pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Framework for Automatic PCB Marking Detection and Recognition for Hardware Assurance
Authors: Olivia P. Dizon-Paradis, Daniel E. Capecci, Nathan T. Jessurun, Damon L. Woodard, Mark M. Tehranipoor, Navid Asadizanjani
Date: 2023-07-24 00:00:00

A Bill of Materials (BoM) is a list of all components on a printed circuit board (PCB). Since BoMs are useful for hardware assurance, automatic BoM extraction (AutoBoM) is of great interest to the government and electronics industry. To achieve a high-accuracy AutoBoM process, domain knowledge of PCB text and logos must be utilized. In this study, we discuss the challenges associated with automatic PCB marking extraction and propose 1) a plan for collecting salient PCB marking data, and 2) a framework for incorporating this data for automatic PCB assurance. Given the proposed dataset plan and framework, subsequent future work, implications, and open research possibilities are detailed.
Implicit Reconstructions from Deformed Projections for CryoET
Authors: Vinith Kishore, Valentin Debarnot, Ivan Dokmanić
Date: 2023-07-25 00:00:00
Tasks: Cryogenic Electron Tomography, Electron Tomography

Cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) is a technique that captures images of biological samples at different tilts, preserving their native state as much as possible. Along with the partial tilt series and noise, one of the major challenges in estimating the accurate 3D structure of the sample is the deformations in the images incurred during the acquisition. We model these deformations as continuous operators and estimate the unknown 3D volume using implicit neural representations. This framework allows to easily incorporate the deformation and estimate jointly the deformation parameters and the volume using a standard optimization algorithm. This approach doesn't require training data and can benefit from standard prior in the optimization procedure.
Gradient-based adaptive wavelet de-noising method for photoacoustic imaging in vivo
Authors: Xinke Li, Peng Ge, Yuting Shen, Feng Gao, Fei Gao
Date: 2023-07-25 00:00:00
Tasks: Denoising

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) has been applied to many biomedical applications over the past decades. However, the received PA signal usually suffers from poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Conventional solution of employing higher-power laser, or doing long-time signal averaging, may raise the system cost, time consumption, and tissue damage. Another strategy is de-noising algorithm design. In this paper, we propose a new de-noising method, termed gradient-based adaptive wavelet de-noising, which sets the energy gradient mutation point of low-frequency wavelet components as the threshold. We conducted simulation, ex vivo and in vivo experiments to validate the performance of the algorithm. The quality of de-noised PA image/signal by our proposed algorithm has improved by 20%-40%, in comparison to the traditional signal denoising algorithms, which produces better contrast and clearer details. The proposed de-noising method provides potential to improve the SNR of PA signal under single-shot low-power laser illumination for biomedical applications in vivo.
Ultra-Wideband Technology: Characteristics, Applications and Challenges
Authors: Chutao Zheng, Yuchu Ge, Anfu Guo
Date: 2023-07-24 00:00:00

Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is a wireless communication technology designed for short-range applications. It is characterized by its ability to generate and transmit radio-frequency energy over an extensive frequency range. This paper provides an overview of UWB technology including its definition, two representative schemes and some key characteristics distinguished from other types of communication. Besides, this paper also analyses some widely used applications of UWB technology and highlights some of the challenges associated with implementing UWB in real-world scenarios. Furthermore, this paper expands upon UWB technology to encompass terahertz technology, providing an overview of the current status of terahertz communication, and conducting an analysis of the advantages, challenges, and certain corresponding solutions pertaining to ultra-wideband THz communication.
Orthogonal-view Microscope for the Biomechanics Investigations of Aquatic Organisms
Authors: Brian T. Le, Katherine M. Auer, David A. Lopez, Justin P. Shum, Brian Suarsana, Ga-Young Kelly Suh, Per Niklas Hedde, Siavash Ahrar
Date: 2023-07-24 00:00:00

Microscopes are essential for biomechanics and hydrodynamical investigation of small aquatic organisms. We report a DIY microscope (GLUBscope) that enables the visualization of organisms from two orthogonal imaging planes (top and side views). Compared to conventional imaging systems, this approach provides a comprehensive visualization strategy of organisms, which could have complex shapes and morphologies. The microscope was constructed by combining custom 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf components. The system is designed for modularity and reconfigurability. Open-source design files and build instructions are provided in this report. Additionally, proof of use experiments, particularly with Hydra and other organisms that combine the GLUBscope with an analysis pipeline, were demonstrated. Beyond the applications demonstrated, the system can be used or modified for various imaging applications.
Dynamic Function Market Maker
Authors: Arman Abgaryan, Utkarsh Sharma
Date: 2023-07-25 00:00:00
Tasks: Management

Decentralised automated market makers (AMMs) have gained significant attention recently. We propose an adaptive and automated Dynamic Function Market Maker (DFMM) that addresses challenges in this space. Our DFMM protocol includes a data aggregator and an order routing mechanism. It synchronises price-sensitive market information, asserting the principle of one price, and ensuring market efficiency. The data aggregator includes a virtual order book, asserting efficient asset pricing by staying synchronised with information from external venues, including competitors. The protocol's rebalancing and order routing method optimises inventory risk through arbitrageurs, who are more likely to assist DFMM, enhancing protocol stability. DFMM incorporates protective buffers with non-linear derivative instruments to manage risk and mitigate losses caused by market volatility. The protocol employs an algorithmic accounting-asset, connecting all pools and resolving the issue of segregated pools and risk transfer. The settlement process is entirely protocol-driven, maximising risk management efficiency, and eliminating subjective market risk assessments. In essence, DFMM offers a fully automated, decentralised, and robust solution for automated market making. It aims to provide long-term viability and stability in an asset class that demands robustness.
Changes in Risk Appreciation, and Short Memory of House Buyers When the Market is Hot, a Case Study of Christchurch, New Zealand
Authors: Emil Mendoza, Fabian Dunker, Marco Reale
Date: 2023-07-25 00:00:00

In this paper house prices in Christchurch are analyzed over three distinct periods of time: post-2011 earthquake, pre-COVID-19 lockdown, and post-COVID-19 lockdown using the well-established hedonic price model. Results show that buyers, in periods that are temporally distant from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, value the risk of potential earthquake damage to a property differently from buyers soon after the earthquake. We find that there are observable shifts in hedonic prices across the different time periods, specifically for section size pre and post COVID-19 lockdown.
VolTS: A Volatility-based Trading System to forecast Stock Markets Trend using Statistics and Machine Learning
Authors: Ivan Letteri
Date: 2023-07-25 00:00:00
Tasks: Variable Selection

Volatility-based trading strategies have attracted a lot of attention in financial markets due to their ability to capture opportunities for profit from market dynamics. In this article, we propose a new volatility-based trading strategy that combines statistical analysis with machine learning techniques to forecast stock markets trend. The method consists of several steps including, data exploration, correlation and autocorrelation analysis, technical indicator use, application of hypothesis tests and statistical models, and use of variable selection algorithms. In particular, we use the k-means++ clustering algorithm to group the mean volatility of the nine largest stocks in the NYSE and NasdaqGS markets. The resulting clusters are the basis for identifying relationships between stocks based on their volatility behaviour. Next, we use the Granger Causality Test on the clustered dataset with mid-volatility to determine the predictive power of a stock over another stock. By identifying stocks with strong predictive relationships, we establish a trading strategy in which the stock acting as a reliable predictor becomes a trend indicator to determine the buy, sell, and hold of target stock trades. Through extensive backtesting and performance evaluation, we find the reliability and robustness of our volatility-based trading strategy. The results suggest that our approach effectively captures profitable trading opportunities by leveraging the predictive power of volatility clusters, and Granger causality relationships between stocks. The proposed strategy offers valuable insights and practical implications to investors and market participants who seek to improve their trading decisions and capitalize on market trends. It provides valuable insights and practical implications for market participants looking to.
Geometric Epitope and Paratope Prediction
Authors: Marco Pegoraro, Clémentine Dominé, Emanuele Rodolà, Petar Veličković, Andreea Deac
Date: 2023-05-28 00:00:00
Tasks: Prediction

Antibody-antigen interactions play a crucial role in identifying and neutralizing harmful foreign molecules. In this paper, we investigate the optimal representation for predicting the binding sites in the two molecules and emphasize the importance of geometric information. Specifically, we compare different geometric deep learning methods applied to proteins' inner (I-GEP) and outer (O-GEP) structures. We incorporate 3D coordinates and spectral geometric descriptors as input features to fully leverage the geometric information. Our research suggests that surface-based models are more efficient than other methods, and our O-GEP experiments have achieved state-of-the-art results with significant performance improvements.
Dendritic Integration Based Quadratic Neural Networks Outperform Traditional Aritificial Ones
Authors: Chongming Liu, Songting Li, Douglas Zhou
Date: 2023-05-25 00:00:00

Incorporating biological neuronal properties into Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to enhance computational capabilities poses a formidable challenge in the field of machine learning. Inspired by recent findings indicating that dendrites adhere to quadratic integration rules for synaptic inputs, we propose a novel ANN model, Dendritic Integration-Based Quadratic Neural Network (DIQNN). This model shows superior performance over traditional ANNs in a variety of classification tasks. To reduce the computational cost of DIQNN, we introduce the Low-Rank DIQNN, while we find it can retain the performance of the original DIQNN. We further propose a margin to characterize the generalization error and theoretically prove this margin will increase monotonically during training. And we show the consistency between generalization and our margin using numerical experiments. Finally, by integrating this margin into the loss function, the change of test accuracy is indeed accelerated. Our work contributes a novel, brain-inspired ANN model that surpasses traditional ANNs and provides a theoretical framework to analyze the generalization error in classification tasks.
Real-Time 6-DOF Pose Estimation of Known Geometries in Point Cloud Data
Authors: Vedant Bhandari, Tyson Govan Phillips, Peter Ross McAree
Date: 2023-03-13 00:00:00
Proceeding: Sensors 2023 3
Tasks: Pose Estimation

The task of tracking the pose of an object with a known geometry from point cloud measurements arises in robot perception. It calls for a solution that is both accurate and robust, and can be computed at a rate that aligns with the needs of a control system that might make decisions based on it. The Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm is widely used for this purpose, but it is susceptible to failure in practical scenarios. We present a robust and efficient solution for pose-from-point cloud estimation called the Pose Lookup Method (PLuM). PLuM is a probabilistic reward-based objective function that is resilient to measurement uncertainty and clutter. Efficiency is achieved through the use of lookup tables, which substitute complex geometric operations such as raycasting used in earlier solutions. Our results show millimetre accuracy and fast pose estimation in benchmark tests using triangulated geometry models, outperforming state-of-the-art ICP-based methods. These results are extended to field robotics applications, resulting in real-time haul truck pose estimation. By utilising point clouds from a LiDAR fixed to a rope shovel, the PLuM algorithm tracks a haul truck effectively throughout the excavation load cycle at a rate of 20 Hz, matching the sensor frame rate. PLuM is straightforward to implement and provides dependable and timely solutions in demanding environments.
WavJourney: Compositional Audio Creation with Large Language Models
Authors: Xubo Liu, Zhongkai Zhu, Haohe Liu, Yi Yuan, Meng Cui, Qiushi Huang, Jinhua Liang, Yin Cao, Qiuqiang Kong, Mark D. Plumbley, Wenwu Wang
Date: 2023-07-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Audio Generation

Despite breakthroughs in audio generation models, their capabilities are often confined to domain-specific conditions such as speech transcriptions and audio captions. However, real-world audio creation aims to generate harmonious audio containing various elements such as speech, music, and sound effects with controllable conditions, which is challenging to address using existing audio generation systems. We present WavJourney, a novel framework that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to connect various audio models for audio creation. WavJourney allows users to create storytelling audio content with diverse audio elements simply from textual descriptions. Specifically, given a text instruction, WavJourney first prompts LLMs to generate an audio script that serves as a structured semantic representation of audio elements. The audio script is then converted into a computer program, where each line of the program calls a task-specific audio generation model or computational operation function. The computer program is then executed to obtain a compositional and interpretable solution for audio creation. Experimental results suggest that WavJourney is capable of synthesizing realistic audio aligned with textually-described semantic, spatial and temporal conditions, achieving state-of-the-art results on text-to-audio generation benchmarks. Additionally, we introduce a new multi-genre story benchmark. Subjective evaluations demonstrate the potential of WavJourney in crafting engaging storytelling audio content from text. We further demonstrate that WavJourney can facilitate human-machine co-creation in multi-round dialogues. To foster future research, the code and synthesized audio are available at: https://audio-agi.github.io/WavJourney_demopage/.
Event-based Vision for Early Prediction of Manipulation Actions
Authors: Daniel Deniz, Cornelia Fermuller, Eduardo Ros, Manuel Rodriguez-Alvarez, Francisco Barranco
Date: 2023-07-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Action Recognition, Data Compression, Event-based vision, Prediction

Neuromorphic visual sensors are artificial retinas that output sequences of asynchronous events when brightness changes occur in the scene. These sensors offer many advantages including very high temporal resolution, no motion blur and smart data compression ideal for real-time processing. In this study, we introduce an event-based dataset on fine-grained manipulation actions and perform an experimental study on the use of transformers for action prediction with events. There is enormous interest in the fields of cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction on understanding and predicting human actions as early as possible. Early prediction allows anticipating complex stages for planning, enabling effective and real-time interaction. Our Transformer network uses events to predict manipulation actions as they occur, using online inference. The model succeeds at predicting actions early on, building up confidence over time and achieving state-of-the-art classification. Moreover, the attention-based transformer architecture allows us to study the role of the spatio-temporal patterns selected by the model. Our experiments show that the Transformer network captures action dynamic features outperforming video-based approaches and succeeding with scenarios where the differences between actions lie in very subtle cues. Finally, we release the new event dataset, which is the first in the literature for manipulation action recognition. Code will be available at https://github.com/DaniDeniz/EventVisionTransformer.
Waypoint-Based Imitation Learning for Robotic Manipulation
Authors: Lucy Xiaoyang Shi, Archit Sharma, Tony Z. Zhao, Chelsea Finn
Date: 2023-07-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making, Imitation Learning

While imitation learning methods have seen a resurgent interest for robotic manipulation, the well-known problem of compounding errors continues to afflict behavioral cloning (BC). Waypoints can help address this problem by reducing the horizon of the learning problem for BC, and thus, the errors compounded over time. However, waypoint labeling is underspecified, and requires additional human supervision. Can we generate waypoints automatically without any additional human supervision? Our key insight is that if a trajectory segment can be approximated by linear motion, the endpoints can be used as waypoints. We propose Automatic Waypoint Extraction (AWE) for imitation learning, a preprocessing module to decompose a demonstration into a minimal set of waypoints which when interpolated linearly can approximate the trajectory up to a specified error threshold. AWE can be combined with any BC algorithm, and we find that AWE can increase the success rate of state-of-the-art algorithms by up to 25% in simulation and by 4-28% on real-world bimanual manipulation tasks, reducing the decision making horizon by up to a factor of 10. Videos and code are available at https://lucys0.github.io/awe/
Reinforcement Learning by Guided Safe Exploration
Authors: Qisong Yang, Thiago D. Simão, Nils Jansen, Simon H. Tindemans, Matthijs T. J. Spaan
Date: 2023-07-26 00:00:00
Tasks: reinforcement-learning, Reinforcement Learning, Reinforcement Learning (RL), Safe Exploration, Transfer Learning

Safety is critical to broadening the application of reinforcement learning (RL). Often, we train RL agents in a controlled environment, such as a laboratory, before deploying them in the real world. However, the real-world target task might be unknown prior to deployment. Reward-free RL trains an agent without the reward to adapt quickly once the reward is revealed. We consider the constrained reward-free setting, where an agent (the guide) learns to explore safely without the reward signal. This agent is trained in a controlled environment, which allows unsafe interactions and still provides the safety signal. After the target task is revealed, safety violations are not allowed anymore. Thus, the guide is leveraged to compose a safe behaviour policy. Drawing from transfer learning, we also regularize a target policy (the student) towards the guide while the student is unreliable and gradually eliminate the influence of the guide as training progresses. The empirical analysis shows that this method can achieve safe transfer learning and helps the student solve the target task faster.
ChatGPT and Persuasive Technologies for the Management and Delivery of Personalized Recommendations in Hotel Hospitality
Authors: Manolis Remountakis, Konstantinos Kotis, Babis Kourtzis, George E. Tsekouras
Date: 2023-07-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making, Management, Recommendation Systems

Recommender systems have become indispensable tools in the hotel hospitality industry, enabling personalized and tailored experiences for guests. Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, and persuasive technologies, have opened new avenues for enhancing the effectiveness of those systems. This paper explores the potential of integrating ChatGPT and persuasive technologies for automating and improving hotel hospitality recommender systems. First, we delve into the capabilities of ChatGPT, which can understand and generate human-like text, enabling more accurate and context-aware recommendations. We discuss the integration of ChatGPT into recommender systems, highlighting the ability to analyze user preferences, extract valuable insights from online reviews, and generate personalized recommendations based on guest profiles. Second, we investigate the role of persuasive technology in influencing user behavior and enhancing the persuasive impact of hotel recommendations. By incorporating persuasive techniques, such as social proof, scarcity and personalization, recommender systems can effectively influence user decision-making and encourage desired actions, such as booking a specific hotel or upgrading their room. To investigate the efficacy of ChatGPT and persuasive technologies, we present a pilot experi-ment with a case study involving a hotel recommender system. We aim to study the impact of integrating ChatGPT and persua-sive techniques on user engagement, satisfaction, and conversion rates. The preliminary results demonstrate the potential of these technologies in enhancing the overall guest experience and business performance. Overall, this paper contributes to the field of hotel hospitality by exploring the synergistic relationship between LLMs and persuasive technology in recommender systems, ultimately influencing guest satisfaction and hotel revenue.
Unraveling the Complexity of Splitting Sequential Data: Tackling Challenges in Video and Time Series Analysis
Authors: Diego Botache, Kristina Dingel, Rico Huhnstock, Arno Ehresmann, Bernhard Sick
Date: 2023-07-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Anomaly Detection, Object Tracking, Time Series, Time Series Analysis

Splitting of sequential data, such as videos and time series, is an essential step in various data analysis tasks, including object tracking and anomaly detection. However, splitting sequential data presents a variety of challenges that can impact the accuracy and reliability of subsequent analyses. This concept article examines the challenges associated with splitting sequential data, including data acquisition, data representation, split ratio selection, setting up quality criteria, and choosing suitable selection strategies. We explore these challenges through two real-world examples: motor test benches and particle tracking in liquids.