Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
FedAT

Federated learning (FL) involves training a model over massive distributed devices, while keeping the training data localized and private. This form of collaborative learning exposes new tradeoffs among model convergence speed, model accuracy, balance across clients, and communication cost, with new challenges including: (1) straggler problem---where clients lag due to data or (computing and network) resource heterogeneity, and (2) communication bottleneck---where a large number of clients communicate their local updates to a central server and bottleneck the server. Many existing FL methods focus on optimizing along only one single dimension of the tradeoff space. Existing solutions use asynchronous model updating or tiering-based, synchronous mechanisms to tackle the straggler problem. However, asynchronous methods can easily create a communication bottleneck, while tiering may introduce biases that favor faster tiers with shorter response latencies.
Deep hybrid architectures for binary classification of medical breast cancer images

The diagnosis of breast cancer in the early stages significantly decreases the mortality rate by allowing the choice of adequate treatment. This study developed and evaluated twenty-eight hybrid architectures combining seven recent deep learning techniques for feature extraction (DenseNet 201, Inception V3, Inception ReseNet V2, MobileNet V2, ResNet 50, VGG16, and VGG19), and four classifiers (MLP, SVM, DT, and KNN) for a binary classification of breast pathological images over the BreakHis and FNAC datasets. The designed architectures were evaluated using: (1) four classification performance criteria (accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score), (2) Scott Knott (SK) statistical test to cluster the proposed architectures and identify the best cluster of the outperforming architectures, and (3) the Borda Count voting method to rank the best performing architectures. The results showed the potential of combining deep learning techniques for feature extraction and classical classifiers to classify breast cancer in malignant and benign tumors. The hybrid architecture using the MLP classifier and DenseNet 201 for feature extraction (MDEN) was the top performing architecture with higher accuracy values reaching 99% over the FNAC dataset, 92.61%, 92%, 93.93%, and 91.73% over the four magnification factor values of the BreakHis dataset: 40X, 100X, 200X, and 400X, respectively. The results of this study recommend the use of hybrid architectures using DenseNet 201 for the feature extraction of the breast cancer histological images because it gave the best results for both datasets BreakHis and FNAC, especially when combined with the MLP classifier.
Bringing AI to edge: From deep learning’s perspective

Edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI), especially deep learning for nowadays, are gradually intersecting to build a novel system, called edge intelligence. However, the development of edge intelligence systems encounters some challenges, and one of these challenges is the \textit{computational gap} between computation-intensive deep learning algorithms and less-capable edge systems. Due to the computational gap, many edge intelligence systems cannot meet the expected performance requirements. To bridge the gap, a plethora of deep learning techniques and optimization methods are proposed in the past years: light-weight deep learning models, network compression, and efficient neural architecture search. Although some reviews or surveys have partially covered this large body of literature, we lack a systematic and comprehensive review to discuss all aspects of these deep learning techniques which are critical for edge intelligence implementation. As various and diverse methods which are applicable to edge systems are proposed intensively, a holistic review would enable edge computing engineers and community to know the state-of-the-art deep learning techniques which are instrumental for edge intelligence and to facilitate the development of edge intelligence systems. This paper surveys the representative and latest deep learning techniques that are useful for edge intelligence systems, including hand-crafted models, model compression, hardware-aware neural architecture search and adaptive deep learning models. Finally, based on observations and simple experiments we conducted, we discuss some future directions.
Unleashing the Tiger: Inference Attacks on Split Learning

We investigate the security of split learning---a novel collaborative machine learning framework that enables peak performance by requiring minimal resource consumption. In the present paper, we expose vulnerabilities of the protocol and demonstrate its inherent insecurity by introducing general attack strategies targeting the reconstruction of clients' private training sets. More prominently, we show that a malicious server can actively hijack the learning process of the distributed model and bring it into an insecure state that enables inference attacks on clients' data. We implement different adaptations of the attack and test them on various datasets as well as within realistic threat scenarios. We demonstrate that our attack can overcome recently proposed defensive techniques aimed at enhancing the security of the split learning protocol. Finally, we also illustrate the protocol's insecurity against malicious clients by extending previously devised attacks for Federated Learning.
Artificial Intelligence and Its Role in Education

The objective of this study is to explore the role of artificial intelligence applications (AIA) in education. AI applications provide the solution in many ways to the exponential rise of modern-day challenges, which create difficulties in access to education and learning. They play a significant role in forming social robots (SR), smart learning (SL), and intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) to name a few. The review indicates that the education sector should also embrace the modern methods of teaching and the necessary technology. Looking into the flow, the education sector organizations need to adopt AI technologies as a necessity of the day and education. The study needs to be tested statistically for better understanding and to make the findings more generalized in the future.
Convergent newton method and neural network for the electric energy usage prediction

In the neural network adaptation, the Newton method could find a minimum with its second-order partial derivatives, and convergent gradient steepest descent could assure its error convergence with its time-varying adaptation rates. In this article, the convergent Newton method is proposed as the combination of the Newton method and the convergent gradient steepest descent for the neural networks adaptation, where the convergent Newton method incorporates the second-order partial derivatives inside of the time-varying adaptation rates. Hence, the convergent Newton method could assure its error convergence and could find a minimum. Experiments show that the convergent Newton method obtains satisfactory results in the electric energy usage data prediction.
Trans4Trans: Efficient Transformer for Transparent Object Segmentation to Help Visually Impaired People Navigate in the Real World

Common fully glazed facades and transparent objects present architectural barriers and impede the mobility of people with low vision or blindness, for instance, a path detected behind a glass door is inaccessible unless it is correctly perceived and reacted. However, segmenting these safety-critical objects is rarely covered by conventional assistive technologies. To tackle this issue, we construct a wearable system with a novel dual-head Transformer for Transparency (Trans4Trans) model, which is capable of segmenting general and transparent objects and performing real-time wayfinding to assist people walking alone more safely. Especially, both decoders created by our proposed Transformer Parsing Module (TPM) enable effective joint learning from different datasets. Besides, the efficient Trans4Trans model composed of symmetric transformer-based encoder and decoder, requires little computational expenses and is readily deployed on portable GPUs. Our Trans4Trans model outperforms state-of-the-art methods on the test sets of Stanford2D3D and Trans10K-v2 datasets and obtains mIoU of 45.13% and 75.14%, respectively. Through various pre-tests and a user study conducted in indoor and outdoor scenarios, the usability and reliability of our assistive system have been extensively verified.
Antecedents for blockchain technology-enabled sustainable agriculture supply chain

Abstract Blockchain can solve the problems that the agriculture supply chain (ASC) is facing to achieve sustainable growth. In a nation like India, blockchain application in the supply chain is still new; therefore, supply chain players need a better understanding and awareness of blockchain through valuable insights. This article aims to study the mediating role of blockchain technology adoption (BLCT) for sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP). This study investigates the influence of numerous factors such as green and lean practices, supply chain integration, supply chain risk, performance expectancy, top management support, cost, internal and external environmental conditions, regulatory support, and innovation capability on BLCT adoption. A sample of 316 respondents from Indian ASC industries was collected, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. This study's outcomes show that green and lean practices, supply chain integration, supply chain risks, internal and external conditions, regulatory support, innovation capability, and cost positively influence BLCT adoption. Moreover, BLCT positively influences sustainable agriculture supply chain performance. This article is valuable for policymakers, managers, service providers, researchers, and academicians to understand the role of factors in influencing BLCT and BLCT's role in improving sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP).
Human activity recognition using temporal convolutional neural network architecture

In health care and other fields, the detection and recognition of human actions or activities are essential in the context of human–robot interaction. During the last decade, many approaches for human activity recognition have taken advantage of high-performance computing devices. These devices make use of various sensors and improve the quality and efficiency of the results. With the aim of using a non-invasive method, we propose the design of a temporal convolutional neural network that uses spatio-temporal features to analyze and recognize human activities using only a short video as input. The proposed architecture is based on a 3D convolutional layer and a convolutional long short-term memory layer. Our methodology leverages the time-motion features with the spatial location of the activities performed by people to improve the accuracy of the classification results. This design makes optimal use of computational resources to achieve training/classification in a short period of time, and consequently, obtain real-time classification results. The computer simulations showed that our method provided superior state-of-the-art classification results for human activities even for those methods that require information from more sensors.
Chance-Constrained H<sub>∞</sub> State Estimation for Recursive Neural Networks Under Deception Attacks and Energy Constraints: The Finite-Horizon Case

In this article, the chance-constrained H∞ state estimation problem is investigated for a class of time-varying neural networks subject to measurements degradation and randomly occurring deception attacks. A novel energy-constrained deception attack model is proposed, in which both the occurrence of the attack and the selection of released faked packet are random and the energy of the deception attack is introduced, calculated, and analyzed quantitatively. The main purpose of the addressed problem is to design an H∞ estimator such that the prefixed probabilistic constraints of the system error dynamics are satisfied and the H∞ performance is also ensured. Subsequently, the explicit expression of the estimator gains is derived by solving a minimization problem subjected to certain recursive inequality constraints. Finally, a numerical example and a practical three-tank system are utilized to demonstrate the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed estimation scheme.
VR and MR technology for safety management education: An authentic learning approach

Effective safety management education is essential for improving safety within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. While new information technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) are increasingly explored to improve safety management education and training, they are currently limited by the lack of pedagogies to guide the design and development of learning content. This paper aims to address this issue by utilising the authentic learning framework to guide the design of a VR/MR lesson for safety management education. The study developed an immersive VR/MR simulation-based activity based on the authentic learning framework. The effectiveness of the safety management lesson using an immersive VR/MR simulation is compared to a recorded video lesson. The results showed that the VR/MR simulation is more beneficial to the participants’ motivation than the video lesson, but not for knowledge improvement and perceived lesson effectiveness. The results can be attributed to the difficulties in operationalising the guidance factor in the authentic learning framework. The key contributions of this study are threefold: (1) the study demonstrates that the authentic learning framework can be used for guiding the development of VR/MR simulation and recorded video lessons for safety management education; (2) the analysis finds that the VR/MR simulation improves motivation for learning, but not knowledge and perceived effectiveness of the lesson; and (3) three guidelines are suggested to improve the design of VR/MR educational applications.
Discrete sparrow search algorithm for symmetric traveling salesman problem

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is one of the most intensively studied problems in computational mathematics. This paper proposes a swarm intelligence approach using a discrete sparrow search algorithm (DSSA) with a global perturbation strategy to solve the problem. Firstly, the initial solution in the population is generated by the roulette-wheel selection. Secondly, the order-based decoding method is introduced to complete the update of the sparrow position. Then, the global perturbation mechanism combined with Gaussian mutation and swap operator is adopted to balance exploration and exploitation capability. Finally, the 2-opt local search is integrated to further improve the quality of the solution. Those strategies enhance the solution’s quality and accelerate the convergence. Experiments on 34 TSP benchmark datasets are conducted to investigate the performance of the proposed DSSA. And statistical tests are used to verify the significant differences between the proposed DSSA and other state-of-the-art methods. Results show that the proposed method is more competitive and robust in solving the TSP.
Lexicon-Based vs. Bert-Based Sentiment Analysis: A Comparative Study in Italian

Recent evolutions in the e-commerce market have led to an increasing importance attributed by consumers to product reviews made by third parties before proceeding to purchase. The industry, in order to improve the offer intercepting the discontent of consumers, has placed increasing attention towards systems able to identify the sentiment expressed by buyers, whether positive or negative. From a technological point of view, the literature in recent years has seen the development of two types of methodologies: those based on lexicons and those based on machine and deep learning techniques. This study proposes a comparison between these technologies in the Italian market, one of the largest in the world, exploiting an ad hoc dataset: scientific evidence generally shows the superiority of language models such as BERT built on deep neural networks, but it opens several considerations on the effectiveness and improvement of these solutions when compared to those based on lexicons in the presence of datasets of reduced size such as the one under study, a common condition for languages other than English or Chinese.
COVID-19 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Scenario analysis through fuzzy cognitive map modeling

The COVID-19 crisis has immensely impacted the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development worldwide. This research aims at providing a policy response to support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) taking the COVID-19 long-term implications into account. To do so, a qualitative analytical method was employed in the following four steps. First, a fuzzy cognitive map was developed to specify causal-effect links of the interdependent SDGs in Iran as a developing country in the Middle East. Second, potential effects of the pandemic on the SDGs achievement were analyzed. Third, five strategies were formulated, including green management, sustainable food systems, energizing the labor market, inclusive education, and supporting research and technology initiatives in the energy sector. And finally, different scenarios corresponding to the five proposed strategies were tested based on the identified interconnections among the SDGs. The analysis showed that applying each of the five considered strategies or their combination would mitigate the effect of COVID-19 on the SDGs only in case of a medium pandemic activation level. Moreover, implementing a single strategy with a high activation level leads to better outcomes on the SDGs rather than applying a combination of strategies in low or medium activation levels during the pandemic situation. The provided insights support stakeholders and policy-makers involved in the post-COVID-19 recovery action plan towards implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Differential Evolution Algorithm with Hierarchical Fair Competition Model

This paper presents the study of differential evolution algorithm with hierarchical fair competition model (HFC-DE).HFC model is based on the fair competition of societal system found in natural world.In this model, the population is split into hierarchy and the competition is allowed between the hierarchical members.During evolution, the population members are allowed to move within the hierarchy levels.The standard differential evolution algorithm is used for population evolution.Experimentation has carried out to define the parameter for proposed model on test suit having unimodal problems and multi-model problems.After analyzing the results, the two variants of HFC-DE are proposed, named hierarchical fair competition model in differential evolution algorithm with replacement, I,e, HFCDE-R and hierarchical fair competition model in differential evolution algorithm without replacement, I,e, HFCDE-wR.The problem-solving capabilities of both algorithms are checked and the results are compared with differential evolution algorithm (DE) and other variants of DE.The early results are encouraging and motivating.
LIRA: Learnable, Imperceptible and Robust Backdoor Attacks

Recently, machine learning models have demonstrated to be vulnerable to backdoor attacks, primarily due to the lack of transparency in black-box models such as deep neural networks. A third-party model can be poisoned such that it works adequately in normal conditions but behaves maliciously on samples with specific trigger patterns. However, the trigger injection function is manually defined in most existing backdoor attack methods, e.g., placing a small patch of pixels on an image or slightly deforming the image before poisoning the model. This results in a two-stage approach with a sub-optimal attack success rate and a lack of complete stealthiness under human inspection.In this paper, we propose a novel and stealthy backdoor attack framework, LIRA, which jointly learns the optimal, stealthy trigger injection function and poisons the model. We formulate such an objective as a non-convex, constrained optimization problem. Under this optimization framework, the trigger generator function will learn to manipulate the input with imperceptible noise to preserve the model performance on the clean data and maximize the attack success rate on the poisoned data. Then, we solve this challenging optimization problem with an efficient, two-stage stochastic optimization procedure. Finally, the proposed attack framework achieves 100% success rates in several benchmark datasets, including MNIST, CIFAR10, GTSRB, and T-ImageNet, while simultaneously bypassing existing backdoor defense methods and human inspection.
Rotating neurons for all-analog implementation of cyclic reservoir computing

Hardware implementation in resource-efficient reservoir computing is of great interest for neuromorphic engineering. Recently, various devices have been explored to implement hardware-based reservoirs. However, most studies were mainly focused on the reservoir layer, whereas an end-to-end reservoir architecture has yet to be developed. Here, we propose a versatile method for implementing cyclic reservoirs using rotating elements integrated with signal-driven dynamic neurons, whose equivalence to standard cyclic reservoir algorithm is mathematically proven. Simulations show that the rotating neuron reservoir achieves record-low errors in a nonlinear system approximation benchmark. Furthermore, a hardware prototype was developed for near-sensor computing, chaotic time-series prediction and handwriting classification. By integrating a memristor array as a fully-connected output layer, the all-analog reservoir computing system achieves 94.0% accuracy, while simulation shows >1000× lower system-level power than prior works. Therefore, our work demonstrates an elegant rotation-based architecture that explores hardware physics as computational resources for high-performance reservoir computing.
Educational AI Chatbots for Content and Language Integrated Learning

Using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology in learning environments is one of the latest challenges for educators and education policymakers. Conversational AI brings new possibilities for alternative and innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools, such as AI chatbots. This paper reports on field experiments with an AI chatbot and provides insights into its contribution to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). More specifically, this paper presents an experimental use case of an educational AI chatbot called AsasaraBot, designed to teach high school students cultural content in a foreign language, i.e., English or French. The content is related to the Minoan Civilization, emphasizing the characteristic figurine of the Minoan Snake Goddess. The related chatbot-based educational program has been evaluated at public and private language schools in Greece. The findings from these experiments show that the use of AI chatbot technology for interactive ICT-based learning is suitable for learning foreign languages and cultural content at the same time. The AsasaraBot AI chatbot has been designed and implemented in the context of a postgraduate project using open-source and free software.