OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Quantum-Inspired Support Vector Machine
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

Support vector machine (SVM) is a particularly powerful and flexible supervised learning model that analyzes data for both classification and regression, whose usual algorithm complexity scales polynomially with the dimension of data space and the number of data points. To tackle the big data challenge, a quantum SVM algorithm was proposed, which is claimed to achieve exponential speedup for least squares SVM (LS-SVM). Here, inspired by the quantum SVM algorithm, we present a quantum-inspired classical algorithm for LS-SVM. In our approach, a improved fast sampling technique, namely indirect sampling, is proposed for sampling the kernel matrix and classifying. We first consider the LS-SVM with a linear kernel, and then discuss the generalization of our method to non-linear kernels. Theoretical analysis shows our algorithm can make classification with arbitrary success probability in logarithmic runtime of both the dimension of data space and the number of data points for low rank, low condition number and high dimensional data matrix, matching the runtime of the quantum SVM.
The phase diagram of approximation rates for deep neural networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2021
Year: 2021

We explore the phase diagram of approximation rates for deep neural networks and prove several new theoretical results. In particular, we generalize the existing result on the existence of deep discontinuous phase in ReLU networks to functional classes of arbitrary positive smoothness, and identify the boundary between the feasible and infeasible rates. Moreover, we show that all networks with a piecewise polynomial activation function have the same phase diagram. Next, we demonstrate that standard fully-connected architectures with a fixed width independent of smoothness can adapt to smoothness and achieve almost optimal rates. Finally, we consider deep networks with periodic activations ("deep Fourier expansion") and prove that they have very fast, nearly exponential approximation rates, thanks to the emerging capability of the network to implement efficient lookup operations.
Cross-user Similarities in Viewing Behavior for 360$^{\circ}$ Video and Caching Implications
Venue: arXiv cs.MM 2021
Year: 2021

The demand and usage of 360$^{\circ}$ video services are expected to increase. However, despite these services being highly bandwidth intensive, not much is known about the potential value that basic bandwidth saving techniques such as server or edge-network on-demand caching (e.g., in a CDN) could have when used for delivery of such services. This problem is both important and complicated as client-side solutions have been developed that split the full 360$^{\circ}$ view into multiple tiles, and adapt the quality of the downloaded tiles based on the user's expected viewing direction and bandwidth conditions. This paper presents new trace-based analysis methods that incorporate users' viewports (the area of the full 360$^{\circ}$ view the user actually sees), a first characterization of the cross-user similarities of the users' viewports, and a trace-based analysis of the potential bandwidth savings that caching-based techniques may offer under different conditions. Our analysis takes into account differences in the time granularity over which viewport overlaps can be beneficial for resource saving techniques, compares and contrasts differences between video categories, and accounts for uncertainties in the network conditions and the prediction of the future viewing direction when prefetching. The results provide substantial insight into the conditions under which overlap can be considerable and caching effective, and inform the design of new caching system policies tailored for 360$^{\circ}$ video.
CMRNet: Camera to LiDAR-Map Registration
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

In this paper we present CMRNet, a realtime approach based on a Convolutional Neural Network to localize an RGB image of a scene in a map built from LiDAR data. Our network is not trained in the working area, i.e. CMRNet does not learn the map. Instead it learns to match an image to the map. We validate our approach on the KITTI dataset, processing each frame independently without any tracking procedure. CMRNet achieves 0.27m and 1.07deg median localization accuracy on the sequence 00 of the odometry dataset, starting from a rough pose estimate displaced up to 3.5m and 17deg. To the best of our knowledge this is the first CNN-based approach that learns to match images from a monocular camera to a given, preexisting 3D LiDAR-map.
An Unsupervised Bayesian Neural Network for Truth Discovery in Social Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

The problem of estimating event truths from conflicting agent opinions in a social network is investigated. An autoencoder learns the complex relationships between event truths, agent reliabilities and agent observations. A Bayesian network model is proposed to guide the learning process by modeling the relationship of the autoencoder's outputs with different variables. At the same time, it also models the social relationships between agents in the network. The proposed approach is unsupervised and is applicable when ground truth labels of events are unavailable. A variational inference method is used to jointly estimate the hidden variables in the Bayesian network and the parameters in the autoencoder. Experiments on three real datasets demonstrate that our proposed approach is competitive with, and in most cases better than, several state-of-the-art benchmark methods.
SampleFix: Learning to Generate Functionally Diverse Fixes
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2021
Year: 2021

Automatic program repair holds the potential of dramatically improving the productivity of programmers during the software development process and correctness of software in general. Recent advances in machine learning, deep learning, and NLP have rekindled the hope to eventually fully automate the process of repairing programs. However, previous approaches that aim to predict a single fix are prone to fail due to uncertainty about the true intend of the programmer. Therefore, we propose a generative model that learns a distribution over potential fixes. Our model is formulated as a deep conditional variational autoencoder that can efficiently sample fixes for a given erroneous program. In order to ensure diverse solutions, we propose a novel regularizer that encourages diversity over a semantic embedding space. Our evaluations on common programming errors show for the first time the generation of diverse fixes and strong improvements over the state-of-the-art approaches by fixing up to 45% of the erroneous programs. We additionally show that for the 65% of the repaired programs, our approach was able to generate multiple programs with diverse functionalities.
Intention Detection of Gait Adaptation in Natural Settings
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2021
Year: 2021

Gait adaptation is an important part of gait analysis and its neuronal origin and dynamics has been studied extensively. In neurorehabilitation, it is important as it perturbs neuronal dynamics and allows patients to restore some of their motor function. Exoskeletons and robotics of the lower limbs are increasingly used to facilitate rehabilitation as well as supporting daily function. Their efficiency and safety depends on how well can sense the human intention to move and adapt the gait accordingly. This paper presents a gait adaptation scheme in natural settings. It allows monitoring of subjects in more realistic environment without the requirement of specialized equipment such as treadmill and foot pressure sensors. We extract gait characteristics based on a single RBG camera whereas wireless EEG signals are monitored simultaneously. We demonstrate that the method can not only successfully detect adaptation steps but also detect efficiently whether the subject adjust their pace to higher or lower speed.
Rethinking Formal Models of Partially Observable Multiagent Decision Making
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2021
Year: 2021

Multiagent decision-making in partially observable environments is usually modelled as either an extensive-form game (EFG) in game theory or a partially observable stochastic game (POSG) in multiagent reinforcement learning (MARL). One issue with the current situation is that while most practical problems can be modelled in both formalisms, the relationship of the two models is unclear, which hinders the transfer of ideas between the two communities. A second issue is that while EFGs have recently seen significant algorithmic progress, their classical formalization is unsuitable for efficient presentation of the underlying ideas, such as those around decomposition. To solve the first issue, we introduce factored-observation stochastic games (FOSGs), a minor modification of the POSG formalism which distinguishes between private and public observation and thereby greatly simplifies decomposition. To remedy the second issue, we show that FOSGs and POSGs are naturally connected to EFGs: by "unrolling" a FOSG into its tree form, we obtain an EFG. Conversely, any perfect-recall timeable EFG corresponds to some underlying FOSG in this manner. Moreover, this relationship justifies several minor modifications to the classical EFG formalization that recently appeared as an implicit response to the model's issues with decomposition. Finally, we illustrate the transfer of ideas between EFGs and MARL by presenting three key EFG techniques -- counterfactual regret minimization, sequence form, and decomposition -- in the FOSG framework.
DiPETrans: A Framework for Distributed Parallel Execution of Transactions of Blocks in Blockchain
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2021
Year: 2021

Contemporary blockchain such as Bitcoin and Ethereum execute transactions serially by miners and validators and determine the Proof-of-Work (PoW). Such serial execution is unable to exploit modern multi-core resources efficiently, hence limiting the system throughput and increasing the transaction acceptance latency. The objective of this work is to increase the transaction throughput by introducing parallel transaction execution using a static analysis technique. We propose a framework DiPETrans for the distributed execution of the transactions in a block. Here, peers in the blockchain network form a community to execute the transactions and find the PoW parallelly, using a leader-follower approach. During mining, the leader statically analyzes the transactions, creates different groups (shards) of independent transactions, and distributes them to followers to execute them in parallel. After the transaction executes, the community's compute power is utilized to solve the PoW concurrently. When a block is successfully created, the leader broadcasts the proposed block to other peers in the network for validation. On receiving a block, validators re-execute the block transactions and accept the block if they reach the same state as shared by the miner. Validation can also be done as a community, in parallel, following the same leader-follower approach as mining. We report experiments using over 5 Million real transactions from the Ethereum blockchain and execute them using our DiPETrans framework to empirically validate the benefits of our techniques over traditional sequential execution. We achieve a maximum speedup of 2.2x for the miner and 2.0x for the validator, with 100 to 500 transactions per block. Further, we achieve a peak of 5x end-to-end block creation speedup using a parallel miner over a serial miner when using 6 machines in the community.
On the Privacy Risks of Model Explanations
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

Privacy and transparency are two key foundations of trustworthy machine learning. Model explanations offer insights into a model's decisions on input data, whereas privacy is primarily concerned with protecting information about the training data. We analyze connections between model explanations and the leakage of sensitive information about the model's training set. We investigate the privacy risks of feature-based model explanations using membership inference attacks: quantifying how much model predictions plus their explanations leak information about the presence of a datapoint in the training set of a model. We extensively evaluate membership inference attacks based on feature-based model explanations, over a variety of datasets. We show that backpropagation-based explanations can leak a significant amount of information about individual training datapoints. This is because they reveal statistical information about the decision boundaries of the model about an input, which can reveal its membership. We also empirically investigate the trade-off between privacy and explanation quality, by studying the perturbation-based model explanations.
Statistical Characteristics of Driver Acceleration Behavior and Its Probability Model
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2021
Year: 2021

Naturalistic driving data were applied to study driver acceleration behaviour, and a probability model of the driver was proposed. First, the question of whether the database is large enough is resolved using kernel density estimation and Kullback-Liebler divergence. Next, the convergence database is utilised to achieve the bivariate acceleration distribution pattern. Subsequently, two probability models are proposed to explain the pattern. Finally, the statistical characteristics of the acceleration behaviours are studied to verify the probability models. The longitudinal and lateral acceleration behaviours always approximate a similar Pareto distribution. The braking, accelerating, and steering manoeuvres become more intense at first and then less intense as the velocity increases. These behaviours characteristics reveal the mechanism of the quadrangle bivariate acceleration distribution pattern. The bivariate acceleration behaviour of the driver will never reach a circle-shaped pattern. The bivariate Pareto distribution model can be applied to describe the bivariate acceleration behaviour of the driver.
Accelerator-level Parallelism
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2021
Year: 2021

Future applications demand more performance, but technology advances have been faltering. A promising approach to further improve computer system performance under energy constraints is to employ hardware accelerators. Already today, mobile systems concurrently employ multiple accelerators in what we call accelerator-level parallelism (ALP). To spread the benefits of ALP more broadly, we charge computer scientists to develop the science needed to best achieve the performance and cost goals of ALP hardware and software.
On Open-Universe Causal Reasoning
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2021
Year: 2021

We extend two kinds of causal models, structural equation models and simulation models, to infinite variable spaces. This enables a semantics for conditionals founded on a calculus of intervention, and axiomatization of causal reasoning for rich, expressive generative models -- including those in which a causal representation exists only implicitly -- in an open-universe setting. Further, we show that under suitable restrictions the two kinds of models are equivalent, perhaps surprisingly as their axiomatizations differ substantially in the general case. We give a series of complete axiomatizations in which the open-universe nature of the setting is seen to be essential.
Task-Oriented Convex Bilevel Optimization with Latent Feasibility
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

This paper firstly proposes a convex bilevel optimization paradigm to formulate and optimize popular learning and vision problems in real-world scenarios. Different from conventional approaches, which directly design their iteration schemes based on given problem formulation, we introduce a task-oriented energy as our latent constraint which integrates richer task information. By explicitly re-characterizing the feasibility, we establish an efficient and flexible algorithmic framework to tackle convex models with both shrunken solution space and powerful auxiliary (based on domain knowledge and data distribution of the task). In theory, we present the convergence analysis of our latent feasibility re-characterization based numerical strategy. We also analyze the stability of the theoretical convergence under computational error perturbation. Extensive numerical experiments are conducted to verify our theoretical findings and evaluate the practical performance of our method on different applications.
Counting and Finding Homomorphisms is Universal for Parameterized Complexity Theory
Venue: arXiv cs.CC 2021
Year: 2021

Counting homomorphisms from a graph $H$ into another graph $G$ is a fundamental problem of (parameterized) counting complexity theory. In this work, we study the case where \emph{both} graphs $H$ and $G$ stem from given classes of graphs: $H\in \mathcal{H}$ and $G\in \mathcal{G}$. By this, we combine the structurally restricted version of this problem, with the language-restricted version. Our main result is a construction based on Kneser graphs that associates every problem $\tt P$ in $\#\mathsf{W[1]}$ with two classes of graphs $\mathcal{H}$ and $\mathcal{G}$ such that the problem $\tt P$ is \emph{equivalent} to the problem $\#{\tt HOM}(\mathcal{H}\to \mathcal{G})$ of counting homomorphisms from a graph in $\mathcal{H}$ to a graph in $\mathcal{G}$. In view of Ladner's seminal work on the existence of $\mathsf{NP}$-intermediate problems [J.ACM'75] and its adaptations to the parameterized setting, a classification of the class $\#\mathsf{W[1]}$ in fixed-parameter tractable and $\#\mathsf{W[1]}$-complete cases is unlikely. Hence, obtaining a complete classification for the problem $\#{\tt HOM}(\mathcal{H}\to \mathcal{G})$ seems unlikely. Further, our proofs easily adapt to $\mathsf{W[1]}$. In search of complexity dichotomies, we hence turn to special graph classes. Those classes include line graphs, claw-free graphs, perfect graphs, and combinations thereof, and $F$-colorable graphs for fixed graphs $F$: If the class $\mathcal{G}$ is one of those classes and the class $\mathcal{H}$ is closed under taking minors, then we establish explicit criteria for the class $\mathcal{H}$ that partition the family of problems $\#{\tt HOM}(\mathcal{H}\to\mathcal{G})$ into polynomial-time solvable and $\#\mathsf{W[1]}$-hard cases. In particular, we can drop the condition of $\mathcal{H}$ being minor-closed for $F$-colorable graphs.
Spatial Reuse in IEEE 802.11ax WLANs
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2021
Year: 2021

Dealing with massively crowded scenarios is one of the most ambitious goals of next-generation wireless networks. With this goal in mind, the IEEE 802.11ax amendment includes, among other techniques, the Spatial Reuse (SR) operation. The SR operation encompasses a set of unprecedented techniques {that are expected to significantly boost Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) performance in dense environments}. In particular, the main objective of the SR operation is to maximize the utilization of the medium by increasing the number of parallel transmissions. Nevertheless, due to the novelty of the operation, its performance gains remain largely unknown. In this paper, we first provide a gentle tutorial of the SR operation included in the IEEE 802.11ax. Then, we analytically model SR and delve into the new kinds of MAC-level interactions among network devices. Finally, we provide a simulation-driven analysis to showcase the potential of SR in various deployments, comprising different network densities and traffic loads. Our results show that the SR operation can significantly improve the medium utilization, especially in scenarios under high interference conditions. Moreover, our results demonstrate the non-intrusive design characteristic of SR, which allows enhancing the number of simultaneous transmissions with a low impact on the environment. We conclude the paper by giving some thoughts on the main challenges and limitations of the IEEE 802.11ax SR operation, including research gaps and future directions.
Computing Valuations of the Dieudonné Determinants
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2021
Year: 2021

This paper addresses the problem of computing valuations of the Dieudonné determinants of matrices over discrete valuation skew fields (DVSFs). Under a reasonable computational model, we propose two algorithms for a class of DVSFs, called split. Our algorithms are extensions of the combinatorial relaxation of Murota (1995) and the matrix expansion by Moriyama--Murota (2013), both of which are based on combinatorial optimization. While our algorithms require an upper bound on the output, we give an estimation of the bound for skew polynomial matrices and show that the estimation is valid only for skew polynomial matrices. We consider two applications of this problem. The first one is the noncommutative weighted Edmonds' problem (nc-WEP), which is to compute the degree of the Dieudonné determinants of matrices having noncommutative symbols. We show that the presented algorithms reduce the nc-WEP to the unweighted problem in polynomial time. In particular, we show that the nc-WEP over the rational field is solvable in time polynomial in the input bit-length. We also present an application to analyses of degrees of freedom of linear time-varying systems by establishing formulas on the solution spaces of linear differential/difference equations.
Constructions of optimal rank-metric codes from automorphisms of rational function fields
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

We define a class of automorphisms of rational function fields of finite characteristic and employ these to construct different types of optimal linear rank-metric codes. The first construction is of generalized Gabidulin codes over rational function fields. Reducing these codes over finite fields, we obtain maximum rank distance (MRD) codes which are not equivalent to generalized twisted Gabidulin codes. We also construct optimal Ferrers diagram rank-metric codes which settles further a conjecture by Etzion and Silberstein.
Time-optimal self-stabilizing leader election in population protocols
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2021
Year: 2021

We consider the standard population protocol model, where (a priori) indistinguishable and anonymous agents interact in pairs according to uniformly random scheduling. The self-stabilizing leader election problem requires the protocol to converge on a single leader agent from any possible initial configuration. We initiate the study of time complexity of population protocols solving this problem in its original setting: with probability 1, in a complete communication graph. The only previously known protocol by Cai, Izumi, and Wada [Theor. Comput. Syst. 50] runs in expected parallel time $Θ(n^2)$ and has the optimal number of $n$ states in a population of $n$ agents. The existing protocol has the additional property that it becomes silent, i.e., the agents' states eventually stop changing. Observing that any silent protocol solving self-stabilizing leader election requires $Ω(n)$ expected parallel time, we introduce a silent protocol that uses optimal $O(n)$ parallel time and states. Without any silence constraints, we show that it is possible to solve self-stabilizing leader election in asymptotically optimal expected parallel time of $O(\log n)$, but using at least exponential states (a quasi-polynomial number of bits). All of our protocols (and also that of Cai et al.) work by solving the more difficult ranking problem: assigning agents the ranks $1,\ldots,n$.