Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
Low-rank with sparsity constraints for image denoising

Recent works on providing proper sparse or low-rank priors have shown to result in good quality image restoration performance. The nonlocal self-similarity (NSS) of images indicates that groups stacked by similar patches not only have low-rank characteristic, but also have sparse characteristic. However, many of the existing methods for image modeling use one or the other of these characteristics, but not both, which may limit the performance of image denoising. We propose in this paper a novel model for image denoising, designated as the bilateral weighted sparse coding and low-rank (BWSCLR) model, which exploits simultaneously the low-rank property and the bilateral weighted sparse coding under the NSS prior to better restore the texture and the edges of images contaminated by noise. Furthermore, a block coordinate descent algorithm involving three steps is proposed to obtain the solution for our model. A number of experiments on denoising different image scenarios, including gray-scale and color images are carried out, and the results clearly show the superior performance of the proposed BWSCLR method over that of the state-of-the-art algorithms not only in terms of the quantitative metrics such as PSNR and SSIM, but also in perceptual quality.
A parallel particle swarm optimization and enhanced sparrow search algorithm for unmanned aerial vehicle path planning

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) path planning is to plan an optimal path for its flight in a specific environment. But it cannot get satisfactory results using ordinary algorithms. To solve this problem, a hybrid algorithm is proposed named as PESSA, where particle swarm optimization (PSO) and an enhanced sparrow search algorithm (ESSA) work in parallel. In the ESSA, the random jump of the producer's position is strengthened to guarantee the global search ability. Each scrounger keeps learning from the vintage experience of the producers. For the best-positioned sparrow, when it perceives the threat, the difference between the best individual and the worst individual will be imposed to speed up the search process. The elite reverse search strategy was added to yields the optimum diversity. In this paper, the performance of the PESSA algorithm is verified by 10 basic functions, and it can find the optimal value on the 7 test functions. Compared with the other 12 algorithms, PESSA's average value always ranks first. Finally, the proposed PESSA is applied in 4 different scenarios including two groups of 2D environments and two groups of 3D environments. In 2D environments, the average optimization results can reach 0.0165 and 0.0521 in two cases respectively. In 3D environments, the average optimization results can reach 0.6635 and 0.5349 in two cases respectively. The results show that the PESSA algorithm can acquire more feasible and effective route than compared algorithms.
A Novel Methodology for Human Kinematics Motion Detection Based on Smartphones Sensor Data Using Artificial Intelligence

Kinematic motion detection aims to determine a person’s actions based on activity data. Human kinematic motion detection has many valuable applications in health care, such as health monitoring, preventing obesity, virtual reality, daily life monitoring, assisting workers during industry manufacturing, caring for the elderly. Computer vision-based activity recognition is challenging due to problems such as partial occlusion, background clutter, appearance, lighting, viewpoint, and changes in scale. Our research aims to detect human kinematic motions such as walking or running using smartphones’ sensor data within a high-performance framework. An existing dataset based on smartphones’ gyroscope and accelerometer sensor values is utilized for the experiments in our study. Sensor exploratory data analysis was conducted in order to identify valuable patterns and insights from sensor values. The six hyperparameters, tunned artificial indigence-based machine learning, and deep learning techniques were applied for comparison. Extensive experimentation showed that the ensemble learning-based novel ERD (ensemble random forest decision tree) method outperformed other state-of-the-art studies with high-performance accuracy scores. The proposed ERD method combines the random forest and decision tree models, which achieved a 99% classification accuracy score. The proposed method was successfully validated with the k-fold cross-validation approach.
Blockchain-Assisted Cybersecurity for the Internet of Medical Things in the Healthcare Industry

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) plays an important role in strengthening sustainable healthcare systems. IoMT significantly influences our healthcare because it facilitates monitoring and checking patient medical information before transferring the data to a cloud network for future use. The IoMT is a big-data platform which is growing rapidly, so it is critical to maintain all data safely and securely. In this study, Blockchain-Assisted Cybersecurity (BCCS) for the IoMT in the healthcare industry is proposed. Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that allows end-to-end communication and provides interaction between untrustworthy persons. BCCS uses a conventional in-depth approach and blockchain to create a procedure for collecting medical information from the IoMT and integrated devices. The proposed system utilizes blockchain to record and extract the accumulated information in a secure and distributed manner within a closed environment suitable for healthcare professionals, such as nursing homes, hospitals, and the healthcare industry where data exchange is needed. The experimental outcomes show that the proposed system has a high security rate of 99.8% and the lowest latency rate of 4.3% compared to traditional approaches. In all, the reliability of the proposed system gives the highest rate of 99.4%.
FDLR-Net: A feature decoupling and localization refinement network for object detection in remote sensing images

Object detection in remote sensing images is a critical task in computer vision. Often times in remote sensing images, objects are highly variable in scale and have arbitrary orientation, which renders spatial alignment between anchor boxes and objects challenging in the object detection task. In this paper, a feature decoupling and localization refinement network is suggested as a solution to this issue. Specifically, a bidirectional feature fusion module (BFFM) is devised to construct a multi-scale feature pyramid for detecting objects at different scales. A feature decoupling module (FDM) is devised which utilizes the fusion of spatial attention and channel attention, as well as different attention functions to generate features specifically tuned for regression and classification, that are used to guide more accurate localization and classification. Further, a localization refinement module (LRM) is designed to automatically optimize the anchor box parameters to achieve spatial alignment of the anchor box and the object regression feature. In this way, the FDM and LRM are cascaded to achieve more accurate localization. Experimental results on two open access datasets, DOTA and HRSC2016, show that the performance of FDLR-Net is state-of-the-art, with mAP reaching 73.08% and 89.4%, respectively.
Gate-based quantum computing for protein design

Protein design is a technique to engineer proteins by permuting amino acids in the sequence to obtain novel functionalities. However, exploring all possible combinations of amino acids is generally impossible due to the exponential growth of possibilities with the number of designable sites. The present work introduces circuits implementing a pure quantum approach, Grover's algorithm, to solve protein design problems. Our algorithms can adjust to implement any custom pair-wise energy tables and protein structure models. Moreover, the algorithm's oracle is designed to consist of only adder functions. Quantum computer simulators validate the practicality of our circuits, containing up to 234 qubits. However, a smaller circuit is implemented on real quantum devices. Our results show that using [Formula: see text] iterations, the circuits find the correct results among all N possibilities, providing the expected quadratic speed up of Grover's algorithm over classical methods (i.e., [Formula: see text]).
An End-to-End Framework for Joint Denoising and Classification of Hyperspectral Images

Image denoising and classification are typically conducted separately and sequentially according to their respective objectives. In such a setup, where the two tasks are decoupled, the denoising operation does not optimally serve the classification task and sometimes even deteriorates it. We introduce here a unified deep learning framework for joint denoising and classification of high-dimensional images, and we particularly apply it in the framework of hyperspectral imaging. Earlier works on joint image denoising and classification are very scarce, and to the best of our knowledge, no deep learning models were proposed or studied yet for this type of multitask image processing. A key component in our joint learning model is a compound loss function, designed in such a way that the denoising and classification operations benefit each other iteratively during the learning process. Hyperspectral images (HSIs) are particularly challenging for both denoising and classification due to their high dimensionality and varying noise statistics across the bands. We argue that a well-designed end-to-end deep learning framework for joint denoising and classification is superior to current deep learning approaches for processing HSI data, and we substantiate this by results on real HSI images in remote sensing. We experimentally show that the proposed joint learning framework substantially improves the classification performance compared to the common deep learning approaches in HSI processing, and as a by-product, the denoising results are enhanced as well, especially in terms of the semantic content, benefiting from the classification.
Using Immersive Virtual Reality to Enhance Social Interaction Among Older Adults: A Cross-Site Investigation

Abstract Background and Objectives Virtual reality (VR) applications are increasingly being targeted toward older adults as a means to maintain physical and cognitive skills and to connect with others, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 era. Our knowledge about how older adults interact with VR is limited, however, since this is an emerging area and the related research literature is still rather slim. The current study focused specifically on older adults’ reactions to a social-VR environment, examining participant’s views about the possibility of meaningful interactions in this format, the impacts of social-VR immersion on mood and attitude, and features of the VR environment that affected these outcomes. Research Design and Methods The researchers designed a novel social-VR environment with features intended to prompt conversation and collaborative problem-solving among older adults. Participants were recruited from 3 diverse geographic locations (Tallahassee, FL; Ithaca, NY; and New York City, NY), and were randomly assigned to a partner from one of the other sites for social-VR interaction. The sample consisted of 36 individuals aged 60 and older. Results Reactions to the social VR were quite positive. Older adults reported high levels of engagement in the environment and perceived the social VR to be enjoyable and usable. Perceived spatial presence was found to be a central driver of positive outcomes. A majority of the participants indicated a willingness to reconnect with their VR partner in the future. The data also identified important areas for improvement that were of concern to older adults, such as the use of more realistic avatars, larger controllers more suited to aging hands, and more time for training/familiarization. Discussion and Implications Overall, these findings suggest that VR can be an effective format for social engagement among older adults.
Forecasting and Uncertainty Analysis of Day-Ahead Photovoltaic Power Based on WT-CNN-BiLSTM-AM-GMM

Accurate forecasting of photovoltaic (PV) power is of great significance for the safe, stable, and economical operation of power grids. Therefore, a day-ahead photovoltaic power forecasting (PPF) and uncertainty analysis method based on WT-CNN-BiLSTM-AM-GMM is proposed in this paper. Wavelet transform (WT) is used to decompose numerical weather prediction (NWP) data and photovoltaic power data into frequency data with time information, which eliminates the influence of randomness and volatility in the data information on the forecasting accuracy. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to deeply mine the seasonal characteristics of the input data and the correlation characteristics between the input data. The bidirectional long short-term memory network (BiLSTM) is used to deeply explore the temporal correlation of the input data series. To reflect the different influences of the input data sequence on the model forecasting accuracy, the weight of the calculated value of the BiLSTM model for each input data is adaptively adjusted using the attention mechanism (AM) algorithm according to the data sequence, which further improves the model forecasting accuracy. To accurately calculate the probability density distribution characteristics of photovoltaic forecasting errors, the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) method was used to calculate the probability density distribution of forecasting errors, and the confidence interval of the day-ahead PPF was calculated. Using a photovoltaic power station as the calculation object, the forecasting results of the WT-CNN-BiLSTM-AM, CNN-BiLSTM, WT-CNN-BiLSTM, long short-term memory network (LSTM), gate recurrent unit (GRU), and PSO-BP models were compared and analyzed. The calculation results show that the forecasting accuracy of the WT-CNN-BiLSTM-AM model is higher than that of the other models. The confidence interval coverage calculated from the GMM is greater than the given confidence level.
Artificial intelligence and real-world data for drug and food safety – A regulatory science perspective

In 2013, the Global Coalition for Regulatory Science Research (GCRSR) was established with members from over ten countries (www.gcrsr.net). One of the main objectives of GCRSR is to facilitate communication among global regulators on the rise of new technologies with regulatory applications through the annual conference Global Summit on Regulatory Science (GSRS). The 11th annual GSRS conference (GSRS21) focused on "Regulatory Sciences for Food/Drug Safety with Real-World Data (RWD) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)." The conference discussed current advancements in both AI and RWD approaches with a specific emphasis on how they impact regulatory sciences and how regulatory agencies across the globe are pursuing the adaptation and oversight of these technologies. There were presentations from Brazil, Canada, India, Italy, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These presentations highlighted how various agencies are moving forward with these technologies by either improving the agencies' operation and/or preparing regulatory mechanisms to approve the products containing these innovations. To increase the content and discussion, the GSRS21 hosted two debate sessions on the question of "Is Regulatory Science Ready for AI?" and a workshop to showcase the analytical data tools that global regulatory agencies have been using and/or plan to apply to regulatory science. Several key topics were highlighted and discussed during the conference, such as the capabilities of AI and RWD to assist regulatory science policies for drug and food safety, the readiness of AI and data science to provide solutions for regulatory science. Discussions highlighted the need for a constant effort to evaluate emerging technologies for fit-for-purpose regulatory applications. The annual GSRS conferences offer a unique platform to facilitate discussion and collaboration across regulatory agencies, modernizing regulatory approaches, and harmonizing efforts.
Robustness challenges in Reinforcement Learning based time-critical cloud resource scheduling: A Meta-Learning based solution

Cloud computing attracts increasing attention in processing dynamic computing tasks and automating the software development and operation pipeline. In many cases, the computing tasks have strict deadlines. The cloud resource manager (e.g., orchestrator) effectively manages the resources and provides tasks Quality of Service (QoS). Cloud task scheduling is tricky due to the dynamic nature of task workload and resource availability. Reinforcement Learning (RL) has attracted lots of research attention in scheduling. However, those RL-based approaches suffer from low scheduling performance robustness when the task workload and resource availability change, particularly when handling time-critical tasks. This paper focuses on both challenges of robustness and deadline guarantee among such RL, specifically Deep RL (DRL)-based scheduling approaches. We quantify the robustness measurements as the retraining time and investigate how to improve both robustness and deadline guarantee of DRL-based scheduling. We propose MLR-TC-DRLS, a practical, robust Meta Deep Reinforcement Learning-based scheduling solution to provide time-critical tasks deadline guarantee and fast adaptation under highly dynamic situations. We comprehensively evaluate MLR-TC-DRLS performance against RL-based and RL advanced variants-based scheduling approaches using real-world and synthetic data. The evaluations validate that our proposed approach improves the scheduling performance robustness of typical DRL variants scheduling approaches with 97%–98.5% deadline guarantees and 200%–500% faster adaptation.
Fusion of EEG and Eye Blink Analysis for Detection of Driver Fatigue

The driver fatigue detection using multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG) has been extensively addressed in the literature. However, the employment of a single prefrontal EEG channel should be prioritized as it provides users with more comfort. Furthermore, eye blinks from such channel can be analyzed as the complementary information. Here, we present a new driver fatigue detection method based on simultaneous EEG and eye blinks analysis using an Fp1 EEG channel.First, the moving standard deviation algorithm identifies eye blink intervals (EBIs) to extract blink-related features. Second, the discrete wavelet transform filters the EBIs from the EEG signal. Third, the filtered EEG signal is decomposed into sub-bands, and various linear and nonlinear features are extracted. Finally, the prominent features are selected by the neighbourhood components analysis and fed to a classifier to discriminate between fatigue and alert driving. In this paper, two different databases are investigated. The first one is used for parameters' tuning of proposed method for the eye blink detection and filtering, nonlinear EEG measures, and feature selection. The second one is solely used for testing the robustness of the tuned parameters.The comparison between the obtained results from both databases by the AdaBoost classifier in terms of sensitivity (90.2% vs. 87.4%), specificity (87.7% vs. 85.5%), and accuracy (88.4% vs. 86.8%) indicates the reliability of the proposed method for the driver fatigue detection.Considering the existence of commercial single prefrontal channel EEG headbands, the proposed method can be used to detect the driver fatigue in real-world scenarios.
Self-Supervised Learning by Estimating Twin Class Distribution

We present Twist, a simple and theoretically explainable self-supervised representation learning method by classifying large-scale unlabeled datasets in an end-to-end way. We employ a siamese network terminated by a softmax operation to produce twin class distributions of two augmented images. Without supervision, we enforce the class distributions of different augmentations to be consistent. However, simply minimizing the divergence between augmentations will generate collapsed solutions, i.e., outputting the same class distribution for all images. In this case, little information about the input images is preserved. To solve this problem, we propose to maximize the mutual information between the input image and the output class predictions. Specifically, we minimize the entropy of the distribution for each sample to make the class prediction assertive, and maximize the entropy of the mean distribution to make the predictions of different samples diverse. In this way, Twist can naturally avoid the collapsed solutions without specific designs such as asymmetric network, stop-gradient operation, or momentum encoder. As a result, Twist outperforms previous state-of-the-art methods on a wide range of tasks. Specifically on the semi-supervised classification task, Twist achieves 61.2% top-1 accuracy with 1% ImageNet labels using a ResNet-50 as backbone, surpassing previous best results by an improvement of 6.2%. Codes and pre-trained models are available at https://github.com/bytedance/TWIST.
Security of federated learning with IoT systems: Issues, limitations, challenges, and solutions

Federated Learning (FL, or Collaborative Learning (CL)) has surely gained a reputation for not only building Machine Learning (ML) models that rely on distributed datasets, but also for starting to play a key role in security and privacy solutions to protect sensitive data and information from a variety of ML-related attacks. This made it an ideal choice for emerging networks such as Internet of Things (IoT) systems, especially with its state-of-the-art algorithms that focus on their practical use over IoT networks, despite the presence of resource-constrained devices. However, the heterogeneous nature of the current devices and models in complex IoT networks has seriously hindered the FL training process's ability to perform well. Thus, rendering it almost unsuitable for direct deployment over IoT networks despite ongoing efforts to tackle this issue and overcome this challenging obstacle. As a result, the main characteristics of FL in the IoT from both security and privacy aspects are presented in this study. We broaden our research to investigate and analyze cutting-edge FL algorithms, models, and protocols, with a focus on their efficacy and practical application across IoT networks and systems alike. This is followed by a comparative analysis of the recently available protection solutions for FL that can be based on cryptographic and non-cryptographic solutions over heterogeneous, dynamic IoT networks. Moreover, the proposed work provides a list of suggestions and recommendations that can be applied to enhance the effectiveness of the adoption of FL and to achieve higher robustness against attacks, especially in heterogeneous dynamic IoT networks and in the presence of resource-constrained devices.