OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Stable MPC Design for Hybrid Mixed Logical Dynamical Systems: $l_{\infty}$-based Lyapunov Approach
Venue: arXiv cs.SY 2018
Year: 2018

There are two main challenges in control of hybrid systems which are to guarantee the closed-loop stability and reduce computational complexity. In this paper, we propose the exponential stability conditions of hybrid systems which are described in the Mixed Logical Dynamical (MLD) form in closed-loop with Model Predictive Control (MPC). To do this, it is proposed to use the decreasing condition of infinity norm based Lyapunov function instead of imposing the terminal equality constraint in the MPC formulation of MLD system. The exponential stability conditions have a better performance from both implementation and computational points of view. In addition, the exponential stability conditions of the equilibrium point of the MLD system do not depend on the prediction horizon of MPC problem which is the main advantage of the proposed method. On the other hand, by using the decreasing condition of the Lyapunov function in the MPC setup, the suboptimal version of the control signal with reduced complexity is obtained. In order to show the capabilities of the proposed method, the stabilization problem of the car suspension system is studied.
Finding Structure in Dynamic Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2018
Year: 2018

This document is the first part of the author's habilitation thesis (HDR), defended on June 4, 2018 at the University of Bordeaux. Given the nature of this document, the contributions that involve the author have been emphasized; however, these four chapters were specifically written for distribution to a larger audience. We hope they can serve as a broad introduction to the domain of highly dynamic networks, with a focus on temporal graph concepts and their interaction with distributed computing.
Competition vs. Concatenation in Skip Connections of Fully Convolutional Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2018
Year: 2018

Increased information sharing through short and long-range skip connections between layers in fully convolutional networks have demonstrated significant improvement in performance for semantic segmentation. In this paper, we propose Competitive Dense Fully Convolutional Networks (CDFNet) by introducing competitive maxout activations in place of naive feature concatenation for inducing competition amongst layers. Within CDFNet, we propose two architectural contributions, namely competitive dense block (CDB) and competitive unpooling block (CUB) to induce competition at local and global scales for short and long-range skip connections respectively. This extension is demonstrated to boost learning of specialized sub-networks targeted at segmenting specific anatomies, which in turn eases the training of complex tasks. We present the proof-of-concept on the challenging task of whole body segmentation in the publicly available VISCERAL benchmark and demonstrate improved performance over multiple learning and registration based state-of-the-art methods.
A Norm-Bounded based MPC strategy for uncertain systems under partial state availability
Venue: arXiv cs.SY 2018
Year: 2018

A robust model predictive control scheme for a class of constrained norm-bounded uncertain discrete-time linear systems is developed under the hypothesis that only partial state measurements are available for feedback. Off-line calculations are devoted to determining an admissible, though not optimal, linear memoryless controller capable to formally address the input rate constraint; then, during the on-line operations, predictive capabilities complement the off-line controller by means of N steps free control actions in a receding horizon fashion. These additive control actions are obtained by solving semi-definite programming problems subject to linear matrix inequalities constraints.
The cloud technologies of learning: origin
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2018
Year: 2018

The research goal is to investigate the evolution of the concept of utility computing in the works of foreign researchers in the years 1959-1966. First the A. O. Mann's results and expanded overview of the D. F. Parkhill's results on the concept of computer (information) utility were introduced in the domestic scientific circulation. Functionally identity of the computer utility and cloud computing concepts was proved, as well as refined the primary sources of cloud service models. There was proposed the interpretation of the "cloud technologies of learning" concept. Continuity of the development of cloud technologies over the past 55 years and their relationship with the development of ICT in general was concluded. The research results make it possible to determine the prospects of the development of cloud computing in general and cloud technologies of learning in particular.
An Operational Approach to Information Leakage
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2018
Year: 2018

Given two random variables $X$ and $Y$, an operational approach is undertaken to quantify the ``leakage'' of information from $X$ to $Y$. The resulting measure $\mathcal{L}(X \!\! \to \!\! Y)$ is called \emph{maximal leakage}, and is defined as the multiplicative increase, upon observing $Y$, of the probability of correctly guessing a randomized function of $X$, maximized over all such randomized functions. A closed-form expression for $\mathcal{L}(X \!\! \to \!\! Y)$ is given for discrete $X$ and $Y$, and it is subsequently generalized to handle a large class of random variables. The resulting properties are shown to be consistent with an axiomatic view of a leakage measure, and the definition is shown to be robust to variations in the setup. Moreover, a variant of the Shannon cipher system is studied, in which performance of an encryption scheme is measured using maximal leakage. A single-letter characterization of the optimal limit of (normalized) maximal leakage is derived and asymptotically-optimal encryption schemes are demonstrated. Furthermore, the sample complexity of estimating maximal leakage from data is characterized up to subpolynomial factors. Finally, the \emph{guessing} framework used to define maximal leakage is used to give operational interpretations of commonly used leakage measures, such as Shannon capacity, maximal correlation, and local differential privacy.
About BIRDS project (Bioinformatics and Information Retrieval Data Structures Analysis and Design)
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2018
Year: 2018

BIRDS stands for "Bioinformatics and Information Retrieval Data Structures analysis and design" and is a 4-year project (2016--2019) that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 690941. The overall goal of BIRDS is to establish a long term international network involving leading researchers in the development of efficient data structures in the fields of Bioinformatics and Information Retrieval, to strengthen the partnership through the exchange of knowledge and expertise, and to develop integrated approaches to improve current approaches in both fields. The research will address challenges in storing, processing, indexing, searching and navigating genome-scale data by designing new algorithms and data structures for sequence analysis, networks representation or compressing and indexing repetitive data. BIRDS project is carried out by 7 research institutions from Australia (University of Melbourne), Chile (University of Chile and University of Concepción), Finland (University of Helsinki), Japan (Kyushu University), Portugal (Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa, INESC-ID), and Spain (University of A Coruña), and a Spanish SME (Enxenio S.L.). It is coordinated by the University of A Coruña (Spain).
Large scale evaluation of local image feature detectors on homography datasets
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2018
Year: 2018

We present a large scale benchmark for the evaluation of local feature detectors. Our key innovation is the introduction of a new evaluation protocol which extends and improves the standard detection repeatability measure. The new protocol is better for assessment on a large number of images and reduces the dependency of the results on unwanted distractors such as the number of detected features and the feature magnification factor. Additionally, our protocol provides a comprehensive assessment of the expected performance of detectors under several practical scenarios. Using images from the recently-introduced HPatches dataset, we evaluate a range of state-of-the-art local feature detectors on two main tasks: viewpoint and illumination invariant detection. Contrary to previous detector evaluations, our study contains an order of magnitude more image sequences, resulting in a quantitative evaluation significantly more robust to over-fitting. We also show that traditional detectors are still very competitive when compared to recent deep-learning alternatives.
Combining Named Entities with WordNet and Using Query-Oriented Spreading Activation for Semantic Text Search
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2018
Year: 2018

Purely keyword-based text search is not satisfactory because named entities and WordNet words are also important elements to define the content of a document or a query in which they occur. Named entities have ontological features, namely, their aliases, classes, and identifiers. Words in WordNet also have ontological features, namely, their synonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, and senses. Those features of concepts may be hidden from their textual appearance. Besides, there are related concepts that do not appear in a query, but can bring out the meaning of the query if they are added. We propose an ontology-based generalized Vector Space Model to semantic text search. It exploits ontological features of named entities and WordNet words, and develops a query-oriented spreading activation algorithm to expand queries. In addition, it combines and utilizes advantages of different ontologies for semantic annotation and searching. Experiments on a benchmark dataset show that, in terms of the MAP measure, our model is 42.5% better than the purely keyword-based model, and 32.3% and 15.9% respectively better than the ones using only WordNet or named entities. Keywords: semantic search, spreading activation, ontology, named entity, WordNet.
Attention Models in Graphs: A Survey
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2018
Year: 2018

Graph-structured data arise naturally in many different application domains. By representing data as graphs, we can capture entities (i.e., nodes) as well as their relationships (i.e., edges) with each other. Many useful insights can be derived from graph-structured data as demonstrated by an ever-growing body of work focused on graph mining. However, in the real-world, graphs can be both large - with many complex patterns - and noisy which can pose a problem for effective graph mining. An effective way to deal with this issue is to incorporate "attention" into graph mining solutions. An attention mechanism allows a method to focus on task-relevant parts of the graph, helping it to make better decisions. In this work, we conduct a comprehensive and focused survey of the literature on the emerging field of graph attention models. We introduce three intuitive taxonomies to group existing work. These are based on problem setting (type of input and output), the type of attention mechanism used, and the task (e.g., graph classification, link prediction, etc.). We motivate our taxonomies through detailed examples and use each to survey competing approaches from a unique standpoint. Finally, we highlight several challenges in the area and discuss promising directions for future work.
Knowledge Integration for Disease Characterization: A Breast Cancer Example
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2018
Year: 2018

With the rapid advancements in cancer research, the information that is useful for characterizing disease, staging tumors, and creating treatment and survivorship plans has been changing at a pace that creates challenges when physicians try to remain current. One example involves increasing usage of biomarkers when characterizing the pathologic prognostic stage of a breast tumor. We present our semantic technology approach to support cancer characterization and demonstrate it in our end-to-end prototype system that collects the newest breast cancer staging criteria from authoritative oncology manuals to construct an ontology for breast cancer. Using a tool we developed that utilizes this ontology, physician-facing applications can be used to quickly stage a new patient to support identifying risks, treatment options, and monitoring plans based on authoritative and best practice guidelines. Physicians can also re-stage existing patients or patient populations, allowing them to find patients whose stage has changed in a given patient cohort. As new guidelines emerge, using our proposed mechanism, which is grounded by semantic technologies for ingesting new data from staging manuals, we have created an enriched cancer staging ontology that integrates relevant data from several sources with very little human intervention.
Convolutional Neural Networks Analyzed via Inverse Problem Theory and Sparse Representations
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2018
Year: 2018

Inverse problems in imaging such as denoising, deblurring, superresolution (SR) have been addressed for many decades. In recent years, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been widely used for many inverse problem areas. Although their indisputable success, CNNs are not mathematically validated as to how and what they learn. In this paper, we prove that during training, CNN elements solve for inverse problems which are optimum solutions stored as CNN neuron filters. We discuss the necessity of mutual coherence between CNN layer elements in order for a network to converge to the optimum solution. We prove that required mutual coherence can be provided by the usage of residual learning and skip connections. We have set rules over training sets and depth of networks for better convergence, i.e. performance.
Red-Blue-Partitioned MST, TSP, and Matching
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2018
Year: 2018

Arkin et al.~\cite{ArkinBCCJKMM17} recently introduced \textit{partitioned pairs} network optimization problems: given a metric-weighted graph on $n$ pairs of nodes, the task is to color one node from each pair red and the other blue, and then to compute two separate \textit{network structures} or disjoint (node-covering) subgraphs of a specified sort, one on the graph induced by the red nodes and the other on the blue nodes. Three structures have been investigated by \cite{ArkinBCCJKMM17}---\textit{spanning trees}, \textit{traveling salesperson tours}, and \textit{perfect matchings}---and the three objectives to optimize for when computing such pairs of structures: \textit{min-sum}, \textit{min-max}, and \textit{bottleneck}. We provide improved approximation guarantees and/or strengthened hardness results for these nine NP-hard problem settings.
Streaming Methods for Restricted Strongly Convex Functions with Applications to Prototype Selection
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2018
Year: 2018

In this paper, we show that if the optimization function is restricted-strongly-convex (RSC) and restricted-smooth (RSM) -- a rich subclass of weakly submodular functions -- then a streaming algorithm with constant factor approximation guarantee is possible. More generally, our results are applicable to any monotone weakly submodular function with submodularity ratio bounded from above. This (positive) result which provides a sufficient condition for having a constant factor streaming guarantee for weakly submodular functions may be of special interest given the recent negative result (Elenberg et al., 2017) for the general class of weakly submodular functions. We apply our streaming algorithms for creating compact synopsis of large complex datasets, by selecting $m$ representative elements, by optimizing a suitable RSC and RSM objective function. Above results hold even with additional constraints such as learning non-negative weights, for interpretability, for each selected element indicative of its importance. We empirically evaluate our algorithms on two real datasets: MNIST- a handwritten digits dataset and Letters- a UCI dataset containing the alphabet written in different fonts and styles. We observe that our algorithms are orders of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art streaming algorithm for weakly submodular functions and with our main algorithm still providing equally good solutions in practice.
Integrated IoT and Cloud Environment for Fingerprint Recognition
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2018
Year: 2018

Big data applications involving the analysis of large datasets becomes a critical part of many emerging paradigms such as smart cities, social networks and modern security systems. Cloud computing has developed as a mainstream for hosting big data applications by its ability to provide the illusion of infinite resources. However, harnessing cloud resources for large-scale big data computation is application specific to a large extent. In this paper, we propose a system for large-scale fingerprint matching application using Aneka, a platform or developing scalable applications on the Cloud. We present the design and implementation of our proposed system and conduct experiments to evaluate its performance using resources from Microsoft Azure. Experimental results demonstrate that matching time for biometric information such as fingerprints in large-scale databases can be reduced substantially using our proposed system.
Integrating Feature and Image Pyramid: A Lung Nodule Detector Learned in Curriculum Fashion
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2018
Year: 2018

Lung nodules suffer large variation in size and appearance in CT images. Nodules less than 10mm can easily lose information after down-sampling in convolutional neural networks, which results in low sensitivity. In this paper, a combination of 3D image and feature pyramid is exploited to integrate lower-level texture features with high-level semantic features, thus leading to a higher recall. However, 3D operations are time and memory consuming, which aggravates the situation with the explosive growth of medical images. To tackle this problem, we propose a general curriculum training strategy to speed up training. An dynamic sampling method is designed to pick up partial samples which give the best contribution to network training, thus leading to much less time consuming. In experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed network outperforms previous state-of-the-art methods. Meanwhile, our sampling strategy halves the training time of the proposal network on LUNA16.
Sensitivity to Cumulative Perturbations for a Class of Piecewise Constant Hybrid Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.SY 2018
Year: 2018

We consider a class of continuous-time hybrid dynamical systems that correspond to subgradient flows of a piecewise linear and convex potential function with finitely many pieces, and which include the fluid-level dynamics of the Max-Weight scheduling policy as a special case. We study the effect of an external disturbance/perturbation on the state trajectory, and establish that the magnitude of this effect can be bounded by a constant multiple of the integral of the perturbation.
{\em Crypto-Battleships} or How to play Battleships game over the Blockchain?
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2018
Year: 2018

Battleships is a well known traditional board game for two players which dates from World War I. Though, the game has several digital version implementations, they are affected by similar major drawbacks such as fairness and a trust model that relies on third party. In this paper, we demonstrate how to implement a fair, resistant to denial-of-service, where the honest winner earns the deposit money {\em immediately}. The game is built on a permissionless Blockchain that supports Turing complete smart-contract computation.
Linear density-based clustering with a discrete density model
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2018
Year: 2018

Density-based clustering techniques are used in a wide range of data mining applications. One of their most attractive features con- sists in not making use of prior knowledge of the number of clusters that a dataset contains along with their shape. In this paper we propose a new algorithm named Linear DBSCAN (Lin-DBSCAN), a simple approach to clustering inspired by the density model introduced with the well known algorithm DBSCAN. Designed to minimize the computational cost of density based clustering on geospatial data, Lin-DBSCAN features a linear time complexity that makes it suitable for real-time applications on low-resource devices. Lin-DBSCAN uses a discrete version of the density model of DBSCAN that takes ad- vantage of a grid-based scan and merge approach. The name of the algorithm stems exactly from its main features outlined above. The algorithm was tested with well known data sets. Experimental results prove the efficiency and the validity of this approach over DBSCAN in the context of spatial data clustering, enabling the use of a density-based clustering technique on large datasets with low computational cost.
Predicting purchasing intent: Automatic Feature Learning using Recurrent Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2018
Year: 2018

We present a neural network for predicting purchasing intent in an Ecommerce setting. Our main contribution is to address the significant investment in feature engineering that is usually associated with state-of-the-art methods such as Gradient Boosted Machines. We use trainable vector spaces to model varied, semi-structured input data comprising categoricals, quantities and unique instances. Multi-layer recurrent neural networks capture both session-local and dataset-global event dependencies and relationships for user sessions of any length. An exploration of model design decisions including parameter sharing and skip connections further increase model accuracy. Results on benchmark datasets deliver classification accuracy within 98% of state-of-the-art on one and exceed state-of-the-art on the second without the need for any domain / dataset-specific feature engineering on both short and long event sequences.
A Preliminary Study On the Sustainability of Android Malware Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2018
Year: 2018

Machine learning-based malware detection dominates current security defense approaches for Android apps. However, due to the evolution of Android platforms and malware, existing such techniques are widely limited by their need for constant retraining that are costly, and reliance on new malware samples that may not be timely available. As a result, new and emerging malware slips through, as seen from the continued surging of malware in the wild. Thus, a more practical detector needs not only to be accurate but, more critically, to be able to sustain its capabilities over time without frequent retraining. In this paper, we study how Android apps evolve as a population over time, in terms of their behaviors related to accesses to sensitive information and operations. We first perform a longitudinal characterization of 6K benign and malicious apps developed across seven years, with focus on these sensitive accesses in app executions. Our study reveals, during the long evolution, a consistent, clear differentiation between malware and benign apps regarding such accesses, measured by relative statistics of relevant method calls. Following these findings, we developed DroidSpan, a novel classification system based on a new behavioral profile for Android apps. Through an extensive evaluation, we showed that DroidSpan can not only effectively detect malware but sustain high detection accuracy (93% F1 measure) for four years (with 81% F1 for five years). Through a dedicated study, we also showed its resiliency to sophisticated evasion schemes. By comparing to a state-of-the-art malware detector, we demonstrated the largely superior sustainability of our approach at reasonable costs.