Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
Energy-Efficient Load Balancing Algorithm for Workflow Scheduling in Cloud Data Centers Using Queuing and Thresholds

Cloud computing is a rapidly growing technology that has been implemented in various fields in recent years, such as business, research, industry, and computing. Cloud computing provides different services over the internet, thus eliminating the need for personalized hardware and other resources. Cloud computing environments face some challenges in terms of resource utilization, energy efficiency, heterogeneous resources, etc. Tasks scheduling and virtual machines (VMs) are used as consolidation techniques in order to tackle these issues. Tasks scheduling has been extensively studied in the literature. The problem has been studied with different parameters and objectives. In this article, we address the problem of energy consumption and efficient resource utilization in virtualized cloud data centers. The proposed algorithm is based on task classification and thresholds for efficient scheduling and better resource utilization. In the first phase, workflow tasks are pre-processed to avoid bottlenecks by placing tasks with more dependencies and long execution times in separate queues. In the next step, tasks are classified based on the intensities of the required resources. Finally, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to select the best schedules. Experiments were performed to validate the proposed technique. Comparative results obtained on benchmark datasets are presented. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm over that of the other algorithms to which it was compared in terms of energy consumption, makespan, and load balancing.
Dual Compositional Learning in Interactive Image Retrieval

We present an approach named Dual Composition Network (DCNet) for interactive image retrieval that searches for the best target image for a natural language query and a reference image. To accomplish this task, existing methods have focused on learning a composite representation of the reference image and the text query to be as close to the embedding of the target image as possible. We refer this approach as Composition Network. In this work, we propose to close the loop with Correction Network that models the difference between the reference and target image in the embedding space and matches it with the embedding of the text query. That is, we consider two cyclic directional mappings for triplets of (reference image, text query, target image) by using both Composition Network and Correction Network. We also propose a joint training loss that can further improve the robustness of multimodal representation learning. We evaluate the proposed model on three benchmark datasets for multimodal retrieval: Fashion-IQ, Shoes, and Fashion200K. Our experiments show that our DCNet achieves new state-of-the-art performance on all three datasets, and the addition of Correction Network consistently improves multiple existing methods that are solely based on Composition Network. Moreover, an ensemble of our model won the first place in Fashion-IQ 2020 challenge held in a CVPR 2020 workshop.
Joint Implicit Image Function for Guided Depth Super-Resolution

Guided depth super-resolution is a practical task where a low-resolution and noisy input depth map is restored to a high-resolution version, with the help of a high-resolution RGB guide image. Existing methods usually view this task as a generalized guided filtering problem that relies on designing explicit filters and objective functions, or a dense regression problem that directly predicts the target image via deep neural networks. These methods suffer from either model capability or interpretability. Inspired by the recent progress in implicit neural representation, we propose to formulate the guided super-resolution as a neural implicit image interpolation problem, where we take the form of a general image interpolation but use a novel Joint Implicit Image Function (JIIF) representation to learn both the interpolation weights and values. JIIF represents the target image domain with spatially distributed local latent codes extracted from the input image and the guide image, and uses a graph attention mechanism to learn the interpolation weights at the same time in one unified deep implicit function. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our JIIF representation on guided depth super-resolution task, significantly outperforming state-of-the-art methods on three public benchmarks. Code can be found at https://git.io/JC2sU
A proposal for using molecular spin qudits as quantum simulators of light–matter interactions

We show that molecular spin qudits provide an ideal platform to simulate the quantum dynamics of photon fields strongly interacting with matter. The basic unit of the proposed molecular quantum simulator can be realized by a simple dimer of a spin 1/2 and a spin $S$ transition metal ion, solely controlled by microwave pulses. The spin $S$ ion is exploited to encode the photon field in a flexible architecture, which enables the digital simulation of a wide range of spin-boson models much more efficiently than by using a multi-qubit register. The effectiveness of our proposal is demonstrated by numerical simulations using realistic molecular parameters, whose prerequisites delineating possible chemical approaches are also discussed.
Efficient Two Stage Identification for Face mask detection using Multiclass Deep Learning Approach

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the COVID-19 Coronavirus to be a global pandemic. The most effective form of protection is to wear a face mask in public places. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted all the countries to set up a lockdown to prevent viral transmission. According to a survey study, the use of facemasks at work decreases the chances of fast transmission. If the facemasks are not used or are worn incorrectly, it contributes to the third and fourth waves of the corona virus spreading throughout the world. This motivates us to conduct an efficient investigation of the face mask identification system and monitor people, who use suitable face mask in public places. Deep learning is the most effective approach for detecting whether or not a person is wearing a face mask in a crowded area. Using a multiclass deep learning technique, this research study proposes an efficient two stage identification (ETSI) for face mask detection. Whereas, the binary classification does not offer information about face mask detection and error. The proposed approach employs CNN's "ReLU" activation function to detect the face mask. Furthermore, in the current pandemic crisis, this research article offers a very efficient and precise approach for identifying COVID-19. Precision has increased as a result of the employment of a multi-class abbreviation in the final output.
Variational quantum reinforcement learning via evolutionary optimization

Abstract Recent advances in classical reinforcement learning (RL) and quantum computation point to a promising direction for performing RL on a quantum computer. However, potential applications in quantum RL are limited by the number of qubits available in modern quantum devices. Here, we present two frameworks for deep quantum RL tasks using gradient-free evolutionary optimization. First, we apply the amplitude encoding scheme to the Cart-Pole problem, where we demonstrate the quantum advantage of parameter saving using amplitude encoding. Second, we propose a hybrid framework where the quantum RL agents are equipped with a hybrid tensor network-variational quantum circuit (TN-VQC) architecture to handle inputs of dimensions exceeding the number of qubits. This allows us to perform quantum RL in the MiniGrid environment with 147-dimensional inputs. The hybrid TN-VQC architecture provides a natural way to perform efficient compression of the input dimension, enabling further quantum RL applications on noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices.
Regret Bounds for Reinforcement Learning via Markov Chain Concentration

We give a simple optimistic algorithm for which it is easy to derive regret bounds of O(sqrt{t-mix SAT}) steps in uniformly ergodic Markov decision processes with S states, A actions, and mixing time parameter t-mix. These bounds are the first regret bounds in the general, non-episodic setting with an optimal dependence on all given parameters. They could only be improved by using an alternative mixing time parameter.
Revisiting Dimensionality Reduction Techniques for Visual Cluster Analysis: An Empirical Study

Dimensionality Reduction (DR) techniques can generate 2D projections and enable visual exploration of cluster structures of high-dimensional datasets. However, different DR techniques would yield various patterns, which significantly affect the performance of visual cluster analysis tasks. We present the results of a user study that investigates the influence of different DR techniques on visual cluster analysis. Our study focuses on the most concerned property types, namely the linearity and locality, and evaluates twelve representative DR techniques that cover the concerned properties. Four controlled experiments were conducted to evaluate how the DR techniques facilitate the tasks of 1) cluster identification, 2) membership identification, 3) distance comparison, and 4) density comparison, respectively. We also evaluated users' subjective preference of the DR techniques regarding the quality of projected clusters. The results show that: 1) Non-linear and Local techniques are preferred in cluster identification and membership identification; 2) Linear techniques perform better than non-linear techniques in density comparison; 3) UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection) and t-SNE (t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding) perform the best in cluster identification and membership identification; 4) NMF (Nonnegative Matrix Factorization) has competitive performance in distance comparison; 5) t-SNLE (t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Linear Embedding) has competitive performance in density comparison.
Improving Robustness and Accuracy via Relative Information Encoding in 3D Human Pose Estimation

Most of the existing 3D human pose estimation approaches mainly focus on predicting 3D positional relationships between the root joint and other human joints (local motion) instead of the overall trajectory of the human body (global motion). Despite the great progress achieved by these approaches, they are not robust to global motion, and lack the ability to accurately predict local motion with a small movement range. To alleviate these two problems, we propose a relative information encoding method that yields positional and temporal enhanced representations. Firstly, we encode positional information by utilizing relative coordinates of 2D poses to enhance the consistency between the input and output distribution. The same posture with different absolute 2D positions can be mapped to a common representation. It is beneficial to resist the interference of global motion on the prediction results. Second, we encode temporal information by establishing the connection between the current pose and other poses of the same person within a period of time. More attention will be paid to the movement changes before and after the current pose, resulting in better prediction performance on local motion with a small movement range. The ablation studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed relative information encoding method. Besides, we introduce a multi-stage optimization method to the whole framework to further exploit the positional and temporal enhanced representations. Our method outperforms state-of-the-art methods on two public datasets. Code is available at https://github.com/paTRICK-swk/Pose3D-RIE.
ADAPT: Mitigating Idling Errors in Qubits via Adaptive Dynamical Decoupling

The fidelity of applications on near-term quantum computers is limited by hardware errors. In addition to errors that occur during gate and measurement operations, a qubit is susceptible to idling errors, which occur when the qubit is idle and not actively undergoing any operations. To mitigate idling errors, prior works in the quantum devices community have proposed Dynamical Decoupling (DD), that reduces stray noise on idle qubits by continuously executing a specific sequence of single-qubit operations that effectively behave as an identity gate. Unfortunately, existing DD protocols have been primarily studied for individual qubits and their efficacy at the application-level is not yet fully understood.
How do i refactor this? An empirical study on refactoring trends and topics in Stack Overflow

An essential part of software maintenance and evolution, refactoring is performed by developers, regardless of technology or domain, to improve the internal quality of the system, and reduce its technical debt. However, choosing the appropriate refactoring strategy is not always straightforward, resulting in developers seeking assistance. Although research in refactoring is well-established, with several studies altering between the detection of refactoring opportunities and the recommendation of appropriate code changes, little is known about their adoption in practice. Analyzing the perception of developers is critical to understand better what developers consider to be problematic in their code and how they handle it. Additionally, there is a need for bridging the gap between refactoring, as research, and its adoption in practice, by extracting common refactoring intents that are more suitable for what developers face in reality. In this study, we analyze refactoring discussions on Stack Overflow through a series of quantitative and qualitative experiments. Our results show that Stack Overflow is utilized by a diverse set of developers for refactoring assistance for a variety of technologies. Our observations show five areas that developers typically require help with refactoring -- Code Optimization, Tools and IDEs, Architecture and Design Patterns, Unit Testing, and Database. We envision our findings better bridge the support between traditional (or academic) aspects of refactoring and their real-world applicability, including better tool support.
Reduction of the number of multiplication operations in digital signal processing algorithms by classical methods of discrete Fourier transform

The issues related to the problem of minimizing hardware costs in software and hardware implementation of digital algorithms of discrete Fourier transform (DFT) are considered. Possible ways of solving these problems based on the use of digital algorithms of classical methods of DFT are described. Various digital methods of direct, fast and recurrent DFT (RDFT) and number-theoretic Mersenne transforms are investigated. The purpose of the research is a comparative analysis of these methods. The research used methods of mathematical and software modeling of digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms. A comparative analysis of classical methods of DFT, which allows minimizing the required number of multiplication operations in DSP algorithms, is carried out. The results of this analysis are presented.
Cyberbullying detection: advanced preprocessing techniques &amp; deep learning architecture for Roman Urdu data

Social media have become a very viable medium for communication, collaboration, exchange of information, knowledge, and ideas. However, due to anonymity preservation, the incidents of hate speech and cyberbullying have been diversified across the globe. This intimidating problem has recently sought the attention of researchers and scholars worldwide and studies have been undertaken to formulate solution strategies for automatic detection of cyberaggression and hate speech, varying from machine learning models with vast features to more complex deep neural network models and different SN platforms. However, the existing research is directed towards mature languages and highlights a huge gap in newly embraced resource poor languages. One such language that has been recently adopted worldwide and more specifically by south Asian countries for communication on social media is Roman Urdu i-e Urdu language written using Roman scripting. To address this research gap, we have performed extensive preprocessing on Roman Urdu microtext. This typically involves formation of Roman Urdu slang- phrase dictionary and mapping slangs after tokenization. We have also eliminated cyberbullying domain specific stop words for dimensionality reduction of corpus. The unstructured data were further processed to handle encoded text formats and metadata/non-linguistic features. Furthermore, we performed extensive experiments by implementing RNN-LSTM, RNN-BiLSTM and CNN models varying epochs executions, model layers and tuning hyperparameters to analyze and uncover cyberbullying textual patterns in Roman Urdu. The efficiency and performance of models were evaluated using different metrics to present the comparative analysis. Results highlight that RNN-LSTM and RNN-BiLSTM performed best and achieved validation accuracy of 85.5 and 85% whereas F1 score was 0.7 and 0.67 respectively over aggression class.
Reachability Analysis of Neural Feedback Loops

Neural Networks (NNs) can provide major empirical performance improvements for closed-loop systems, but they also introduce challenges in formally analyzing those systems’ safety properties. In particular, this work focuses on estimating the forward reachable set of neural feedback loops (closed-loop systems with NN controllers). Recent work provides bounds on these reachable sets, but the computationally tractable approaches yield overly conservative bounds (thus cannot be used to verify useful properties), and the methods that yield tighter bounds are too intensive for online computation. This work bridges the gap by formulating a convex optimization problem for the reachability analysis of closed-loop systems with NN controllers. While the solutions are less tight than previous (semidefinite program-based) methods, they are substantially faster to compute, and some of those computational time savings can be used to refine the bounds through new input set partitioning techniques, which is shown to dramatically reduce the tightness gap. The new framework is developed for systems with uncertainty (e.g., measurement and process noise) and nonlinearities (e.g., polynomial dynamics), and thus is shown to be applicable to real-world systems. To inform the design of an initial state set when only the target state set is known/specified, a novel algorithm for backward reachability analysis is also provided, which computes the set of states that are guaranteed to lead to the target set. The numerical experiments show that our approach (based on linear relaxations and partitioning) gives a 5× reduction in conservatism in 150× less computation time compared to the state-of-the-art. Furthermore, experiments on quadrotor, 270-state, and polynomial systems demonstrate the method’s ability to handle uncertainty sources, high dimensionality, and nonlinear dynamics, respectively.
Multi-Robot Collaborative Perception With Graph Neural Networks

Multi-robot systems such as swarms of aerial robots are naturally suited to offer additional flexibility, resilience, and robustness in several tasks compared to a single robot by enabling cooperation among the agents. To enhance the autonomous robot decision-making process and situational awareness, multi-robot systems have to coordinate their perception capabilities to collect, share, and fuse environment information among the agents efficiently to obtain context-appropriate information or gain resilience to sensor noise or failures. In this letter, we propose a general-purpose Graph Neural Network (GNN) with the main goal to increase, in multi-robot perception tasks, single robots&#x2019; inference perception accuracy as well as resilience to sensor failures and disturbances. We show that the proposed framework can address multi-view visual perception problems such as monocular depth estimation and semantic segmentation. Several experiments both using photo-realistic and real data gathered from multiple aerial robots&#x2019; viewpoints show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in challenging inference conditions including images corrupted by heavy noise and camera occlusions or failures.
A survey on outlier explanations

While many techniques for outlier detection have been proposed in the literature, the interpretation of detected outliers is often left to users. As a result, it is difficult for users to promptly take appropriate actions concerning the detected outliers. To lessen this difficulty, when outliers are identified, they should be presented together with their explanations. There are survey papers on outlier detection, but none exists for outlier explanations. To fill this gap, in this paper, we present a survey on outlier explanations in which meaningful knowledge is mined from anomalous data to explain them. We define different types of outlier explanations and discuss the challenges in generating each type. We review the existing outlier explanation techniques and discuss how they address the challenges. We also discuss the applications of outlier explanations and review the existing methods used to evaluate outlier explanations. Furthermore, we discuss possible future research directions.
An improved remora optimization algorithm with autonomous foraging mechanism for global optimization problems

The remora optimization algorithm (ROA) is a newly proposed metaheuristic algorithm for solving global optimization problems. In ROA, each search agent searches new space according to the position of host, which makes the algorithm suffer from the drawbacks of slow convergence rate, poor solution accuracy, and local optima for some optimization problems. To tackle these problems, this study proposes an improved ROA (IROA) by introducing a new mechanism named autonomous foraging mechanism (AFM), which is inspired from the fact that remora can also find food on its own. In AFM, each remora has a small chance to search food randomly or according to the current food position. Thus the AFM can effectively expand the search space and improve the accuracy of the solution. To substantiate the efficacy of the proposed IROA, twenty-three classical benchmark functions and ten latest CEC 2021 test functions with various types and dimensions were employed to test the performance of IROA. Compared with seven metaheuristic and six modified algorithms, the results of test functions show that the IROA has superior performance in solving these optimization problems. Moreover, the results of five representative engineering design optimization problems also reveal that the IROA has the capability to obtain the optimal results for real-world optimization problems. To sum up, these test results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.
The Subterranean 2.0 Cipher Suite

This paper presents the Subterranean 2.0 cipher suite that can be used for hashing, MAC computation, stream encryption and several types of authenticated encryption schemes. At its core it has a duplex object with a 257-bit state and a lightweight single-round permutation. This makes Subterranean 2.0 very well suited for low-area and low-energy implementations in dedicated hardware.