OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
CloudCast: Characterizing Public Clouds Connectivity
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2022
Year: 2022

Public clouds are one of the most thriving technologies of the past decade. Major applications over public clouds require world-wide distribution and large amounts of data exchange between their distributed servers. To that end, major cloud providers have invested tens of billions of dollars in building world-wide inter-region networking infrastructure that can support high performance communication into, out of, and across public cloud geographic regions. In this paper, we lay the foundation for a comprehensive study and real time monitoring of various characteristic of networking within and between public clouds. We start by presenting CloudCast, a world-wide and expandable measurements and analysis system, currently (January 2019)collecting data from three major public clouds (AWS, GCPand Azure), 59 regions, 1184 intra-cloud and 2238 cross-cloud links (each link represents a direct connection between a pair of regions), amounting to a total of 3422 continuously monitored links and providing active measurements every minute.CloudCast is composed of measurement agents automatically installed in each public cloud region, centralized control, measurement data base, analysis engine and visualization tools. Then we turn to analyze the latency measurement data collected over almost a year . Our analysis yields surprising results. First, each public cloud exhibits a unique set of link latency behaviors along time. Second, using a novel, fair evaluation methodology, termed similar links, we compare the three clouds. Third, we prove that more than 50% of all links do not provide the optimal RTT through the methodology of triangles. Triangles also provide a framework to get around bottlenecks, benefiting not only the majority (53%-70%) of the cross-cloud links by 30% to 70%, but also a significant portion (29%-45%) of intra-cloud links by 14%-33%.
Spiker: an FPGA-optimized Hardware acceleration for Spiking Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2022
Year: 2022

Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) are an emerging type of biologically plausible and efficient Artificial Neural Network (ANN). This work presents the development of a hardware accelerator for a SNN for high-performance inference, targeting a Xilinx Artix-7 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The model used inside the neuron is the Leaky Integrate and Fire (LIF). The execution is clock-driven, meaning that the internal state of the neuron is updated at every clock cycle, even in absence of spikes. The inference capabilities of the accelerator are evaluated using the MINST dataset. The training is performed offline on a full precision model. The results show a good improvement in performance if compared with the state-of-the-art accelerators, requiring 215μs per image. The energy consumption is slightly higher than the most optimized design, with an average value of 13mJ per image. The test design consists of a single layer of four-hundred neurons and uses around 40% of the available resources on the FPGA. This makes it suitable for a time-constrained application at the edge, leaving space for other acceleration tasks on the FPGA.
Industry 4.0 in Health care: A systematic review
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2022
Year: 2022

Industry 4.0 in health care has evolved drastically over the past century. In fact, it is evolving every day, with new tools and strategies being developed by physicians and researchers alike. Health care and technology have been intertwined together with the advancement of cloud computing and big data. This study aims to analyze the impact of industry 4.0 in health care systems. To do so, a systematic literature review was carried out considering peer-reviewed articles extracted from the two popular databases: Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). PRISMA statement 2015 was used to include and exclude that data. At first, a bibliometric analysis was carried out using 346 articles considering the following factors: publication by year, journal, authors, countries, institutions, authors' keywords, and citations. Finally, qualitative analysis was carried out based on selected 32 articles considering the following factors: a conceptual framework, schedule problems, security, COVID-19, digital supply chain, and blockchain technology. Study finding suggests that during the onset of COVID-19, health care and industry 4.0 has been merged and evolved jointly, considering various crisis such as data security, resource allocation, and data transparency. Industry 4.0 enables many technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), blockchain, big data, cloud computing, machine learning, deep learning, information, and communication technologies (ICT) to track patients' records and helps reduce social transmission COVID-19 and so on. The study findings will give future researchers and practitioners some insights regarding the integration of health care and Industry 4.0.
Accelerating Representation Learning with View-Consistent Dynamics in Data-Efficient Reinforcement Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Learning informative representations from image-based observations is of fundamental concern in deep Reinforcement Learning (RL). However, data-inefficiency remains a significant barrier to this objective. To overcome this obstacle, we propose to accelerate state representation learning by enforcing view-consistency on the dynamics. Firstly, we introduce a formalism of Multi-view Markov Decision Process (MMDP) that incorporates multiple views of the state. Following the structure of MMDP, our method, View-Consistent Dynamics (VCD), learns state representations by training a view-consistent dynamics model in the latent space, where views are generated by applying data augmentation to states. Empirical evaluation on DeepMind Control Suite and Atari-100k demonstrates VCD to be the SoTA data-efficient algorithm on visual control tasks.
MuSCLe: A Multi-Strategy Contrastive Learning Framework for Weakly Supervised Semantic Segmentation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Weakly supervised semantic segmentation (WSSS) has gained significant popularity since it relies only on weak labels such as image level annotations rather than pixel level annotations required by supervised semantic segmentation (SSS) methods. Despite drastically reduced annotation costs, typical feature representations learned from WSSS are only representative of some salient parts of objects and less reliable compared to SSS due to the weak guidance during training. In this paper, we propose a novel Multi-Strategy Contrastive Learning (MuSCLe) framework to obtain enhanced feature representations and improve WSSS performance by exploiting similarity and dissimilarity of contrastive sample pairs at image, region, pixel and object boundary levels. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our method and show that MuSCLe outperforms the current state-of-the-art on the widely used PASCAL VOC 2012 dataset.
Socioeconomic disparities and COVID-19: the causal connections
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

The analysis of causation is a challenging task that can be approached in various ways. With the increasing use of machine learning based models in computational socioeconomics, explaining these models while taking causal connections into account is a necessity. In this work, we advocate the use of an explanatory framework from cooperative game theory augmented with $do$ calculus, namely causal Shapley values. Using causal Shapley values, we analyze socioeconomic disparities that have a causal link to the spread of COVID-19 in the USA. We study several phases of the disease spread to show how the causal connections change over time. We perform a causal analysis using random effects models and discuss the correspondence between the two methods to verify our results. We show the distinct advantages a non-linear machine learning models have over linear models when performing a multivariate analysis, especially since the machine learning models can map out non-linear correlations in the data. In addition, the causal Shapley values allow for including the causal structure in the variable importance computed for the machine learning model.
The Mathematics of Comparing Objects
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2022
Year: 2022

"After reading two different crime stories, an artificial intelligence concludes that in both stories the police has found the murderer just by random." -- To what extend and under which assumptions this is a description of a realistic scenario?
CERBERUS: Autonomous Legged and Aerial Robotic Exploration in the Tunnel and Urban Circuits of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2022
Year: 2022

Autonomous exploration of subterranean environments constitutes a major frontier for robotic systems as underground settings present key challenges that can render robot autonomy hard to achieve. This has motivated the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, where teams of robots search for objects of interest in various underground environments. In response, the CERBERUS system-of-systems is presented as a unified strategy towards subterranean exploration using legged and flying robots. As primary robots, ANYmal quadruped systems are deployed considering their endurance and potential to traverse challenging terrain. For aerial robots, both conventional and collision-tolerant multirotors are utilized to explore spaces too narrow or otherwise unreachable by ground systems. Anticipating degraded sensing conditions, a complementary multi-modal sensor fusion approach utilizing camera, LiDAR, and inertial data for resilient robot pose estimation is proposed. Individual robot pose estimates are refined by a centralized multi-robot map optimization approach to improve the reported location accuracy of detected objects of interest in the DARPA-defined coordinate frame. Furthermore, a unified exploration path planning policy is presented to facilitate the autonomous operation of both legged and aerial robots in complex underground networks. Finally, to enable communication between the robots and the base station, CERBERUS utilizes a ground rover with a high-gain antenna and an optical fiber connection to the base station, alongside breadcrumbing of wireless nodes by our legged robots. We report results from the CERBERUS system-of-systems deployment at the DARPA Subterranean Challenge Tunnel and Urban Circuits, along with the current limitations and the lessons learned for the benefit of the community.
A Machine Learning Based Algorithm for Joint Improvement of Power Control, link adaptation, and Capacity in Beyond 5G Communication systems
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2022
Year: 2022

In this study, we propose a novel machine learning based algorithm to improve the performance of beyond 5 generation (B5G) wireless communication system that is assisted by Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) techniques. The non-linear soft margin support vector machine (SVM) problem is used to provide an automatic modulation classifier (AMC) and a signal power to noise and interference ratio (SINR) estimator. The estimation results of AMC and SINR are used to reassign the modulation type, codding rate, and transmit power through frames of eNode B connections. The AMC success rate versus SINR, total power consuming, and sum capacity are evaluated for OFDM-NOMA assisted 5G system. Results show improvement of success rate compared of some published method. Furthermore, the algorithm directly computes SINR after signal is detected by successive interference cancellation (SIC) and before any signal decoding. Moreover, because of the direct sense of physical channel, the presented algorithm can discount occupied symbols (overhead signaling) for channel quality information (CQI) in network communication signaling. The results also prove that the proposed algorithm reduces the total power consumption and increases the sum capacity through the eNode B connections. Simulation results in compare to other algorithms show more successful AMC, efficient SINR estimator, easier practical implantation, less overhead signaling, less power consumption, and more capacity achievement.
Beyond modeling: NLP Pipeline for efficient environmental policy analysis
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2022
Year: 2022

As we enter the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, creating effective incentive structures for forest and landscape restoration has never been more critical. Policy analysis is necessary for policymakers to understand the actors and rules involved in restoration in order to shift economic and financial incentives to the right places. Classical policy analysis is resource-intensive and complex, lacks comprehensive central information sources, and is prone to overlapping jurisdictions. We propose a Knowledge Management Framework based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques that would tackle these challenges and automate repetitive tasks, reducing the policy analysis process from weeks to minutes. Our framework was designed in collaboration with policy analysis experts and made to be platform-, language- and policy-agnostic. In this paper, we describe the design of the NLP pipeline, review the state-of-the-art methods for each of its components, and discuss the challenges that rise when building a framework oriented towards policy analysis.
Variational Inference for Quantifying Inter-observer Variability in Segmentation of Anatomical Structures
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Lesions or organ boundaries visible through medical imaging data are often ambiguous, thus resulting in significant variations in multi-reader delineations, i.e., the source of aleatoric uncertainty. In particular, quantifying the inter-observer variability of manual annotations with Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging data plays a crucial role in establishing a reference standard for various diagnosis and treatment tasks. Most segmentation methods, however, simply model a mapping from an image to its single segmentation map and do not take the disagreement of annotators into consideration. In order to account for inter-observer variability, without sacrificing accuracy, we propose a novel variational inference framework to model the distribution of plausible segmentation maps, given a specific MR image, which explicitly represents the multi-reader variability. Specifically, we resort to a latent vector to encode the multi-reader variability and counteract the inherent information loss in the imaging data. Then, we apply a variational autoencoder network and optimize its evidence lower bound (ELBO) to efficiently approximate the distribution of the segmentation map, given an MR image. Experimental results, carried out with the QUBIQ brain growth MRI segmentation datasets with seven annotators, demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Exploring Kervolutional Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

A paper published in the CVPR 2019 conference outlines a new technique called 'kervolution' used in a new type of augmented convolutional neural network (CNN) called a 'kervolutional neural network' (KNN). The paper asserts that KNNs achieve faster convergence and higher accuracies than CNNs. This "mini paper" will further examine the findings in the original paper and perform a more in depth analysis of the KNN architecture. This will be done by analyzing the impact of hyper parameters (specifically the learning rate) on KNNs versus CNNs, experimenting with other types of kervolution operations not tested in the original paper, a more rigourous statistical analysis of accuracies and convergence times and additional theoretical analysis. The accompanying code is publicly available.
Automated Theorem Proving in the Classroom
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2022
Year: 2022

We report on several scenarios of using automated theorem proving software in university education. In particular, we focus on using the Theorema system in a software-enhanced logic-course for students in computer science or artificial intelligence. The purpose of using logic-software in our teaching is not to teach students the proper use of a particular piece of software. In contrast, we try to employ certain software in order to spark students' motivation and to support their understanding of logic principles they are supposed to understand after having passed the course. In a sense, we try to let the software act as a logic-tutor, the software is not an additional subject we teach.
Causality in Configurable Software Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2022
Year: 2022

Detecting and understanding reasons for defects and inadvertent behavior in software is challenging due to their increasing complexity. In configurable software systems, the combinatorics that arises from the multitude of features a user might select from adds a further layer of complexity. We introduce the notion of feature causality, which is based on counterfactual reasoning and inspired by the seminal definition of actual causality by Halpern and Pearl. Feature causality operates at the level of system configurations and is capable of identifying features and their interactions that are the reason for emerging functional and non-functional properties. We present various methods to explicate these reasons, in particular well-established notions of responsibility and blame that we extend to the feature-oriented setting. Establishing a close connection of feature causality to prime implicants, we provide algorithms to effectively compute feature causes and causal explications. By means of an evaluation on a wide range of configurable software systems, including community benchmarks and real-world systems, we demonstrate the feasibility of our approach: We illustrate how our notion of causality facilitates to identify root causes, estimate the effects of features, and detect feature interactions.
OSSID: Online Self-Supervised Instance Detection by (and for) Pose Estimation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Real-time object pose estimation is necessary for many robot manipulation algorithms. However, state-of-the-art methods for object pose estimation are trained for a specific set of objects; these methods thus need to be retrained to estimate the pose of each new object, often requiring tens of GPU-days of training for optimal performance. In this paper, we propose the OSSID framework, leveraging a slow zero-shot pose estimator to self-supervise the training of a fast detection algorithm. This fast detector can then be used to filter the input to the pose estimator, drastically improving its inference speed. We show that this self-supervised training exceeds the performance of existing zero-shot detection methods on two widely used object pose estimation and detection datasets, without requiring any human annotations. Further, we show that the resulting method for pose estimation has a significantly faster inference speed, due to the ability to filter out large parts of the image. Thus, our method for self-supervised online learning of a detector (trained using pseudo-labels from a slow pose estimator) leads to accurate pose estimation at real-time speeds, without requiring human annotations. Supplementary materials and code can be found at https://georgegu1997.github.io/OSSID/
VaxEquity: A Data-Driven Risk Assessment and Optimization Framework for Equitable Vaccine Distribution
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2022
Year: 2022

With the continuous rise of the COVID-19 cases worldwide, it is imperative to ensure that all those vulnerable countries lacking vaccine resources can receive sufficient support to contain the risks. COVAX is such an initiative operated by the WHO to supply vaccines to the most needed countries. One critical problem faced by the COVAX is how to distribute the limited amount of vaccines to these countries in the most efficient and equitable manner. This paper aims to address this challenge by first proposing a data-driven risk assessment and prediction model and then developing a decision-making framework to support the strategic vaccine distribution. The machine learning-based risk prediction model characterizes how the risk is influenced by the underlying essential factors, e.g., the vaccination level among the population in each COVAX country. This predictive model is then leveraged to design the optimal vaccine distribution strategy that simultaneously minimizes the resulting risks while maximizing the vaccination coverage in these countries targeted by COVAX. Finally, we corroborate the proposed framework using case studies with real-world data.
Transparent Single-Cell Set Classification with Kernel Mean Embeddings
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Modern single-cell flow and mass cytometry technologies measure the expression of several proteins of the individual cells within a blood or tissue sample. Each profiled biological sample is thus represented by a set of hundreds of thousands of multidimensional cell feature vectors, which incurs a high computational cost to predict each biological sample's associated phenotype with machine learning models. Such a large set cardinality also limits the interpretability of machine learning models due to the difficulty in tracking how each individual cell influences the ultimate prediction. We propose using Kernel Mean Embedding to encode the cellular landscape of each profiled biological sample. Although our foremost goal is to make a more transparent model, we find that our method achieves comparable or better accuracies than the state-of-the-art gating-free methods through a simple linear classifier. As a result, our model contains few parameters but still performs similarly to deep learning models with millions of parameters. In contrast with deep learning approaches, the linearity and sub-selection step of our model makes it easy to interpret classification results. Analysis further shows that our method admits rich biological interpretability for linking cellular heterogeneity to clinical phenotype.
Tracking Where Events Take Place: Reverse Spatial Term Queries on Streaming Data
Venue: arXiv cs.DB 2022
Year: 2022

A large volume of content generated by online users is geo-tagged and this provides a rich source for querying in various location-based services. An important class of queries within such services involves the association between content and locations. In this paper, we study two types of queries on streaming geo-tagged data: 1) "Top-k reverse frequent spatial queries", where given a term, the goal is to find top K locations where the term is frequent, and 2) "Term frequency spatial queries", which is finding the expected frequency of a term in a given location. To efficiently support these queries in a streaming setting, we model terms as events and explore a probabilistic model of geographical distribution that allows us to estimate the frequency of terms in locations that are not kept in a stream sketch or summary. We study the back-and-forth relationship between the efficiency of queries, the efficiency of updates and the accuracy of the results and identify some sweet spots where both efficient and effective algorithms can be developed. We demonstrate that our method can be extended to support multi-term queries. To evaluate the efficiency of our algorithms, we conduct experiments on a relatively large collection of both geo-tagged tweets and geo-tagged Flickr photos. The evaluation reveals that our proposed method achieves a high accuracy when only a limited amount of memory is given. Also the query time is improved, compared to a recent baseline, by 2-3 orders of magnitude without much loss in accuracy and that the update time can further be improved by at least an order of magnitude under some term distributions or update strategies.