pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Fast and Robust Comparison of Probability Measures in Heterogeneous Spaces
Authors: Ryoma Sato, Marco Cuturi, Makoto Yamada, Hisashi Kashima
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: Graph Matching, Word Embeddings

Comparing two probability measures supported on heterogeneous spaces is an increasingly important problem in machine learning. Such problems arise when comparing for instance two populations of biological cells, each described with its own set of features, or when looking at families of word embeddings trained across different corpora/languages. For such settings, the Gromov Wasserstein (GW) distance is often presented as the gold standard. GW is intuitive, as it quantifies whether one measure can be isomorphically mapped to the other. However, its exact computation is intractable, and most algorithms that claim to approximate it remain expensive. Building on \cite{memoli-2011}, who proposed to represent each point in each distribution as the 1D distribution of its distances to all other points, we introduce in this paper the Anchor Energy (AE) and Anchor Wasserstein (AW) distances, which are respectively the energy and Wasserstein distances instantiated on such representations. Our main contribution is to propose a sweep line algorithm to compute AE \emph{exactly} in log-quadratic time, where a naive implementation would be cubic. This is quasi-linear w.r.t. the description of the problem itself. Our second contribution is the proposal of robust variants of AE and AW that uses rank statistics rather than the original distances. We show that AE and AW perform well in various experimental settings at a fraction of the computational cost of popular GW approximations. Code is available at \url{https://github.com/joisino/anchor-energy}.
Generating Interpretable Poverty Maps using Object Detection in Satellite Images
Authors: Kumar Ayush, Burak Uzkent, Marshall Burke, David Lobell, Stefano Ermon
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: Feature Importance, Humanitarian, object-detection, Object Detection

Accurate local-level poverty measurement is an essential task for governments and humanitarian organizations to track the progress towards improving livelihoods and distribute scarce resources. Recent computer vision advances in using satellite imagery to predict poverty have shown increasing accuracy, but they do not generate features that are interpretable to policymakers, inhibiting adoption by practitioners. Here we demonstrate an interpretable computational framework to accurately predict poverty at a local level by applying object detectors to high resolution (30cm) satellite images. Using the weighted counts of objects as features, we achieve 0.539 Pearson's r^2 in predicting village-level poverty in Uganda, a 31% improvement over existing (and less interpretable) benchmarks. Feature importance and ablation analysis reveal intuitive relationships between object counts and poverty predictions. Our results suggest that interpretability does not have to come at the cost of performance, at least in this important domain.
BABO: Background Activation Black-Out for Efficient Object Detection
Authors: Byungseok Roh, Han-Cheol Cho, Myung-Ho Ju, Soon Hyung Pyo
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: Object, object-detection, Object Detection

Recent advances in deep learning have enabled complex real-world use cases comprised of multiple vision tasks and detection tasks are being shifted to the edge side as a pre-processing step of the entire workload. Since running a deep model on resource-constraint devices is challenging, techniques for efficient inference methods are demanded. In this paper, we present an objectness-aware object detection method to reduce computational cost by sparsifying activation values on background regions where target objects don't exist. Sparsified activation can be exploited to increase inference speed by software or hardware accelerated sparse convolution techniques. To accomplish this goal, we incorporate a light-weight objectness mask generation (OMG) network in front of an object detection (OD) network so that it can zero out unnecessary background areas of an input image before being fed into the OD network. In experiments, by switching background activation values to zero, the average number of zero values increases further from 36% to 68% on MobileNetV2-SSDLite even with ReLU activation while maintaining accuracy on MS-COCO. This result indicates that the total MAC including both OMG and OD networks can be reduced to 62% of the original OD model when only non-zero multiply-accumulate operations are considered. Moreover, we show a similar tendency in heavy networks (VGG and RetinaNet) and an additional dataset (PASCAL VOC).
Anomaly Detection by One Class Latent Regularized Networks
Authors: Chengwei Chen, Pan Chen, Haichuan Song, Yiqing Tao, Yuan Xie, Shouhong Ding, Lizhuang Ma
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: Anomaly Detection

Anomaly detection is a fundamental problem in computer vision area with many real-world applications. Given a wide range of images belonging to the normal class, emerging from some distribution, the objective of this task is to construct the model to detect out-of-distribution images belonging to abnormal instances. Semi-supervised Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN)-based methods have been gaining popularity in anomaly detection task recently. However, the training process of GAN is still unstable and challenging. To solve these issues, a novel adversarial dual autoencoder network is proposed, in which the underlying structure of training data is not only captured in latent feature space, but also can be further restricted in the space of latent representation in a discriminant manner, leading to a more accurate detector. In addition, the auxiliary autoencoder regarded as a discriminator could obtain an more stable training process. Experiments show that our model achieves the state-of-the-art results on MNIST and CIFAR10 datasets as well as GTSRB stop signs dataset.
Exploratory Machine Learning with Unknown Unknowns
Authors: Peng Zhao, Jia-Wei Shan, Yu-Jie Zhang, Zhi-Hua Zhou
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: Attribute, BIG-bench Machine Learning

In conventional supervised learning, a training dataset is given with ground-truth labels from a known label set, and the learned model will classify unseen instances to known labels. This paper studies a new problem setting in which there are unknown classes in the training data misperceived as other labels, and thus their existence appears unknown from the given supervision. We attribute the unknown unknowns to the fact that the training dataset is badly advised by the incompletely perceived label space due to the insufficient feature information. To this end, we propose the exploratory machine learning, which examines and investigates training data by actively augmenting the feature space to discover potentially hidden classes. Our method consists of three ingredients including rejection model, feature exploration, and model cascade. We provide theoretical analysis to justify its superiority, and validate the effectiveness on both synthetic and real datasets.
Linearly Constrained Neural Networks
Authors: Johannes Hendriks, Carl Jidling, Adrian Wills, Thomas Schön
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: Gaussian Processes

We present a novel approach to modelling and learning vector fields from physical systems using neural networks that explicitly satisfy known linear operator constraints. To achieve this, the target function is modelled as a linear transformation of an underlying potential field, which is in turn modelled by a neural network. This transformation is chosen such that any prediction of the target function is guaranteed to satisfy the constraints. The approach is demonstrated on both simulated and real data examples.
Unsupervised Community Detection with a Potts Model Hamiltonian, an Efficient Algorithmic Solution, and Applications in Digital Pathology
Authors: Brendon Lutnick, Wen Dong, Zohar Nussinov, Pinaki Sarder
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: Clustering, Community Detection, Image Segmentation, Segmentation, Semantic Segmentation

Unsupervised segmentation of large images using a Potts model Hamiltonian is unique in that segmentation is governed by a resolution parameter which scales the sensitivity to small clusters. Here, the input image is first modeled as a graph, which is then segmented by minimizing a Hamiltonian cost function defined on the graph and the respective segments. However, there exists no closed form solution of this optimization, and using previous iterative algorithmic solution techniques, the problem scales quadratically in the Input Length. Therefore, while Potts model segmentation gives accurate segmentation, it is grossly underutilized as an unsupervised learning technique. We propose a fast statistical down-sampling of input image pixels based on the respective color features, and a new iterative method to minimize the Potts model energy considering pixel to segment relationship. This method is generalizable and can be extended for image pixel texture features as well as spatial features. We demonstrate that this new method is highly efficient, and outperforms existing methods for Potts model based image segmentation. We demonstrate the application of our method in medical microscopy image segmentation; particularly, in segmenting renal glomerular micro-environment in renal pathology. Our method is not limited to image segmentation, and can be extended to any image/data segmentation/clustering task for arbitrary datasets with discrete features.
A Deep Conditioning Treatment of Neural Networks
Authors: Naman Agarwal, Pranjal Awasthi, Satyen Kale
Date: 2020-02-04 00:00:00

We study the role of depth in training randomly initialized overparameterized neural networks. We give a general result showing that depth improves trainability of neural networks by improving the conditioning of certain kernel matrices of the input data. This result holds for arbitrary non-linear activation functions under a certain normalization. We provide versions of the result that hold for training just the top layer of the neural network, as well as for training all layers, via the neural tangent kernel. As applications of these general results, we provide a generalization of the results of Das et al. (2019) showing that learnability of deep random neural networks with a large class of non-linear activations degrades exponentially with depth. We also show how benign overfitting can occur in deep neural networks via the results of Bartlett et al. (2019b). We also give experimental evidence that normalized versions of ReLU are a viable alternative to more complex operations like Batch Normalization in training deep neural networks.
Accelerating Psychometric Screening Tests With Bayesian Active Differential Selection
Authors: Trevor J. Larsen, Gustavo Malkomes, Dennis L. Barbour
Date: 2020-02-04 00:00:00
Tasks: Model Selection

Classical methods for psychometric function estimation either require excessive measurements or produce only a low-resolution approximation of the target psychometric function. In this paper, we propose a novel solution for rapid screening for a change in the psychometric function estimation of a given patient. We use Bayesian active model selection to perform an automated pure-tone audiogram test with the goal of quickly finding if the current audiogram will be different from a previous audiogram. We validate our approach using audiometric data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH. Initial results show that with a few tones we can detect if the patient's audiometric function has changed between the two test sessions with high confidence.
Large Batch Training Does Not Need Warmup
Authors: Zhouyuan Huo, Bin Gu, Heng Huang
Date: 2020-02-04 00:00:00

Training deep neural networks using a large batch size has shown promising results and benefits many real-world applications. However, the optimizer converges slowly at early epochs and there is a gap between large-batch deep learning optimization heuristics and theoretical underpinnings. In this paper, we propose a novel Complete Layer-wise Adaptive Rate Scaling (CLARS) algorithm for large-batch training. We also analyze the convergence rate of the proposed method by introducing a new fine-grained analysis of gradient-based methods. Based on our analysis, we bridge the gap and illustrate the theoretical insights for three popular large-batch training techniques, including linear learning rate scaling, gradual warmup, and layer-wise adaptive rate scaling. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms gradual warmup technique by a large margin and defeats the convergence of the state-of-the-art large-batch optimizer in training advanced deep neural networks (ResNet, DenseNet, MobileNet) on ImageNet dataset.
ML4H Abstract Track 2019
Authors: Matthew B. A. McDermott, Emily Alsentzer, Sam Finlayson, Michael Oberst, Fabian Falck, Tristan Naumann, Brett K. Beaulieu-Jones, Adrian V. Dalca
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: BIG-bench Machine Learning

A collection of the accepted abstracts for the Machine Learning for Health (ML4H) workshop at NeurIPS 2019. This index is not complete, as some accepted abstracts chose to opt-out of inclusion.
Dropout Prediction over Weeks in MOOCs via Interpretable Multi-Layer Representation Learning
Authors: Byungsoo Jeon, Namyong Park, Seojin Bang
Date: 2020-02-05 00:00:00
Tasks: Feature Engineering, Representation Learning

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become popular platforms for online learning. While MOOCs enable students to study at their own pace, this flexibility makes it easy for students to drop out of class. In this paper, our goal is to predict if a learner is going to drop out within the next week, given clickstream data for the current week. To this end, we present a multi-layer representation learning solution based on branch and bound (BB) algorithm, which learns from low-level clickstreams in an unsupervised manner, produces interpretable results, and avoids manual feature engineering. In experiments on Coursera data, we show that our model learns a representation that allows a simple model to perform similarly well to more complex, task-specific models, and how the BB algorithm enables interpretable results. In our analysis of the observed limitations, we discuss promising future directions.
Machine Learning for Predicting Epileptic Seizures Using EEG Signals: A Review
Authors: Khansa Rasheed, Adnan Qayyum, Junaid Qadir, Shobi Sivathamboo, Patrick Kwan, Levin Kuhlmann, Terence O'Brien, Adeel Razi
Date: 2020-02-04 00:00:00
Tasks: BIG-bench Machine Learning, EEG, Electroencephalogram (EEG), Prediction, Seizure prediction

With the advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques, researchers are striving towards employing these techniques for advancing clinical practice. One of the key objectives in healthcare is the early detection and prediction of disease to timely provide preventive interventions. This is especially the case for epilepsy, which is characterized by recurrent and unpredictable seizures. Patients can be relieved from the adverse consequences of epileptic seizures if it could somehow be predicted in advance. Despite decades of research, seizure prediction remains an unsolved problem. This is likely to remain at least partly because of the inadequate amount of data to resolve the problem. There have been exciting new developments in ML-based algorithms that have the potential to deliver a paradigm shift in the early and accurate prediction of epileptic seizures. Here we provide a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art ML techniques in early prediction of seizures using EEG signals. We will identify the gaps, challenges, and pitfalls in the current research and recommend future directions.
On the Resilience of Biometric Authentication Systems against Random Inputs
Authors: Benjamin Zi Hao Zhao, Hassan Jameel Asghar, Mohamed Ali Kaafar
Date: 2020-01-13 00:00:00
Tasks: BIG-bench Machine Learning

We assess the security of machine learning based biometric authentication systems against an attacker who submits uniform random inputs, either as feature vectors or raw inputs, in order to find an accepting sample of a target user. The average false positive rate (FPR) of the system, i.e., the rate at which an impostor is incorrectly accepted as the legitimate user, may be interpreted as a measure of the success probability of such an attack. However, we show that the success rate is often higher than the FPR. In particular, for one reconstructed biometric system with an average FPR of 0.03, the success rate was as high as 0.78. This has implications for the security of the system, as an attacker with only the knowledge of the length of the feature space can impersonate the user with less than 2 attempts on average. We provide detailed analysis of why the attack is successful, and validate our results using four different biometric modalities and four different machine learning classifiers. Finally, we propose mitigation techniques that render such attacks ineffective, with little to no effect on the accuracy of the system.
Pseudo-dimension of quantum circuits
Authors: Matthias C. Caro, Ishaun Datta
Date: 2020-02-04 00:00:00

We characterize the expressive power of quantum circuits with the pseudo-dimension, a measure of complexity for probabilistic concept classes. We prove pseudo-dimension bounds on the output probability distributions of quantum circuits; the upper bounds are polynomial in circuit depth and number of gates. Using these bounds, we exhibit a class of circuit output states out of which at least one has exponential state complexity, and moreover demonstrate that quantum circuits of known polynomial size and depth are PAC-learnable.
Lightweight Convolutional Representations for On-Device Natural Language Processing
Authors: Shrey Desai, Geoffrey Goh, Arun Babu, Ahmed Aly
Date: 2020-02-04 00:00:00
Tasks: Model Compression

The increasing computational and memory complexities of deep neural networks have made it difficult to deploy them on low-resource electronic devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, wearables). Practitioners have developed numerous model compression methods to address these concerns, but few have condensed input representations themselves. In this work, we propose a fast, accurate, and lightweight convolutional representation that can be swapped into any neural model and compressed significantly (up to 32x) with a negligible reduction in performance. In addition, we show gains over recurrent representations when considering resource-centric metrics (e.g., model file size, latency, memory usage) on a Samsung Galaxy S9.
Machine Learning Methods for Monitoring of Quasi-Periodic Traffic in Massive IoT Networks
Authors: René Brandborg Sørensen, Jimmy Jessen Nielsen, Petar Popovski
Date: 2020-02-04 00:00:00
Tasks: BIG-bench Machine Learning, Time Series, Time Series Analysis

One of the central problems in massive Internet of Things (IoT) deployments is the monitoring of the status of a massive number of links. The problem is aggravated by the irregularity of the traffic transmitted over the link, as the traffic intermittency can be disguised as a link failure and vice versa. In this work we present a traffic model for IoT devices running quasi-periodic applications and we present both supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods for monitoring the network performance of IoT deployments with quasi-periodic reporting, such as smart-metering, environmental monitoring and agricultural monitoring. The unsupervised methods are based on the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, an approach developed by astronomers for estimating the spectral density of unevenly sampled time series.
Discovery of Self-Assembling $π$-Conjugated Peptides by Active Learning-Directed Coarse-Grained Molecular Simulation
Authors: Kirill Shmilovich, Rachael A. Mansbach, Hythem Sidky, Olivia E. Dunne, Sayak Subhra Panda, John D. Tovar, Andrew L. Ferguson
Date: 2020-01-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Active Learning, Bayesian Optimization, Clustering

Electronically-active organic molecules have demonstrated great promise as novel soft materials for energy harvesting and transport. Self-assembled nanoaggregates formed from $\pi$-conjugated oligopeptides composed of an aromatic core flanked by oligopeptide wings offer emergent optoelectronic properties within a water soluble and biocompatible substrate. Nanoaggregate properties can be controlled by tuning core chemistry and peptide composition, but the sequence-structure-function relations remain poorly characterized. In this work, we employ coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations within an active learning protocol employing deep representational learning and Bayesian optimization to efficiently identify molecules capable of assembling pseudo-1D nanoaggregates with good stacking of the electronically-active $\pi$-cores. We consider the DXXX-OPV3-XXXD oligopeptide family, where D is an Asp residue and OPV3 is an oligophenylene vinylene oligomer (1,4-distyrylbenzene), to identify the top performing XXX tripeptides within all 20$^3$ = 8,000 possible sequences. By direct simulation of only 2.3% of this space, we identify molecules predicted to exhibit superior assembly relative to those reported in prior work. Spectral clustering of the top candidates reveals new design rules governing assembly. This work establishes new understanding of DXXX-OPV3-XXXD assembly, identifies promising new candidates for experimental testing, and presents a computational design platform that can be generically extended to other peptide-based and peptide-like systems.
DVNet: A Memory-Efficient Three-Dimensional CNN for Large-Scale Neurovascular Reconstruction
Authors: Leila Saadatifard, Aryan Mobiny, Pavel Govyadinov, Hien Nguyen, David Mayerich
Date: 2020-02-04 00:00:00
Tasks: Decoder, Segmentation, Semantic Segmentation

Maps of brain microarchitecture are important for understanding neurological function and behavior, including alterations caused by chronic conditions such as neurodegenerative disease. Techniques such as knife-edge scanning microscopy (KESM) provide the potential for whole organ imaging at sub-cellular resolution. However, multi-terabyte data sizes make manual annotation impractical and automatic segmentation challenging. Densely packed cells combined with interconnected microvascular networks are a challenge for current segmentation algorithms. The massive size of high-throughput microscopy data necessitates fast and largely unsupervised algorithms. In this paper, we investigate a fully-convolutional, deep, and densely-connected encoder-decoder for pixel-wise semantic segmentation. The excessive memory complexity often encountered with deep and dense networks is mitigated using skip connections, resulting in fewer parameters and enabling a significant performance increase over prior architectures. The proposed network provides superior performance for semantic segmentation problems applied to open-source benchmarks. We finally demonstrate our network for cellular and microvascular segmentation, enabling quantitative metrics for organ-scale neurovascular analysis.