OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Blocking Probability and Spatial Throughput Characterization for Cellular-Enabled UAV Network with Directional Antenna
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

The past few years have witnessed a tremendous increase on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in civilian applications, which call for high-performance communication between UAVs and their ground clients, especially when they are densely deployed. To achieve this goal, cellular base stations (BSs) can be leveraged to provide a new and promising solution to support massive UAV communications simultaneously in a cost-effective way. However, different from terrestrial communication channels, UAV-to-BS channels are usually dominated by the light-of-sight (LoS) link, which aggravates the co-channel interference and renders the spatial frequency reuse in existing cellular networks ineffective. In this paper, we consider the use of a directional antenna at each UAV to confine the interference to/from other UAV users within a limited region and hence improve the spatial reuse of the spectrum. Under this model, a UAV user may be temporarily blocked from communication if it cannot find any BS in its antenna main-lobe, or it finds that all BSs under its main-lobe are simultaneously covered by those of some other UAVs and hence suffer from strong co-channel interference. Assuming independent homogeneous Poisson point processes (HPPPs) for the UAVs' and ground BSs' locations respectively, we first analytically derive a closed-form upper bound for the UAV blocking probability and then characterize the achievable average spatial throughput of the cellular-enabled UAV communication network, in terms of various key parameters including the BS/UAV densities as well as the UAV's flying altitude and antenna beamwidth. Simulation results verify that the derived bound is practically tight, and further show that adaptively adjusting the UAV altitude and/or beamwidth with different BS/UAV densities can significantly reduce the UAV blocking probability and hence improve the network spatial throughput.
Efficient Licence Plate Detection By Unique Edge Detection Algorithm and Smarter Interpretation Through IoT
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2017
Year: 2017

Vehicles play a vital role in modern day transportation systems. Number plate provides a standard means of identification for any vehicle. To serve this purpose, automatic licence plate recognition system was developed. This consisted of four major steps: Pre-processing of the obtained image, extraction of licence plate region, segmentation and character recognition. In earlier research, direct application of Sobel edge detection algorithm or applying threshold were used as key steps to extract the licence plate region, which does not produce effective results when the captured image is subjected to the high intensity of light. The use of morphological operations causes deformity in the characters during segmentation. We propose a novel algorithm to tackle the mentioned issues through a unique edge detection algorithm. It is also a tedious task to create and update the database of required vehicles frequently. This problem is solved by the use of Internet of things(IOT) where an online database can be created and updated from any module instantly. Also, through IoT, we connect all the cameras in a geographical area to one server to create a universal eye which drastically increases the probability of tracing a vehicle over having manual database attached to each camera for identification purpose.
An Ontology to support automated negotiation
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2017
Year: 2017

In this work we propose an ontology to support automated negotiation in multiagent systems. The ontology can be connected with some domain-specific ontologies to facilitate the negotiation in different domains, such as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), e-commerce, etc. The specific negotiation rules for each type of negotiation strategy can also be defined as part of the ontology, reducing the amount of knowledge hardcoded in the agents and ensuring the interoperability. The expressiveness of the ontology was proved in a multiagent architecture for the automatic traffic light setting application on ITS.
Regularization approaches for support vector machines with applications to biomedical data
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

The support vector machine (SVM) is a widely used machine learning tool for classification based on statistical learning theory. Given a set of training data, the SVM finds a hyperplane that separates two different classes of data points by the largest distance. While the standard form of SVM uses L2-norm regularization, other regularization approaches are particularly attractive for biomedical datasets where, for example, sparsity and interpretability of the classifier's coefficient values are highly desired features. Therefore, in this paper we consider different types of regularization approaches for SVMs, and explore them in both synthetic and real biomedical datasets.
Homophily of Music Listening in Online Social Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2017
Year: 2017

Homophily, ranging from demographics to sentiments, breeds connections in social networks, either offline or online. However, with the prosperous growth of music streaming service, whether homophily exists in online music listening remains unclear. In this study, two online social networks of a same group of active users are established respectively in Netease Music and Weibo. Through presented multiple similarity measures, it is evidently demonstrated that homophily does exist in music listening of both online social networks. The unexpected music similarity in Weibo also implies that knowledge from generic social networks can be confidently transfered to domain-oriented networks for context enrichment and algorithm enhancement. Comprehensive factors that might function in formation of homophily are further probed and many interesting patterns are profoundly revealed. It is found that female friends are more homogeneous in music listening and positive and energetic songs significantly pull users close. Our methodology and findings would shed lights on realistic applications in online music services.
Improved Bounds for Testing Forbidden Order Patterns
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2017
Year: 2017

A sequence $f\colon\{1,\dots,n\}\to\mathbb{R}$ contains a permutation $π$ of length $k$ if there exist $i_1<\dots<i_k$ such that, for all $x,y$, $f(i_x)<f(i_y)$ if and only if $π(x)<π(y)$; otherwise, $f$ is said to be $π$-free. In this work, we consider the problem of testing for $π$-freeness with one-sided error, continuing the investigation of [Newman et al., SODA'17]. We demonstrate a surprising behavior for non-adaptive tests with one-sided error: While a trivial sampling-based approach yields an $\varepsilon$-test for $π$-freeness making $Θ(\varepsilon^{-1/k} n^{1-1/k})$ queries, our lower bounds imply that this is almost optimal for most permutations! Specifically, for most permutations $π$ of length $k$, any non-adaptive one-sided $\varepsilon$-test requires $\varepsilon^{-1/(k-Θ(1))}n^{1-1/(k-Θ(1))}$ queries; furthermore, the permutations that are hardest to test require $Θ(\varepsilon^{-1/(k-1)}n^{1-1/(k-1)})$ queries, which is tight in $n$ and $\varepsilon$. Additionally, we show two hierarchical behaviors here. First, for any $k$ and $l\leq k-1$, there exists some $π$ of length $k$ that requires $\tildeΘ_{\varepsilon}(n^{1-1/l})$ non-adaptive queries. Second, we show an adaptivity hierarchy for $π=(1,3,2)$ by proving upper and lower bounds for (one- and two-sided) testing of $π$-freeness with $r$ rounds of adaptivity. The results answer open questions of Newman et al. and [Canonne and Gur, CCC'17].
BAS: Beetle Antennae Search Algorithm for Optimization Problems
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2017
Year: 2017

Meta-heuristic algorithms have become very popular because of powerful performance on the optimization problem. A new algorithm called beetle antennae search algorithm (BAS) is proposed in the paper inspired by the searching behavior of longhorn beetles. The BAS algorithm imitates the function of antennae and the random walking mechanism of beetles in nature, and then two main steps of detecting and searching are implemented. Finally, the algorithm is benchmarked on 2 well-known test functions, in which the numerical results validate the efficacy of the proposed BAS algorithm.
How we can control the crack to propagate along the specified path feasibly?
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2017
Year: 2017

A controllable crack propagation (CCP) strategy is suggested. It is well known that crack always leads the failure by crossing the critical domain in engineering structure. Therefore, the CCP method is proposed to control the crack to propagate along the specified path, which is away from the critical domain. To complete this strategy, two optimization methods are engaged. Firstly, a back propagation neural network (BPNN) assisted particle swarm optimization (PSO) is suggested. In this method, to improve the efficiency of CCP, the BPNN is used to build the metamodel instead of the forward evaluation. Secondly, the popular PSO is used. Considering the optimization iteration is a time consuming process, an efficient reanalysis based extended finite element methods (X-FEM) is used to substitute the complete X-FEM solver to calculate the crack propagation path. Moreover, an adaptive subdomain partition strategy is suggested to improve the fitting accuracy between real crack and specified paths. Several typical numerical examples demonstrate that both optimization methods can carry out the CCP. The selection of them should be determined by the tradeoff between efficiency and accuracy.
Backhaul For Low-Altitude UAVs in Urban Environments
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2017
Year: 2017

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) acting as access points in cellular networks require wireless backhauls to the core network. In this paper we employ stochastic geometry to carry out an analysis of the UAV backhaul performance that can be achieved with a network of dedicated ground stations. We provide analytical expressions for the probability of successfully establishing a backhaul and the expected data rate over the backhaul link, given either an LTE or a millimeter-wave backhaul. We demonstrate that increasing the density of the ground station network gives diminishing returns on the performance of the UAV backhaul, and that for an LTE backhaul the ground stations can benefit from being colocated with an existing base station network.
Reliable Communication under the Influence of a State-Constrained Jammer: A Novel Perspective on Receive Diversity
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

The question of robust direct communication in vehicular networks is discussed. In most state-of-the-art approaches, there is no central entity controlling channel access, so there may be arbitrary interference from other parties. Thus, a suitable channel model for Vehicle-to-X (V2X) communication is the Arbitrarily Varying Channel (AVC). Employing multiple antennas on a vehicle or sending over multiple frequencies to make use of diversity are promising approaches to combat interference. In this setup, an important question about diversity is how many antennas or orthogonal carrier frequencies are necessary in order to avoid system breakdown due to unknown interference in AVCs. For Binary Symmetric AVCs (AVBSC) and a physically meaningful identical state-constrained jammer, the deployment of a third, uncorrelated receiving antenna or the parallel transmission over three different orthogonal frequencies avoids symmetrizability and thus ensures positivity of the capacity of the overall communication channel. Furthermore, the capacity of the identical state-constrained composite AVBSC is continuous and shows super-activation, a phenomenon which was hitherto deemed impossible for classical communication without secrecy constraints. Subsuming, spatial and frequency diversity are enablers for reliable communication over communication channels with arbitrarily varying interference.
Combining Neural Networks and Signed Particles to Simulate Quantum Systems More Efficiently
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2017
Year: 2017

Recently a new formulation of quantum mechanics has been suggested which describes systems by means of ensembles of classical particles provided with a sign. This novel approach mainly consists of two steps: the computation of the Wigner kernel, a multi-dimensional function describing the effects of the potential over the system, and the field-less evolution of the particles which eventually create new signed particles in the process. Although this method has proved to be extremely advantageous in terms of computational resources - as a matter of fact it is able to simulate in a time-dependent fashion many- body systems on relatively small machines - the Wigner kernel can represent the bottleneck of simulations of certain systems. Moreover, storing the kernel can be another issue as the amount of memory needed is cursed by the dimensionality of the system. In this work, we introduce a new technique which drastically reduces the computation time and memory requirement to simulate time-dependent quantum systems which is based on the use of an appropriately tailored neural network combined with the signed particle formalism. In particular, the suggested neural network is able to compute efficiently and reliably the Wigner kernel without any training as its entire set of weights and biases is specified by analytical formulas. As a consequence, the amount of memory for quantum simulations radically drops since the kernel does not need to be stored anymore as it is now computed by the neural network itself, only on the cells of the (discretized) phase-space which are occupied by particles. As its is clearly shown in the final part of this paper, not only this novel approach drastically reduces the computational time, it also remains accurate. The author believes this work opens the way towards effective design of quantum devices, with incredible practical implications.
Denoising random forests
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

This paper proposes a novel type of random forests called a denoising random forests that are robust against noises contained in test samples. Such noise-corrupted samples cause serious damage to the estimation performances of random forests, since unexpected child nodes are often selected and the leaf nodes that the input sample reaches are sometimes far from those for a clean sample. Our main idea for tackling this problem originates from a binary indicator vector that encodes a traversal path of a sample in the forest. Our proposed method effectively employs this vector by introducing denoising autoencoders into random forests. A denoising autoencoder can be trained with indicator vectors produced from clean and noisy input samples, and non-leaf nodes where incorrect decisions are made can be identified by comparing the input and output of the trained denoising autoencoder. Multiple traversal paths with respect to the nodes with incorrect decisions caused by the noises can then be considered for the estimation.
Data Science: A Powerful Catalyst for Cross-Sector Collaborations to Transform the Future of Global Health - Developing a New Interactive Relational Mapping Tool
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2017
Year: 2017

The increasingly complex and rapidly changing global health and socio-economic landscape requires fundamentally new ways of thinking, acting and collaborating to solve growing systems challenges. Cross-sectoral collaborations between governments, businesses, international organizations, private investors, academia and non-profits are essential for lasting success in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and securing a prosperous future for the health and wellbeing of all people. Our aim is to use data science and innovative technologies to map diverse stakeholders and their initiatives around SDGs and specific health targets - with particular focus on SDG 3 (Good Health & Well Being) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) - to accelerate cross-sector collaborations. Initially, the mapping tool focuses on Geneva, Switzerland as the world center of global health diplomacy with over 80 key stakeholders and influencers present. As we develop the next level pilot, we aim to build on users' interests, with a potential focus on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as one of the emerging and most pressing global health issues that requires new collaborative approaches. Building on this pilot, we can later expand beyond only SDG 3 to other SDGs.
Measuring the Impact of Urban Street Trees on Air Quality and Respiratory Illness
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2017
Year: 2017

New streams of data enable us to associate physical objects with rich multi-dimensional data on the urban environment. This study presents how open data integration can contribute to deeper insights into urban ecology. We analyze street trees in New York City (NYC) with cross-domain data integration methods by combining crowd-sourced tree census data - which includes geolocation, species, size, and condition of each street tree - with pollen activity and allergen severity, neighborhood demographics, and spatial-temporal data on tree condition from NYC 311 complaints. We further integrate historical data on neighborhood asthma hospitalization rates by Zip Code and in-situ air quality monitoring data (PM 2.5) to investigate how street trees impact local air quality and the prevalence of respiratory illnesses. The results indicate although the number of trees contributes to better air quality, species with severe allergens may increase local asthma hospitalization rates in vulnerable populations.
Automated Tumor Segmentation and Brain Mapping for the Tumor Area
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an important diagnostic tool for precise detection of various pathologies. Magnetic Resonance (MR) is more preferred than Computed Tomography (CT) due to the high resolution in MR images which help in better detection of neurological conditions. Graphical user interface (GUI) aided disease detection has become increasingly useful due to the increasing workload of doctors. In this proposed work, a novel two steps GUI technique for brain tumor segmentation as well as Brodmann area detec-tion of the segmented tumor is proposed. A data set of T2 weighted images of 15 patients is used for validating the proposed method. The patient data incor-porates variations in ethnicities, gender (male and female) and age (25-50), thus enhancing the authenticity of the proposed method. The tumors were segmented using Fuzzy C Means Clustering and Brodmann area detection was done using a known template, mapping each area to the segmented tumor image. The proposed method was found to be fairly accurate and robust in detecting tumor.
Optimal Measurement Policy for Predicting UAV Network Topology
Venue: arXiv cs.SY 2017
Year: 2017

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in using networks of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) that collectively perform complex tasks for diverse applications. An important challenge in realizing UAV networks is the need for a communication platform that accommodates rapid network topology changes. For instance, a timely prediction of network topology changes can reduce communication link loss rate by setting up links with prolonged connectivity. In this work, we develop an optimal tracking policy for each UAV to perceive its surrounding network configuration in order to facilitate more efficient communication protocols. More specifically, we develop an algorithm based on particle swarm optimization and Kalman filtering with intermittent observations to find a set of optimal tracking policies for each UAV under time-varying channel qualities and constrained tracking resources such that the overall network estimation error is minimized.
Deep word embeddings for visual speech recognition
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper we present a deep learning architecture for extracting word embeddings for visual speech recognition. The embeddings summarize the information of the mouth region that is relevant to the problem of word recognition, while suppressing other types of variability such as speaker, pose and illumination. The system is comprised of a spatiotemporal convolutional layer, a Residual Network and bidirectional LSTMs and is trained on the Lipreading in-the-wild database. We first show that the proposed architecture goes beyond state-of-the-art on closed-set word identification, by attaining 11.92% error rate on a vocabulary of 500 words. We then examine the capacity of the embeddings in modelling words unseen during training. We deploy Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLDA) to model the embeddings and perform low-shot learning experiments on words unseen during training. The experiments demonstrate that word-level visual speech recognition is feasible even in cases where the target words are not included in the training set.
Empirical analysis of non-linear activation functions for Deep Neural Networks in classification tasks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

We provide an overview of several non-linear activation functions in a neural network architecture that have proven successful in many machine learning applications. We conduct an empirical analysis on the effectiveness of using these function on the MNIST classification task, with the aim of clarifying which functions produce the best results overall. Based on this first set of results, we examine the effects of building deeper architectures with an increasing number of hidden layers. We also survey the impact of using, on the same task, different initialisation schemes for the weights of our neural network. Using these sets of experiments as a base, we conclude by providing a optimal neural network architecture that yields impressive results in accuracy on the MNIST classification task.
Improving Social Media Text Summarization by Learning Sentence Weight Distribution
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2017
Year: 2017

Recently, encoder-decoder models are widely used in social media text summarization. However, these models sometimes select noise words in irrelevant sentences as part of a summary by error, thus declining the performance. In order to inhibit irrelevant sentences and focus on key information, we propose an effective approach by learning sentence weight distribution. In our model, we build a multi-layer perceptron to predict sentence weights. During training, we use the ROUGE score as an alternative to the estimated sentence weight, and try to minimize the gap between estimated weights and predicted weights. In this way, we encourage our model to focus on the key sentences, which have high relevance with the summary. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms baselines on a large-scale social media corpus.
The Slashdot Zoo: Mining a Social Network with Negative Edges
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2017
Year: 2017

We analyse the corpus of user relationships of the Slashdot technology news site. The data was collected from the Slashdot Zoo feature where users of the website can tag other users as friends and foes, providing positive and negative endorsements. We adapt social network analysis techniques to the problem of negative edge weights. In particular, we consider signed variants of global network characteristics such as the clustering coefficient, node-level characteristics such as centrality and popularity measures, and link-level characteristics such as distances and similarity measures. We evaluate these measures on the task of identifying unpopular users, as well as on the task of predicting the sign of links and show that the network exhibits multiplicative transitivity which allows algebraic methods based on matrix multiplication to be used. We compare our methods to traditional methods which are only suitable for positively weighted edges.