Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
Virtual Augmentation Supported Contrastive Learning of Sentence Representations

Despite profound successes, contrastive representation learning relies on carefully designed data augmentations using domainspecific knowledge.This challenge is magnified in natural language processing, where no general rules exist for data augmentation due to the discrete nature of natural language.We tackle this challenge by presenting a Virtual augmentation Supported Contrastive Learning of sentence representations (VaSCL).Originating from the interpretation that data augmentation essentially constructs the neighborhoods of each training instance, we in turn utilize the neighborhood to generate effective data augmentations.Leveraging the large training batch size of contrastive learning, we approximate the neighborhood of an instance via its K-nearest in-batch neighbors in the representation space.We then define an instance discrimination task regarding the neighborhood and generate the virtual augmentation in an adversarial training manner.We access the performance of VaSCL on a wide range of downstream tasks and set a new state-of-the-art for unsupervised sentence representation learning.
Quantum pixel representations and compression for N-dimensional images

We introduce a novel and uniform framework for quantum pixel representations that overarches many of the most popular representations proposed in the recent literature, such as (I)FRQI, (I)NEQR, MCRQI, and (I)NCQI. The proposed QPIXL framework results in more efficient circuit implementations and significantly reduces the gate complexity for all considered quantum pixel representations. Our method scales linearly in the number of pixels and does not use ancilla qubits. Furthermore, the circuits only consist of [Formula: see text] gates and [Formula: see text] gates making them practical in the NISQ era. Additionally, we propose a circuit and image compression algorithm that is shown to be highly effective, being able to reduce the necessary gates to prepare an FRQI state for example scientific images by up to 90% without sacrificing image quality. Our algorithms are made publicly available as part of QPIXL++, a Quantum Image Pixel Library.
Facial Expression Recognition Based on Convolutional Neural Network Fusion SIFT Features of Mobile Virtual Reality

Facial expression recognition computer technology can obtain the emotional information of the person through the expression of the person to judge the state and intention of the person. The article proposes a hybrid model that combines a convolutional neural network (CNN) and dense SIFT features. This model is used for facial expression recognition. First, the article builds a CNN model and learns the local features of the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth. Then, the article features are sent to the support vector machine (SVM) multiclassifier to obtain the posterior probabilities of various features. Finally, the output result of the model is decided and fused to obtain the final recognition result. The experimental results show that the improved convolutional neural network structure ER2013 and CK+ data sets’ facial expression recognition rate increases by 0.06% and 2.25%, respectively.
BIBC: A Chinese Named Entity Recognition Model for Diabetes Research

In the medical field, extracting medical entities from text by Named Entity Recognition (NER) has become one of the research hotspots. This thesis takes the chapter-level diabetes literature as the research object and uses a deep learning method to extract medical entities in the literature. Based on the deep and bidirectional transformer network structure, the pre-training language model BERT model can solve the problem of polysemous word representation, and supplement the features by large-scale unlabeled data, combined with BiLSTM-CRF model extracts of the long-distance features of sentences. On this basis, in view of the problem that the model cannot focus on the local information of the sentence, resulting in insufficient feature extraction, and considering the characteristics of Chinese data mainly in words, this thesis proposes a Named Entity Recognition method based on BIBC. This method combines Iterated Dilated CNN to enable the model to take into account global and local features at the same time, and uses the BERT-WWM model based on whole word masking to further extract semantic information from Chinese data. In the experiment of diabetic entity recognition in Ruijin Hospital, the accuracy rate, recall rate, and F1 score are improved to 79.58%, 80.21%, and 79.89%, which are better than the evaluation indexes of existing studies. It indicates that the method can extract the semantic information of diabetic text more accurately and obtain good entity recognition results, which can meet the requirements of practical applications.
Human Facial Age Estimation Using Whale MLP-NN

Recently, from the facial images, the estimation of age automatically is a raising research area.Several studies have been conducted in the detection of age strategy, however, some studies only show better performance It is because of the great control of the external metrics namely lifestyle, environment, and numerous expression that are available in the face image.The main aim of this work is to present an MLP-NN with the WOA in order to detect the age from the face image.The developed Whale MLP-NN model is used to recognize the person's age in the image via the initial training with the facial features.In order to train the adopted optimization model, the features are offered using the AAM and scattering transform.Moreover, to detect the age, the optimal weights are exploited, and that is provided by the features with the Whale MLP-NN training.Finally, the experimental analysis exhibits that the developed optimization model is performed using the databases on the basis of measures namely AEO, MAE, and AEM.
A Survey on Methods and Metrics for the Assessment of Explainability Under the Proposed AI Act

This study discusses the interplay between metrics used to measure the explainability of the AI systems and the proposed EU Artificial Intelligence Act. A standardisation process is ongoing: several entities (e.g. ISO) and scholars are discussing how to design systems that are compliant with the forthcoming Act and explainability metrics play a significant role. This study identifies the requirements that such a metric should possess to ease compliance with the AI Act. It does so according to an interdisciplinary approach, i.e. by departing from the philosophical concept of explainability and discussing some metrics proposed by scholars and standardisation entities through the lenses of the explainability obligations set by the proposed AI Act. Our analysis proposes that metrics to measure the kind of explainability endorsed by the proposed AI Act shall be risk-focused, model-agnostic, goal-aware, intelligible &amp; accessible. This is why we discuss the extent to which these requirements are met by the metrics currently under discussion.
Role of assortativity in predicting burst synchronization using echo state network

In this study, we use a reservoir computing based echo state network (ESN) to predict the collective burst synchronization of neurons. Specifically, we investigate the ability of ESN in predicting the burst synchronization of an ensemble of Rulkov neurons placed on a scale-free network. We have shown that a limited number of nodal dynamics used as input in the machine can capture the real trend of burst synchronization in this network. Further, we investigate on the proper selection of nodal inputs of degree-degree (positive and negative) correlated networks. We show that for a disassortative network, selection of different input nodes based on degree has no significant role in machine's prediction. However, in the case of assortative network, training the machine with the information (i.e time series) of low-degree nodes gives better results in predicting the burst synchronization. Finally, we explain the underlying mechanism responsible for observing this differences in prediction in a degree correlated network.
Continual Learning with Echo State Networks

Continual Learning (CL) refers to a learning setup where data is non stationary and the model has to learn without forgetting existing knowledge.The study of CL for sequential patterns revolves around trained recurrent networks.In this work, instead, we introduce CL in the context of Echo State Networks (ESNs), where the recurrent component is kept fixed.We provide the first evaluation of catastrophic forgetting in ESNs and we highlight the benefits in using CL strategies which are not applicable to trained recurrent models.Our results confirm the ESN as a promising model for CL and open to its use in streaming scenarios.
Immutable Log Storage as a Service on Private and Public Blockchains

Service Level Agreements (SLA) are employed to ensure the performance of Cloud solutions. When a component fails, the importance of logs increases significantly. All departments may turn to logs to determine the cause of the issue and find the party at fault. The party at fault may be motivated to tamper with the logs to hide their role. We argue that the critical nature of Cloud logs calls for immutability and verification mechanism without the presence of a single trusted party. This paper proposes such a mechanism by describing a blockchain-based log storage system, called Logchain, which can be integrated with existing private and public blockchain solutions. Logchain uses the immutability feature of blockchain to provide a tamper-resistance platform for log storage. Additionally, we propose a hierarchical structure to address blockchains' scalability issues. To validate the mechanism, we integrate Logchain into Ethereum and IBM Blockchain. We show that the solution is scalable and perform the analysis of the cost of ownership to help a reader select an implementation that would address their needs. The Logchain's scalability improvement on a blockchain is achieved without any alteration of blockchains' fundamental architecture. As shown in this work, it can function on private and public blockchains and, therefore, can be a suitable alternative for organizations that need a secure, immutable log storage platform.
<b>BAMBI</b>: An <i>R</i> Package for Fitting Bivariate Angular Mixture Models

Statistical analyses of directional or angular data have applications in a variety of fields, such as geology, meteorology and bioinformatics. There is substantial literature on descriptive and inferential techniques for univariate angular data, with the bivariate (or more generally, multivariate) cases receiving more attention in recent years. More specifically, the bivariate wrapped normal, von Mises sine and von Mises cosine distributions, and mixtures thereof, have been proposed for practical use. However, there is a lack of software implementing these distributions and the associated inferential techniques. In this article, we introduce BAMBI, an R package for analyzing bivariate (and univariate) angular data. We implement random data generation, density evaluation, and computation of theoretical summary measures (variances and correlation coefficients) for the three aforementioned bivariate angular distributions, as well as two univariate angular distributions: the univariate wrapped normal and the univariate von Mises distribution. The major contribution of BAMBI to statistical computing is in providing Bayesian methods for modeling angular data using finite mixtures of these distributions. We also provide functions for visual and numerical diagnostics and Bayesian inference for the fitted models. In this article, we first provide a brief review of the distributions and techniques used in BAMBI, then describe the capabilities of the package, and finally conclude with demonstrations of mixture model fitting using BAMBI on the two real data sets included in the package, one univariate and one bivariate.
Correspondence between neuroevolution and gradient descent

We show analytically that training a neural network by conditioned stochastic mutation or neuroevolution of its weights is equivalent, in the limit of small mutations, to gradient descent on the loss function in the presence of Gaussian white noise. Averaged over independent realizations of the learning process, neuroevolution is equivalent to gradient descent on the loss function. We use numerical simulation to show that this correspondence can be observed for finite mutations,for shallow and deep neural networks. Our results provide a connection between two families of neural-network training methods that are usually considered to be fundamentally different.
CURRENT STATE AND DEVELOPMENT TRENDS OF E-LEARNING IN CHINA

The emergence of new e-learning technologies requires a rethinking of their implementation in higher education. To fill this gap, this study analyzes the experience of using and creating e-learning tools in Chinese higher education institutions over the past 5 years. The survey found that the most common educational technologies in Chinese higher education are blended learning, collaborative learning, modified classes, micro-learning and adaptive learning, as well as e-learning tools such as mobile technology and mass open online courses. A survey of university faculty and students explored the practicalities of using e-learning tools in Chinese higher education. The results of the analysis of 20 responses from teachers and 16 responses from undergraduate and postgraduate students showed the following: the teachers have the opportunity to organize e-learning at their university, blended learning is mainly implemented in the learning process, teachers are not limited in choosing e-learning tools: video tools, messengers, social networks and e-learning tools such as Articulate 360 and Adapt. It has been proven that video lectures with a higher level of teacher expression were better than those that had a normal level of teacher expression and only audio, in terms of improving the level of students’ emotional and learning satisfaction. Accordingly, the teacher's facial expression plays a key role in teaching students online. A number of tasks have been proposed that will contribute to the development of e-learning in Chinese higher education. The authors emphasize that in order to develop e-learning in Chinese higher education, it is necessary to pay attention to the following tasks: understanding and studying trends in the ICT development in education; targeting e-learning strategies at improving learning interests; constant monitoring and updating of software and hardware of higher educational institutions for introduction of new technologies in higher education; development and distribution of platforms with simple software interfaces for creating distance learning courses; development of information resources.
GUV-Net for high fidelity shoeprint generation

Abstract Shoeprints contain valuable information for tracing evidence in forensic scenes, and they need to be generated into cleaned, sharp, and high-fidelity images. Most of the acquired shoeprints are found with low quality and/or in distorted forms. The high-fidelity shoeprint generation is of great significance in forensic science. A wide range of deep learning models has been suggested for super-resolution, being either generalized approaches or application specific. Considering the crucial challenges in shoeprint based processing and lacking specific algorithms, we proposed a deep learning based GUV-Net model for high-fidelity shoeprint generation. GUV-Net imitates learning features from VAE, U-Net, and GAN network models with special treatment of absent ground truth shoeprints. GUV-Net encodes efficient probabilistic distributions in the latent space and decodes variants of samples together with passed key features. GUV-Net forwards the learned samples to a refinement-unit proceeded to the generation of high-fidelity output. The refinement-unit receives low-level features from the decoding module at distinct levels. Furthermore, the refinement process is made more efficient by inverse-encoded in high dimensional space through a parallel inverse encoding network. The objective functions at different levels enable the model to efficiently optimize the parameters by mapping a low quality image to a high-fidelity one by maintaining salient features which are important to forensics. Finally, the performance of the proposed model is evaluated against state-of-the-art super-resolution network models.
Simulation and Mitigation of the Wrap-Around Artifact in the MRI Image

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an essential clinical imaging modality for diagnosis and medical research, while various artifacts occur during the acquisition of MRI image, resulting in severe degradation of the perceptual quality and diagnostic efficacy. To tackle such challenges, this study deals with one of the most frequent artifact sources, namely the wrap-around artifact. In particular, given that the MRI data are limited and difficult to access, we first propose a method to simulate the wrap-around artifact on the artifact-free MRI image to increase the quantity of MRI data. Then, an image restoration technique, based on the deep neural networks, is proposed for wrap-around artifact reduction and overall perceptual quality improvement. This study presents a comprehensive analysis regarding both the occurrence of and reduction in the wrap-around artifact, with the aim of facilitating the detection and mitigation of MRI artifacts in clinical situations.
Image Caption Generator Using Deep Learning

Abstract: When humans see an image, their brain can easily tell what the image is about, but a computer cannot do it easily. Computer vision researchers worked on this a lot and they considered it impossible until now! With the advancement in Deep learning techniques, availability of huge datasets and computer power, we can build models that can generate captions for an image. Image Caption Generator is a popular research area of Deep Learning that deals with image understanding and a language description for that image. Generating well-formed sentences requires both syntactic and semantic understanding of the language. Being able to describe the content of an image using accurately formed sentences is a very challenging task, but it could also have a great impact, by helping visually impaired people better understand the content of images. The biggest challenge is most definitely being able to create a description that must capture not only the objects contained in an image, but also express how these objects relate to each other. This paper uses Flickr_8K dataset and Flickr8k_text folder that contains Flickr8k.token which is the main file of our dataset that contains image name and their respective caption separated by newline(“\n”). CNN is used for extracting features from the image. We will use the pre-trained model Xception. LSTM will use the information from CNN to help generate a description of the image. In our Flickr8k_text folder, we have Flickr_8k.trainImages.txt file that contains a list of 6000 images names that we will use for training. After CNN-LSTM model is defined we give an image file as parameter through command prompt for testing image caption generator and it generates the caption of an image and its accuracy is observed by calculating bleu score for generated and reference captions. Keywords: Image Caption Generator, Convolutional Neural Network, Long Short-Term Memory, Bleu score, Flickr_8K
The data conundrum: compression of automotive imaging data and deep neural network based perception

Video compression in automated vehicles and advanced driving assistance systems is of utmost importance to deal with the challenge of transmitting and processing the vast amount of video data generated per second by the sensor suite which is needed to support robust situational awareness.The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that video compression can be optimised based on the perception system that will utilise the data.We have considered the deployment of deep neural networks to implement object (i.e.vehicle) detection based on compressed video camera data extracted from the KITTI MoSeg dataset.Preliminary results indicate that re-training the neural network with M-JPEG compressed videos can improve the detection performance with compressed and uncompressed transmitted data, improving recalls and precision by up to 4% with respect to re-training with uncompressed data.
Application Profile for Machine-Actionable Data Management Plans

This paper presents the application profile for machine-actionable data management plans that allows information from traditional data management plans to be expressed in a machine-actionable way. We describe the methodology and research conducted to define the application profile. We also discuss design decisions made during its development and present systems which have adopted it. The application profile was developed in an open and consensus-driven manner within the DMP Common Standards Working Group of the Research Data Alliance and is its official recommendation.
Eye Movements during dynamic scene viewing are affected by visual attention skills and events of the scene: Evidence from first-person shooter gameplay videos

The role of individual differences during dynamic scene viewing was explored. Participants (N=38) watched a gameplay video of a first-person shooter (FPS) videogame while their eye movements were recorded. In addition, the participants' skills in three visual attention tasks (attentional blink, visual search, and multiple object tracking) were assessed. The results showed that individual differences in visual attention tasks were associated with eye movement patterns observed during viewing of the gameplay video. The differences were noted in four eye movement measures: number of fixations, fixation durations, saccade amplitudes and fixation distances from the center of the screen. The individual differences showed during specific events of the video as well as during the video as a whole. The results highlight that an unedited, fast-paced and cluttered dynamic scene can bring about individual differences in dynamic scene viewing.
SACTNet: Spatial Attention Context Transformation Network for Cloud Removal

Optical remote sensing image has the advantages of fast information acquisition, short update cycle, and dynamic monitoring. It plays an important role in many earth observation activities, such as ocean monitoring, meteorological observation, land planning, and crop yield investigation. However, in the process of image acquisition, an optical remote sensing system is often disturbed by clouds, resulting in low image clarity or even loss of ground information, affecting the acquisition of feature information and subsequent applications. We propose a spatial attention recurrent neural network model combined with a context transformation network to overcome the challenge of cloud occlusion. This model can obtain the core information in remote sensing images and consider the remote dependencies in the network. Furthermore, the network proposed in this paper has achieved excellent performance on the RICE1 and RICE2 datasets.