pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Nonparallel Hyperplane Classifiers for Multi-category Classification
Authors: Pooja Saigal, Reshma Khemchandani
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Binary Classification, Classification, General Classification

Support vector machines (SVMs) are widely used for solving classification and regression problems. Recently, various nonparallel hyperplanes classification algorithms (NHCAs) have been proposed, which are comparable in terms of classification accuracy when compared with SVM but are computationally more efficient. All these NHCAs are originally proposed for binary classification problems. Since, most of the real world classification problems deal with multiple classes, these algorithms are extended in multi-category scenario. In this paper, we present a comparative study of four NHCAs i.e. Twin SVM (TWSVM), Generalized eigenvalue proximal SVM (GEPSVM), Regularized GEPSVM (RegGEPSVM) and Improved GEPSVM (IGEPSVM)for multi-category classification. The multi-category classification algorithms for NHCA classifiers are implemented using OneAgainst-All (OAA), binary tree-based (BT) and ternary decision structure (TDS) approaches and the experiments are performed on benchmark UCI datasets. The experimental results show that TDS-TWSVM outperforms other methods in terms of classification accuracy and BT-RegGEPSVM takes the minimum time for building the classifier
OptiGAN: Generative Adversarial Networks for Goal Optimized Sequence Generation
Authors: Mahmoud Hossam, Trung Le, Viet Huynh, Michael Papasimeon, Dinh Phung
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Diversity, reinforcement-learning, Reinforcement Learning, Reinforcement Learning (RL)

One of the challenging problems in sequence generation tasks is the optimized generation of sequences with specific desired goals. Current sequential generative models mainly generate sequences to closely mimic the training data, without direct optimization of desired goals or properties specific to the task. We introduce OptiGAN, a generative model that incorporates both Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) to optimize desired goal scores using policy gradients. We apply our model to text and real-valued sequence generation, where our model is able to achieve higher desired scores out-performing GAN and RL baselines, while not sacrificing output sample diversity.
Classify and Generate: Using Classification Latent Space Representations for Image Generations
Authors: Saisubramaniam Gopalakrishnan, Pranshu Ranjan Singh, Yasin Yazici, Chuan-Sheng Foo, Vijay Chandrasekhar, ArulMurugan Ambikapathi
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Classification, Decoder, General Classification

Utilization of classification latent space information for downstream reconstruction and generation is an intriguing and a relatively unexplored area. In general, discriminative representations are rich in class-specific features but are too sparse for reconstruction, whereas, in autoencoders the representations are dense but have limited indistinguishable class-specific features, making them less suitable for classification. In this work, we propose a discriminative modeling framework that employs manipulated supervised latent representations to reconstruct and generate new samples belonging to a given class. Unlike generative modeling approaches such as GANs and VAEs that aim to model the data manifold distribution, Representation based Generations (ReGene) directly represent the given data manifold in the classification space. Such supervised representations, under certain constraints, allow for reconstructions and controlled generations using an appropriate decoder without enforcing any prior distribution. Theoretically, given a class, we show that these representations when smartly manipulated using convex combinations retain the same class label. Furthermore, they also lead to the novel generation of visually realistic images. Extensive experiments on datasets of varying resolutions demonstrate that ReGene has higher classification accuracy than existing conditional generative models while being competitive in terms of FID.
Diversity-Aware Weighted Majority Vote Classifier for Imbalanced Data
Authors: Anil Goyal, Jihed Khiari
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Binary Classification, Classification, Diversity, Ensemble Learning, Fraud Detection, General Classification

In this paper, we propose a diversity-aware ensemble learning based algorithm, referred to as DAMVI, to deal with imbalanced binary classification tasks. Specifically, after learning base classifiers, the algorithm i) increases the weights of positive examples (minority class) which are "hard" to classify with uniformly weighted base classifiers; and ii) then learns weights over base classifiers by optimizing the PAC-Bayesian C-Bound that takes into account the accuracy and diversity between the classifiers. We show efficiency of the proposed approach with respect to state-of-art models on predictive maintenance task, credit card fraud detection, webpage classification and medical applications.
Hcore-Init: Neural Network Initialization based on Graph Degeneracy
Authors: Stratis Limnios, George Dasoulas, Dimitrios M. Thilikos, Michalis Vazirgiannis
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Graph Mining

Neural networks are the pinnacle of Artificial Intelligence, as in recent years we witnessed many novel architectures, learning and optimization techniques for deep learning. Capitalizing on the fact that neural networks inherently constitute multipartite graphs among neuron layers, we aim to analyze directly their structure to extract meaningful information that can improve the learning process. To our knowledge graph mining techniques for enhancing learning in neural networks have not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper we propose an adapted version of the k-core structure for the complete weighted multipartite graph extracted from a deep learning architecture. As a multipartite graph is a combination of bipartite graphs, that are in turn the incidence graphs of hypergraphs, we design k-hypercore decomposition, the hypergraph analogue of k-core degeneracy. We applied k-hypercore to several neural network architectures, more specifically to convolutional neural networks and multilayer perceptrons for image recognition tasks after a very short pretraining. Then we used the information provided by the hypercore numbers of the neurons to re-initialize the weights of the neural network, thus biasing the gradient optimization scheme. Extensive experiments proved that k-hypercore outperforms the state-of-the-art initialization methods.
Quantifying the Effects of Contact Tracing, Testing, and Containment Measures in the Presence of Infection Hotspots
Authors: Lars Lorch, Heiner Kremer, William Trouleau, Stratis Tsirtsis, Aron Szanto, Bernhard Schölkopf, Manuel Gomez-Rodriguez
Date: 2020-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Bayesian Optimization, Point Processes

Multiple lines of evidence strongly suggest that infection hotspots, where a single individual infects many others, play a key role in the transmission dynamics of COVID-19. However, most of the existing epidemiological models fail to capture this aspect by neither representing the sites visited by individuals explicitly nor characterizing disease transmission as a function of individual mobility patterns. In this work, we introduce a temporal point process modeling framework that specifically represents visits to the sites where individuals get in contact and infect each other. Under our model, the number of infections caused by an infectious individual naturally emerges to be overdispersed. Using an efficient sampling algorithm, we demonstrate how to estimate the transmission rate of infectious individuals at the sites they visit and in their households using Bayesian optimization and longitudinal case data. Simulations using fine-grained and publicly available demographic data and site locations from Bern, Switzerland showcase the flexibility of our framework. To facilitate research and analyses of other cities and regions, we release an open-source implementation of our framework.
Machine-learning-based methods for output only structural modal identification
Authors: Dawei Liu, Zhiyi Tang, Yuequan Bao, Hui Li
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00
Tasks: BIG-bench Machine Learning, Structural Health Monitoring

In this study, we propose a machine-learning-based approach to identify the modal parameters of the output-only data for structural health monitoring (SHM) that makes full use of the characteristic of independence of modal responses and the principle of machine learning. By taking advantage of the independence feature of each mode, we use the principle of unsupervised learning, making the training process of the deep neural network becomes the process of modal separation. A self-coding deep neural network is designed to identify the structural modal parameters from the vibration data of structures. The mixture signals, that is, the structural response data, are used as the input of the neural network. Then we use a complex loss function to restrict the training process of the neural network, making the output of the third layer the modal responses we want, and the weights of the last two layers are mode shapes. The deep neural network is essentially a nonlinear objective function optimization problem. A novel loss function is proposed to constrain the independent feature with consideration of uncorrelation and non-Gaussianity to restrict the designed neural network to obtain the structural modal parameters. A numerical example of a simple structure and an example of actual SHM data from a cable-stayed bridge are presented to illustrate the modal parameter identification ability of the proposed approach. The results show the approach's good capability in blindly extracting modal information from system responses.
A Hybrid Objective Function for Robustness of Artificial Neural Networks -- Estimation of Parameters in a Mechanical System
Authors: Jan Sokolowski, Volker Schulz, Udo Schröder, Hans-Peter Beise
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00

In several studies, hybrid neural networks have proven to be more robust against noisy input data compared to plain data driven neural networks. We consider the task of estimating parameters of a mechanical vehicle model based on acceleration profiles. We introduce a convolutional neural network architecture that is capable to predict the parameters for a family of vehicle models that differ in the unknown parameters. We introduce a convolutional neural network architecture that given sequential data predicts the parameters of the underlying data's dynamics. This network is trained with two objective functions. The first one constitutes a more naive approach that assumes that the true parameters are known. The second objective incorporates the knowledge of the underlying dynamics and is therefore considered as hybrid approach. We show that in terms of robustness, the latter outperforms the first objective on noisy input data.
Taxonomy of Dual Block-Coordinate Ascent Methods for Discrete Energy Minimization
Authors: Siddharth Tourani, Alexander Shekhovtsov, Carsten Rother, Bogdan Savchynskyy
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00

We consider the maximum-a-posteriori inference problem in discrete graphical models and study solvers based on the dual block-coordinate ascent rule. We map all existing solvers in a single framework, allowing for a better understanding of their design principles. We theoretically show that some block-optimizing updates are sub-optimal and how to strictly improve them. On a wide range of problem instances of varying graph connectivity, we study the performance of existing solvers as well as new variants that can be obtained within the framework. As a result of this exploration we build a new state-of-the art solver, performing uniformly better on the whole range of test instances.
Investigating Efficient Learning and Compositionality in Generative LSTM Networks
Authors: Sarah Fabi, Sebastian Otte, Jonas Gregor Wiese, Martin V. Butz
Date: 2020-04-16 00:00:00

When comparing human with artificial intelligence, one major difference is apparent: Humans can generalize very broadly from sparse data sets because they are able to recombine and reintegrate data components in compositional manners. To investigate differences in efficient learning, Joshua B. Tenenbaum and colleagues developed the character challenge: First an algorithm is trained in generating handwritten characters. In a next step, one version of a new type of character is presented. An efficient learning algorithm is expected to be able to re-generate this new character, to identify similar versions of this character, to generate new variants of it, and to create completely new character types. In the past, the character challenge was only met by complex algorithms that were provided with stochastic primitives. Here, we tackle the challenge without providing primitives. We apply a minimal recurrent neural network (RNN) model with one feedforward layer and one LSTM layer and train it to generate sequential handwritten character trajectories from one-hot encoded inputs. To manage the re-generation of untrained characters, when presented with only one example of them, we introduce a one-shot inference mechanism: the gradient signal is backpropagated to the feedforward layer weights only, leaving the LSTM layer untouched. We show that our model is able to meet the character challenge by recombining previously learned dynamic substructures, which are visible in the hidden LSTM states. Making use of the compositional abilities of RNNs in this way might be an important step towards bridging the gap between human and artificial intelligence.
Sample-efficient learning of quantum many-body systems
Authors: Anurag Anshu, Srinivasan Arunachalam, Tomotaka Kuwahara, Mehdi Soleimanifar
Date: 2020-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: BIG-bench Machine Learning

We study the problem of learning the Hamiltonian of a quantum many-body system given samples from its Gibbs (thermal) state. The classical analog of this problem, known as learning graphical models or Boltzmann machines, is a well-studied question in machine learning and statistics. In this work, we give the first sample-efficient algorithm for the quantum Hamiltonian learning problem. In particular, we prove that polynomially many samples in the number of particles (qudits) are necessary and sufficient for learning the parameters of a spatially local Hamiltonian in l_2-norm. Our main contribution is in establishing the strong convexity of the log-partition function of quantum many-body systems, which along with the maximum entropy estimation yields our sample-efficient algorithm. Classically, the strong convexity for partition functions follows from the Markov property of Gibbs distributions. This is, however, known to be violated in its exact form in the quantum case. We introduce several new ideas to obtain an unconditional result that avoids relying on the Markov property of quantum systems, at the cost of a slightly weaker bound. In particular, we prove a lower bound on the variance of quasi-local operators with respect to the Gibbs state, which might be of independent interest. Our work paves the way toward a more rigorous application of machine learning techniques to quantum many-body problems.
Improving Input-Output Linearizing Controllers for Bipedal Robots via Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Fernando Castañeda, Mathias Wulfman, Ayush Agrawal, Tyler Westenbroek, Claire J. Tomlin, S. Shankar Sastry, Koushil Sreenath
Date: 2020-04-15 00:00:00
Proceeding: L4DC 2020 6
Tasks: reinforcement-learning, Reinforcement Learning, Reinforcement Learning (RL)

The main drawbacks of input-output linearizing controllers are the need for precise dynamics models and not being able to account for input constraints. Model uncertainty is common in almost every robotic application and input saturation is present in every real world system. In this paper, we address both challenges for the specific case of bipedal robot control by the use of reinforcement learning techniques. Taking the structure of a standard input-output linearizing controller, we use an additive learned term that compensates for model uncertainty. Moreover, by adding constraints to the learning problem we manage to boost the performance of the final controller when input limits are present. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed framework for different levels of uncertainty on the five-link planar walking robot RABBIT.
Evaluation of Generalizability of Neural Program Analyzers under Semantic-Preserving Transformations
Authors: Md Rafiqul Islam Rabin, Mohammad Amin Alipour
Date: 2020-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Method name prediction

The abundance of publicly available source code repositories, in conjunction with the advances in neural networks, has enabled data-driven approaches to program analysis. These approaches, called neural program analyzers, use neural networks to extract patterns in the programs for tasks ranging from development productivity to program reasoning. Despite the growing popularity of neural program analyzers, the extent to which their results are generalizable is unknown. In this paper, we perform a large-scale evaluation of the generalizability of two popular neural program analyzers using seven semantically-equivalent transformations of programs. Our results caution that in many cases the neural program analyzers fail to generalize well, sometimes to programs with negligible textual differences. The results provide the initial stepping stones for quantifying robustness in neural program analyzers.
Online Multiserver Convex Chasing and Optimization
Authors: Sébastien Bubeck, Yuval Rabani, Mark Sellke
Date: 2020-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Clustering

We introduce the problem of $k$-chasing of convex functions, a simultaneous generalization of both the famous k-server problem in $R^d$, and of the problem of chasing convex bodies and functions. Aside from fundamental interest in this general form, it has natural applications to online $k$-clustering problems with objectives such as $k$-median or $k$-means. We show that this problem exhibits a rich landscape of behavior. In general, if both $k > 1$ and $d > 1$ there does not exist any online algorithm with bounded competitiveness. By contrast, we exhibit a class of nicely behaved functions (which include in particular the above-mentioned clustering problems), for which we show that competitive online algorithms exist, and moreover with dimension-free competitive ratio. We also introduce a parallel question of top-$k$ action regret minimization in the realm of online convex optimization. There, too, a much rougher landscape emerges for $k > 1$. While it is possible to achieve vanishing regret, unlike the top-one action case the rate of vanishing does not speed up for strongly convex functions. Moreover, vanishing regret necessitates both intractable computations and randomness. Finally we leave open whether almost dimension-free regret is achievable for $k > 1$ and general convex losses. As evidence that it might be possible, we prove dimension-free regret for linear losses via an information-theoretic argument.
Learning 1-Dimensional Submanifolds for Subsequent Inference on Random Dot Product Graphs
Authors: Michael W. Trosset, Mingyue Gao, Minh Tang, Carey E. Priebe
Date: 2020-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: ARC

A random dot product graph (RDPG) is a generative model for networks in which vertices correspond to positions in a latent Euclidean space and edge probabilities are determined by the dot products of the latent positions. We consider RDPGs for which the latent positions are randomly sampled from an unknown $1$-dimensional submanifold of the latent space. In principle, restricted inference, i.e., procedures that exploit the structure of the submanifold, should be more effective than unrestricted inference; however, it is not clear how to conduct restricted inference when the submanifold is unknown. We submit that techniques for manifold learning can be used to learn the unknown submanifold well enough to realize benefit from restricted inference. To illustrate, we test $1$- and $2$-sample hypotheses about the Fr\'{e}chet means of small communities of vertices, using the complete set of vertices to infer latent structure. We propose test statistics that deploy the Isomap procedure for manifold learning, using shortest path distances on neighborhood graphs constructed from estimated latent positions to estimate arc lengths on the unknown $1$-dimensional submanifold. Unlike conventional applications of Isomap, the estimated latent positions do not lie on the submanifold of interest. We extend existing convergence results for Isomap to this setting and use them to demonstrate that, as the number of auxiliary vertices increases, the power of our test converges to the power of the corresponding test when the submanifold is known. Finally, we apply our methods to an inference problem that arises in studying the connectome of the Drosophila larval mushroom body. The univariate learnt manifold test rejects ($p<0.05$), while the multivariate ambient space test does not ($p\gg0.05$), illustrating the value of identifying and exploiting low-dimensional structure for subsequent inference.
F0-consistent many-to-many non-parallel voice conversion via conditional autoencoder
Authors: Kaizhi Qian, Zeyu Jin, Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, Gautham J. Mysore
Date: 2020-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Style Transfer, Voice Conversion

Non-parallel many-to-many voice conversion remains an interesting but challenging speech processing task. Many style-transfer-inspired methods such as generative adversarial networks (GANs) and variational autoencoders (VAEs) have been proposed. Recently, AutoVC, a conditional autoencoders (CAEs) based method achieved state-of-the-art results by disentangling the speaker identity and speech content using information-constraining bottlenecks, and it achieves zero-shot conversion by swapping in a different speaker's identity embedding to synthesize a new voice. However, we found that while speaker identity is disentangled from speech content, a significant amount of prosodic information, such as source F0, leaks through the bottleneck, causing target F0 to fluctuate unnaturally. Furthermore, AutoVC has no control of the converted F0 and thus unsuitable for many applications. In the paper, we modified and improved autoencoder-based voice conversion to disentangle content, F0, and speaker identity at the same time. Therefore, we can control the F0 contour, generate speech with F0 consistent with the target speaker, and significantly improve quality and similarity. We support our improvement through quantitative and qualitative analysis.