OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Attention Awareness Multiple Instance Neural Network
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Multiple instance learning is qualified for many pattern recognition tasks with weakly annotated data. The combination of artificial neural network and multiple instance learning offers an end-to-end solution and has been widely utilized. However, challenges remain in two-folds. Firstly, current MIL pooling operators are usually pre-defined and lack flexibility to mine key instances. Secondly, in current solutions, the bag-level representation can be inaccurate or inaccessible. To this end, we propose an attention awareness multiple instance neural network framework in this paper. It consists of an instance-level classifier, a trainable MIL pooling operator based on spatial attention and a bag-level classification layer. Exhaustive experiments on a series of pattern recognition tasks demonstrate that our framework outperforms many state-of-the-art MIL methods and validates the effectiveness of our proposed attention MIL pooling operators.
CIGMO: Categorical invariant representations in a deep generative framework
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Data of general object images have two most common structures: (1) each object of a given shape can be rendered in multiple different views, and (2) shapes of objects can be categorized in such a way that the diversity of shapes is much larger across categories than within a category. Existing deep generative models can typically capture either structure, but not both. In this work, we introduce a novel deep generative model, called CIGMO, that can learn to represent category, shape, and view factors from image data. The model is comprised of multiple modules of shape representations that are each specialized to a particular category and disentangled from view representation, and can be learned using a group-based weakly supervised learning method. By empirical investigation, we show that our model can effectively discover categories of object shapes despite large view variation and quantitatively supersede various previous methods including the state-of-the-art invariant clustering algorithm. Further, we show that our approach using category-specialization can enhance the learned shape representation to better perform down-stream tasks such as one-shot object identification as well as shape-view disentanglement.
Tutorial on Course-of-Action (COA) Attack Search Methods in Computer Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2022
Year: 2022

In the literature of modern network security research, deriving effective and efficient course-of-action (COA) attach search methods are of interests in industry and academia. As the network size grows, the traditional COA attack search methods can suffer from the limitations to computing and communication resources. Therefore, various methods have been developed to solve these problems, and reinforcement learning (RL)-based intelligent algorithms are one of the most effective solutions. Therefore, we review the RL-based COA attack search methods for network attack scenarios in terms of the trends and their contrib
Semantic-aware Dense Representation Learning for Remote Sensing Image Change Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Supervised deep learning models depend on massive labeled data. Unfortunately, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to collect and annotate bitemporal samples containing desired changes. Transfer learning from pre-trained models is effective to alleviate label insufficiency in remote sensing (RS) change detection (CD). We explore the use of semantic information during pre-training. Different from traditional supervised pre-training that learns the mapping from image to label, we incorporate semantic supervision into the self-supervised learning (SSL) framework. Typically, multiple objects of interest (e.g., buildings) are distributed in various locations in an uncurated RS image. Instead of manipulating image-level representations via global pooling, we introduce point-level supervision on per-pixel embeddings to learn spatially-sensitive features, thus benefiting downstream dense CD. To achieve this, we obtain multiple points via class-balanced sampling on the overlapped area between views using the semantic mask. We learn an embedding space where background and foreground points are pushed apart, and spatially aligned points across views are pulled together. Our intuition is the resulting semantically discriminative representations invariant to irrelevant changes (illumination and unconcerned land covers) may help change recognition. We collect large-scale image-mask pairs freely available in the RS community for pre-training. Extensive experiments on three CD datasets verify the effectiveness of our method. Ours significantly outperforms ImageNet pre-training, in-domain supervision, and several SSL methods. Empirical results indicate our pre-training improves the generalization and data efficiency of the CD model. Notably, we achieve competitive results using 20% training data than baseline (random initialization) using 100% data. Our code is available.
Dither Signal Design for PAPR Reduction in OFDM-IM over a Rayleigh Fading Channel
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2022
Year: 2022

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM) is a novel scheme where the information bits are conveyed through the subcarrier activation pattern (SAP) and the symbols on the active subcarriers. Unfortunately, OFDM-IM inherits the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) problem from the classical OFDM. The OFDMIM signal with high PAPR induces in-band distortion and out-of-band radiation when it passes through high power amplifier (HPA). There are attempts to reduce PAPR by adding dither signals in the idle subcarriers, where the dither signals can have various amplitude constraints according to the characteristic of the corresponding OFDM-IM subblock. But, there is no result for the specific amplitude constraint for the dither signals over a Rayleigh fading channel. In this letter, based on pairwise error probability (PEP) analysis, a specific constraint for the dither signals is derived over a Rayleigh fading channel.
Improving Bidding and Playing Strategies in the Trick-Taking game Wizard using Deep Q-Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

In this work, the trick-taking game Wizard with a separate bidding and playing phase is modeled by two interleaved partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDP). Deep Q-Networks (DQN) are used to empower self-improving agents, which are capable of tackling the challenges of a highly non-stationary environment. To compare algorithms between each other, the accuracy between bid and trick count is monitored, which strongly correlates with the actual rewards and provides a well-defined upper and lower performance bound. The trained DQN agents achieve accuracies between 66% and 87% in self-play, leaving behind both a random baseline and a rule-based heuristic. The conducted analysis also reveals a strong information asymmetry concerning player positions during bidding. To overcome the missing Markov property of imperfect-information games, a long short-term memory (LSTM) network is implemented to integrate historic information into the decision-making process. Additionally, a forward-directed tree search is conducted by sampling a state of the environment and thereby turning the game into a perfect information setting. To our surprise, both approaches do not surpass the performance of the basic DQN agent.
Comparison of Deep Learning Segmentation and Multigrader-annotated Mandibular Canals of Multicenter CBCT scans
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Deep learning approach has been demonstrated to automatically segment the bilateral mandibular canals from CBCT scans, yet systematic studies of its clinical and technical validation are scarce. To validate the mandibular canal localization accuracy of a deep learning system (DLS) we trained it with 982 CBCT scans and evaluated using 150 scans of five scanners from clinical workflow patients of European and Southeast Asian Institutes, annotated by four radiologists. The interobserver variability was compared to the variability between the DLS and the radiologists. In addition, the generalization of DLS to CBCT scans from scanners not used in the training data was examined to evaluate the out-of-distribution generalization capability. The DLS had lower variability to the radiologists than the interobserver variability between them and it was able to generalize to three new devices. For the radiologists' consensus segmentation, used as gold standard, the DLS had a symmetric mean curve distance of 0.39 mm compared to those of the individual radiologists with 0.62 mm, 0.55 mm, 0.47 mm, and 0.42 mm. The DLS showed comparable or slightly better performance in the segmentation of the mandibular canal with the radiologists and generalization capability to new scanners.
Efficient Semantic Summary Graphs for Querying Large Knowledge Graphs
Venue: arXiv cs.DB 2022
Year: 2022

Knowledge Graphs (KGs) integrate heterogeneous data, but one challenge is the development of efficient tools for allowing end users to extract useful insights from these sources of knowledge. In such a context, reducing the size of a Resource Description Framework (RDF) graph while preserving all information can speed up query engines by limiting data shuffle, especially in a distributed setting. This paper presents two algorithms for RDF graph summarization: Grouping Based Summarization (GBS) and Query Based Summarization (QBS). The latter is an optimized and lossless approach for the former method. We empirically study the effectiveness of the proposed lossless RDF graph summarization to retrieve complete data, by rewriting an RDF Query Language called SPARQL query with fewer triple patterns using a semantic similarity. We conduct our experimental study in instances of four datasets with different sizes. Compared with the state-of-the-art query engine Sparklify executed over the original RDF graphs as a baseline, QBS query execution time is reduced by up to 80% and the summarized RDF graph is decreased by up to 99%.
Task-load-Aware Game-Theoretic Framework for Wireless Federated Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2022
Year: 2022

Federated learning (FL) has been proposed as a popular learning framework to protect the users' data privacy but it has difficulties in motivating the users to participate in task training. This paper proposes a Bertrand-game-based framework for FL in wireless networks, where the model server as a resource buyer can issue an FL task, whereas the employed user equipment (UEs) as the resource sellers can help train the model by using their local data. Specially, the influence of time-varying \textit{task load} and \textit{channel quality} on UE's motivation to participate in FL is considered. Firstly, we adopt the finite-state discrete-time Markov chain (FSDT-MC) method to predict the \textit{existing task load} and \textit{channel gain} of a UE during a FL task. Depending on the performance metrics set by the model server and the estimated overall energy cost for engaging in the FL task, each UE seeks the best price to maximize its own profit in the game. To this end, the Nash equilibrium (NE) of the game is obtained in closed form, and a distributed iterative algorithm is also developed to find the NE. Simulation result verifies the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Fairness and Welfare Quantification for Regret in Multi-Armed Bandits
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

We extend the notion of regret with a welfarist perspective. Focussing on the classic multi-armed bandit (MAB) framework, the current work quantifies the performance of bandit algorithms by applying a fundamental welfare function, namely the Nash social welfare (NSW) function. This corresponds to equating algorithm's performance to the geometric mean of its expected rewards and leads us to the study of Nash regret, defined as the difference between the -- a priori unknown -- optimal mean (among the arms) and the algorithm's performance. Since NSW is known to satisfy fairness axioms, our approach complements the utilitarian considerations of average (cumulative) regret, wherein the algorithm is evaluated via the arithmetic mean of its expected rewards. This work develops an algorithm that, given the horizon of play $T$, achieves a Nash regret of $O \left( \sqrt{\frac{k \log T}{T}} \right)$, here $k$ denotes the number of arms in the MAB instance. Since, for any algorithm, the Nash regret is at least as much as its average regret (the AM-GM inequality), the known lower bound on average regret holds for Nash regret as well. Therefore, our Nash regret guarantee is essentially tight. In addition, we develop an anytime algorithm with a Nash regret guarantee of $O \left( \sqrt{\frac{k\log T}{T}} \log T \right)$.
Auditing Differential Privacy in High Dimensions with the Kernel Quantum Rényi Divergence
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Differential privacy (DP) is the de facto standard for private data release and private machine learning. Auditing black-box DP algorithms and mechanisms to certify whether they satisfy a certain DP guarantee is challenging, especially in high dimension. We propose relaxations of differential privacy based on new divergences on probability distributions: the kernel Rényi divergence and its regularized version. We show that the regularized kernel Rényi divergence can be estimated from samples even in high dimensions, giving rise to auditing procedures for $\varepsilon$-DP, $(\varepsilon,δ)$-DP and $(α,\varepsilon)$-Rényi DP.
Non-Markovian policies occupancy measures
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

A central object of study in Reinforcement Learning (RL) is the Markovian policy, in which an agent's actions are chosen from a memoryless probability distribution, conditioned only on its current state. The family of Markovian policies is broad enough to be interesting, yet simple enough to be amenable to analysis. However, RL often involves more complex policies: ensembles of policies, policies over options, policies updated online, etc. Our main contribution is to prove that the occupancy measure of any non-Markovian policy, i.e., the distribution of transition samples collected with it, can be equivalently generated by a Markovian policy. This result allows theorems about the Markovian policy class to be directly extended to its non-Markovian counterpart, greatly simplifying proofs, in particular those involving replay buffers and datasets. We provide various examples of such applications to the field of Reinforcement Learning.
Guided Exploration of Data Summaries
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

Data summarization is the process of producing interpretable and representative subsets of an input dataset. It is usually performed following a one-shot process with the purpose of finding the best summary. A useful summary contains k individually uniform sets that are collectively diverse to be representative. Uniformity addresses interpretability and diversity addresses representativity. Finding such as summary is a difficult task when data is highly diverse and large. We examine the applicability of Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) to data summarization and formalize Eda4Sum, the problem of guided exploration of data summaries that seeks to sequentially produce connected summaries with the goal of maximizing their cumulative utility. EdA4Sum generalizes one-shot summarization. We propose to solve it with one of two approaches: (i) Top1Sum which chooses the most useful summary at each step; (ii) RLSum which trains a policy with Deep Reinforcement Learning that rewards an agent for finding a diverse and new collection of uniform sets at each step. We compare these approaches with one-shot summarization and top-performing EDA solutions. We run extensive experiments on three large datasets. Our results demonstrate the superiority of our approaches for summarizing very large data, and the need to provide guidance to domain experts.
The Internet of People: A human and data-centric paradigm for the Next Generation Internet
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2022
Year: 2022

The cyber-physical convergence, the fast expansion of the Internet at its edge, and tighter interactions between human users and their personal mobile devices push towards a data-centric Internet where the human user becomes more central than ever. We argue that this will profoundly impact primarily on the way data should be handled in the Next Generation Internet. It will require a radical change of the Internet data-management paradigm, from the current platform-centric to a human-centric model. In this paper we present a new paradigm for Internet data management that we name Internet of People (IoP) because it embeds human behavior models in its algorithms. To this end, IoP algorithms exploit quantitative models of the humans' individual and social behavior, from sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, physics. IoP is not a replacement of the current Internet networking infrastructure, but it exploits legacy Internet services as (reliable) primitives to achieve end-to-end connectivity on a global-scale. In this opinion paper, we first discuss the key features of the IoP paradigm along with the underlying research issues and challenges. Then, we present emerging data-management paradigms that are anticipating IoP.
Robust Distributed Control within a Curve Virtual Tube for a Robotic Swarm under Self-Localization Drift and Precise Relative Navigation
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2022
Year: 2022

To guide the movement of a robotic swarm in a corridor-like environment, a curve virtual tube with no obstacle inside is designed in our previous work. This paper generalizes the controller design to the condition that all robots have self-localization drifts and precise relative navigation, where the flocking algorithm is introduced to reduce the negative impact of the self-localization drift. It is shown that the cohesion behavior and the velocity alignment behavior are able to reduce the influence of the position measurement drift and the velocity measurement error, respectively. For the convenience in practical use, a modified vector field controller with five control terms is put forward. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by numerical simulations and real experiments.
$\mathbb{Z}_p\mathbb{Z}_{p^2}$-linear codes: rank and kernel
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2022
Year: 2022

A code $C$ is called $\Z_p\Z_{p^2}$-linear if it is the Gray image of a $\Z_p\Z_{p^2}$-additive code, where $p>2$ is prime. In this paper, the rank and the dimension of the kernel of $\Z_p\Z_{p^2}$-linear codes are studied. Two bounds of the rank of a $\Z_3\Z_{9}$-linear code and the dimension of the kernel of a $\Z_p\Z_{p^2}$-linear code are given, respectively. For each value of these bounds, we give detailed construction of the corresponding code. Finally, pairs of rank and the dimension of the kernel of $\Z_3\Z_{9}$-linear codes are also considered.
A framework for robotic arm pose estimation and movement prediction based on deep and extreme learning models
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2022
Year: 2022

Human-robot collaboration has gained a notable prominence in Industry 4.0, as the use of collaborative robots increases efficiency and productivity in the automation process. However, it is necessary to consider the use of mechanisms that increase security in these environments, as the literature reports that risk situations may exist in the context of human-robot collaboration. One of the strategies that can be adopted is the visual recognition of the collaboration environment using machine learning techniques, which can automatically identify what is happening in the scene and what may happen in the future. In this work, we are proposing a new framework that is capable of detecting robotic arm keypoints commonly used in Industry 4.0. In addition to detecting, the proposed framework is able to predict the future movement of these robotic arms, thus providing relevant information that can be considered in the recognition of the human-robot collaboration scenario. The proposed framework is based on deep and extreme learning machine techniques. Results show that the proposed framework is capable of detecting and predicting with low error, contributing to the mitigation of risks in human-robot collaboration.
Double Deep Q Networks for Sensor Management in Space Situational Awareness
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

We present a novel Double Deep Q Network (DDQN) application to a sensor management problem in space situational awareness (SSA). Frequent launches of satellites into Earth orbit pose a significant sensor management challenge, whereby a limited number of sensors are required to detect and track an increasing number of objects. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of reinforcement learning to develop a sensor management policy for SSA. We simulate a controllable Earth-based telescope, which is trained to maximise the number of satellites tracked using an extended Kalman filter. The estimated state covariance matrices for satellites observed under the DDQN policy are greatly reduced compared to those generated by an alternate (random) policy. This work provides the basis for further advancements and motivates the use of reinforcement learning for SSA.
Reinforced Pedestrian Attribute Recognition with Group Optimization Reward
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2022
Year: 2022

Pedestrian Attribute Recognition (PAR) is a challenging task in intelligent video surveillance. Two key challenges in PAR include complex alignment relations between images and attributes, and imbalanced data distribution. Existing approaches usually formulate PAR as a recognition task. Different from them, this paper addresses it as a decision-making task via a reinforcement learning framework. Specifically, PAR is formulated as a Markov decision process (MDP) by designing ingenious states, action space, reward function and state transition. To alleviate the inter-attribute imbalance problem, we apply an Attribute Grouping Strategy (AGS) by dividing all attributes into subgroups according to their region and category information. Then we employ an agent to recognize each group of attributes, which is trained with Deep Q-learning algorithm. We also propose a Group Optimization Reward (GOR) function to alleviate the intra-attribute imbalance problem. Experimental results on the three benchmark datasets of PETA, RAP and PA100K illustrate the effectiveness and competitiveness of the proposed approach and demonstrate that the application of reinforcement learning to PAR is a valuable research direction.
Dual Convexified Convolutional Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2022
Year: 2022

We propose the framework of dual convexified convolutional neural networks (DCCNNs). In this framework, we first introduce a primal learning problem motivated by convexified convolutional neural networks (CCNNs), and then construct the dual convex training program through careful analysis of the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions and Fenchel conjugates. Our approach reduces the computational overhead of constructing a large kernel matrix and more importantly, eliminates the ambiguity of factorizing the matrix. Due to the low-rank structure in CCNNs and the related subdifferential of nuclear norms, there is no closed-form expression to recover the primal solution from the dual solution. To overcome this, we propose a highly novel weight recovery algorithm, which takes the dual solution and the kernel information as the input, and recovers the linear weight and the output of convolutional layer, instead of weight parameter. Furthermore, our recovery algorithm exploits the low-rank structure and imposes a small number of filters indirectly, which reduces the parameter size. As a result, DCCNNs inherit all the statistical benefits of CCNNs, while enjoying a more formal and efficient workflow.