OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
FlexiTerm: A more efficient implementation of flexible multi-word term recognition
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2021
Year: 2021

Terms are linguistic signifiers of domain-specific concepts. Automated recognition of multi-word terms (MWT) in free text is a sequence labelling problem, which is commonly addressed using supervised machine learning methods. Their need for manual annotation of training data makes it difficult to port such methods across domains. FlexiTerm, on the other hand, is a fully unsupervised method for MWT recognition from domain-specific corpora. Originally implemented in Java as a proof of concept, it did not scale well, thus offering little practical value in the context of big data. In this paper, we describe its re-implementation in Python and compare the performance of these two implementations. The results demonstrated major improvements in terms of efficiency, which allow FlexiTerm to transition from the proof of concept to the production-grade application.
Solving the Families In the Wild Kinship Verification Challenge by Program Synthesis
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Kinship verification is the task of determining whether a parent-child, sibling, or grandparent-grandchild relationship exists between two people and is important in social media applications, forensic investigations, finding missing children, and reuniting families. We demonstrate high quality kinship verification by participating in the 2021 Recognizing Families in the Wild challenge which provides the largest publicly available dataset in the field. Our approach is among the top 3 winning entries in the competition. We ensemble models written by both human experts and a foundation model, OpenAI Codex, trained on text and code. We use Codex to generate model variants, and also demonstrate its ability to generate entire running programs for kinship verification tasks of specific relationships.
Bond Default Prediction with Text Embeddings, Undersampling and Deep Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

The special and important problems of default prediction for municipal bonds are addressed using a combination of text embeddings from a pre-trained transformer network, a fully connected neural network, and synthetic oversampling. The combination of these techniques provides significant improvement in performance over human estimates, linear models, and boosted ensemble models, on data with extreme imbalance. Less than 0.2% of municipal bonds default, but our technique predicts 9 out of 10 defaults at the time of issue, without using bond ratings, at a cost of false positives on less than 0.1% non-defaulting bonds. The results hold the promise of reducing the cost of capital for local public goods, which are vital for society, and bring techniques previously used in personal credit and public equities (or national fixed income), as well as the current generation of embedding techniques, to sub-sovereign credit decisions.
Dynamic Conflict Resolution of IoT Services in Smart Homes
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2021
Year: 2021

We propose a novel conflict resolution framework for IoT services in multi-resident smart homes. The proposed framework employs a preference extraction model based on a temporal proximity strategy. We design a preference aggregation model using a matrix factorization-based approach (i.e., singular value decomposition). The concepts of current resident item matrix and ideal resident item matrix are introduced as key criteria to cater to the conflict resolution framework. Finally, a set of experiments on real-world datasets are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Inverse analysis of material parameters in coupled multi-physics biofilm models
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2021
Year: 2021

In this article we propose an inverse analysis algorithm to find the best fit of multiple material parameters in different coupled multi-physics biofilm models. We use a nonlinear continuum mechanical approach to model biofilm deformation that occurs in flow cell experiments. The objective function is based on a simple geometrical measurement of the distance of the fluid biofilm interface between model and experiments. A Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm based on finite difference approximation is used as an optimizer. The proposed method uses a moderate to low amount of model evaluations. For a first presentation and evaluation the algorithm is applied and tested on different numerical examples based on generated numerical results and the addition of Gaussian noise. Achieved numerical results show that the proposed method serves well for different physical effects investigated and numerical approaches chosen for the model. Presented examples show the inverse analysis for multiple parameters in biofilm models including fluid-solid interaction effects, poroelasticity, heterogeneous material properties and growth.
Coarse to Fine: Video Retrieval before Moment Localization
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

The current state-of-the-art methods for video corpus moment retrieval (VCMR) often use similarity-based feature alignment approach for the sake of convenience and speed. However, late fusion methods like cosine similarity alignment are unable to make full use of the information from both query texts and videos. In this paper, we combine feature alignment with feature fusion to promote the performance on VCMR.
HUMAN4D: A Human-Centric Multimodal Dataset for Motions and Immersive Media
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

We introduce HUMAN4D, a large and multimodal 4D dataset that contains a variety of human activities simultaneously captured by a professional marker-based MoCap, a volumetric capture and an audio recording system. By capturing 2 female and $2$ male professional actors performing various full-body movements and expressions, HUMAN4D provides a diverse set of motions and poses encountered as part of single- and multi-person daily, physical and social activities (jumping, dancing, etc.), along with multi-RGBD (mRGBD), volumetric and audio data. Despite the existence of multi-view color datasets captured with the use of hardware (HW) synchronization, to the best of our knowledge, HUMAN4D is the first and only public resource that provides volumetric depth maps with high synchronization precision due to the use of intra- and inter-sensor HW-SYNC. Moreover, a spatio-temporally aligned scanned and rigged 3D character complements HUMAN4D to enable joint research on time-varying and high-quality dynamic meshes. We provide evaluation baselines by benchmarking HUMAN4D with state-of-the-art human pose estimation and 3D compression methods. For the former, we apply 2D and 3D pose estimation algorithms both on single- and multi-view data cues. For the latter, we benchmark open-source 3D codecs on volumetric data respecting online volumetric video encoding and steady bit-rates. Furthermore, qualitative and quantitative visual comparison between mesh-based volumetric data reconstructed in different qualities showcases the available options with respect to 4D representations. HUMAN4D is introduced to the computer vision and graphics research communities to enable joint research on spatio-temporally aligned pose, volumetric, mRGBD and audio data cues. The dataset and its code are available https://tofis.github.io/myurls/human4d.
Modeling dynamic target deformation in camera calibration
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Most approaches to camera calibration rely on calibration targets of well-known geometry. During data acquisition, calibration target and camera system are typically moved w.r.t. each other, to allow image coverage and perspective versatility. We show that moving the target can lead to small temporary deformations of the target, which can introduce significant errors into the calibration result. While static inaccuracies of calibration targets have been addressed in previous works, to our knowledge, none of the existing approaches can capture time-varying, dynamic deformations. To achieve high-accuracy calibrations despite moving the target, we propose a way to explicitly model dynamic target deformations in camera calibration. This is achieved by using a low-dimensional deformation model with only few parameters per image, which can be optimized jointly with target poses and intrinsics. We demonstrate the effectiveness of modeling dynamic deformations using different calibration targets and show its significance in a structure-from-motion application.
Multiple Style Transfer via Variational AutoEncoder
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Modern works on style transfer focus on transferring style from a single image. Recently, some approaches study multiple style transfer; these, however, are either too slow or fail to mix multiple styles. We propose ST-VAE, a Variational AutoEncoder for latent space-based style transfer. It performs multiple style transfer by projecting nonlinear styles to a linear latent space, enabling to merge styles via linear interpolation before transferring the new style to the content image. To evaluate ST-VAE, we experiment on COCO for single and multiple style transfer. We also present a case study revealing that ST-VAE outperforms other methods while being faster, flexible, and setting a new path for multiple style transfer.
Towards Safer Transportation: a self-supervised learning approach for traffic video deraining
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Video monitoring of traffic is useful for traffic management and control, traffic counting, and traffic law enforcement. However, traffic monitoring during inclement weather such as rain is a challenging task because video quality is corrupted by streaks of falling rain on the video image, and this hinders reliable characterization not only of the road environment but also of road-user behavior during such adverse weather events. This study proposes a two-stage self-supervised learning method to remove rain streaks in traffic videos. The first and second stages address intra- and inter-frame noise, respectively. The results indicated that the model exhibits satisfactory performance in terms of the image visual quality and the Peak Signal-Noise Ratio value.
Towards a modern CMake workflow
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2021
Year: 2021

Modern CMake offers the features to manage versatile and complex projects with ease. With respect to OMNeT++ projects, a workflow relying on CMake enables projects to combine discrete event simulation and production code in a common development environment. Such a combination means less maintenance effort and thus potentially more sustainable and long-living software. This paper highlights the significant improvements since the first attempt of using CMake in OMNeT++ projects. In particular, a state-of-the-art integration of OMNeT++ in Visual Studio Code including support for debugging and multi-platform compilation is presented. Last but not least, an exemplary use case demonstrates the powerful mix of production and simulation code in a common software architecture supported by the OMNeT++ CMake package.
zk-Fabric, a Polylithic Syntax Zero Knowledge Joint Proof System
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2021
Year: 2021

In this paper, we create a single-use and full syntax zero-knowledge proof system, a.k.a zk-Fabric. Comparing with zk-SNARKS and another variant zero-knowledge proofing system, zkBOO and it's variant zkBOO++. We present multiple new approaches on how to use partitioned garbled circuits to achieve a joint zero-knowledge proof system, with the benefits of less overhead and full syntax verification. zk-Fabric based on partitioned garbled circuits has the advantage of being versatile and single-use, meaning it can be applied to arbitrary circuits with more comprehensive statements, and it can achieve the non-interactivity among all participants. One of the protocols proposed within is used for creating a new kind of partitioned garbled circuits to match the comprehensive Boolean logical expression with multiple variables, we use the term "polythitic syntax" to refer to the context-based multiple variables in a comprehensive statement. We also designed a joint zero knowledge proof protocol that uses partitioned garbled circuits
HumBugDB: A Large-scale Acoustic Mosquito Dataset
Venue: arXiv cs.SD 2021
Year: 2021

This paper presents the first large-scale multi-species dataset of acoustic recordings of mosquitoes tracked continuously in free flight. We present 20 hours of audio recordings that we have expertly labelled and tagged precisely in time. Significantly, 18 hours of recordings contain annotations from 36 different species. Mosquitoes are well-known carriers of diseases such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever. Collecting this dataset is motivated by the need to assist applications which utilise mosquito acoustics to conduct surveys to help predict outbreaks and inform intervention policy. The task of detecting mosquitoes from the sound of their wingbeats is challenging due to the difficulty in collecting recordings from realistic scenarios. To address this, as part of the HumBug project, we conducted global experiments to record mosquitoes ranging from those bred in culture cages to mosquitoes captured in the wild. Consequently, the audio recordings vary in signal-to-noise ratio and contain a broad range of indoor and outdoor background environments from Tanzania, Thailand, Kenya, the USA and the UK. In this paper we describe in detail how we collected, labelled and curated the data. The data is provided from a PostgreSQL database, which contains important metadata such as the capture method, age, feeding status and gender of the mosquitoes. Additionally, we provide code to extract features and train Bayesian convolutional neural networks for two key tasks: the identification of mosquitoes from their corresponding background environments, and the classification of detected mosquitoes into species. Our extensive dataset is both challenging to machine learning researchers focusing on acoustic identification, and critical to entomologists, geo-spatial modellers and other domain experts to understand mosquito behaviour, model their distribution, and manage the threat they pose to humans.
Non-deep Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Depth is the hallmark of deep neural networks. But more depth means more sequential computation and higher latency. This begs the question -- is it possible to build high-performing "non-deep" neural networks? We show that it is. To do so, we use parallel subnetworks instead of stacking one layer after another. This helps effectively reduce depth while maintaining high performance. By utilizing parallel substructures, we show, for the first time, that a network with a depth of just 12 can achieve top-1 accuracy over 80% on ImageNet, 96% on CIFAR10, and 81% on CIFAR100. We also show that a network with a low-depth (12) backbone can achieve an AP of 48% on MS-COCO. We analyze the scaling rules for our design and show how to increase performance without changing the network's depth. Finally, we provide a proof of concept for how non-deep networks could be used to build low-latency recognition systems. Code is available at https://github.com/imankgoyal/NonDeepNetworks.
Uplink Power Control in Integrated Access and Backhaul Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2021
Year: 2021

Integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network is a novel radio access network (RAN) solution, enabling network densification for 5G and beyond. In this paper, we use power control combined with resource allocation algorithms to develop efficient IAB networks with high service coverage. Particularly, we develop a genetic algorithm-based solution for the power control of both user equipments and IAB nodes such that the network uplink service coverage probability is maximized. Finally, considering millimeter wave channel models, we study the effect of different parameters including minimum data rate requirement, coverage distance and transmit power on the network performance. As we show, a power allocation schemes with well-tuned parameters can improve the uplink performance of IAB networks considerably. Moreover, with millimeter wave communications and a proper network deployment, the effect of interference on the service coverage probability is negligible.
Semi-automated checking for regulatory compliance in e-Health
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2021
Year: 2021

One of the main issues of every business process is to be compliant with legal rules. This work presents a methodology to check in a semi-automated way the regulatory compliance of a business process. We analyse an e-Health hospital service in particular: the Hospital at Home (HaH) service. The paper shows, at first, the analysis of the hospital business using the Business Process Management and Notation (BPMN) standard language, then, the formalization in Defeasible Deontic Logic (DDL) of some rules of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The aim is to show how to combine a set of tasks of a business with a set of rules to be compliant with, using a tool.
Deep Human-guided Conditional Variational Generative Modeling for Automated Urban Planning
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Urban planning designs land-use configurations and can benefit building livable, sustainable, safe communities. Inspired by image generation, deep urban planning aims to leverage deep learning to generate land-use configurations. However, urban planning is a complex process. Existing studies usually ignore the need of personalized human guidance in planning, and spatial hierarchical structure in planning generation. Moreover, the lack of large-scale land-use configuration samples poses a data sparsity challenge. This paper studies a novel deep human guided urban planning method to jointly solve the above challenges. Specifically, we formulate the problem into a deep conditional variational autoencoder based framework. In this framework, we exploit the deep encoder-decoder design to generate land-use configurations. To capture the spatial hierarchy structure of land uses, we enforce the decoder to generate both the coarse-grained layer of functional zones, and the fine-grained layer of POI distributions. To integrate human guidance, we allow humans to describe what they need as texts and use these texts as a model condition input. To mitigate training data sparsity and improve model robustness, we introduce a variational Gaussian embedding mechanism. It not just allows us to better approximate the embedding space distribution of training data and sample a larger population to overcome sparsity, but also adds more probabilistic randomness into the urban planning generation to improve embedding diversity so as to improve robustness. Finally, we present extensive experiments to validate the enhanced performances of our method.
Decomposing Convolutional Neural Networks into Reusable and Replaceable Modules
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Training from scratch is the most common way to build a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based model. What if we can build new CNN models by reusing parts from previously build CNN models? What if we can improve a CNN model by replacing (possibly faulty) parts with other parts? In both cases, instead of training, can we identify the part responsible for each output class (module) in the model(s) and reuse or replace only the desired output classes to build a model? Prior work has proposed decomposing dense-based networks into modules (one for each output class) to enable reusability and replaceability in various scenarios. However, this work is limited to the dense layers and based on the one-to-one relationship between the nodes in consecutive layers. Due to the shared architecture in the CNN model, prior work cannot be adapted directly. In this paper, we propose to decompose a CNN model used for image classification problems into modules for each output class. These modules can further be reused or replaced to build a new model. We have evaluated our approach with CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and ImageNet tiny datasets with three variations of ResNet models and found that enabling decomposition comes with a small cost (1.77% and 0.85% for top-1 and top-5 accuracy, respectively). Also, building a model by reusing or replacing modules can be done with a 2.3% and 0.5% average loss of accuracy. Furthermore, reusing and replacing these modules reduces CO2e emission by ~37 times compared to training the model from scratch.
Is that a Duiker or Dik Dik Next to the Giraffe? Impacts of Uncertainty on Classification Efficiency in Citizen Science
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2021
Year: 2021

Quality control is an ongoing concern in citizen science that is often managed by replication to consensus in online tasks such as image classification. Numerous factors can lead to disagreement, including image quality problems, interface specifics, and the complexity of the content itself. We conducted trace ethnography with statistical and qualitative analyses of six Snapshot Safari projects to understand the content characteristics that can lead to uncertainty and low consensus. This study contributes content categorization based on aggregate classifications to characterize image complexity, with analysis that confirms that the categories impact classification efficiency, and an inductively generated set of additional image quality issues that also impact volunteers' ability to confidently classify content. The results suggest that different conceptualizations and measures of consensus may be needed for different types of content, and aggregate responses offer a way to identify content that needs different handling when complexity cannot be determined $a$ $priori$.
4D flight trajectory prediction using a hybrid Deep Learning prediction method based on ADS-B technology: a case study of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport(ATL)
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

The core of any flight schedule is the trajectories. In particular, 4D trajectories are the most crucial component for flight attribute prediction. In particular, 4D trajectories are the most crucial component for flight attribute prediction. Each trajectory contains spatial and temporal features that are associated with uncertainties that make the prediction process complex. Today because of the increasing demand for air transportation, it is compulsory for airports and airlines to have an optimized schedule to use all of the airport's infrastructure potential. This is possible using advanced trajectory prediction methods. This paper proposes a novel hybrid deep learning model to extract the spatial and temporal features considering the uncertainty of the prediction model for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport(ATL). Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data are used as input to the models. This research is conducted in three steps: (a) data preprocessing; (b) prediction by a hybrid Convolutional Neural Network and Gated Recurrent Unit (CNN-GRU) along with a 3D-CNN model; (c) The third and last step is the comparison of the model's performance with the proposed model by comparing the experimental results. The deep model uncertainty is considered using the Mont-Carlo dropout (MC-Dropout). Mont-Carlo dropouts are added to the network layers to enhance the model's prediction performance by a robust approach of switching off between different neurons. The results show that the proposed model has low error measurements compared to the other models (i.e., 3D CNN, CNN-GRU). The model with MC-dropout reduces the error further by an average of 21 %.