OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Object Graph Programming
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

We introduce Object Graph Programming (OGO), which enables reading and modifying an object graph (i.e., the entire state of the object heap) via declarative queries. OGO models the objects and their relations in the heap as an object graph thereby treating the heap as a graph database: each node in the graph is an object (e.g., an instance of a class or an instance of a metadata class) and each edge is a relation between objects (e.g., a field of one object references another object). We leverage Cypher, the most popular query language for graph databases, as OGO's query language. Unlike LINQ, which uses collections (e.g., List) as a source of data, OGO views the entire object graph as a single "collection". OGO is ideal for querying collections (just like LINQ), introspecting the runtime system state (e.g., finding all instances of a given class or accessing fields via reflection), and writing assertions that have access to the entire program state. We prototyped OGO for Java in two ways: (a) by translating an object graph into a Neo4j database on which we run Cypher queries, and (b) by implementing our own in-memory graph query engine that directly queries the object heap. We used OGO to rewrite hundreds of statements in large open-source projects into OGO queries. We report our experience and performance of our prototypes.
Counterfactual Fairness Is Not Demographic Parity, and Other Observations
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Blanket statements of equivalence between causal concepts and purely probabilistic concepts should be approached with care. In this short note, I examine a recent claim that counterfactual fairness is equivalent to demographic parity. The claim fails to hold up upon closer examination. I will take the opportunity to address some broader misunderstandings about counterfactual fairness.
Successive Bayesian Reconstructor for FAS Channel Estimation
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

Fluid antenna systems (FASs) can reconfigure their locations freely within a spatially continuous space. To keep favorable antenna positions, the channel state information (CSI) acquisition for FASs is essential. While some techniques have been proposed, most existing FAS channel estimators require several channel assumptions, such as slow variation and angular-domain sparsity. When these assumptions are not reasonable, the model mismatch may lead to unpredictable performance loss. In this paper, we propose the successive Bayesian reconstructor (S-BAR) as a general solution to estimate FAS channels. Unlike model-based estimators, the proposed S-BAR is prior-aided, which builds the experiential kernel for CSI acquisition. Inspired by Bayesian regression, the key idea of S-BAR is to model the FAS channels as a stochastic process, whose uncertainty can be successively eliminated by kernel-based sampling and regression. In this way, the predictive mean of the regressed stochastic process can be viewed as the maximum a posterior (MAP) estimator of FAS channels. Simulation results verify that, in both model-mismatched and model-matched cases, the proposed S-BAR can achieve higher estimation accuracy than the existing schemes.
Understanding What Affects the Generalization Gap in Visual Reinforcement Learning: Theory and Empirical Evidence
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Recently, there are many efforts attempting to learn useful policies for continuous control in visual reinforcement learning (RL). In this scenario, it is important to learn a generalizable policy, as the testing environment may differ from the training environment, e.g., there exist distractors during deployment. Many practical algorithms are proposed to handle this problem. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of them provide a theoretical understanding of what affects the generalization gap and why their proposed methods work. In this paper, we bridge this issue by theoretically answering the key factors that contribute to the generalization gap when the testing environment has distractors. Our theories indicate that minimizing the representation distance between training and testing environments, which aligns with human intuition, is the most critical for the benefit of reducing the generalization gap. Our theoretical results are supported by the empirical evidence in the DMControl Generalization Benchmark (DMC-GB).
Understanding the planning of LLM agents: A survey
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

As Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown significant intelligence, the progress to leverage LLMs as planning modules of autonomous agents has attracted more attention. This survey provides the first systematic view of LLM-based agents planning, covering recent works aiming to improve planning ability. We provide a taxonomy of existing works on LLM-Agent planning, which can be categorized into Task Decomposition, Plan Selection, External Module, Reflection and Memory. Comprehensive analyses are conducted for each direction, and further challenges for the field of research are discussed.
Using Motion Cues to Supervise Single-Frame Body Pose and Shape Estimation in Low Data Regimes
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

When enough annotated training data is available, supervised deep-learning algorithms excel at estimating human body pose and shape using a single camera. The effects of too little such data being available can be mitigated by using other information sources, such as databases of body shapes, to learn priors. Unfortunately, such sources are not always available either. We show that, in such cases, easy-to-obtain unannotated videos can be used instead to provide the required supervisory signals. Given a trained model using too little annotated data, we compute poses in consecutive frames along with the optical flow between them. We then enforce consistency between the image optical flow and the one that can be inferred from the change in pose from one frame to the next. This provides enough additional supervision to effectively refine the network weights and to perform on par with methods trained using far more annotated data.
Effects of Shared Control on Cognitive Load and Trust in Teleoperated Trajectory Tracking
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

Teleoperation is increasingly recognized as a viable solution for deploying robots in hazardous environments. Controlling a robot to perform a complex or demanding task may overload operators resulting in poor performance. To design a robot controller to assist the human in executing such challenging tasks, a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between the robot's autonomous behavior and the operator's internal state is essential. In this paper, we investigate the relationships between robot autonomy and both the human user's cognitive load and trust levels, and the potential existence of three-way interactions in the robot-assisted execution of the task. Our user study (N=24) results indicate that while the autonomy level influences the teleoperator's perceived cognitive load and trust, there is no clear interaction between these factors. Instead, these elements appear to operate independently, thus highlighting the need to consider both cognitive load and trust as distinct but interrelated factors in varying the robot autonomy level in shared-control settings. This insight is crucial for the development of more effective and adaptable assistive robotic systems.
Dual Knowledge Distillation for Efficient Sound Event Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.SD 2024
Year: 2024

Sound event detection (SED) is essential for recognizing specific sounds and their temporal locations within acoustic signals. This becomes challenging particularly for on-device applications, where computational resources are limited. To address this issue, we introduce a novel framework referred to as dual knowledge distillation for developing efficient SED systems in this work. Our proposed dual knowledge distillation commences with temporal-averaging knowledge distillation (TAKD), utilizing a mean student model derived from the temporal averaging of the student model's parameters. This allows the student model to indirectly learn from a pre-trained teacher model, ensuring a stable knowledge distillation. Subsequently, we introduce embedding-enhanced feature distillation (EEFD), which involves incorporating an embedding distillation layer within the student model to bolster contextual learning. On DCASE 2023 Task 4A public evaluation dataset, our proposed SED system with dual knowledge distillation having merely one-third of the baseline model's parameters, demonstrates superior performance in terms of PSDS1 and PSDS2. This highlights the importance of proposed dual knowledge distillation for compact SED systems, which can be ideal for edge devices.
A Learning-Based Caching Mechanism for Edge Content Delivery
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2024
Year: 2024

With the advent of 5G networks and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are increasingly extending into the network edge. This shift introduces unique challenges, particularly due to the limited cache storage and the diverse request patterns at the edge. These edge environments can host traffic classes characterized by varied object-size distributions and object-access patterns. Such complexity makes it difficult for traditional caching strategies, which often rely on metrics like request frequency or time intervals, to be effective. Despite these complexities, the optimization of edge caching is crucial. Improved byte hit rates at the edge not only alleviate the load on the network backbone but also minimize operational costs and expedite content delivery to end-users. In this paper, we introduce HR-Cache, a comprehensive learning-based caching framework grounded in the principles of Hazard Rate (HR) ordering, a rule originally formulated to compute an upper bound on cache performance. HR-Cache leverages this rule to guide future object eviction decisions. It employs a lightweight machine learning model to learn from caching decisions made based on HR ordering, subsequently predicting the "cache-friendliness" of incoming requests. Objects deemed "cache-averse" are placed into cache as priority candidates for eviction. Through extensive experimentation, we demonstrate that HR-Cache not only consistently enhances byte hit rates compared to existing state-of-the-art methods but also achieves this with minimal prediction overhead. Our experimental results, using three real-world traces and one synthetic trace, indicate that HR-Cache consistently achieves 2.2-14.6% greater WAN traffic savings than LRU. It outperforms not only heuristic caching strategies but also the state-of-the-art learning-based algorithm.
A Comprehensive Numerical Approach to Coil Placement in Cerebral Aneurysms: Mathematical Modeling and In Silico Occlusion Classification
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2024
Year: 2024

Endovascular coil embolization is one of the primary treatment techniques for cerebral aneurysms. Although it is a well established and minimally invasive method, it bears the risk of sub-optimal coil placement which can lead to incomplete occlusion of the aneurysm possibly causing recurrence. One of the key features of coils is that they have an imprinted natural shape supporting the fixation within the aneurysm. For the spatial discretization our mathematical coil model is based on the Discrete Elastic Rod model which results in a dimension-reduced 1D system of differential equations. We include bending and twisting responses to account for the coils natural curvature. Collisions between coil segments and the aneurysm-wall are handled by an efficient contact algorithm that relies on an octree based collision detection. The numerical solution of the model is obtained by a symplectic semi-implicit Euler time stepping method. Our model can be easily incorporated into blood flow simulations of embolized aneurysms. In order to differentiate optimal from sub-optimal placements, we employ a suitable in silico Raymond-Roy type occlusion classification and measure the local packing density in the aneurysm at its neck, wall-region and core. We investigate the impact of uncertainties in the coil parameters and embolization procedure. To this end, we vary the position and the angle of insertion of the microcatheter, and approximate the local packing density distributions by evaluating sample statistics.
Trinity: Syncretizing Multi-/Long-tail/Long-term Interests All in One
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2024
Year: 2024

Interest modeling in recommender system has been a constant topic for improving user experience, and typical interest modeling tasks (e.g. multi-interest, long-tail interest and long-term interest) have been investigated in many existing works. However, most of them only consider one interest in isolation, while neglecting their interrelationships. In this paper, we argue that these tasks suffer from a common "interest amnesia" problem, and a solution exists to mitigate it simultaneously. We figure that long-term cues can be the cornerstone since they reveal multi-interest and clarify long-tail interest. Inspired by the observation, we propose a novel and unified framework in the retrieval stage, "Trinity", to solve interest amnesia problem and improve multiple interest modeling tasks. We construct a real-time clustering system that enables us to project items into enumerable clusters, and calculate statistical interest histograms over these clusters. Based on these histograms, Trinity recognizes underdelivered themes and remains stable when facing emerging hot topics. Trinity is more appropriate for large-scale industry scenarios because of its modest computational overheads. Its derived retrievers have been deployed on the recommender system of Douyin, significantly improving user experience and retention. We believe that such practical experience can be well generalized to other scenarios.
A unified rule format for bounded nondeterminism in SOS with terms as labels
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2024
Year: 2024

We present a unified rule format for structural operational semantics with terms as labels that guarantees that the associated labelled transition system has some bounded-nondeterminism property. The properties we consider include finite branching, initials finiteness and image finiteness.
Noisy group testing via spatial coupling
Venue: arXiv cs.DM 2024
Year: 2024

We study the problem of identifying a small set $k\sim n^θ$, $0<θ<1$, of infected individuals within a large population of size $n$ by testing groups of individuals simultaneously. All tests are conducted concurrently. The goal is to minimise the total number of tests required. In this paper we make the (realistic) assumption that tests are noisy, i.e.\ that a group that contains an infected individual may return a negative test result or one that does not contain an infected individual may return a positive test results with a certain probability. The noise need not be symmetric. We develop an algorithm called SPARC that correctly identifies the set of infected individuals up to $o(k)$ errors with high probability with the asymptotically minimum number of tests. Additionally, we develop an algorithm called SPEX that exactly identifies the set of infected individuals w.h.p. with a number of tests that matches the information-theoretic lower bound for the constant column design, a powerful and well-studied test design.
Domain Adaptation of Multilingual Semantic Search -- Literature Review
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2024
Year: 2024

This literature review gives an overview of current approaches to perform domain adaptation in a low-resource and approaches to perform multilingual semantic search in a low-resource setting. We developed a new typology to cluster domain adaptation approaches based on the part of dense textual information retrieval systems, which they adapt, focusing on how to combine them efficiently. We also explore the possibilities of combining multilingual semantic search with domain adaptation approaches for dense retrievers in a low-resource setting.
Unraveling the Key of Machine Learning Solutions for Android Malware Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

Android malware detection serves as the front line against malicious apps. With the rapid advancement of machine learning (ML), ML-based Android malware detection has attracted increasing attention due to its capability of automatically capturing malicious patterns from Android APKs. These learning-driven methods have reported promising results in detecting malware. However, the absence of an in-depth analysis of current research progress makes it difficult to gain a holistic picture of the state of the art in this area. This paper presents a comprehensive investigation to date into ML-based Android malware detection with empirical and quantitative analysis. We first survey the literature, categorizing contributions into a taxonomy based on the Android feature engineering and ML modeling pipeline. Then, we design a general-propose framework for ML-based Android malware detection, re-implement 12 representative approaches from different research communities, and evaluate them from three primary dimensions, i.e., effectiveness, robustness, and efficiency. The evaluation reveals that ML-based approaches still face open challenges and provides insightful findings like more powerful ML models are not the silver bullet for designing better malware detectors. We further summarize our findings and put forth recommendations to guide future research.
Variational Flow Models: Flowing in Your Style
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

We propose a systematic training-free method to transform the probability flow of a "linear" stochastic process characterized by the equation X_{t}=a_{t}X_{0}+σ_{t}X_{1} into a straight constant-speed (SC) flow, reminiscent of Rectified Flow. This transformation facilitates fast sampling along the original probability flow via the Euler method without training a new model of the SC flow. The flexibility of our approach allows us to extend our transformation to inter-convert two posterior flows of two distinct linear stochastic processes. Moreover, we can easily integrate high-order numerical solvers into the transformed SC flow, further enhancing the sampling accuracy and efficiency. Rigorous theoretical analysis and extensive experimental results substantiate the advantages of our framework. Our code is available at this [https://github.com/clarken92/VFM||link].
An intrinsical description of group codes
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

A (left) group code of length n is a linear code which is the image of a (left) ideal of a group algebra via an isomorphism from FG to Fn which maps G to the standard basis of Fn. Many classical linear codes have been shown to be group codes. In this paper we obtain a criterion to decide when a linear code is a group code in terms of its intrinsical properties in the ambient space Fn, which does not assume an a priori group algebra structure on Fn. As an application we provide a family of groups (including metacyclic groups) for which every two-sided group code is an abelian group code. It is well known that Reed-Solomon codes are cyclic and its parity check extensions are elementary abelian group codes. These two classes of codes are included in the class of Cauchy codes. Using our criterion we classify the Cauchy codes of some lengths which are left group codes and the possible group code structures on these codes.
A Safety-Adapted Loss for Pedestrian Detection in Automated Driving
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

In safety-critical domains like automated driving (AD), errors by the object detector may endanger pedestrians and other vulnerable road users (VRU). As common evaluation metrics are not an adequate safety indicator, recent works employ approaches to identify safety-critical VRU and back-annotate the risk to the object detector. However, those approaches do not consider the safety factor in the deep neural network (DNN) training process. Thus, state-of-the-art DNN penalizes all misdetections equally irrespective of their criticality. Subsequently, to mitigate the occurrence of critical failure cases, i.e., false negatives, a safety-aware training strategy might be required to enhance the detection performance for critical pedestrians. In this paper, we propose a novel safety-aware loss variation that leverages the estimated per-pedestrian criticality scores during training. We exploit the reachability set-based time-to-collision (TTC-RSB) metric from the motion domain along with distance information to account for the worst-case threat quantifying the criticality. Our evaluation results using RetinaNet and FCOS on the nuScenes dataset demonstrate that training the models with our safety-aware loss function mitigates the misdetection of critical pedestrians without sacrificing performance for the general case, i.e., pedestrians outside the safety-critical zone.
Reconstruct Your Previous Conversations! Comprehensively Investigating Privacy Leakage Risks in Conversations with GPT Models
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

Significant advancements have recently been made in large language models represented by GPT models. Users frequently have multi-round private conversations with cloud-hosted GPT models for task optimization. Yet, this operational paradigm introduces additional attack surfaces, particularly in custom GPTs and hijacked chat sessions. In this paper, we introduce a straightforward yet potent Conversation Reconstruction Attack. This attack targets the contents of previous conversations between GPT models and benign users, i.e., the benign users' input contents during their interaction with GPT models. The adversary could induce GPT models to leak such contents by querying them with designed malicious prompts. Our comprehensive examination of privacy risks during the interactions with GPT models under this attack reveals GPT-4's considerable resilience. We present two advanced attacks targeting improved reconstruction of past conversations, demonstrating significant privacy leakage across all models under these advanced techniques. Evaluating various defense mechanisms, we find them ineffective against these attacks. Our findings highlight the ease with which privacy can be compromised in interactions with GPT models, urging the community to safeguard against potential abuses of these models' capabilities.
Automatic Combination of Sample Selection Strategies for Few-Shot Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

In few-shot learning, such as meta-learning, few-shot fine-tuning or in-context learning, the limited number of samples used to train a model have a significant impact on the overall success. Although a large number of sample selection strategies exist, their impact on the performance of few-shot learning is not extensively known, as most of them have been so far evaluated in typical supervised settings only. In this paper, we thoroughly investigate the impact of 20 sample selection strategies on the performance of 5 few-shot learning approaches over 8 image and 6 text datasets. In addition, we propose a new method for automatic combination of sample selection strategies (ACSESS) that leverages the strengths and complementary information of the individual strategies. The experimental results show that our method consistently outperforms the individual selection strategies, as well as the recently proposed method for selecting support examples for in-context learning. We also show a strong modality, dataset and approach dependence for the majority of strategies as well as their dependence on the number of shots - demonstrating that the sample selection strategies play a significant role for lower number of shots, but regresses to random selection at higher number of shots.