OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Quantum Software Engineering Challenges from Developers' Perspective: Mapping Research Challenges to the Proposed Workflow Model
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2023
Year: 2023

Despite the increasing interest in quantum computing, the aspect of development to achieve cost-effective and reliable quantum software applications has been slow. One barrier is the software engineering of quantum programs, which can be approached from two directions. On the one hand, many software engineering practices, debugging in particular, are bound to classical computing. On the other hand, quantum programming is closely associated with the phenomena of quantum physics, and consequently, the way we express programs resembles the early days of programming. Moreover, much of the software engineering research today focuses on agile development, where computing cycles are cheap and new software can be rapidly deployed and tested, whereas in the quantum context, executions may consume lots of energy, and test runs may require lots of work to interpret. In this paper, we aim at bridging this gap by starting with the quantum computing workflow and by mapping existing software engineering research to this workflow. Based on the mapping, we then identify directions for software engineering research for quantum computing.
Memory Encoding Model
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

We explore a new class of brain encoding model by adding memory-related information as input. Memory is an essential brain mechanism that works alongside visual stimuli. During a vision-memory cognitive task, we found the non-visual brain is largely predictable using previously seen images. Our Memory Encoding Model (Mem) won the Algonauts 2023 visual brain competition even without model ensemble (single model score 66.8, ensemble score 70.8). Our ensemble model without memory input (61.4) can also stand a 3rd place. Furthermore, we observe periodic delayed brain response correlated to 6th-7th prior image, and hippocampus also showed correlated activity timed with this periodicity. We conjuncture that the periodic replay could be related to memory mechanism to enhance the working memory.
Data-Centric Diet: Effective Multi-center Dataset Pruning for Medical Image Segmentation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

This paper seeks to address the dense labeling problems where a significant fraction of the dataset can be pruned without sacrificing much accuracy. We observe that, on standard medical image segmentation benchmarks, the loss gradient norm-based metrics of individual training examples applied in image classification fail to identify the important samples. To address this issue, we propose a data pruning method by taking into consideration the training dynamics on target regions using Dynamic Average Dice (DAD) score. To the best of our knowledge, we are among the first to address the data importance in dense labeling tasks in the field of medical image analysis, making the following contributions: (1) investigating the underlying causes with rigorous empirical analysis, and (2) determining effective data pruning approach in dense labeling problems. Our solution can be used as a strong yet simple baseline to select important examples for medical image segmentation with combined data sources.
GNN4FR: A Lossless GNN-based Federated Recommendation Framework
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2023
Year: 2023

Graph neural networks (GNNs) have gained wide popularity in recommender systems due to their capability to capture higher-order structure information among the nodes of users and items. However, these methods need to collect personal interaction data between a user and the corresponding items and then model them in a central server, which would break the privacy laws such as GDPR. So far, no existing work can construct a global graph without leaking each user's private interaction data (i.e., his or her subgraph). In this paper, we are the first to design a novel lossless federated recommendation framework based on GNN, which achieves full-graph training with complete high-order structure information, enabling the training process to be equivalent to the corresponding un-federated counterpart. In addition, we use LightGCN to instantiate an example of our framework and show its equivalence.
One Tree to Rule Them All: Poly-Logarithmic Universal Steiner Tree
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2023
Year: 2023

A spanning tree $T$ of graph $G$ is a $ρ$-approximate universal Steiner tree (UST) for root vertex $r$ if, for any subset of vertices $S$ containing $r$, the cost of the minimal subgraph of $T$ connecting $S$ is within a $ρ$ factor of the minimum cost tree connecting $S$ in $G$. Busch et al. (FOCS 2012) showed that every graph admits $2^{O(\sqrt{\log n})}$-approximate USTs by showing that USTs are equivalent to strong sparse partition hierarchies (up to poly-logs). Further, they posed poly-logarithmic USTs and strong sparse partition hierarchies as open questions. We settle these open questions by giving polynomial-time algorithms for computing both $O(\log ^ 7 n)$-approximate USTs and poly-logarithmic strong sparse partition hierarchies. For graphs with constant doubling dimension or constant pathwidth we improve this to $O(\log n)$-approximate USTs and $O(1)$ strong sparse partition hierarchies. Our doubling dimension result is tight up to second order terms. We reduce the existence of these objects to the previously studied cluster aggregation problem and what we call dangling nets.
Methodologies for Improving Modern Industrial Recommender Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2023
Year: 2023

Recommender system (RS) is an established technology with successful applications in social media, e-commerce, entertainment, and more. RSs are indeed key to the success of many popular APPs, such as YouTube, Tik Tok, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, and others. This paper explores the methodology for improving modern industrial RSs. It is written for experienced RS engineers who are diligently working to improve their key performance indicators, such as retention and duration. The experiences shared in this paper have been tested in some real industrial RSs and are likely to be generalized to other RSs as well. Most contents in this paper are industry experience without publicly available references.
The Sequence Matters in Learning -- A Systematic Literature Review
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2023
Year: 2023

Describing and analysing learner behaviour using sequential data and analysis is becoming more and more popular in Learning Analytics. Nevertheless, we found a variety of definitions of learning sequences, as well as choices regarding data aggregation and the methods implemented for analysis. Furthermore, sequences are used to study different educational settings and serve as a base for various interventions. In this literature review, the authors aim to generate an overview of these aspects to describe the current state of using sequence analysis in educational support and learning analytics. The 74 included articles were selected based on the criteria that they conduct empirical research on an educational environment using sequences of learning actions as the main focus of their analysis. The results enable us to highlight different learning tasks where sequences are analysed, identify data mapping strategies for different types of sequence actions, differentiate techniques based on purpose and scope, and identify educational interventions based on the outcomes of sequence analysis.
Towards Integrated Sensing and Communications for 6G: A Standardization Perspective
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2023
Year: 2023

The radio communication division of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) has recently adopted Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) among the key usage scenarios for IMT-2030/6G. ISAC is envisioned to play a vital role in the upcoming wireless generation standards. In this work, we bring together several paramount and innovative aspects of ISAC technology from a global 6G standardization perspective, including both industrial and academic progress. Specifically, this article provides 6G requirements and ISAC-enabled vision, including various aspects of 6G standardization, benefits of ISAC co-existence, and integration challenges. Moreover, we present key enabling technologies, including intelligent metasurface-aided ISAC, as well as Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) waveform design and interference management for ISAC. Finally, future aspects are discussed to open various research opportunities and challenges on the ISAC technology towards 6G wireless communications.
Current Studies and Applications of Krill Herd and Gravitational Search Algorithms in Healthcare
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2023
Year: 2023

Nature-Inspired Computing or NIC for short is a relatively young field that tries to discover fresh methods of computing by researching how natural phenomena function to find solutions to complicated issues in many contexts. As a consequence of this, ground-breaking research has been conducted in a variety of domains, including synthetic immune functions, neural networks, the intelligence of swarm, as well as computing of evolutionary. In the domains of biology, physics, engineering, economics, and management, NIC techniques are used. In real-world classification, optimization, forecasting, and clustering, as well as engineering and science issues, meta-heuristics algorithms are successful, efficient, and resilient. There are two active NIC patterns: the gravitational search algorithm and the Krill herd algorithm. The study on using the Krill Herd Algorithm (KH) and the Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) in medicine and healthcare is given a worldwide and historical review in this publication. Comprehensive surveys have been conducted on some other nature-inspired algorithms, including KH and GSA. The various versions of the KH and GSA algorithms and their applications in healthcare are thoroughly reviewed in the present article. Nonetheless, no survey research on KH and GSA in the healthcare field has been undertaken. As a result, this work conducts a thorough review of KH and GSA to assist researchers in using them in diverse domains or hybridizing them with other popular algorithms. It also provides an in-depth examination of the KH and GSA in terms of application, modification, and hybridization. It is important to note that the goal of the study is to offer a viewpoint on GSA with KH, particularly for academics interested in investigating the capabilities and performance of the algorithm in the healthcare and medical domains.
VAPI: Vectorization of Algorithm for Performance Improvement
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2023
Year: 2023

This study presents the vectorization of metaheuristic algorithms as the first stage of vectorized optimization implementation. Vectorization is a technique for converting an algorithm, which operates on a single value at a time to one that operates on a collection of values at a time to execute rapidly. The vectorization technique also operates by replacing multiple iterations into a single operation, which improves the algorithm's performance in speed and makes the algorithm simpler and easier to be implemented. It is important to optimize the algorithm by implementing the vectorization technique, which improves the program's performance, which requires less time and can run long-running test functions faster, also execute test functions that cannot be implemented in non-vectorized algorithms and reduces iterations and time complexity. Converting to vectorization to operate several values at once and enhance algorithms' speed and efficiency is a solution for long running times and complicated algorithms. The objective of this study is to use the vectorization technique on one of the metaheuristic algorithms and compare the results of the vectorized algorithm with the algorithm which is non-vectorized.
Handling Communication via APIs for Microservices
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2023
Year: 2023

Enterprises in their journey to the cloud, want to decompose their monolith applications into microservices to maximize cloud benefits. Current research focuses a lot on how to partition the monolith into smaller clusters that perform well across standard metrics like coupling, cohesion, etc. However, there is little research done on taking the partitions, identifying their dependencies between the microservices, exploring ways to further reduce the dependencies, and making appropriate code changes to enable robust communication without modifying the application behaviour. In this work, we discuss the challenges with the conventional techniques of communication using JSON and propose an alternative way of ID-passing via APIs. We also devise an algorithm to reduce the number of APIs. For this, we construct subgraphs of methods and their associated variables in each class and relocate them to their more functionally aligned microservices. Our quantitative and qualitative studies on five public Java applications clearly demonstrate that our refactored microservices using ID have decidedly better time and memory complexities than JSON. Our automation reduces 40-60\% of the manual refactoring efforts.
Peer Surveillance in Online Communities
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2023
Year: 2023

Online communities are not safe spaces for user privacy. Even though existing research focuses on creating and improving various content moderation strategies and privacy preserving technologies, platforms hosting online communities support features allowing users to surveil one another--leading to harassment, personal data breaches, and offline harm. To tackle this problem, we introduce a new, work-in-progress framework for analyzing data privacy within vulnerable, identity-based online communities. Where current SOUPS papers study surveillance and longitudinal user data as two distinct challenges to user privacy, more work needs to be done in exploring the sites where surveillance and historical user data assemble. By synthesizing over 40 years of developments in the analysis of surveillance, we derive properties of online communities that enable the abuse of user data by fellow community members and suggest key steps to improving security for vulnerable users. Deploying this new framework on new and existing platforms will ensure that online communities are privacy-conscious and designed more inclusively.
Patched Denoising Diffusion Models For High-Resolution Image Synthesis
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

We propose an effective denoising diffusion model for generating high-resolution images (e.g., 1024$\times$512), trained on small-size image patches (e.g., 64$\times$64). We name our algorithm Patch-DM, in which a new feature collage strategy is designed to avoid the boundary artifact when synthesizing large-size images. Feature collage systematically crops and combines partial features of the neighboring patches to predict the features of a shifted image patch, allowing the seamless generation of the entire image due to the overlap in the patch feature space. Patch-DM produces high-quality image synthesis results on our newly collected dataset of nature images (1024$\times$512), as well as on standard benchmarks of smaller sizes (256$\times$256), including LSUN-Bedroom, LSUN-Church, and FFHQ. We compare our method with previous patch-based generation methods and achieve state-of-the-art FID scores on all four datasets. Further, Patch-DM also reduces memory complexity compared to the classic diffusion models.
EmbeddingTree: Hierarchical Exploration of Entity Features in Embedding
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Embedding learning transforms discrete data entities into continuous numerical representations, encoding features/properties of the entities. Despite the outstanding performance reported from different embedding learning algorithms, few efforts were devoted to structurally interpreting how features are encoded in the learned embedding space. This work proposes EmbeddingTree, a hierarchical embedding exploration algorithm that relates the semantics of entity features with the less-interpretable embedding vectors. An interactive visualization tool is also developed based on EmbeddingTree to explore high-dimensional embeddings. The tool helps users discover nuance features of data entities, perform feature denoising/injecting in embedding training, and generate embeddings for unseen entities. We demonstrate the efficacy of EmbeddingTree and our visualization tool through embeddings generated for industry-scale merchant data and the public 30Music listening/playlists dataset.
Fast Coloring Despite Congested Relays
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2023
Year: 2023

We provide a $O(\log^6 \log n)$-round randomized algorithm for distance-2 coloring in CONGEST with $Δ^2+1$ colors. For $Δ\gg\operatorname{poly}\log n$, this improves exponentially on the $O(\logΔ+\operatorname{poly}\log\log n)$ algorithm of [Halldórsson, Kuhn, Maus, Nolin, DISC'20]. Our study is motivated by the ubiquity and hardness of local reductions in CONGEST. For instance, algorithms for the Local Lovász Lemma [Moser, Tardos, JACM'10; Fischer, Ghaffari, DISC'17; Davies, SODA'23] usually assume communication on the conflict graph, which can be simulated in LOCAL with only constant overhead, while this may be prohibitively expensive in CONGEST. We hope our techniques help tackle in CONGEST other coloring problems defined by local relations.
OpenFlamingo: An Open-Source Framework for Training Large Autoregressive Vision-Language Models
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

We introduce OpenFlamingo, a family of autoregressive vision-language models ranging from 3B to 9B parameters. OpenFlamingo is an ongoing effort to produce an open-source replication of DeepMind's Flamingo models. On seven vision-language datasets, OpenFlamingo models average between 80 - 89% of corresponding Flamingo performance. This technical report describes our models, training data, hyperparameters, and evaluation suite. We share our models and code at https://github.com/mlfoundations/open_flamingo.
UPB at IberLEF-2023 AuTexTification: Detection of Machine-Generated Text using Transformer Ensembles
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2023
Year: 2023

This paper describes the solutions submitted by the UPB team to the AuTexTification shared task, featured as part of IberLEF-2023. Our team participated in the first subtask, identifying text documents produced by large language models instead of humans. The organizers provided a bilingual dataset for this subtask, comprising English and Spanish texts covering multiple domains, such as legal texts, social media posts, and how-to articles. We experimented mostly with deep learning models based on Transformers, as well as training techniques such as multi-task learning and virtual adversarial training to obtain better results. We submitted three runs, two of which consisted of ensemble models. Our best-performing model achieved macro F1-scores of 66.63% on the English dataset and 67.10% on the Spanish dataset.
LiDAR View Synthesis for Robust Vehicle Navigation Without Expert Labels
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Deep learning models for self-driving cars require a diverse training dataset to manage critical driving scenarios on public roads safely. This includes having data from divergent trajectories, such as the oncoming traffic lane or sidewalks. Such data would be too dangerous to collect in the real world. Data augmentation approaches have been proposed to tackle this issue using RGB images. However, solutions based on LiDAR sensors are scarce. Therefore, we propose synthesizing additional LiDAR point clouds from novel viewpoints without physically driving at dangerous positions. The LiDAR view synthesis is done using mesh reconstruction and ray casting. We train a deep learning model, which takes a LiDAR scan as input and predicts the future trajectory as output. A waypoint controller is then applied to this predicted trajectory to determine the throttle and steering labels of the ego-vehicle. Our method neither requires expert driving labels for the original nor the synthesized LiDAR sequence. Instead, we infer labels from LiDAR odometry. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in a comprehensive online evaluation and with a comparison to concurrent work. Our results show the importance of synthesizing additional LiDAR point clouds, particularly in terms of model robustness. Project page: https://jonathsch.github.io/lidar-synthesis/
A Virtual Reality Game to Improve Physical and Cognitive Acuity
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2023
Year: 2023

We present the Virtual Human Benchmark (VHB) game to evaluate and improve physical and cognitive acuity. VHB simulates in 3D the BATAK lightboard game, which is designed to improve physical reaction and hand-eye coordination, on the \textit{Oculus Rift} and \textit{Quest} headsets. The game comprises the \textit{reaction}, \textit{accumulator} and \textit{sequence} modes; \bj{along} with the \textit{reaction} and \textit{accumulator} modes which mimic BATAK functionalities, the \textit{sequence} mode involves the user repeating a sequence of illuminated targets with increasing complexity to train visual memory and cognitive processing. A first version of the game (VHB v1) was evaluated against the real-world BATAK by 20 users, and their feedback was utilized to improve game design and obtain a second version (VHB v2). Another study to evaluate VHB v2 was conducted with 20 users, whose results confirmed that the deign improvements enhanced game usability and user experience in multiple respects. Also, logging and visualization of performance data such as \textit{reaction time}, \textit{speed between targets} and \textit{completed sequence patterns} provides useful data for coaches/therapists monitoring sports/rehabilitation regimens.
Automated Machine Learning in the smart construction era:Significance and accessibility for industrial classification and regression tasks
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2023
Year: 2023

This paper explores the application of automated machine learning (AutoML) techniques to the construction industry, a sector vital to the global economy. Traditional ML model construction methods were complex, time-consuming, reliant on data science expertise, and expensive. AutoML shows the potential to automate many tasks in ML construction and to create outperformed ML models. This paper aims to verify the feasibility of applying AutoML to industrial datasets for the smart construction domain, with a specific case study demonstrating its effectiveness. Two data challenges that were unique to industrial construction datasets are focused on, in addition to the normal steps of dataset preparation, model training, and evaluation. A real-world application case of construction project type prediction is provided to illustrate the accessibility of AutoML. By leveraging AutoML, construction professionals without data science expertise can now utilize software to process industrial data into ML models that assist in project management. The findings in this paper may bridge the gap between data-intensive smart construction practices and the emerging field of AutoML, encouraging its adoption for improved decision-making, project outcomes, and efficiency
Data Augmentation for Human Behavior Analysis in Multi-Person Conversations
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

In this paper, we present the solution of our team HFUT-VUT for the MultiMediate Grand Challenge 2023 at ACM Multimedia 2023. The solution covers three sub-challenges: bodily behavior recognition, eye contact detection, and next speaker prediction. We select Swin Transformer as the baseline and exploit data augmentation strategies to address the above three tasks. Specifically, we crop the raw video to remove the noise from other parts. At the same time, we utilize data augmentation to improve the generalization of the model. As a result, our solution achieves the best results of 0.6262 for bodily behavior recognition in terms of mean average precision and the accuracy of 0.7771 for eye contact detection on the corresponding test set. In addition, our approach also achieves comparable results of 0.5281 for the next speaker prediction in terms of unweighted average recall.