OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Efficient Analytical Queries on Semantic Web Data Cubes
Venue: arXiv cs.DB 2017
Year: 2017

The amount of multidimensional data published on the semantic web (SW) is constantly increasing, due to initiatives such as Open Data and Open Government Data, among other ones. Models, languages, and tools, that allow to obtain valuable information efficiently, are thus required. Multidimensional data are typically represented as data cubes, and exploited using Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) techniques. The RDF Data Cube Vocabulary, also denoted QB, is the current W3C standard to represent statistical data on the SW.Since QB does not include key features needed for OLAP analysis, in previous work we have proposed an extension, denoted QB4OLAP, to overcome this problem without the need of modifying already published data. Once data cubes are represented on the SW, we need tools to analyze them. However, writing efficient analytical queries over SW cubes demands a deep knowledge of RDF and SPARQL. These skills are not common in typical analytical users. Also, OLAP languages like MDX are far from being easily understood by the final user. The lack of friendly tools to exploit multidimensional data on the SW is a barrier that needs to be broken to promote the publication of such data. We address this problem in this paper. Our approach is based on allowing analytical users to write queries using OLAP operations over cubes, without dealing with SW standards. For this, we devised CQL (standing for Cube Query Language), a simple, high-level query language that operates over cubes. Using the metadata provided by QB4OLAP, we translate CQL queries into SPARQL. Then, we propose query improvement strategies to produce efficient SPARQL queries, adapting SPARQL query optimization techniques. We evaluate our approach using the Star-Schema benchmark, showing that our proposal outperforms others. A web application that allows querying SW data cubes using CQL, completes our contributions.
Control and Limit Enforcements for VSC Multi-Terminal HVDC in Newton Power Flow
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2017
Year: 2017

This paper proposes a novel method to automatically enforce controls and limits for Voltage Source Converter (VSC) based multi-terminal HVDC in the Newton power flow iteration process. A general VSC MT-HVDC model with primary PQ or PV control and secondary voltage control is formulated. Both the dependent and independent variables are included in the propose formulation so that the algebraic variables of the VSC MT-HVDC are adjusted simultaneously. The proposed method also maintains the number of equations and the dimension of the Jacobian matrix unchanged so that, when a limit is reached and a control is released, the Jacobian needs no re-factorization. Simulations on the IEEE 14-bus and Polish 9241-bus systems are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.
A Hybrid Feasibility Constraints-Guided Search to the Two-Dimensional Bin Packing Problem with Due Dates
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2017
Year: 2017

The two-dimensional non-oriented bin packing problem with due dates packs a set of rectangular items, which may be rotated by 90 degrees, into identical rectangular bins. The bins have equal processing times. An item's lateness is the difference between its due date and the completion time of its bin. The problem packs all items without overlap as to minimize maximum lateness Lmax. The paper proposes a tight lower bound that enhances an existing bound on Lmax for 24.07% of the benchmark instances and matches it in 30.87% cases. In addition, it models the problem using mixed integer programming (MIP), and solves small-sized instances exactly using CPLEX. It approximately solves larger-sized instances using a two-stage heuristic. The first stage constructs an initial solution via a first-fit heuristic that applies an iterative constraint programming (CP)-based neighborhood search. The second stage, which is iterative too, approximately solves a series of assignment low-level MIPs that are guided by feasibility constraints. It then enhances the solution via a high-level random local search. The approximate approach improves existing upper bounds by 27.45% on average, and obtains the optimum for 33.93% of the instances. Overall, the exact and approximate approaches identify the optimum for 39.07% cases. The proposed approach is applicable to complex problems. It applies CP and MIP sequentially, while exploring their advantages, and hybridizes heuristic search with MIP. It embeds a new lookahead strategy that guards against infeasible search directions and constrains the search to improving directions only; thus, differs from traditional lookahead beam searches.
On the use of convolutional neural networks for robust classification of multiple fingerprint captures
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Fingerprint classification is one of the most common approaches to accelerate the identification in large databases of fingerprints. Fingerprints are grouped into disjoint classes, so that an input fingerprint is compared only with those belonging to the predicted class, reducing the penetration rate of the search. The classification procedure usually starts by the extraction of features from the fingerprint image, frequently based on visual characteristics. In this work, we propose an approach to fingerprint classification using convolutional neural networks, which avoid the necessity of an explicit feature extraction process by incorporating the image processing within the training of the classifier. Furthermore, such an approach is able to predict a class even for low-quality fingerprints that are rejected by commonly used algorithms, such as FingerCode. The study gives special importance to the robustness of the classification for different impressions of the same fingerprint, aiming to minimize the penetration in the database. In our experiments, convolutional neural networks yielded better accuracy and penetration rate than state-of-the-art classifiers based on explicit feature extraction. The tested networks also improved on the runtime, as a result of the joint optimization of both feature extraction and classification.
Just-in-Time Batch Scheduling Problem with Two-dimensional Bin Packing Constraints
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2017
Year: 2017

This paper introduces and approximately solves a multi-component problem where small rectangular items are produced from large rectangular bins via guillotine cuts. An item is characterized by its width, height, due date, and earliness and tardiness penalties per unit time. Each item induces a cost that is proportional to its earliness and tardiness. Items cut from the same bin form a batch, whose processing and completion times depend on its assigned items. The items of a batch have the completion time of their bin. The objective is to find a cutting plan that minimizes the weighted sum of earliness and tardiness penalties. We address this problem via a constraint programming based heuristic (CP) and an agent based modelling heuristic (AB). CP is an impact-based search strategy, implemented in the general-purpose solver IBM CP Optimizer. AB is constructive. It builds a solution through repeated negotiations between the set of agents representing the items and the set representing the bins. The agents cooperate to minimize the weighted earliness-tardiness penalties. The computational investigation shows that CP outperforms AB on small-sized instances while the opposite prevails for larger instances.
Improving Statistical Multimedia Information Retrieval Model by using Ontology
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2017
Year: 2017

A typical IR system that delivers and stores information is affected by problem of matching between user query and available content on web. Use of Ontology represents the extracted terms in form of network graph consisting of nodes, edges, index terms etc. The above mentioned IR approaches provide relevance thus satisfying users query. The paper also emphasis on analyzing multimedia documents and performs calculation for extracted terms using different statistical formulas. The proposed model developed reduces semantic gap and satisfies user needs efficiently.
High-Fidelity Solar Power Income Modeling for Solar-Electric UAVs: Development and Flight Test Based Verification
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2017
Year: 2017

Solar power models are a crucial element of solar-powered UAV design and performance analysis. During the conceptual design phase, their accuracy directly relates to the accuracy of the predicted performance metrics and thus the final design characteristics of the solar-powered UAV. Likewise, during the operations phase of a solar-powered UAV accurate solar power income models are required to predict and assess the solar power system performance. However, the existing literature on solar-powered UAVs uses highly simplified solar power models. This technical report therefore, first, introduces a high-fidelity solar power model that takes into account the exact aircraft attitude, aircraft geometry, and physical effects such as temperature and the sun radiation's angle-of-incidence that influence the overall solar power system efficiency. Second, models that require a reduced set of input data and are thus more appropriate for the initial design phase of solar-powered UAVs are derived from the high-fidelity model. Third, the models are compared and verified against flight data from a 28-hour continuous day/night solar-powered flight. The results indicate that our high-fidelity model allows a prediction of the average solar power income with an error of less than 5% whereas previous models were only accurate to about 18%.
Knowledge Transfer for Melanoma Screening with Deep Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Knowledge transfer impacts the performance of deep learning -- the state of the art for image classification tasks, including automated melanoma screening. Deep learning's greed for large amounts of training data poses a challenge for medical tasks, which we can alleviate by recycling knowledge from models trained on different tasks, in a scheme called transfer learning. Although much of the best art on automated melanoma screening employs some form of transfer learning, a systematic evaluation was missing. Here we investigate the presence of transfer, from which task the transfer is sourced, and the application of fine tuning (i.e., retraining of the deep learning model after transfer). We also test the impact of picking deeper (and more expensive) models. Our results favor deeper models, pre-trained over ImageNet, with fine-tuning, reaching an AUC of 80.7% and 84.5% for the two skin-lesion datasets evaluated.
Frequency Offset Estimation and Training Sequence Design for MIMO OFDM
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

This paper addresses carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation and training sequence design for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems over frequency selective fading channels. By exploiting the orthogonality of the training sequences in the frequency domain, integer CFO (ICFO) is estimated. {With the uniformly spaced non-zero pilots in the training sequences} and the corresponding geometric mapping, fractional CFO (FCFO) is estimated through the roots of a real polynomial. Furthermore, the condition for the training sequences to guarantee estimation identifiability is developed. Through the analysis of the correlation property of the training sequences, two types of sub-optimal training sequences generated from the Chu sequence are constructed. Simulation results verify the good performance of the CFO estimator assisted by the proposed training sequences.
On Multiphase-Linear Ranking Functions
Venue: arXiv cs.PL 2017
Year: 2017

Multiphase ranking functions ($\mathit{MΦRFs}$) were proposed as a means to prove the termination of a loop in which the computation progresses through a number of "phases", and the progress of each phase is described by a different linear ranking function. Our work provides new insights regarding such functions for loops described by a conjunction of linear constraints (single-path loops). We provide a complete polynomial-time solution to the problem of existence and of synthesis of $\mathit{MΦRF}$ of bounded depth (number of phases), when variables range over rational or real numbers; a complete solution for the (harder) case that variables are integer, with a matching lower-bound proof, showing that the problem is coNP-complete; and a new theorem which bounds the number of iterations for loops with $\mathit{MΦRFs}$. Surprisingly, the bound is linear, even when the variables involved change in non-linear way. We also consider a type of lexicographic ranking functions, $\mathit{LLRFs}$, more expressive than types of lexicographic functions for which complete solutions have been given so far. We prove that for the above type of loops, lexicographic functions can be reduced to $\mathit{MΦRFs}$, and thus the questions of complexity of detection and synthesis, and of resulting iteration bounds, are also answered for this class.
Inline Co-Evolution between Users and Information Presentation for Data Exploration
Venue: arXiv cs.DB 2017
Year: 2017

This paper presents an intelligent user interface model dedicated to the exploration of complex databases. This model is implemented on a 3D metaphor : a virtual museum. In this metaphor, the database elements are embodied as museum objects. The objects are grouped in rooms according to their semantic properties and relationships and the rooms organization forms the museum. Rooms organization is not predefi-ned but defined incrementally by taking into account not only the relationships between objects, but also the users centers of interest. The latter are evaluated in real-time through user interactions within the virtual museum. This interface allows for a personal reading and favors the discovery of unsuspec-ted links between data. In this paper, we present our model's formalization as well as its application to the context of cultural heritage.
An End-to-End Approach to Natural Language Object Retrieval via Context-Aware Deep Reinforcement Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

We propose an end-to-end approach to the natural language object retrieval task, which localizes an object within an image according to a natural language description, i.e., referring expression. Previous works divide this problem into two independent stages: first, compute region proposals from the image without the exploration of the language description; second, score the object proposals with regard to the referring expression and choose the top-ranked proposals. The object proposals are generated independently from the referring expression, which makes the proposal generation redundant and even irrelevant to the referred object. In this work, we train an agent with deep reinforcement learning, which learns to move and reshape a bounding box to localize the object according to the referring expression. We incorporate both the spatial and temporal context information into the training procedure. By simultaneously exploiting local visual information, the spatial and temporal context and the referring language a priori, the agent selects an appropriate action to take at each time. A special action is defined to indicate when the agent finds the referred object, and terminate the procedure. We evaluate our model on various datasets, and our algorithm significantly outperforms the compared algorithms. Notably, the accuracy improvement of our method over the recent method GroundeR and SCRC on the ReferItGame dataset are 7.67% and 18.25%, respectively.
Energy Efficiency in Cache Enabled Small Cell Networks With Adaptive User Clustering
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

Using a network of cache enabled small cells, traffic during peak hours can be reduced considerably through proactively fetching the content that is most probable to be requested. In this paper, we aim at exploring the impact of proactive caching on an important metric for future generation networks, namely, energy efficiency (EE). We argue that, exploiting the correlation in user content popularity profiles in addition to the spatial repartitions of users with comparable request patterns, can result in considerably improving the achievable energy efficiency of the network. In this paper, the problem of optimizing EE is decoupled into two related subproblems. The first one addresses the issue of content popularity modeling. While most existing works assume similar popularity profiles for all users in the network, we consider an alternative caching framework in which, users are clustered according to their content popularity profiles. In order to showcase the utility of the proposed clustering scheme, we use a statistical model selection criterion, namely Akaike information criterion (AIC). Using stochastic geometry, we derive a closed-form expression of the achievable EE and we find the optimal active small cell density vector that maximizes it. The second subproblem investigates the impact of exploiting the spatial repartitions of users with comparable request patterns. After considering a snapshot of the network, we formulate a combinatorial optimization problem that enables to optimize content placement such that the used transmission power is minimized. Numerical results show that the clustering scheme enable to considerably improve the cache hit probability and consequently the EE compared with an unclustered approach. Simulations also show that the small base station allocation algorithm results in improving the energy efficiency and hit probability.
Algorithms for Nash and Pareto Equilibria for Resource Allocation in Multiple Femtocells
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2017
Year: 2017

We consider a cellular system with multiple Femtocells operating in a Macrocell. They are sharing a set of communication channels. Each Femtocell has multiple users requiring certain minimum rate guarantees. Each channel has a peak power constraint to limit interference to the Macro Base Station (BS). We formulate the problem of channel allocation and power control at the Femtocells as a noncooperative Game. We develop decentralized algorithms to obtain a Coarse Correlated equilibrium that satisfies the QoS of each user. If the QoS of all the users cannot be satisfied, then we obtain a fair equilibrium. Finally we also provide a decentralized algorithm to reach a Pareto and a Nash Bargaining solution which has a much lower complexity than the algorithm to compute the NE.
Cooperative In-Vivo Nano-Network Communication at Terahertz Frequencies
Venue: arXiv cs.ET 2017
Year: 2017

Nano devices have great potential to play a vital role in future medical diagnostics and treatment technologies because of its non-invasive nature and ability to reach delicate body sites easily as compared to conventional devices. In this paper, a novel concept of cooperative communication for in-vivo nano-network is presented to enhance the communication among these devices. The effect on the system outage probability performance is conducted for various parameters including relay lacement, number of relays, transmit power, bandwidth and carrier frequency. Results show approximately a 10-fold increase in the system outage performance whenever an additional relay is included in the cooperative network, hence show a great potential of using cooperative communication to enhance the performance of nano-network at terahertz frequencies.
A Probabilistic Design Method for Fatigue Life of Metallic Component
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2017
Year: 2017

In the present study, a general probabilistic design framework is developed for cyclic fatigue life prediction of metallic hardware using methods that address uncertainty in experimental data and computational model. The methodology involves (i) fatigue test data conducted on coupons of Ti6Al4V material (ii) continuum damage mechanics based material constitutive models to simulate cyclic fatigue behavior of material (iii) variance-based global sensitivity analysis (iv) Bayesian framework for model calibration and uncertainty quantification and (v) computational life prediction and probabilistic design decision making under uncertainty. The outcomes of computational analyses using the experimental data prove the feasibility of the probabilistic design methods for model calibration in presence of incomplete and noisy data. Moreover, using probabilistic design methods result in assessment of reliability of fatigue life predicted by computational models.
Hierarchical Summarization of Metric Changes
Venue: arXiv cs.DB 2017
Year: 2017

We study changes in metrics that are defined on a cartesian product of trees. Such metrics occur naturally in many practical applications, where a global metric (such as revenue) can be broken down along several hierarchical dimensions (such as location, gender, etc). Given a change in such a metric, our goal is to identify a small set of non-overlapping data segments that account for the change. An organization interested in improving the metric can then focus their attention on these data segments. Our key contribution is an algorithm that mimics the operation of a hierarchical organization of analysts. The algorithm has been successfully applied, for example within Google Adwords to help advertisers triage the performance of their advertising campaigns. We show that the algorithm is optimal for two dimensions, and has an approximation ratio $\log^{d-2}(n+1)$ for $d \geq 3$ dimensions, where $n$ is the number of input data segments. For the Adwords application, we can show that our algorithm is in fact a $2$-approximation. Mathematically, we identify a certain data pattern called a \emph{conflict} that both guides the design of the algorithm, and plays a central role in the hardness results. We use these conflicts to both derive a lower bound of $1.144^{d-2}$ (again $d\geq3$) for our algorithm, and to show that the problem is NP-hard, justifying the focus on approximation.
Random Features for Compositional Kernels
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

We describe and analyze a simple random feature scheme (RFS) from prescribed compositional kernels. The compositional kernels we use are inspired by the structure of convolutional neural networks and kernels. The resulting scheme yields sparse and efficiently computable features. Each random feature can be represented as an algebraic expression over a small number of (random) paths in a composition tree. Thus, compositional random features can be stored compactly. The discrete nature of the generation process enables de-duplication of repeated features, further compacting the representation and increasing the diversity of the embeddings. Our approach complements and can be combined with previous random feature schemes.
Anonymized Local Privacy
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, we introduce the family of Anonymized Local Privacy mechanisms. These mechanisms have an output space of three values "Yes", "No", or "$\perp$" (not participating) and leverage the law of large numbers to generate linear noise in the number of data owners to protect privacy both before and after aggregation yet preserve accuracy. We describe the suitability in a distributed on-demand network and evaluate over a real dataset as we scale the population.