OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Examining Attacks on Consensus and Incentive Systems in Proof-of-Work Blockchains: A Systematic Literature Review
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

Cryptocurrencies have gained popularity due to their transparency, security, and accessibility compared to traditional financial systems, with Bitcoin, introduced in 2009, leading the market. Bitcoin's security relies on blockchain technology - a decentralized ledger consisting of a consensus and an incentive mechanism. The consensus mechanism, Proof of Work (PoW), requires miners to solve difficult cryptographic puzzles to add new blocks, while the incentive mechanism rewards them with newly minted bitcoins. However, as Bitcoin's acceptance grows, it faces increasing threats from attacks targeting these mechanisms, such as selfish mining, double-spending, and block withholding. These attacks compromise security, efficiency, and reward distribution. Recent research shows that these attacks can be combined with each other or with either malicious strategies, such as network-layer attacks, or non-malicious strategies, like honest mining. These combinations lead to more sophisticated attacks, increasing the attacker's success rates and profitability. Therefore, understanding and evaluating these attacks is essential for developing effective countermeasures and ensuring long-term security. This paper begins by examining individual attacks executed in isolation and their profitability. It then explores how combining these attacks with each other or with other malicious and non-malicious strategies can enhance their overall effectiveness and profitability. The analysis further explores how the deployment of attacks such as selfish mining and block withholding by multiple competing mining pools against each other impacts their economic returns. Lastly, a set of design guidelines is provided, outlining areas future work should focus on to prevent or mitigate the identified threats.
Generalizability of Memorization Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

The neural network memorization problem is to study the expressive power of neural networks to interpolate a finite dataset. Although memorization is widely believed to have a close relationship with the strong generalizability of deep learning when using over-parameterized models, to the best of our knowledge, there exists no theoretical study on the generalizability of memorization neural networks. In this paper, we give the first theoretical analysis of this topic. Since using i.i.d. training data is a necessary condition for a learning algorithm to be generalizable, memorization and its generalization theory for i.i.d. datasets are developed under mild conditions on the data distribution. First, algorithms are given to construct memorization networks for an i.i.d. dataset, which have the smallest number of parameters and even a constant number of parameters. Second, we show that, in order for the memorization networks to be generalizable, the width of the network must be at least equal to the dimension of the data, which implies that the existing memorization networks with an optimal number of parameters are not generalizable. Third, a lower bound for the sample complexity of general memorization algorithms and the exact sample complexity for memorization algorithms with constant number of parameters are given. It is also shown that there exist data distributions such that, to be generalizable for them, the memorization network must have an exponential number of parameters in the data dimension. Finally, an efficient and generalizable memorization algorithm is given when the number of training samples is greater than the efficient memorization sample complexity of the data distribution.
MetaMetrics-MT: Tuning Meta-Metrics for Machine Translation via Human Preference Calibration
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

We present MetaMetrics-MT, an innovative metric designed to evaluate machine translation (MT) tasks by aligning closely with human preferences through Bayesian optimization with Gaussian Processes. MetaMetrics-MT enhances existing MT metrics by optimizing their correlation with human judgments. Our experiments on the WMT24 metric shared task dataset demonstrate that MetaMetrics-MT outperforms all existing baselines, setting a new benchmark for state-of-the-art performance in the reference-based setting. Furthermore, it achieves comparable results to leading metrics in the reference-free setting, offering greater efficiency.
Capability-aware Task Allocation and Team Formation Analysis for Cooperative Exploration of Complex Environments
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

To achieve autonomy in complex real-world exploration missions, we consider deployment strategies for a team of robots with heterogeneous autonomy capabilities. In this work, we formulate a multi-robot exploration mission and compute an operation policy to maintain robot team productivity and maximize mission rewards. The environment description, robot capability, and mission outcome are modeled as a Markov decision process (MDP). We also include constraints in real-world operation, such as sensor failures, limited communication coverage, and mobility-stressing elements. Then, we study the proposed operation model on a real-world scenario in the context of the DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge. The computed deployment policy is also compared against the human-based operation strategy in the final competition of the SubT Challenge. Finally, using the proposed model, we discuss the design trade-off on building a multi-robot team with heterogeneous capabilities.
Inference-to-complete: A High-performance and Programmable Data-plane Co-processor for Neural-network-driven Traffic Analysis
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2024
Year: 2024

Neural-networks-driven intelligent data-plane (NN-driven IDP) is becoming an emerging topic for excellent accuracy and high performance. Meanwhile we argue that NN-driven IDP should satisfy three design goals: the flexibility to support various NNs models, the low-latency-high-throughput inference performance, and the data-plane-unawareness harming no performance and functionality. Unfortunately, existing work either over-modify NNs for IDP, or insert inline pipelined accelerators into the data-plane, failing to meet the flexibility and unawareness goals. In this paper, we propose Kaleidoscope, a flexible and high-performance co-processor located at the bypass of the data-plane. To address the challenge of meeting three design goals, three key techniques are presented. The programmable run-to-completion accelerators are developed for flexible inference. To further improve performance, we design a scalable inference engine which completes low-latency and low-cost inference for the mouse flows, and perform complex NNs with high-accuracy for the elephant flows. Finally, raw-bytes-based NNs are introduced, which help to achieve unawareness. We prototype Kaleidoscope on both FPGA and ASIC library. In evaluation on six NNs models, Kaleidoscope reaches 256-352 ns inference latency and 100 Gbps throughput with negligible influence on the data-plane. The on-board tested NNs perform state-of-the-art accuracy among other NN-driven IDP, exhibiting the the significant impact of flexibility on enhancing traffic analysis accuracy.
MAP the Blockchain World: A Trustless and Scalable Blockchain Interoperability Protocol for Cross-chain Applications
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

Blockchain interoperability protocols enable cross-chain asset transfers or data retrievals between isolated chains, which are considered as the core infrastructure for Web 3.0 applications such as decentralized finance protocols. However, existing protocols either face severe scalability issues due to high on-chain and off-chain costs, or suffer from trust concerns because of centralized designs. In this paper, we propose \texttt{MAP}, a trustless blockchain interoperability protocol that relays cross-chain transactions across heterogeneous chains with high scalability. First, within \texttt{MAP}, we develop a novel \textit{cross-chain relay} technique, which integrates a unified relay chain architecture and on-chain light clients of different source chains, allowing the retrieval and verification of diverse cross-chain transactions. Furthermore, we reduce cross-chain verification costs by incorporating an optimized zk-based light client scheme that adaptively decouples signature verification overheads from inefficient smart contract execution and offloads them to off-chain provers. For experiments, we conducted the first large-scale evaluation on existing interoperability protocols. With \texttt{MAP}, the required number of on-chain light clients is reduced from $O(N^2)$ to $O(N)$, with around 35\% reduction in on-chain costs and 25\% reduction for off-chain costs when verifying cross-chain transactions. To demonstrate the effectiveness, we deployed \texttt{MAP} in the real world. By 2024, we have supported over six popular public chains, 50 cross-chain applications and relayed over 200K cross-chain transactions worth over 640 million USD. Based on rich practical experiences, we constructed the first real-world cross-chain dataset to further advance blockchain interoperability research.
Pandora's Box in Your SSD: The Untold Dangers of NVMe
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

Modern operating systems manage and abstract hardware resources, to ensure efficient execution of user workloads. The operating system must securely interface with often untrusted user code while relying on hardware that is assumed to be trustworthy. In this paper, we challenge this trust by introducing the eNVMe platform, a malicious NVMe storage device. The eNVMe platform features a novel, Linux-based, open-source NVMe firmware. It embeds hacking tools and it is compatible with a variety of PCI-enabled hardware. Using this platform, we uncover several attack vectors in Linux and Windows, highlighting the risks posed by malicious NVMe devices. We discuss available mitigation techniques and ponder about open-source firmware and open-hardware as a viable way forward for storage. While prior research has examined compromised existing hardware, our eNVMe platform provides a novel and unique tool for security researchers, enabling deeper exploration of vulnerabilities in operating system storage subsystems.
Multi Modal Information Fusion of Acoustic and Linguistic Data for Decoding Dairy Cow Vocalizations in Animal Welfare Assessment
Venue: arXiv cs.SD 2024
Year: 2024

Understanding animal vocalizations through multi-source data fusion is crucial for assessing emotional states and enhancing animal welfare in precision livestock farming. This study aims to decode dairy cow contact calls by employing multi-modal data fusion techniques, integrating transcription, semantic analysis, contextual and emotional assessment, and acoustic feature extraction. We utilized the Natural Language Processing model to transcribe audio recordings of cow vocalizations into written form. By fusing multiple acoustic features frequency, duration, and intensity with transcribed textual data, we developed a comprehensive representation of cow vocalizations. Utilizing data fusion within a custom-developed ontology, we categorized vocalizations into high frequency calls associated with distress or arousal, and low frequency calls linked to contentment or calmness. Analyzing the fused multi dimensional data, we identified anxiety related features indicative of emotional distress, including specific frequency measurements and sound spectrum results. Assessing the sentiment and acoustic features of vocalizations from 20 individual cows allowed us to determine differences in calling patterns and emotional states. Employing advanced machine learning algorithms, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and Recurrent Neural Networks, we effectively processed and fused multi-source data to classify cow vocalizations. These models were optimized to handle computational demands and data quality challenges inherent in practical farm environments. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of multi-source data fusion and intelligent processing techniques in animal welfare monitoring. This study represents a significant advancement in animal welfare assessment, highlighting the role of innovative fusion technologies in understanding and improving the emotional wellbeing of dairy cows.
Tactical Edge IoT in Defense and National Security
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

The deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) systems in Defense and National Security faces some limitations that can be addressed with Edge Computing approaches. The Edge Computing and IoT paradigms combined bring potential benefits, since they confront the limitations of traditional centralized cloud computing approaches, which enable easy scalability, real-time applications or mobility support, but whose use poses certain risks in aspects like cybersecurity. This chapter identifies scenarios in which Defense and National Security can leverage Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Edge IoT capabilities to deliver greater survivability to warfighters or first responders, while lowering costs and increasing operational efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, it presents the general design of a Tactical Edge IoT communications architecture, it identifies the open challenges for a widespread adoption and provides research guidelines and some recommendations for enabling cost-effective Edge IoT for Defense and National Security.
Analyzing Multimodal Integration in the Variational Autoencoder from an Information-Theoretic Perspective
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Human perception is inherently multimodal. We integrate, for instance, visual, proprioceptive and tactile information into one experience. Hence, multimodal learning is of importance for building robotic systems that aim at robustly interacting with the real world. One potential model that has been proposed for multimodal integration is the multimodal variational autoencoder. A variational autoencoder (VAE) consists of two networks, an encoder that maps the data to a stochastic latent space and a decoder that reconstruct this data from an element of this latent space. The multimodal VAE integrates inputs from different modalities at two points in time in the latent space and can thereby be used as a controller for a robotic agent. Here we use this architecture and introduce information-theoretic measures in order to analyze how important the integration of the different modalities are for the reconstruction of the input data. Therefore we calculate two different types of measures, the first type is called single modality error and assesses how important the information from a single modality is for the reconstruction of this modality or all modalities. Secondly, the measures named loss of precision calculate the impact that missing information from only one modality has on the reconstruction of this modality or the whole vector. The VAE is trained via the evidence lower bound, which can be written as a sum of two different terms, namely the reconstruction and the latent loss. The impact of the latent loss can be weighted via an additional variable, which has been introduced to combat posterior collapse. Here we train networks with four different weighting schedules and analyze them with respect to their capabilities for multimodal integration.
Transforming Medical Regulations into Numbers: Vectorizing a Decade of Medical Device Regulatory Shifts in the USA, EU, and China
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2024
Year: 2024

Navigating the regulatory frameworks that ensure the safety and efficacy of medical devices can be challenging, especially across different regions. These frameworks often require redundant testing, slowing down the process of getting innovations to patients. This study leverages Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze 664 regulations and guidelines from the USA, EU, and China over the past decade, covering over 200 million tokens. We categorize regulations into key phases, such as animal studies, clinical trials, and other testing stages, and use Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) to perform Named Entity Recognition (NER), identifying key regulatory terms and entities. By converting these texts into numerical representations and segmenting them by phase, country, and year, we compare jurisdictional requirements and assess their alignment. Additionally, we apply Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for theme analysis to observe changes in regulatory focus over time, reflecting evolving priorities and challenges. Our analysis reveals notable semantic similarities and differences between countries and phases. For instance, the closest alignment in animal study regulations is between China and the USA, with a mean cosine distance of 0.33. These findings highlight the computational potential in regulatory science, offering valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals.
HopTrack: A Real-time Multi-Object Tracking System for Embedded Devices
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) poses significant challenges in computer vision. Despite its wide application in robotics, autonomous driving, and smart manufacturing, there is limited literature addressing the specific challenges of running MOT on embedded devices. State-of-the-art MOT trackers designed for high-end GPUs often experience low processing rates (<11fps) when deployed on embedded devices. Existing MOT frameworks for embedded devices proposed strategies such as fusing the detector model with the feature embedding model to reduce inference latency or combining different trackers to improve tracking accuracy, but tend to compromise one for the other. This paper introduces HopTrack, a real-time multi-object tracking system tailored for embedded devices. Our system employs a novel discretized static and dynamic matching approach along with an innovative content-aware dynamic sampling technique to enhance tracking accuracy while meeting the real-time requirement. Compared with the best high-end GPU modified baseline Byte (Embed) and the best existing baseline on embedded devices MobileNet-JDE, HopTrack achieves a processing speed of up to 39.29 fps on NVIDIA AGX Xavier with a multi-object tracking accuracy (MOTA) of up to 63.12% on the MOT16 benchmark, outperforming both counterparts by 2.15% and 4.82%, respectively. Additionally, the accuracy improvement is coupled with the reduction in energy consumption (20.8%), power (5%), and memory usage (8%), which are crucial resources on embedded devices. HopTrack is also detector agnostic allowing the flexibility of plug-and-play.
Lingma SWE-GPT: An Open Development-Process-Centric Language Model for Automated Software Improvement
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

Recent advancements in LLM-based agents have led to significant progress in automatic software engineering, particularly in software maintenance and evolution. Despite these encouraging advances, current research faces two major challenges. First, SOTA performance primarily depends on closed-source models, which significantly limits the technology's accessibility, and potential for customization in diverse SE tasks. Second, these models are predominantly trained on static code data, lacking a deep understanding of the dynamic interactions, iterative problem-solving processes, and evolutionary characteristics inherent in software development. To address these challenges, our study adopts a software engineering perspective. We recognize that real-world software maintenance and evolution processes encompass not only static code data but also developers' thought processes, utilization of external tools, and the interaction between different functional personnel. Consequently, we introduce the Lingma SWE-GPT series, comprising Lingma SWE-GPT 7B and 72B. By learning from and simulating real-world code submission activities, Lingma SWE-GPT systematically incorporates the dynamic interactions and iterative problem-solving inherent in software development process, thereby achieving a more comprehensive understanding of software improvement processes. We conducted experimental evaluations using SWE-bench Verified benchmark. The results demonstrate that Lingma SWE-GPT 72B successfully resolves 30.20% of the GitHub issues, marking a significant improvement in automatic issue resolution (22.76% relative improvement compared to Llama 3.1 405B), approaching the performance of closed-source models (31.80\% issues of GPT-4o resolved). Notably, Lingma SWE-GPT 7B resolves 18.20% of the issues, highlighting the potential for applying smaller models to ASE tasks.
Multilayer Dataflow: Orchestrate Butterfly Sparsity to Accelerate Attention Computation
Venue: arXiv cs.AR 2024
Year: 2024

Recent neural networks (NNs) with self-attention exhibit competitiveness across different AI domains, but the essential attention mechanism brings massive computation and memory demands. To this end, various sparsity patterns are introduced to reduce the quadratic computation complexity, among which the structured butterfly sparsity has been proven efficient in computation reduction while maintaining model accuracy. However, its complicated data accessing pattern brings utilization degradation and makes parallelism hard to exploit in general block-oriented architecture like GPU. Since the reconfigurable dataflow architecture is known to have better data reusability and architectural flexibility in general NN-based acceleration, we want to apply it to the butterfly sparsity for acquiring better computational efficiency for attention workloads. We first propose a hybrid butterfly-sparsity network to obtain better trade-offs between attention accuracy and performance. Next, we propose a scalable multilayer dataflow method supported by coarse-grained streaming parallelism designs, to orchestrate the butterfly sparsity computation on the dataflow array. The experiments show that compared with Jetson Xavier NX, our design has a speedup of up to $14.34\times$ ($9.29\times$ on average) as well as $11.14\times$ energy efficiency advancement in attention workloads. In comparison with SOTA attention accelerators of the same peak performance, our dataflow architecture acquires $2.38\times$-$4.7\times$ efficiency improvement as well as $6.60\times$-$15.37\times$ energy reduction with butterfly sparsity optimization.
Decoding Dark Matter: Specialized Sparse Autoencoders for Interpreting Rare Concepts in Foundation Models
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Understanding and mitigating the potential risks associated with foundation models (FMs) hinges on developing effective interpretability methods. Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) have emerged as a promising tool for disentangling FM representations, but they struggle to capture rare, yet crucial concepts in the data. We introduce Specialized Sparse Autoencoders (SSAEs), designed to illuminate these elusive dark matter features by focusing on specific subdomains. We present a practical recipe for training SSAEs, demonstrating the efficacy of dense retrieval for data selection and the benefits of Tilted Empirical Risk Minimization as a training objective to improve concept recall. Our evaluation of SSAEs on standard metrics, such as downstream perplexity and $L_0$ sparsity, show that they effectively capture subdomain tail concepts, exceeding the capabilities of general-purpose SAEs. We showcase the practical utility of SSAEs in a case study on the Bias in Bios dataset, where SSAEs achieve a 12.5\% increase in worst-group classification accuracy when applied to remove spurious gender information. SSAEs provide a powerful new lens for peering into the inner workings of FMs in subdomains.