pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
A Multi-Strategy based Pre-Training Method for Cold-Start Recommendation
Authors: Bowen Hao, Hongzhi Yin, Jing Zhang, Cuiping Li, Hong Chen
Date: 2021-12-04 00:00:00
Tasks: Contrastive Learning, Meta-Learning, Self-Supervised Learning

Cold-start problem is a fundamental challenge for recommendation tasks. The recent self-supervised learning (SSL) on Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) model, PT-GNN, pre-trains the GNN model to reconstruct the cold-start embeddings and has shown great potential for cold-start recommendation. However, due to the over-smoothing problem, PT-GNN can only capture up to 3-order relation, which can not provide much useful auxiliary information to depict the target cold-start user or item. Besides, the embedding reconstruction task only considers the intra-correlations within the subgraph of users and items, while ignoring the inter-correlations across different subgraphs. To solve the above challenges, we propose a multi-strategy based pre-training method for cold-start recommendation (MPT), which extends PT-GNN from the perspective of model architecture and pretext tasks to improve the cold-start recommendation performance. Specifically, in terms of the model architecture, in addition to the short-range dependencies of users and items captured by the GNN encoder, we introduce a Transformer encoder to capture long-range dependencies. In terms of the pretext task, in addition to considering the intra-correlations of users and items by the embedding reconstruction task, we add embedding contrastive learning task to capture inter-correlations of users and items. We train the GNN and Transformer encoders on these pretext tasks under the meta-learning setting to simulate the real cold-start scenario, making the model easily and rapidly being adapted to new cold-start users and items. Experiments on three public recommendation datasets show the superiority of the proposed MPT model against the vanilla GNN models, the pre-training GNN model on user/item embedding inference and the recommendation task.
Self-supervised Graph Learning for Occasional Group Recommendation
Authors: Bowen Hao, Hongzhi Yin, Cuiping Li, Hong Chen
Date: 2021-12-04 00:00:00
Tasks: Contrastive Learning, Graph Learning, Meta-Learning, Recommendation Systems, Self-Supervised Learning

As an important branch in Recommender System, occasional group recommendation has received more and more attention. In this scenario, each occasional group (cold-start group) has no or few historical interacted items. As each occasional group has extremely sparse interactions with items, traditional group recommendation methods can not learn high-quality group representations. The recent proposed Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), which incorporate the high-order neighbors of the target occasional group, can alleviate the above problem in some extent. However, these GNNs still can not explicitly strengthen the embedding quality of the high-order neighbors with few interactions. Motivated by the Self-supervised Learning technique, which is able to find the correlations within the data itself, we propose a self-supervised graph learning framework, which takes the user/item/group embedding reconstruction as the pretext task to enhance the embeddings of the cold-start users/items/groups. In order to explicitly enhance the high-order cold-start neighbors' embedding quality, we further introduce an embedding enhancer, which leverages the self-attention mechanism to improve the embedding quality for them. Comprehensive experiments show the advantages of our proposed framework than the state-of-the-art methods.
Bridging Pre-trained Models and Downstream Tasks for Source Code Understanding
Authors: Deze Wang, Zhouyang Jia, Shanshan Li, Yue Yu, Yun Xiong, Wei Dong, Xiangke Liao
Date: 2021-12-04 00:00:00
Tasks: Clone Detection, Code Search

With the great success of pre-trained models, the pretrain-then-finetune paradigm has been widely adopted on downstream tasks for source code understanding. However, compared to costly training a large-scale model from scratch, how to effectively adapt pre-trained models to a new task has not been fully explored. In this paper, we propose an approach to bridge pre-trained models and code-related tasks. We exploit semantic-preserving transformation to enrich downstream data diversity, and help pre-trained models learn semantic features invariant to these semantically equivalent transformations. Further, we introduce curriculum learning to organize the transformed data in an easy-to-hard manner to fine-tune existing pre-trained models. We apply our approach to a range of pre-trained models, and they significantly outperform the state-of-the-art models on tasks for source code understanding, such as algorithm classification, code clone detection, and code search. Our experiments even show that without heavy pre-training on code data, natural language pre-trained model RoBERTa fine-tuned with our lightweight approach could outperform or rival existing code pre-trained models fine-tuned on the above tasks, such as CodeBERT and GraphCodeBERT. This finding suggests that there is still much room for improvement in code pre-trained models.
Towards the One Learning Algorithm Hypothesis: A System-theoretic Approach
Authors: Christos Mavridis, John Baras
Date: 2021-12-04 00:00:00

The existence of a universal learning architecture in human cognition is a widely spread conjecture supported by experimental findings from neuroscience. While no low-level implementation can be specified yet, an abstract outline of human perception and learning is believed to entail three basic properties: (a) hierarchical attention and processing, (b) memory-based knowledge representation, and (c) progressive learning and knowledge compaction. We approach the design of such a learning architecture from a system-theoretic viewpoint, developing a closed-loop system with three main components: (i) a multi-resolution analysis pre-processor, (ii) a group-invariant feature extractor, and (iii) a progressive knowledge-based learning module. Multi-resolution feedback loops are used for learning, i.e., for adapting the system parameters to online observations. To design (i) and (ii), we build upon the established theory of wavelet-based multi-resolution analysis and the properties of group convolution operators. Regarding (iii), we introduce a novel learning algorithm that constructs progressively growing knowledge representations in multiple resolutions. The proposed algorithm is an extension of the Online Deterministic Annealing (ODA) algorithm based on annealing optimization, solved using gradient-free stochastic approximation. ODA has inherent robustness and regularization properties and provides a means to progressively increase the complexity of the learning model i.e. the number of the neurons, as needed, through an intuitive bifurcation phenomenon. The proposed multi-resolution approach is hierarchical, progressive, knowledge-based, and interpretable. We illustrate the properties of the proposed architecture in the context of the state-of-the-art learning algorithms and deep learning methods.
In Search of Ambiguity: A Three-Stage Workflow Design to Clarify Annotation Guidelines for Crowd Workers
Authors: Vivek Krishna Pradhan, Mike Schaekermann, Matthew Lease
Date: 2021-12-04 00:00:00
Tasks: TAG

We propose a novel three-stage FIND-RESOLVE-LABEL workflow for crowdsourced annotation to reduce ambiguity in task instructions and thus improve annotation quality. Stage 1 (FIND) asks the crowd to find examples whose correct label seems ambiguous given task instructions. Workers are also asked to provide a short tag which describes the ambiguous concept embodied by the specific instance found. We compare collaborative vs. non-collaborative designs for this stage. In Stage 2 (RESOLVE), the requester selects one or more of these ambiguous examples to label (resolving ambiguity). The new label(s) are automatically injected back into task instructions in order to improve clarity. Finally, in Stage 3 (LABEL), workers perform the actual annotation using the revised guidelines with clarifying examples. We compare three designs for using these examples: examples only, tags only, or both. We report image labeling experiments over six task designs using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Results show improved annotation accuracy and further insights regarding effective design for crowdsourced annotation tasks.
A Game-Theoretic Approach for AI-based Botnet Attack Defence
Authors: Hooman Alavizadeh, Julian Jang-Jaccard, Tansu Alpcan, Seyit A. Camtepe
Date: 2021-12-04 00:00:00

The new generation of botnets leverages Artificial Intelligent (AI) techniques to conceal the identity of botmasters and the attack intention to avoid detection. Unfortunately, there has not been an existing assessment tool capable of evaluating the effectiveness of existing defense strategies against this kind of AI-based botnet attack. In this paper, we propose a sequential game theory model that is capable to analyse the details of the potential strategies botnet attackers and defenders could use to reach Nash Equilibrium (NE). The utility function is computed under the assumption when the attacker launches the maximum number of DDoS attacks with the minimum attack cost while the defender utilises the maximum number of defense strategies with the minimum defense cost. We conduct a numerical analysis based on a various number of defense strategies involved on different (simulated) cloud-band sizes in relation to different attack success rate values. Our experimental results confirm that the success of defense highly depends on the number of defense strategies used according to careful evaluation of attack rates.
Deep Policy Iteration with Integer Programming for Inventory Management
Authors: Pavithra Harsha, Ashish Jagmohan, Jayant Kalagnanam, Brian Quanz, Divya Singhvi
Date: 2021-12-04 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making, Management, reinforcement-learning, Reinforcement Learning (RL)

We present a Reinforcement Learning (RL) based framework for optimizing long-term discounted reward problems with large combinatorial action space and state dependent constraints. These characteristics are common to many operations management problems, e.g., network inventory replenishment, where managers have to deal with uncertain demand, lost sales, and capacity constraints that results in more complex feasible action spaces. Our proposed Programmable Actor Reinforcement Learning (PARL) uses a deep-policy iteration method that leverages neural networks (NNs) to approximate the value function and combines it with mathematical programming (MP) and sample average approximation (SAA) to solve the per-step-action optimally while accounting for combinatorial action spaces and state-dependent constraint sets. We show how the proposed methodology can be applied to complex inventory replenishment problems where analytical solutions are intractable. We also benchmark the proposed algorithm against state-of-the-art RL algorithms and commonly used replenishment heuristics and find it considerably outperforms existing methods by as much as 14.7% on average in various complex supply chain settings. We find that this improvement of PARL over benchmark algorithms can be directly attributed to better inventory cost management, especially in inventory constrained settings. Furthermore, in the simpler setting where optimal replenishment policy is tractable or known near optimal heuristics exist, we find that the RL approaches can learn near optimal policies. Finally, to make RL algorithms more accessible for inventory management researchers, we also discuss the development of a modular Python library that can be used to test the performance of RL algorithms with various supply chain structures and spur future research in developing practical and near-optimal algorithms for inventory management problems.
Behind the Curtain: Learning Occluded Shapes for 3D Object Detection
Authors: Qiangeng Xu, Yiqi Zhong, Ulrich Neumann
Date: 2021-12-04 00:00:00
Tasks: 3D Object Detection, Object, object-detection, Object Detection, Scene Understanding

Advances in LiDAR sensors provide rich 3D data that supports 3D scene understanding. However, due to occlusion and signal miss, LiDAR point clouds are in practice 2.5D as they cover only partial underlying shapes, which poses a fundamental challenge to 3D perception. To tackle the challenge, we present a novel LiDAR-based 3D object detection model, dubbed Behind the Curtain Detector (BtcDet), which learns the object shape priors and estimates the complete object shapes that are partially occluded (curtained) in point clouds. BtcDet first identifies the regions that are affected by occlusion and signal miss. In these regions, our model predicts the probability of occupancy that indicates if a region contains object shapes. Integrated with this probability map, BtcDet can generate high-quality 3D proposals. Finally, the probability of occupancy is also integrated into a proposal refinement module to generate the final bounding boxes. Extensive experiments on the KITTI Dataset and the Waymo Open Dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of BtcDet. Particularly, for the 3D detection of both cars and cyclists on the KITTI benchmark, BtcDet surpasses all of the published state-of-the-art methods by remarkable margins. Code is released (https://github.com/Xharlie/BtcDet}{https://github.com/Xharlie/BtcDet).
Revisiting local branching with a machine learning lens
Authors: Defeng Liu, Matteo Fischetti, Andrea Lodi
Date: 2021-12-03 00:00:00
Tasks: BIG-bench Machine Learning

Finding high-quality solutions to mixed-integer linear programming problems (MILPs) is of great importance for many practical applications. In this respect, the refinement heuristic local branching (LB) has been proposed to produce improving solutions and has been highly influential for the development of local search methods in MILP. The algorithm iteratively explores a sequence of solution neighborhoods defined by the so-called local branching constraint, namely, a linear inequality limiting the distance from a reference solution. For a LB algorithm, the choice of the neighborhood size is critical to performance. In this work, we study the relation between the size of the search neighborhood and the behavior of the underlying LB algorithm, and we devise a leaning based framework for predicting the best size for the specific instance to be solved. Furthermore, we have also investigated the relation between the time limit for exploring the LB neighborhood and the actual performance of LB scheme, and devised a strategy for adapting the time limit. We computationally show that the neighborhood size and time limit can indeed be learned, leading to improved performances and that the overall algorithm generalizes well both with respect to the instance size and, remarkably, across instances.
NN-LUT: Neural Approximation of Non-Linear Operations for Efficient Transformer Inference
Authors: Joonsang Yu, Junki Park, Seongmin Park, Minsoo Kim, Sihwa Lee, Dong Hyun Lee, Jungwook Choi
Date: 2021-12-03 00:00:00

Non-linear operations such as GELU, Layer normalization, and Softmax are essential yet costly building blocks of Transformer models. Several prior works simplified these operations with look-up tables or integer computations, but such approximations suffer inferior accuracy or considerable hardware cost with long latency. This paper proposes an accurate and hardware-friendly approximation framework for efficient Transformer inference. Our framework employs a simple neural network as a universal approximator with its structure equivalently transformed into a LUT. The proposed framework called NN-LUT can accurately replace all the non-linear operations in popular BERT models with significant reductions in area, power consumption, and latency.
Combining Embeddings and Fuzzy Time Series for High-Dimensional Time Series Forecasting in Internet of Energy Applications
Authors: Hugo Vinicius Bitencourt, Luiz Augusto Facury de Souza, Matheus Cascalho dos Santos, Petrônio Cândido de Lima e Silva, Frederico Gadelha Guimarães
Date: 2021-12-03 00:00:00
Tasks: Time Series, Time Series Analysis, Time Series Forecasting

The prediction of residential power usage is essential in assisting a smart grid to manage and preserve energy to ensure efficient use. An accurate energy forecasting at the customer level will reflect directly into efficiency improvements across the power grid system, however forecasting building energy use is a complex task due to many influencing factors, such as meteorological and occupancy patterns. In addiction, high-dimensional time series increasingly arise in the Internet of Energy (IoE), given the emergence of multi-sensor environments and the two way communication between energy consumers and the smart grid. Therefore, methods that are capable of computing high-dimensional time series are of great value in smart building and IoE applications. Fuzzy Time Series (FTS) models stand out as data-driven non-parametric models of easy implementation and high accuracy. Unfortunately, the existing FTS models can be unfeasible if all features were used to train the model. We present a new methodology for handling high-dimensional time series, by projecting the original high-dimensional data into a low dimensional embedding space and using multivariate FTS approach in this low dimensional representation. Combining these techniques enables a better representation of the complex content of multivariate time series and more accurate forecasts.
Examining Zero-Shot Vulnerability Repair with Large Language Models
Authors: Hammond Pearce, Benjamin Tan, Baleegh Ahmad, Ramesh Karri, Brendan Dolan-Gavitt
Date: 2021-12-03 00:00:00
Tasks: Code Completion

Human developers can produce code with cybersecurity bugs. Can emerging 'smart' code completion tools help repair those bugs? In this work, we examine the use of large language models (LLMs) for code (such as OpenAI's Codex and AI21's Jurassic J-1) for zero-shot vulnerability repair. We investigate challenges in the design of prompts that coax LLMs into generating repaired versions of insecure code. This is difficult due to the numerous ways to phrase key information - both semantically and syntactically - with natural languages. We perform a large scale study of five commercially available, black-box, "off-the-shelf" LLMs, as well as an open-source model and our own locally-trained model, on a mix of synthetic, hand-crafted, and real-world security bug scenarios. Our experiments demonstrate that while the approach has promise (the LLMs could collectively repair 100% of our synthetically generated and hand-crafted scenarios), a qualitative evaluation of the model's performance over a corpus of historical real-world examples highlights challenges in generating functionally correct code.
Unsupervised Law Article Mining based on Deep Pre-Trained Language Representation Models with Application to the Italian Civil Code
Authors: Andrea Tagarelli, Andrea Simeri
Date: 2021-12-02 00:00:00
Tasks: Articles, Attribute, Few-Shot Learning, Prediction, Retrieval

Modeling law search and retrieval as prediction problems has recently emerged as a predominant approach in law intelligence. Focusing on the law article retrieval task, we present a deep learning framework named LamBERTa, which is designed for civil-law codes, and specifically trained on the Italian civil code. To our knowledge, this is the first study proposing an advanced approach to law article prediction for the Italian legal system based on a BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) learning framework, which has recently attracted increased attention among deep learning approaches, showing outstanding effectiveness in several natural language processing and learning tasks. We define LamBERTa models by fine-tuning an Italian pre-trained BERT on the Italian civil code or its portions, for law article retrieval as a classification task. One key aspect of our LamBERTa framework is that we conceived it to address an extreme classification scenario, which is characterized by a high number of classes, the few-shot learning problem, and the lack of test query benchmarks for Italian legal prediction tasks. To solve such issues, we define different methods for the unsupervised labeling of the law articles, which can in principle be applied to any law article code system. We provide insights into the explainability and interpretability of our LamBERTa models, and we present an extensive experimental analysis over query sets of different type, for single-label as well as multi-label evaluation tasks. Empirical evidence has shown the effectiveness of LamBERTa, and also its superiority against widely used deep-learning text classifiers and a few-shot learner conceived for an attribute-aware prediction task.
Towards More Robust Natural Language Understanding
Authors: Xinliang Frederick Zhang
Date: 2021-12-01 00:00:00
Tasks: Natural Language Understanding

Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is a branch of Natural Language Processing (NLP) that uses intelligent computer software to understand texts that encode human knowledge. Recent years have witnessed notable progress across various NLU tasks with deep learning techniques, especially with pretrained language models. Besides proposing more advanced model architectures, constructing more reliable and trustworthy datasets also plays a huge role in improving NLU systems, without which it would be impossible to train a decent NLU model. It's worth noting that the human ability of understanding natural language is flexible and robust. On the contrary, most of existing NLU systems fail to achieve desirable performance on out-of-domain data or struggle on handling challenging items (e.g., inherently ambiguous items, adversarial items) in the real world. Therefore, in order to have NLU models understand human language more effectively, it is expected to prioritize the study on robust natural language understanding. In this thesis, we deem that NLU systems are consisting of two components: NLU models and NLU datasets. As such, we argue that, to achieve robust NLU, the model architecture/training and the dataset are equally important. Specifically, we will focus on three NLU tasks to illustrate the robustness problem in different NLU tasks and our contributions (i.e., novel models and new datasets) to help achieve more robust natural language understanding. Moving forward, the ultimate goal for robust natural language understanding is to build NLU models which can behave humanly. That is, it's expected that robust NLU systems are capable to transfer the knowledge from training corpus to unseen documents more reliably and survive when encountering challenging items even if the system doesn't know a priori of users' inputs.
On the algebraic structures of the space of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers
Authors: Xinxing Wu, Chaoyue Tan, Gul Deniz Cayli, Peide Liu
Date: 2021-12-01 00:00:00
Tasks: Relation

This study is inspired by those of Huang et al. (Soft Comput. 25, 2513--2520, 2021) and Wang et al. (Inf. Sci. 179, 3026--3040, 2009) in which some ranking techniques for interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IVIFNs) were introduced. In this study, we prove that the space of all IVIFNs with the relation in the method for comparing any two IVIFNs based on a score function and three types of entropy functions is a complete chain and obtain that this relation is an admissible order. Moreover, we demonstrate that IVIFNs are complete chains to the relation in the comparison method for IVIFNs on the basis of score, accuracy, membership uncertainty index, and hesitation uncertainty index functions.