision process leading to the selection, while corresponding to the lean explanations. To define argumentative explanations, we use assumption-based argumentation (ABA), a well-known form of structured argumentation. Specifically, we define ABA frameworks such that "good" decisions are admissible ABA arguments and draw argumentative explanations from dispute trees sanctioning this admissibility. Finally, we instantiate our overall framework for explainable decision-making to accommodate connections between goals and decisions in terms of decision graphs incorporating defeasible and non-defeasible information.
Benchmarking Subset Selection from Large Candidate Solution Sets in Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2022
Year: 2022

In the evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO) field, the standard practice is to present the final population of an EMO algorithm as the output. However, it has been shown that the final population often includes solutions which are dominated by other solutions generated and discarded in previous generations. Recently, a new EMO framework has been proposed to solve this issue by storing all the non-dominated solutions generated during the evolution in an archive and selecting a subset of solutions from the archive as the output. The key component in this framework is the subset selection from the archive which usually stores a large number of candidate solutions. However, most studies on subset selection focus on small candidate solution sets for environmental selection. There is no benchmark test suite for large-scale subset selection. This paper aims to fill this research gap by proposing a benchmark test suite for subset selection from large candidate solution sets, and comparing some representative methods using the proposed test suite. The proposed test suite together with the benchmarking studies provides a baseline for researchers to understand, use, compare, and develop subset selection methods in the EMO field.
Motion Inbetweening via Deep $Δ$-Interpolator
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

We show that the task of synthesizing human motion conditioned on a set of key frames can be solved more accurately and effectively if a deep learning based interpolator operates in the delta mode using the spherical linear interpolator as a baseline. We empirically demonstrate the strength of our approach on publicly available datasets achieving state-of-the-art performance. We further generalize these results by showing that the $Δ$-regime is viable with respect to the reference of the last known frame (also known as the zero-velocity model). This supports the more general conclusion that operating in the reference frame local to input frames is more accurate and robust than in the global (world) reference frame advocated in previous work. Our code is publicly available at https://github.com/boreshkinai/delta-interpolator.
DeepRelease: Language-agnostic Release Notes Generation from Pull Requests of Open-source Software
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2022
Year: 2022

The release note is an essential software artifact of open-source software that documents crucial information about changes, such as new features and bug fixes. With the help of release notes, both developers and users could have a general understanding of the latest version without browsing the source code. However, it is a daunting and time-consuming job for developers to produce release notes. Although prior studies have provided some automatic approaches, they generate release notes mainly by extracting information from code changes. This will result in language-specific and not being general enough to be applicable. Therefore, helping developers produce release notes effectively remains an unsolved challenge. To address the problem, we first conduct a manual study on the release notes of 900 GitHub projects, which reveals that more than 54% of projects produce their release notes with pull requests. Based on the empirical finding, we propose a deep learning based approach named DeepRelease (Deep learning based Release notes generator) to generate release notes according to pull requests. The process of release notes generation in DeepRelease includes the change entries generation and the change category (i.e., new features or bug fixes) generation, which are formulated as a text summarization task and a multi-class classification problem, respectively. Since DeepRelease fully employs text information from pull requests to summarize changes and identify the change category, it is language-agnostic and can be used for projects in any language. We build a dataset with over 46K release notes and evaluate DeepRelease on the dataset. The experimental results indicate that DeepRelease outperforms four baselines and can generate release notes similar to those manually written ones in a fraction of the time.
Emojis as Anchors to Detect Arabic Offensive Language and Hate Speech
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2022
Year: 2022

We introduce a generic, language-independent method to collect a large percentage of offensive and hate tweets regardless of their topics or genres. We harness the extralinguistic information embedded in the emojis to collect a large number of offensive tweets. We apply the proposed method on Arabic tweets and compare it with English tweets - analysing key cultural differences. We observed a constant usage of these emojis to represent offensiveness throughout different timespans on Twitter. We manually annotate and publicly release the largest Arabic dataset for offensive, fine-grained hate speech, vulgar and violence content. Furthermore, we benchmark the dataset for detecting offensiveness and hate speech using different transformer architectures and perform in-depth linguistic analysis. We evaluate our models on external datasets - a Twitter dataset collected using a completely different method, and a multi-platform dataset containing comments from Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, for assessing generalization capability. Competitive results on these datasets suggest that the data collected using our method captures universal characteristics of offensive language. Our findings also highlight the common words used in offensive communications, common targets for hate speech, specific patterns in violence tweets; and pinpoint common classification errors that can be attributed to limitations of NLP models. We observe that even state-of-the-art transformer models may fail to take into account culture, background and context or understand nuances present in real-world data such as sarcasm.
Demonstration of VegaPlus: Optimizing Declarative Visualization Languages
Venue: arXiv cs.DB 2022
Year: 2022

While many visualization specification languages are user-friendly, they tend to have one critical drawback: they are designed for small data on the client-side and, as a result, perform poorly at scale. We propose a system that takes declarative visualization specifications as input and automatically optimizes the resulting visualization execution plans by offloading computational-intensive operations to a separate database management system (DBMS). Our demo emphasizes live programming of visualizations over big data, enabling users to write or import Vega specifications, view the optimized plans from our system, and even modify these plans and compare their performance via a dedicated performance dashboard.
Computing Longest (Common) Lyndon Subsequences
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2022
Year: 2022

Given a string $T$ with length $n$ whose characters are drawn from an ordered alphabet of size $σ$, its longest Lyndon subsequence is a longest subsequence of $T$ that is a Lyndon word. We propose algorithms for finding such a subsequence in $O(n^3)$ time with $O(n)$ space, or online in $O(n^3 σ)$ space and time. Our first result can be extended to find the longest common Lyndon subsequence of two strings of length $n$ in $O(n^4 σ)$ time using $O(n^3)$ space.
CoAuthor: Designing a Human-AI Collaborative Writing Dataset for Exploring Language Model Capabilities
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2022
Year: 2022

Large language models (LMs) offer unprecedented language generation capabilities and exciting opportunities for interaction design. However, their highly context-dependent capabilities are difficult to grasp and are often subjectively interpreted. In this paper, we argue that by curating and analyzing large interaction datasets, the HCI community can foster more incisive examinations of LMs' generative capabilities. Exemplifying this approach, we present CoAuthor, a dataset designed for revealing GPT-3's capabilities in assisting creative and argumentative writing. CoAuthor captures rich interactions between 63 writers and four instances of GPT-3 across 1445 writing sessions. We demonstrate that CoAuthor can address questions about GPT-3's language, ideation, and collaboration capabilities, and reveal its contribution as a writing "collaborator" under various definitions of good collaboration. Finally, we discuss how this work may facilitate a more principled discussion around LMs' promises and pitfalls in relation to interaction design. The dataset and an interface for replaying the writing sessions are publicly available at https://coauthor.stanford.edu.
Improved Bounds on the Span of $L(1,2)$-edge Labeling of Some Infinite Regular Grids
Venue: arXiv cs.DM 2022
Year: 2022

For two given nonnegative integers $h$ and $k$, an $L(h,k)$-edge labeling of a graph $G$ is the assignment of labels $\{0,1, \cdots, n\}$ to the edges so that two edges having a common vertex are labeled with difference at least $h$ and two edges not having any common vertex but having a common edge connecting them are labeled with difference at least $k$. The span $λ'_{h,k}{(G)}$ is the minimum $n$ such that $G$ admits an $L(h,k)$-edge labeling. Here our main focus is on finding $λ'_{1,2}{(G)}$ for $L(1,2)$-edge labeling of infinite regular hexagonal ($T_3$), square ($T_4$), triangular ($T_6$) and octagonal ($T_8$) grids. It was known that $7 \leq λ'_{1,2}{(T_3)} \leq 8$, $10 \leq λ'_{1,2}{(T_4)} \leq 11$, $16 \leq λ'_{1,2}{(T_6)} \leq 20$ and $25 \leq λ'_{1,2}{(T_8)} \leq 28$. Here we settle two long standing open questions i.e. $λ'_{1,2}{(T_3)}$ and $λ'_{1,2}{(T_4)}$. We show $λ'_{1,2}{(T_3)} =7$, $λ'_{1,2}{(T_4)}= 11$. We also improve the bound for $T_6$ and $T_8$ and prove $λ'_{1,2}{(T_6)} \geq 18$, $ λ'_{1,2}{(T_8)} \geq 26$.
Nonparametric Feature Selection by Random Forests and Deep Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Random forests are a widely used machine learning algorithm, but their computational efficiency is undermined when applied to large-scale datasets with numerous instances and useless features. Herein, we propose a nonparametric feature selection algorithm that incorporates random forests and deep neural networks, and its theoretical properties are also investigated under regularity conditions. Using different synthetic models and a real-world example, we demonstrate the advantage of the proposed algorithm over other alternatives in terms of identifying useful features, avoiding useless ones, and the computation efficiency. Although the algorithm is proposed using standard random forests, it can be widely adapted to other machine learning algorithms, as long as features can be sorted accordingly.
Adaptive Weighted Guided Image Filtering for Depth Enhancement in Shape-From-Focus
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Existing shape from focus (SFF) techniques cannot preserve depth edges and fine structural details from a sequence of multi-focus images. Moreover, noise in the sequence of multi-focus images affects the accuracy of the depth map. In this paper, a novel depth enhancement algorithm for the SFF based on an adaptive weighted guided image filtering (AWGIF) is proposed to address the above issues. The AWGIF is applied to decompose an initial depth map which is estimated by the traditional SFF into a base layer and a detail layer. In order to preserve the edges accurately in the refined depth map, the guidance image is constructed from the multi-focus image sequence, and the coefficient of the AWGIF is utilized to suppress the noise while enhancing the fine depth details. Experiments on real and synthetic objects demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm in terms of anti-noise, and the ability to preserve depth edges and fine structural details compared to existing methods.
Ray Based Distributed Autonomous Vehicle Research Platform
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

My project tackles the question of whether Ray can be used to quickly train autonomous vehicles using a simulator (Carla), and whether a platform robust enough for further research purposes can be built around it. Ray is an open-source framework that enables distributed machine learning applications. Distributed computing is a technique which parallelizes computational tasks, such as training a model, among many machines. Ray abstracts away the complex coordination of these machines, making it rapidly scalable. Carla is a vehicle simulator that generates data used to train a model. The bulk of the project was writing the training logic that Ray would use to train my distributed model. Imitation learning is the best fit for autonomous vehicles. Imitation learning is an alternative to reinforcement learning and it works by trying to learn the optimal policy by imitating an expert (usually a human) given a set of demonstrations. A key deliverable for the project was showcasing my trained agent in a few benchmark tests, such as navigating a complex turn through traffic. Beyond that, the broader ambition was to develop a research platform where others could quickly train and run experiments on huge amounts of Carla vehicle data. Thus, my end product is not a single model, but a large-scale, open-source research platform (RayCarla) for autonomous vehicle researchers to utilize.
Toward Self-learning End-to-End Task-Oriented Dialog Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2022
Year: 2022

End-to-end task bots are typically learned over a static and usually limited-size corpus. However, when deployed in dynamic, changing, and open environments to interact with users, task bots tend to fail when confronted with data that deviate from the training corpus, i.e., out-of-distribution samples. In this paper, we study the problem of automatically adapting task bots to changing environments by learning from human-bot interactions with minimum or zero human annotations. We propose SL-AGENT, a novel self-learning framework for building end-to-end task bots. SL-AGENT consists of a dialog model and a pre-trained reward model to predict the quality of an agent response. It enables task bots to automatically adapt to changing environments by learning from the unlabeled human-bot dialog logs accumulated after deployment via reinforcement learning with the incorporated reward model. Experimental results on four well-studied dialog tasks show the effectiveness of SL-AGENT to automatically adapt to changing environments, using both automatic and human evaluations. We will release code and data for further research.
Programmatic Policy Extraction by Iterative Local Search
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2022
Year: 2022

Reinforcement learning policies are often represented by neural networks, but programmatic policies are preferred in some cases because they are more interpretable, amenable to formal verification, or generalize better. While efficient algorithms for learning neural policies exist, learning programmatic policies is challenging. Combining imitation-projection and dataset aggregation with a local search heuristic, we present a simple and direct approach to extracting a programmatic policy from a pretrained neural policy. After examining our local search heuristic on a programming by example problem, we demonstrate our programmatic policy extraction method on a pendulum swing-up problem. Both when trained using a hand crafted expert policy and a learned neural policy, our method discovers simple and interpretable policies that perform almost as well as the original.
Online Learning for Failure-aware Edge Backup of Service Function Chains with the Minimum Latency
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2022
Year: 2022

Virtual network functions (VNFs) have been widely deployed in mobile edge computing (MEC) to flexibly and efficiently serve end users running resource-intensive applications, which can be further serialized to form service function chains (SFCs), providing customized networking services. To ensure the availability of SFCs, it turns out to be effective to place redundant SFC backups at the edge for quickly recovering from any failures. The existing research largely overlooks the influences of SFC popularity, backup completeness and failure rate on the optimal deployment of SFC backups on edge servers. In this paper, we comprehensively consider from the perspectives of both the end users and edge system to backup SFCs for providing popular services with the lowest latency. To overcome the challenges resulted from unknown SFC popularity and failure rate, as well as the known system parameter constraints, we take advantage of the online bandit learning technique to cope with the uncertainty issue. Combining the Prim-inspired method with the greedy strategy, we propose a Real-Time Selection and Deployment(RTSD) algorithm. Extensive simulation experiments are conducted to demonstrate the superiority of our proposed algorithms.
Continual Learning for CTR Prediction: A Hybrid Approach
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2022
Year: 2022

Click-through rate(CTR) prediction is a core task in cost-per-click(CPC) advertising systems and has been studied extensively by machine learning practitioners. While many existing methods have been successfully deployed in practice, most of them are built upon i.i.d.(independent and identically distributed) assumption, ignoring that the click data used for training and inference is collected through time and is intrinsically non-stationary and drifting. This mismatch will inevitably lead to sub-optimal performance. To address this problem, we formulate CTR prediction as a continual learning task and propose COLF, a hybrid COntinual Learning Framework for CTR prediction, which has a memory-based modular architecture that is designed to adapt, learn and give predictions continuously when faced with non-stationary drifting click data streams. Married with a memory population method that explicitly controls the discrepancy between memory and target data, COLF is able to gain positive knowledge from its historical experience and makes improved CTR predictions. Empirical evaluations on click log collected from a major shopping app in China demonstrate our method's superiority over existing methods. Additionally, we have deployed our method online and observed significant CTR and revenue improvement, which further demonstrates our method's efficacy.
Context-Aware Scene Prediction Network (CASPNet)
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Predicting the future motion of surrounding road users is a crucial and challenging task for autonomous driving (AD) and various advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). Planning a safe future trajectory heavily depends on understanding the traffic scene and anticipating its dynamics. The challenges do not only lie in understanding the complex driving scenarios but also the numerous possible interactions among road users and environments, which are practically not feasible for explicit modeling. In this work, we tackle the above challenges by jointly learning and predicting the motion of all road users in a scene, using a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN) based architecture. Moreover, by exploiting grid-based input and output data structures, the computational cost is independent of the number of road users and multi-modal predictions become inherent properties of our proposed method. Evaluation on the nuScenes dataset shows that our approach reaches state-of-the-art results in the prediction benchmark.
Simple algorithm for GCD of polynomials
Venue: arXiv cs.SC 2022
Year: 2022

Based on the Bezout approach we propose a simple algorithm to determine the {\tt gcd} of two polynomials which doesn't need division, like the Euclidean algorithm, or determinant calculations, like the Sylvester matrix algorithm. The algorithm needs only $n$ steps for polynomials of degree $n$. Formal manipulations give the discriminant or the resultant for any degree without needing division nor determinant calculation.
How Much Exposure from 5G Towers is Radiated over Children, Teenagers, Schools and Hospitals?
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2022
Year: 2022

The rolling-out of 5G antennas over the territory is a fundamental step to provide 5G connectivity. However, little efforts have been done so far on the exposure assessment from 5G cellular towers over young people and "sensitive" buildings, like schools and medical centers. To face such issues, we provide a sound methodology for the numerical evaluation of 5G (and pre-5G) downlink exposure over children, teenagers, schools and medical centers. We then apply the proposed methodology over two real scenarios. Results reveal that the exposure from 5G cellular towers will increase in the forthcoming years, in parallel with the growth of the 5G adoption levels. However, the exposure levels are well below the maximum ones defined by international regulations. Moreover, the exposure over children and teenagers is similar to the one of the whole population, while the exposure over schools and medical centers can be lower than the one of the whole set of buildings. Finally, the exposure from 5G is strongly lower than the pre-5G one when the building attenuation is introduced and a maturity adoption level for 5G is assumed.
A conceptual framework of Intelligent Management Control System for Higher Education
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2022
Year: 2022

The utilization of management control systems in university management poses a considerable challenge because university's strategic goals are not identical to those applied in profit-oriented management. A university's management control system should take into account the processing of management information for management purposes, allowing for the relationships between different groups of stakeholders. The specificity of the university operation assumes conducting long-term scientific research and educational programmes. Therefore, the controlling approach to university management should considerat long-term performance measurement as well as management in key areas such as research, provision of education to students, and interaction with the tertiary institution's socioeconomic environment.This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework of the Intelligent Management Control System for Higher Education (IMCSHE) based on cognitive agents. The main findings are related to developing the assumption, model, and technological basis including the artificial intelligence method.