Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
Fast Path Planning for Long-Range Planetary Roving Based on a Hierarchical Framework and Deep Reinforcement Learning

The global path planning of planetary surface rovers is crucial for optimizing exploration benefits and system safety. For the cases of long-range roving or obstacle constraints that are time-varied, there is an urgent need to improve the computational efficiency of path planning. This paper proposes a learning-based global path planning method that outperforms conventional searching and sampling-based methods in terms of planning speed. First, a distinguishable feature map is constructed through a traversability analysis of the extraterrestrial digital elevation model. Then, considering planning efficiency and adaptability, a hierarchical framework consisting of step iteration and block iteration is designed. For the planning of each step, an end-to-end step planner named SP-ResNet is proposed that is based on deep reinforcement learning. This step planner employs a double-branch residual network for action value estimation, and is trained over a simulated DEM map collection. Comparative analyses with baselines demonstrate the prominent advantage of our method in terms of planning speed. Finally, the method is verified to be effective on real lunar terrains using CE2TMap2015.
LwPosr: Lightweight Efficient Fine Grained Head Pose Estimation

This paper presents a lightweight network for head pose estimation (HPE) task. While previous approaches rely on convolutional neural networks, the proposed network LwPosr uses mixture of depthwise separable convolutional (DSC) and transformer encoder layers which are structured in two streams and three stages to provide fine-grained regression for predicting head poses. The quantitative and qualitative demonstration is provided to show that the proposed network is able to learn head poses efficiently while using less parameter space. Extensive ablations are conducted using three open-source datasets namely 300W-LP, AFLW2000, and BIWI datasets. To our knowledge, (1) LwPosr is the lightest network proposed for estimating head poses compared to both keypoints-based and keypoints-free approaches; (2) it sets a benchmark for both overperforming the previous lightweight network on mean absolute error and on reducing number of parameters; (3) it is first of its kind to use mixture of DSCs and transformer encoders for HPE. This approach is suitable for mobile devices which require lightweight networks.
Novel compressive sensing image encryption using the dynamics of an adjustable gradient Hopfield neural network

Abstract In this contribution, the nonlinear dynamics of a non-autonomous model of two neurons based on the Hopfield neural network is considered. Using activation gradients as bifurcation control parameters, the properties of the model include dissipation with the existence of attractors and equilibrium points with their stability. Using traditional nonlinear analysis tools such as bifurcation diagrams, the graph of the maximum Lyapunov exponent, phase portraits, two-parameter diagrams, and attraction basins, the complex behaviour of the two-dimensional Hopfield neural network has been investigated and several windows of multistability involving the coexistence of up to four coexisting attractors have been found. Besides, the results of our numerical simulation of the multistability have been further supported using some Pspice simulation. The effect of the fractional-order derivative is also explored, and it is found that the route toward chaos is completely different when the order q of the HNN is varied between $$0&lt;q&lt;1$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> <mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . Finally, a compressive sensing approach is used to compress and encrypt color images based on the sequences of the above-mentioned system. The plain color image is decomposed into Red, Green, and Blue components. The Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is applied to each component to obtain the corresponding sparse components. Confusion keys are obtained from the proposed chaotic system to scramble each sparse component. The measurement matrices obtained from the chaotic sequence are used to compress the confused sparse matrices corresponding to the Red, Green, and Blue components. Each component is quantified and a diffusion step is then applied to improve the randomness and, consequently, the information entropy. Experimental analysis of the proposed method yields a running time (t) of 6.85 ms, a maximum entropy value of 7.9996 for global and 7.9153 for local, an encryption throughput (ET) value of 114.80, and a number of cycles (NC) of 20.90. Analysis of these metrics indicates that the proposed scheme is competitive with some recent literature.
Training a Task-Specific Image Reconstruction Loss

The choice of a loss function is an important factor when training neural networks for image restoration problems, such as single image super resolution. The loss function should encourage natural and perceptually pleasing results. A popular choice for a loss is a pre-trained network, such as VGG, which is used as a feature extractor for computing the difference between restored and reference images. However, such an approach has multiple drawbacks: it is computationally expensive, requires regularization and hyper-parameter tuning, and involves a large network trained on an unrelated task. Furthermore, it has been observed that there is no single loss function that works best across all applications and across different datasets. In this work, we instead propose to train a set of loss functions that are application specific in nature. Our loss function comprises a series of discriminators that are trained to detect and penalize the presence of application-specific artifacts. We show that a single natural image and corresponding distortions are sufficient to train our feature extractor that outperforms state-of-the-art loss functions in applications like single image super resolution, denoising, and JPEG artifact removal. Finally, we conclude that an effective loss function does not have to be a good predictor of perceived image quality, but instead needs to be specialized in identifying the distortions for a given restoration method.
Cerebrovascular Segmentation Model Based on Spatial Attention-Guided 3D Inception U-Net with Multi-Directional MIPs

The segmentation algorithm of cerebrovascular magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) images based on deep learning plays an essential role in medical study. Traditional segmentation algorithms face poor segmentation results and poor connectivity when the cerebrovascular vessels are thinner. An improved segmentation algorithm based on deep convolutional networks is proposed in this research. The proposed segmentation network combines the original 3D U-Net with the maximum intensity projection (MIP), which was transformed from the corresponding patch of a 3D MRA image. The MRA dataset provided by Jeonbuk National University Hospital was used to evaluate the experimental results in comparison with traditional 3D cerebrovascular segmentation methods and other state–of–the–art deep learning methods. The experimental results showed that our method achieved the best test performance among the compared methods in terms of the Dice score when Inception blocks and attention modules were placed in the proposed dual-path networks.
WEPDTOF: A Dataset and Benchmark Algorithms for In-the-Wild People Detection and Tracking from Overhead Fisheye Cameras

Owing to their large field of view, overhead fisheye cameras are becoming a surveillance modality of choice for large indoor spaces. However, traditional people detection and tracking algorithms developed for side-mounted, rectilinear-lens cameras do not work well on images from overhead fisheye cameras due to their viewpoint and unique optics. While several people-detection algorithms have been recently developed for such cameras, they have all been tested on datasets consisting of "staged" recordings with a limited variety of people, scenes and challenges. Clearly, the performance of these algorithms "in the wild", i.e., on recordings with real-world challenges, remains un-known. In this paper, we introduce a new benchmark dataset of in-the-Wild Events for People Detection and Tracking from Overhead Fisheye cameras (WEPDTOF) <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sup> . The dataset features 14 YouTube videos captured in a wide range of scenes, 188 distinct person identities consistently labeled across time, and real-world challenges such as extreme occlusions and camouflage. Also, we propose 3 spatiotemporal extensions <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> of a state-of-the-art people-detection algorithm to enhance the coherence of detections across time. Compared to top-performing algorithms, that are purely spatial, the new algorithms offer a significant performance improvement on the new dataset. Finally, we compare the people tracking performance of these algorithms on WEPDTOF.
Integration of IoT and Blockchain for Smart and Secured Supply Chain Management

This chapter will focus on the combination of supply chain management and digital technology. Starting from the popular digital terms in the current market, the authors examine the current environment of the development, including Chinese government policies and the industry situation, and then compare the different characteristics of Industry 4.0 before and after digitization by combining the two digital technologies (i.e., blockchain and internet of things [IoT]). Moreover, the advantages of the integration of internet of things and blockchain in supply chain management will be highlighted. At the same time, according to the changes brought by digitization, the added value of IoT and blockchain integration will be analyzed from the perspective of different stakeholders. In addition, some Chinese case studies will be introduced to show the innovative performance of and benefits for enterprises, to provide references for enterprises, and to implement IoT for smart economic growth.
A methodology for designing knowledge-based systems and applications

A computer program helps to store, manage, and solve problems on data, information, and knowledge. Knowledge refers to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. Nowadays, problem-solving based on knowledge is very necessary. An intelligent system with a knowledge base can potentially be applied in the real world. Moreover, it also has the ability to reason for solving some abstract and complex problems. A knowledge-based system is an intelligent system using a knowledge base to solve problems. This system has many applications in practical domains, such as intelligent systems supporting learning, healthcare; and e-commerce; and decision support systems and consultant systems for designing in architecture and planning. In this chapter, we present a method to build a knowledge-based system. The built system has two distinguishing features: a knowledge base and an inference engine. This chapter also proposes the processes for constructing the components of the system. These processes help to build a knowledge-based system that can meet the requirements to be applied in practice. The proposed method has been applied to design some real-world applications in education and architecture. Firstly, it is applied to design an intelligent problem solver for high school solid geometry problems. This system can represent more than 80% of the quantity of knowledge collected from the contents of that course. It can solve geometric exercises automatically. The reasoning of this system simulates human reasoning and gets step-by-step solutions, which are suitable to the learning of students. Secondly, the designed method is applied to build a consultancy system for the designing of housing architecture based on the regulations of architecture and construction. This system can organize almost all basic rules in Vietnamese regulations for housing architecture. It is implemented and tested on three kinds of housing architecture in a city.
The importance of multi-modal imaging and clinical information for humans and AI-based algorithms to classify breast masses (INSPiRED 003): an international, multicenter analysis

Abstract Objectives AI-based algorithms for medical image analysis showed comparable performance to human image readers. However, in practice, diagnoses are made using multiple imaging modalities alongside other data sources. We determined the importance of this multi-modal information and compared the diagnostic performance of routine breast cancer diagnosis to breast ultrasound interpretations by humans or AI-based algorithms. Methods Patients were recruited as part of a multicenter trial (NCT02638935). The trial enrolled 1288 women undergoing routine breast cancer diagnosis (multi-modal imaging, demographic, and clinical information). Three physicians specialized in ultrasound diagnosis performed a second read of all ultrasound images. We used data from 11 of 12 study sites to develop two machine learning (ML) algorithms using unimodal information (ultrasound features generated by the ultrasound experts) to classify breast masses which were validated on the remaining study site. The same ML algorithms were subsequently developed and validated on multi-modal information (clinical and demographic information plus ultrasound features). We assessed performance using area under the curve (AUC). Results Of 1288 breast masses, 368 (28.6%) were histopathologically malignant. In the external validation set ( n = 373), the performance of the two unimodal ultrasound ML algorithms (AUC 0.83 and 0.82) was commensurate with performance of the human ultrasound experts (AUC 0.82 to 0.84; p for all comparisons &gt; 0.05). The multi-modal ultrasound ML algorithms performed significantly better (AUC 0.90 and 0.89) but were statistically inferior to routine breast cancer diagnosis (AUC 0.95, p for all comparisons ≤ 0.05). Conclusions The performance of humans and AI-based algorithms improves with multi-modal information. Key Points • The performance of humans and AI-based algorithms improves with multi-modal information. • Multimodal AI-based algorithms do not necessarily outperform expert humans. • Unimodal AI-based algorithms do not represent optimal performance to classify breast masses.
Algorithmic Factors Influencing Bias in Machine Learning

It is fair to say that many of the prominent examples of bias in Machine Learning (ML) arise from bias in the training data. In fact, some would argue that supervised ML algorithms cannot be biased, they reflect the data on which they are trained. In this paper, we demonstrate how ML algorithms can misrepresent the training data through underestimation. We show how irreducible error, regularization, and feature and class imbalance can contribute to this underestimation. The paper concludes with a demonstration of how the careful management of synthetic counterfactuals can ameliorate the impact of this underestimation bias.
Joint Classification and Trajectory Regression of Online Handwriting using a Multi-Task Learning Approach

Multivariate Time Series (MTS) classification is important in various applications such as signature verification, person identification, and motion recognition. In deep learning these classification tasks are usually learned using the cross-entropy loss. A related yet different task is predicting trajectories observed as MTS. Important use cases include handwriting reconstruction, shape analysis, and human pose estimation. The goal is to align an arbitrary dimensional time series with its ground truth as accurately as possible while reducing the error in the prediction with a distance loss and the variance with a similarity loss. Although learning both losses with Multi-Task Learning (MTL) helps to improve trajectory alignment, learning often remains difficult as both tasks are contradictory. We propose a novel neural network architecture for MTL that notably improves the MTS classification and trajectory regression performance in online handwriting (OnHW) recognition. We achieve this by jointly learning the cross-entropy loss in combination with distance and similarity losses. On an OnHW task of handwritten characters with multivariate inertial and visual data inputs we are able to achieve crucial improvements (lower error with less variance) of trajectory prediction while still improving the character classification accuracy in comparison to models trained on the individual tasks.
Pedestrian Counting Based on Piezoelectric Vibration Sensor

Pedestrian counting has attracted much interest of the academic and industry communities for its widespread application in many real-world scenarios. While many recent studies have focused on computer vision-based solutions for the problem, the deployment of cameras brings up concerns about privacy invasion. This paper proposes a novel indoor pedestrian counting approach, based on footstep-induced structural vibration signals with piezoelectric sensors. The approach is privacy-protecting because no audio or video data is acquired. Our approach analyzes the space-differential features from the vibration signals caused by pedestrian footsteps and outputs the number of pedestrians. The proposed approach supports multiple pedestrians walking together with signal mixture. Moreover, it makes no requirement about the number of groups of walking people in the detection area. The experimental results show that the averaged F1-score of our approach is over 0.98, which is better than the vibration signal-based state-of-the-art methods.
A Unified Sampling-Based Approach to Integrated Task and Motion Planning

We present a novel method for performing integrated task and motion planning (TMP) by adapting any off-the-shelf sampling-based motion planning algorithm to simultaneously solve for a symbolically and geometrically feasible plan using a single motion planner invocation. The core insight of our technique is an embedding of symbolic state into continuous space, coupled with a novel means of automatically deriving a function guiding a planner to regions of continuous space where symbolic actions can be executed. Our technique makes few assumptions and offers a great degree of flexibility and generality compared to state of the art planners. We describe our technique and offer a proof of probabilistic completeness along with empirical evaluation of our technique on manipulation benchmark problems.
A survey on blockchain-based Recommender Systems: Integration architecture and taxonomy

A Recommender System (RS) is an integral part of present-day leading web services, such as YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, and many others. Modern RSs are challenged to go beyond their traditional role of predicting user preferences to efficiently provide reliable, carefully personalized, and highly accurate recommendations. This paper thoroughly explores and analyzes state-of-the-art literature surveys on RS to extract important challenges and open issues. Our goal in this paper is to survey the literature to extract essential features of RSs and Blockchain (BC), focusing on their integration. Because of the lack of an existing foundation of BC-based RSs, the intrinsic BC aspects in RSs are identified and described. Integrating BC technology within RSs can achieve many benefits such as transparency, decentralization, and security. To that end, a thorough study of the papers on current BC-based RSs is presented along with a synthesized comprehensive taxonomy. Furthermore, a modular RS architecture, encompassing on-chain and off-chain storage and computation processes, is designed. This paper also includes a thorough discussion on the validity of the proposed architecture, BC limitations concerning RSs, and the derivation of a rich set of pointers to future research directions.
Synchronization between two linearly coupled reservoir computers

Reservoir computing, using a model-free algorithm, has drawn considerable attention in the past few years. In this work, we use a reservoir computer to reconstruct the attractor of its learned chaotic system. We present a form of interaction between two reservoir computers inspired by the diffusion coupling of oscillators. By mixing the readout of two reservoir computers with an appropriate coupling strength, we present the complete synchronization of reservoir computers. Numerical experiments are performed to verify the theory.
Pre-Training Without Natural Images

Abstract Is it possible to use convolutional neural networks pre-trained without any natural images to assist natural image understanding? The paper proposes a novel concept, Formula-driven Supervised Learning (FDSL). We automatically generate image patterns and their category labels by assigning fractals, which are based on a natural law. Theoretically, the use of automatically generated images instead of natural images in the pre-training phase allows us to generate an infinitely large dataset of labeled images. The proposed framework is similar yet different from Self-Supervised Learning because the FDSL framework enables the creation of image patterns based on any mathematical formulas in addition to self-generated labels. Further, unlike pre-training with a synthetic image dataset, a dataset under the framework of FDSL is not required to define object categories, surface texture, lighting conditions, and camera viewpoint. In the experimental section, we find a better dataset configuration through an exploratory study, e.g., increase of #category/#instance, patch rendering, image coloring, and training epoch. Although models pre-trained with the proposed Fractal DataBase (FractalDB), a database without natural images, do not necessarily outperform models pre-trained with human annotated datasets in all settings, we are able to partially surpass the accuracy of ImageNet/Places pre-trained models. The FractalDB pre-trained CNN also outperforms other pre-trained models on auto-generated datasets based on FDSL such as Bezier curves and Perlin noise. This is reasonable since natural objects and scenes existing around us are constructed according to fractal geometry. Image representation with the proposed FractalDB captures a unique feature in the visualization of convolutional layers and attentions.
Educating Students about Programming Plagiarism and Collusion via Formative Feedback

To help address programming plagiarism and collusion, students should be informed about acceptable practices and about program similarity, both coincidental and non-coincidental. However, current approaches are usually manual, brief, and delivered well before students are in a situation where they might commit academic misconduct. This article presents an assessment submission system with automated, personalized, and timely formative feedback that can be used in institutions that apply some leniency in early instances of plagiarism and collusion. If a student’s submission shares coincidental or non-coincidental similarity with other submissions, then personalized similarity reports are generated for the involved submissions and the students are expected to explain the similarity and resubmit the work. Otherwise, a report simulating similarities is sent just to the author of the submitted program to enhance their knowledge. Results from two quasi-experiments involving two academic semesters suggest that students with our approach are more aware of programming plagiarism and collusion, including the futility of some program disguises. Further, their submitted programs have lower similarity even at the level of program flow, suggesting that they are less likely to have engaged in programming plagiarism and collusion. Student behavior while using the system is also analyzed based on the statistics of the generated reports and student justifications for the reported similarities.