OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Maiter: An Asynchronous Graph Processing Framework for Delta-based Accumulative Iterative Computation
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2017
Year: 2017

Myriad of graph-based algorithms in machine learning and data mining require parsing relational data iteratively. These algorithms are implemented in a large-scale distributed environment in order to scale to massive data sets. To accelerate these large-scale graph-based iterative computations, we propose delta-based accumulative iterative computation (DAIC). Different from traditional iterative computations, which iteratively update the result based on the result from the previous iteration, DAIC updates the result by accumulating the "changes" between iterations. By DAIC, we can process only the "changes" to avoid the negligible updates. Furthermore, we can perform DAIC asynchronously to bypass the high-cost synchronous barriers in heterogeneous distributed environments. Based on the DAIC model, we design and implement an asynchronous graph processing framework, Maiter. We evaluate Maiter on local cluster as well as on Amazon EC2 Cloud. The results show that Maiter achieves as much as 60x speedup over Hadoop and outperforms other state-of-the-art frameworks.
What Can Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Movements in RAMIS Tell Us?
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2017
Year: 2017

Quantitative characterization of surgical movements can improve the quality of patient care by informing the development of new training protocols for surgeons, and the design and control of surgical robots. Here, we present a novel characterization of open and teleoperated suturing movements that is based on principles from computational motor control. We focus on the extensively-studied relationship between the speed of movement and its geometry. In three-dimensional movements, this relationship is defined by the one-sixth power law that relates between the speed, the curvature, and the torsion of movement trajectories. We fitted the parameters of the one-sixth power law to suturing movements of participants with different levels of surgical experience in open (using sensorized forceps) and teleoperated (using the da Vinci Research Kit / da Vinci Surgical System) conditions from two different datasets. We found that teleoperation significantly affected the parameters of the power law, and that there were large differences between different stages of movement. These results open a new avenue for studying the effect of teleoperation on the spatiotemporal characteristics of the movements of surgeons, and lay the foundation for the development of new algorithms for automatic segmentation of surgical tasks.
Convolutional Neural Networks for Sentiment Classification on Business Reviews
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2017
Year: 2017

Recently Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) models have proven remarkable results for text classification and sentiment analysis. In this paper, we present our approach on the task of classifying business reviews using word embeddings on a large-scale dataset provided by Yelp: Yelp 2017 challenge dataset. We compare word-based CNN using several pre-trained word embeddings and end-to-end vector representations for text reviews classification. We conduct several experiments to capture the semantic relationship between business reviews and we use deep learning techniques that prove that the obtained results are competitive with traditional methods.
SpecWatch: A Framework for Adversarial Spectrum Monitoring with Unknown Statistics
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

In cognitive radio networks (CRNs), dynamic spectrum access has been proposed to improve the spectrum utilization, but it also generates spectrum misuse problems. One common solution to these problems is to deploy monitors to detect misbehaviors on certain channel. However, in multi-channel CRNs, it is very costly to deploy monitors on every channel. With a limited number of monitors, we have to decide which channels to monitor. In addition, we need to determine how long to monitor each channel and in which order to monitor, because switching channels incurs costs. Moreover, the information about the misuse behavior is not available a priori. To answer those questions, we model the spectrum monitoring problem as an adversarial multi-armed bandit problem with switching costs (MAB-SC), propose an effective framework, and design two online algorithms, SpecWatch-II and SpecWatch-III, based on the same framework. To evaluate the algorithms, we use weak regret, i.e., the performance difference between the solution of our algorithm and optimal (fixed) solution in hindsight, as the metric. We prove that the expected weak regret of SpecWatch-II is O(T^{2/3}), where T is the time horizon. Whereas, the actual weak regret of SpecWatch-III is O(T^{2/3}) with probability 1 - δ, for any δ in (0, 1). Both algorithms guarantee the upper bounds matching the lower bound of the general adversarial MAB- SC problem. Therefore, they are all asymptotically optimal.
Pushing the envelope in deep visual recognition for mobile platforms
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Image classification is the task of assigning to an input image a label from a fixed set of categories. One of its most important applicative fields is that of robotics, in particular the needing of a robot to be aware of what's around and the consequent exploitation of that information as a benefit for its tasks. In this work we consider the problem of a robot that enters a new environment and wants to understand visual data coming from its camera, so to extract knowledge from them. As main novelty we want to overcome the needing of a physical robot, as it could be expensive and unhandy, so to hopefully enhance, speed up and ease the research in this field. That's why we propose to develop an application for a mobile platform that wraps several deep visual recognition tasks. First we deal with a simple Image classification, testing a model obtained from an AlexNet trained on the ILSVRC 2012 dataset. Several photo settings are considered to better understand which factors affect most the quality of classification. For the same purpose we are interested to integrate the classification task with an extra module dealing with segmentation of the object inside the image. In particular we propose a technique for extracting the object shape and moving out all the background, so to focus the classification only on the region occupied by the object. Another significant task that is included is that of object discovery. Its purpose is to simulate the situation in which the robot needs a certain object to complete one of its activities. It starts searching for what it needs by looking around and trying to understand the location of the object by scanning the surrounding environment. Finally we provide a tool for dealing with the creation of customized task-specific databases, meant to better suit to one's needing in a particular vision task.
Multi-Tenant C-RAN With Spectrum Pooling: Downlink Optimization Under Privacy Constraints
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

Spectrum pooling allows multiple operators, or tenants, to share the same frequency bands. This work studies the optimization of spectrum pooling for the downlink of a multi-tenant Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) system in the presence of inter-tenant privacy constraints. The spectrum available for downlink transmission is partitioned into private and shared subbands, and the participating operators cooperate to serve the user equipments (UEs) on the shared subband. The network of each operator consists of a cloud processor (CP) that is connected to proprietary radio units (RUs) by means of finite-capacity fronthaul links. In order to enable interoperator cooperation, the CPs of the participating operators are also connected by finite-capacity backhaul links. Inter-operator cooperation may hence result in loss of privacy. Fronthaul and backhaul links are used to transfer quantized baseband signals. Standard quantization is considered first. Then, a novel approach based on the idea of correlating quantization noise signals across RUs of different operators is proposed to control the trade-off between distortion at UEs and inter-operator privacy. The problem of optimizing the bandwidth allocation, precoding, and fronthaul/backhaul compression strategies is tackled under constraints on backhaul and fronthaul capacity, as well as on per-RU transmit power and inter-operator privacy. For both cases, the optimization problems are tackled using the concave convex procedure (CCCP), and extensive numerical results are provided.
Beneficial and Harmful Agile Practices for Product Quality
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2017
Year: 2017

There is the widespread belief that Agile neglects the product quality. This lack of understanding how Agile processes assure the quality of the product prevents especially companies from regulated domains from an adoption of Agile. This work aims to identify which Agile Practices contribute towards product quality. Hence, data from a survey study is analyzed to identify Ag-ile Practices which are beneficial or harmful for the quality of the product. From 49 practices that were used in the survey so far, 36 were perceived to have a positive impact on product quality, while four practices were rated as being harmful. The results enrich understanding of how product quality can be achieved in Agile, and support selection of practices to improve quality.
Cross-Language Learning for Program Classification using Bilateral Tree-Based Convolutional Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

Towards the vision of translating code that implements an algorithm from one programming language into another, this paper proposes an approach for automated program classification using bilateral tree-based convolutional neural networks (BiTBCNNs). It is layered on top of two tree-based convolutional neural networks (TBCNNs), each of which recognizes the algorithm of code written in an individual programming language. The combination layer of the networks recognizes the similarities and differences among code in different programming languages. The BiTBCNNs are trained using the source code in different languages but known to implement the same algorithms and/or functionalities. For a preliminary evaluation, we use 3591 Java and 3534 C++ code snippets from 6 algorithms we crawled systematically from GitHub. We obtained over 90% accuracy in the cross-language binary classification task to tell whether any given two code snippets implement the same algorithm. Also, for the algorithm classification task, i.e., to predict which one of the six algorithm labels is implemented by an arbitrary C++ code snippet, we achieved over 80% precision.
Hybrid Precoder and Combiner Design with Low Resolution Phase Shifters in mmWave MIMO Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications have been considered as a key technology for next generation cellular systems and Wi-Fi networks because of its advances in providing orders-of-magnitude wider bandwidth than current wireless networks. Economical and energy efficient analog/digial hybrid precoding and combining transceivers have been often proposed for mmWave massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to overcome the severe propagation loss of mmWave channels. One major shortcoming of existing solutions lies in the assumption of infinite or high-resolution phase shifters (PSs) to realize the analog beamformers. However, low-resolution PSs are typically adopted in practice to reduce the hardware cost and power consumption. Motivated by this fact, in this paper, we investigate the practical design of hybrid precoders and combiners with low-resolution PSs in mmWave MIMO systems. In particular, we propose an iterative algorithm which successively designs the low-resolution analog precoder and combiner pair for each data stream, aiming at conditionally maximizing the spectral efficiency. Then, the digital precoder and combiner are computed based on the obtained effective baseband channel to further enhance the spectral efficiency. In an effort to achieve an even more hardware-efficient large antenna array, we also investigate the design of hybrid beamformers with one-bit resolution (binary) PSs, and present a novel binary analog precoder and combiner optimization algorithm with quadratic complexity in the number of antennas. The proposed low-resolution hybrid beamforming design is further extended to multiuser MIMO communication systems. Simulation results demonstrate the performance advantages of the proposed algorithms compared to existing low-resolution hybrid beamforming designs, particularly for the one-bit resolution PS scenario.
A New Coherence-Penalized Minimal Path Model with Application to Retinal Vessel Centerline Delineation
Venue: arXiv cs.CG 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, we propose a new minimal path model for minimally interactive retinal vessel centerline extraction. The main contribution lies at the construction of a novel coherence-penalized Riemannian metric in a lifted space, dependently of the local geometry of tubularity and an external scalar-valued reference feature map. The globally minimizing curves associated to the proposed metric favour to pass through a set of retinal vessel segments with low variations of the feature map, thus can avoid the short branches combination problem and shortcut problem, commonly suffered by the existing minimal path models in the application of retinal imaging. We validate our model on a series of retinal vessel patches obtained from the DRIVE and IOSTAR datasets, showing that our model indeed get promising results.
Deep Gaussian Covariance Network
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

The correlation length-scale next to the noise variance are the most used hyperparameters for the Gaussian processes. Typically, stationary covariance functions are used, which are only dependent on the distances between input points and thus invariant to the translations in the input space. The optimization of the hyperparameters is commonly done by maximizing the log marginal likelihood. This works quite well, if the distances are uniform distributed. In the case of a locally adapted or even sparse input space, the prediction of a test point can be worse dependent of its position. A possible solution to this, is the usage of a non-stationary covariance function, where the hyperparameters are calculated by a deep neural network. So that the correlation length scales and possibly the noise variance are dependent on the test point. Furthermore, different types of covariance functions are trained simultaneously, so that the Gaussian process prediction is an additive overlay of different covariance matrices. The right covariance functions combination and its hyperparameters are learned by the deep neural network. Additional, the Gaussian process will be able to be trained by batches or online and so it can handle arbitrarily large data sets. We call this framework Deep Gaussian Covariance Network (DGCP). There are also further extensions to this framework possible, for example sequentially dependent problems like time series or the local mixture of experts. The basic framework and some extension possibilities will be presented in this work. Moreover, a comparison to some recent state of the art surrogate model methods will be performed, also for a time dependent problem.
Understanding the Correlation Gap for Matchings
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2017
Year: 2017

Given a set of vertices $V$ with $|V| = n$, a weight vector $w \in (\mathbb{R}^+ \cup \{ 0 \})^{\binom{V}{2}}$, and a probability vector $x \in [0, 1]^{\binom{V}{2}}$ in the matching polytope, we study the quantity $\frac{E_{G}[ ν_w(G)]}{\sum_{(u, v) \in \binom{V}{2}} w_{u, v} x_{u, v}}$ where $G$ is a random graph where each edge $e$ with weight $w_e$ appears with probability $x_e$ independently, and let $ν_w(G)$ denotes the weight of the maximum matching of $G$. This quantity is closely related to correlation gap and contention resolution schemes, which are important tools in the design of approximation algorithms, algorithmic game theory, and stochastic optimization. We provide lower bounds for the above quantity for general and bipartite graphs, and for weighted and unweighted settings. he best known upper bound is $0.54$ by Karp and Sipser, and the best lower bound is $0.4$. We show that it is at least $0.47$ for unweighted bipartite graphs, at least $0.45$ for weighted bipartite graphs, and at lea st $0.43$ for weighted general graphs. To achieve our results, we construct local distribution schemes on the dual which may be of independent interest.
On the bit-size of non-radical triangular sets
Venue: arXiv cs.SC 2017
Year: 2017

We present upper bounds on the bit-size of coefficients of non-radical lexicographical Groebner bases in purely triangular form (triangular sets) of dimension zero. This extends a previous work [Dahan-Schost, Issac'2004], constrained to radical triangular sets; it follows the same technical steps, based on interpolation. However, key notion of height of varieties is not available for points with multiplicities; therefore the bounds obtained are less universal and depend on some input data. We also introduce a related family of non- monic polynomials that have smaller coefficients, and smaller bounds. It is not obvious to compute them from the initial triangular set though.
Optimal Control of Interdependent Epidemics in Complex Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.SY 2017
Year: 2017

Optimal control of interdependent epidemics spreading over complex networks is a critical issue. We first establish a framework to capture the coupling between two epidemics, and then analyze the system's equilibrium states by categorizing them into three classes, and deriving their stability conditions. The designed control strategy globally optimizes the trade-off between the control cost and the severity of epidemics in the network. A gradient descent algorithm based on a fixed point iterative scheme is proposed to find the optimal control strategy. The optimal control will lead to switching between equilibria of the interdependent epidemics network. Case studies are used to corroborate the theoretical results finally.
Hybrid Simulation Safety: Limbos and Zero Crossings
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2017
Year: 2017

Physical systems can be naturally modeled by combining continuous and discrete models. Such hybrid models may simplify the modeling task of complex system, as well as increase simulation performance. Moreover, modern simulation engines can often efficiently generate simulation traces, but how do we know that the simulation results are correct? If we detect an error, is the error in the model or in the simulation itself? This paper discusses the problem of simulation safety, with the focus on hybrid modeling and simulation. In particular, two key aspects are studied: safe zero-crossing detection and deterministic hybrid event handling. The problems and solutions are discussed and partially implemented in Modelica and Ptolemy II.
Sistema de Navegação Autônomo Baseado em Visão Computacional
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2017
Year: 2017

Autonomous robots are used as the tool to solve many kinds of problems, such as environmental mapping and monitoring. Either for adverse conditions related to the human presence or even for the need to reduce costs, it is certain that many efforts have been made to develop robots with an increasingly high level of autonomy. They must be capable of locomotion through dynamic environments, without human operators or assistant systems' help. It is noted, thus, that the form of perception and modeling of the environment becomes significantly relevant to navigation. Among the main sensing methods are those based on vision. Through this, it is possible to create highly-detailed models about the environment, since many characteristics can be measured, such as texture, color, and illumination. However, the most accurate vision-based navigation techniques are computationally expensive to run on low-cost mobile platforms. Therefore, the goal of this work was to develop a low-cost robot, controlled by a Raspberry Pi, whose navigation system is based on vision. For this purpose, the strategy used consisted in identifying obstacles via optical flow pattern recognition. Through this signal, it is possible to infer the relative displacement between the robot and other elements in the environment. Its estimation was done using the Lucas-Kanade algorithm, which can be executed by the Raspberry Pi without harming its performance. Finally, an SVM based classifier was used to identify patterns of this signal associated with obstacles movement. The developed system was evaluated considering its execution over an optical flow pattern dataset extracted from a real navigation environment. In the end, it was verified that the processing frequency of the system was superior to the others. Furthermore, its accuracy and acquisition cost were, respectively, higher and lower than most of the cited works.
A Particle Filtering Approach for Enabling Distributed and Scalable Sharing of DSA Network Resources
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2017
Year: 2017

Handling the massive number of devices needed in numerous applications such as smart cities is a major challenge given the scarcity of spectrum resources. Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) is seen as a potential candidate to support the connectivity and spectrum access of these devices. We propose an efficient technique that relies on particle filtering to enable distributed resource allocation and sharing for large-scale dynamic spectrum access networks. More specifically, we take advantage of the high tracking capability of particle filtering to efficiently assign the available spectrum and power resources among cognitive users. Our proposed technique maximizes the per-user throughput while ensuring fairness among users, and it does so while accounting for the different users' quality of service requirements and the channel gains' variability. Through intensive simulations, we show that our proposed approach performs well by achieving high overall throughput while improving user's fairness under different objective functions. Furthermore, it achieves higher performance when compared to state-of-the-art techniques.
Association and Load Optimization with User Priorities in Load-Coupled Heterogeneous Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, we consider the network utility maximization problem with various user priorities via jointly optimizing user association, load distribution and power control in a load-coupled heterogeneous network. In order to tackle the nonconvexity of the problem, we first analyze the problem by obtaining the optimal resource allocation strategy in closed form and characterizing the optimal base station load distribution pattern. Both observations are shown essential in simplifying the original problem and making it possible to transform the nonconvex load distribution and power control problem into convex reformulation via exponential variable transformation. An iterative algorithm with low complexity is accordingly presented to obtain a suboptimal solution to the joint optimization problem. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better performance than conventional approaches.