pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
An Analysis of Deep Reinforcement Learning Agents for Text-based Games
Authors: Chen Chen, Yue Dai, Josiah Poon, Caren Han
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00
Tasks: Deep Reinforcement Learning, reinforcement-learning, Reinforcement Learning (RL), text-based games

Text-based games(TBG) are complex environments which allow users or computer agents to make textual interactions and achieve game goals.In TBG agent design and training process, balancing the efficiency and performance of the agent models is a major challenge. Finding TBG agent deep learning modules' performance in standardized environments, and testing their performance among different evaluation types is also important for TBG agent research. We constructed a standardized TBG agent with no hand-crafted rules, formally categorized TBG evaluation types, and analyzed selected methods in our environment.
Non-autoregressive Error Correction for CTC-based ASR with Phone-conditioned Masked LM
Authors: Hayato Futami, Hirofumi Inaguma, Sei Ueno, Masato Mimura, Shinsuke Sakai, Tatsuya Kawahara
Date: 2022-09-08 00:00:00
Tasks: Automatic Speech Recognition, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Domain Adaptation, Language Modeling, Language Modelling, speech-recognition, Speech Recognition

Connectionist temporal classification (CTC) -based models are attractive in automatic speech recognition (ASR) because of their non-autoregressive nature. To take advantage of text-only data, language model (LM) integration approaches such as rescoring and shallow fusion have been widely used for CTC. However, they lose CTC's non-autoregressive nature because of the need for beam search, which slows down the inference speed. In this study, we propose an error correction method with phone-conditioned masked LM (PC-MLM). In the proposed method, less confident word tokens in a greedy decoded output from CTC are masked. PC-MLM then predicts these masked word tokens given unmasked words and phones supplementally predicted from CTC. We further extend it to Deletable PC-MLM in order to address insertion errors. Since both CTC and PC-MLM are non-autoregressive models, the method enables fast LM integration. Experimental evaluations on the Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese (CSJ) and TED-LIUM2 in domain adaptation setting shows that our proposed method outperformed rescoring and shallow fusion in terms of inference speed, and also in terms of recognition accuracy on CSJ.
Multilingual Transformer Language Model for Speech Recognition in Low-resource Languages
Authors: Li Miao, Jian Wu, Piyush Behre, Shuangyu Chang, Sarangarajan Parthasarathy
Date: 2022-09-08 00:00:00
Tasks: Language Modeling, Language Modelling, Re-Ranking, speech-recognition, Speech Recognition

It is challenging to train and deploy Transformer LMs for hybrid speech recognition 2nd pass re-ranking in low-resource languages due to (1) data scarcity in low-resource languages, (2) expensive computing costs for training and refreshing 100+ monolingual models, and (3) hosting inefficiency considering sparse traffic. In this study, we present a new way to group multiple low-resource locales together and optimize the performance of Multilingual Transformer LMs in ASR. Our Locale-group Multilingual Transformer LMs outperform traditional multilingual LMs along with reducing maintenance costs and operating expenses. Further, for low-resource but high-traffic locales where deploying monolingual models is feasible, we show that fine-tuning our locale-group multilingual LMs produces better monolingual LM candidates than baseline monolingual LMs.
Improving Nevergrad's Algorithm Selection Wizard NGOpt through Automated Algorithm Configuration
Authors: Risto Trajanov, Ana Nikolikj, Gjorgjina Cenikj, Fabien Teytaud, Mathurin Videau, Olivier Teytaud, Tome Eftimov, Manuel López-Ibáñez, Carola Doerr
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00

Algorithm selection wizards are effective and versatile tools that automatically select an optimization algorithm given high-level information about the problem and available computational resources, such as number and type of decision variables, maximal number of evaluations, possibility to parallelize evaluations, etc. State-of-the-art algorithm selection wizards are complex and difficult to improve. We propose in this work the use of automated configuration methods for improving their performance by finding better configurations of the algorithms that compose them. In particular, we use elitist iterated racing (irace) to find CMA configurations for specific artificial benchmarks that replace the hand-crafted CMA configurations currently used in the NGOpt wizard provided by the Nevergrad platform. We discuss in detail the setup of irace for the purpose of generating configurations that work well over the diverse set of problem instances within each benchmark. Our approach improves the performance of the NGOpt wizard, even on benchmark suites that were not part of the tuning by irace.
Fast Re-Optimization of LeadingOnes with Frequent Changes
Authors: Nina Bulanova, Arina Buzdalova, Carola Doerr
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00
Tasks: Evolutionary Algorithms

In real-world optimization scenarios, the problem instance that we are asked to solve may change during the optimization process, e.g., when new information becomes available or when the environmental conditions change. In such situations, one could hope to achieve reasonable performance by continuing the search from the best solution found for the original problem. Likewise, one may hope that when solving several problem instances that are similar to each other, it can be beneficial to ``warm-start'' the optimization process of the second instance by the best solution found for the first. However, it was shown in [Doerr et al., GECCO 2019] that even when initialized with structurally good solutions, evolutionary algorithms can have a tendency to replace these good solutions by structurally worse ones, resulting in optimization times that have no advantage over the same algorithms started from scratch. Doerr et al. also proposed a diversity mechanism to overcome this problem. Their approach balances greedy search around a best-so-far solution for the current problem with search in the neighborhood around the best-found solution for the previous instance. In this work, we first show that the re-optimization approach suggested by Doerr et al. reaches a limit when the problem instances are prone to more frequent changes. More precisely, we show that they get stuck on the dynamic LeadingOnes problem in which the target string changes periodically. We then propose a modification of their algorithm which interpolates between greedy search around the previous-best and the current-best solution. We empirically evaluate our smoothed re-optimization algorithm on LeadingOnes instances with various frequencies of change and with different perturbation factors and show that it outperforms both a fully restarted (1+1) Evolutionary Algorithm and the re-optimization approach by Doerr et al.
An Artificial Chemistry Implementation of a Gene Regulatory Network
Authors: Iliya Miralavy, Wolfgang Banzhaf
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00

Gene Regulatory Networks are networks of interactions in biological organisms responsible for determining the production levels of proteins and peptides. Proteins are workers of a cell factory, and their production defines the goal of a cell and its development. Various attempts have been made to model such networks both to understand these biological systems better and to use inspiration from understanding them to solve computational problems. In this work, a biologically more realistic model for gene regulatory networks is proposed, which incorporates Cellular Automata and Artificial Chemistry to model the interactions between regulatory proteins called the Transcription Factors and the regulatory sites of genes. The result of this work shows complex dynamics close to what can be observed in nature. Here, an analysis of the impact of the initial states of the system on the produced dynamics is performed, showing that such evolvable models can be directed towards producing desired protein dynamics.
A Variational Approach to Parameter Estimation for Characterizing 2-D Cluster Variation Method Topographies
Authors: Alianna J. Maren
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00
Tasks: parameter estimation, Triplet, Variational Inference

One of the biggest challenges in characterizing 2-D topographies is succinctly communicating the dominant nature of local configurations. In a 2-D grid composed of bistate units, this could be expressed as finding the characteristic configuration variables such as nearest-neighbor pairs and triplet combinations. The 2-D cluster variation method (CVM) provides a theoretical framework for associating a set of configuration variables with only two parameters, for a system that is at free energy equilibrium. This work presents a method for determining which of many possible two-parameter sets provides the ``most suitable'' match for a given 2-D topography, drawing from methods used for variational inference. This particular work focuses exclusively on topographies for which the activation enthalpy parameter (epsilon_0) is zero, so that the distribution between two states is equiprobable. This condition is used since, when the two states are equiprobable, there is an analytic solution giving the configuration variable values as functions of the h-value, where we define h in terms of the interaction enthalpy parameter (epsilon_1) as h = exp(2*epsilon_1). This allows the computationally-achieved configuration variable values to be compared with the analytically-predicted values for a given h-value. The method is illustrated using four patterns derived from three different naturally-occurring black-and-white topographies, where each pattern meets the equiprobability criterion. We achieve expected results, that is, as the patterns progress from having relatively low numbers of like-near-like nodes to increasing like-near-like masses, the h-values for each corresponding free energy-minimized model also increase. Further, the corresponding configuration variable values for the (free energy-minimized) model patterns are in approximate alignment with the analytically-predicted values.
Heterogeneous Treatment Effect Bounds under Sample Selection with an Application to the Effects of Social Media on Political Polarization
Authors: Phillip Heiler
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00
Tasks: valid

We propose a method for estimation and inference for bounds for heterogeneous causal effect parameters in general sample selection models where the treatment can affect whether an outcome is observed and no exclusion restrictions are available. The method provides conditional effect bounds as functions of policy relevant pre-treatment variables. It allows for conducting valid statistical inference on the unidentified conditional effects. We use a flexible debiased/double machine learning approach that can accommodate non-linear functional forms and high-dimensional confounders. Easily verifiable high-level conditions for estimation, misspecification robust confidence intervals, and uniform confidence bands are provided as well. We re-analyze data from a large scale field experiment on Facebook on counter-attitudinal news subscription with attrition. Our method yields substantially tighter effect bounds compared to conventional methods and suggests depolarization effects for younger users.
clusterBMA: Bayesian model averaging for clustering
Authors: Owen Forbes, Edgar Santos-Fernandez, Paul Pao-Yen Wu, Hong-Bo Xie, Paul E. Schwenn, Jim Lagopoulos, Lia Mills, Dashiell D. Sacks, Daniel F. Hermens, Kerrie Mengersen
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00
Tasks: Clustering, Electroencephalogram (EEG), model, Model Selection

Various methods have been developed to combine inference across multiple sets of results for unsupervised clustering, within the ensemble clustering literature. The approach of reporting results from one `best' model out of several candidate clustering models generally ignores the uncertainty that arises from model selection, and results in inferences that are sensitive to the particular model and parameters chosen. Bayesian model averaging (BMA) is a popular approach for combining results across multiple models that offers some attractive benefits in this setting, including probabilistic interpretation of the combined cluster structure and quantification of model-based uncertainty. In this work we introduce clusterBMA, a method that enables weighted model averaging across results from multiple unsupervised clustering algorithms. We use clustering internal validation criteria to develop an approximation of the posterior model probability, used for weighting the results from each model. From a consensus matrix representing a weighted average of the clustering solutions across models, we apply symmetric simplex matrix factorisation to calculate final probabilistic cluster allocations. In addition to outperforming other ensemble clustering methods on simulated data, clusterBMA offers unique features including probabilistic allocation to averaged clusters, combining allocation probabilities from 'hard' and 'soft' clustering algorithms, and measuring model-based uncertainty in averaged cluster allocation. This method is implemented in an accompanying R package of the same name.
Fair Matrix Factorisation for Large-Scale Recommender Systems
Authors: Riku Togashi, Kenshi Abe
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00
Tasks: Collaborative Filtering, Fairness, Recommendation Systems

Recommender systems are hedged with various requirements, such as ranking quality, optimisation efficiency, and item fairness. Item fairness is an emerging yet impending issue in practical systems. The notion of item fairness requires controlling the opportunity of items (e.g. the exposure) by considering the entire set of rankings recommended for users. However, the intrinsic nature of fairness destroys the separability of optimisation subproblems for users and items, which is an essential property of conventional scalable algorithms, such as implicit alternating least squares (iALS). Few fairness-aware methods are thus available for large-scale item recommendation. Because of the paucity of simple tools for practitioners, unfairness issues would be costly to solve or, at worst, would be abandoned. This study takes a step towards solving real-world unfairness issues by developing a simple and scalable collaborative filtering method for fairness-aware item recommendation. We built a method named fiADMM, which inherits the scalability of iALS and maintains a provable convergence guarantee.
Simple and Powerful Architecture for Inductive Recommendation Using Knowledge Graph Convolutions
Authors: Theis E. Jendal, Matteo Lissandrini, Peter Dolog, Katja Hose
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00
Tasks: Dimensionality Reduction, Graph Neural Network, Knowledge Graphs, Recommendation Systems

Using graph models with relational information in recommender systems has shown promising results. Yet, most methods are transductive, i.e., they are based on dimensionality reduction architectures. Hence, they require heavy retraining every time new items or users are added. Conversely, inductive methods promise to solve these issues. Nonetheless, all inductive methods rely only on interactions, making recommendations for users with few interactions sub-optimal and even impossible for new items. Therefore, we focus on inductive methods able to also exploit knowledge graphs (KGs). In this work, we propose SimpleRec, a strong baseline that uses a graph neural network and a KG to provide better recommendations than related inductive methods for new users and items. We show that it is unnecessary to create complex model architectures for user representations, but it is enough to allow users to be represented by the few ratings they provide and the indirect connections among them without any user metadata. As a result, we re-evaluate state-of-the-art methods, identify better evaluation protocols, highlight unwarranted conclusions from previous proposals, and showcase a novel, stronger baseline for this task.
Zydeco-Style Spike Sorting Low Power VLSI Architecture for IoT BCI Implants
Authors: Zag ElSayed, Murat Ozer, Nelly Elsayed, Magdy Bayoumi
Date: 2022-08-31 00:00:00
Tasks: Brain Computer Interface, Spike Sorting

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) has great potential for solving many brain signal analysis limitations, mental disorder resolutions, and restoring missing limb functionality via neural-controlled implants. However, there is no single available, and safe implant for daily life usage exists yet. Most of the proposed implants have several implementation issues, such as infection hazards and heat dissipation, which limits their usability and makes it more challenging to pass regulations and quality control production. The wireless implant does not require a chronic wound in the skull. However, the current complex clustering neuron identification algorithms inside the implant chip consume a lot of power and bandwidth, causing higher heat dissipation issues and draining the implant's battery. The spike sorting is the core unit of an invasive BCI chip, which plays a significant role in power consumption, accuracy, and area. Therefore, in this study, we propose a low-power adaptive simplified VLSI architecture, "Zydeco-Style," for BCI spike sorting that is computationally less complex with higher accuracy that performs up to 93.5% in the worst-case scenario. The architecture uses a low-power Bluetooth Wireless communication module with external IoT medical ICU devices. The proposed architecture was implemented and simulated in Verilog. In addition, we are proposing an implant conceptual design.
e-G2C: A 0.14-to-8.31 $μ$J/Inference NN-based Processor with Continuous On-chip Adaptation for Anomaly Detection and ECG Conversion from EGM
Authors: Yang Zhao, Yongan Zhang, Yonggan Fu, Xu Ouyang, Cheng Wan, Shang Wu, Anton Banta, Mathews M. John, Allison Post, Mehdi Razavi, Joseph Cavallaro, Behnaam Aazhang, Yingyan Lin
Date: 2022-07-24 00:00:00
Tasks: Anomaly Detection

This work presents the first silicon-validated dedicated EGM-to-ECG (G2C) processor, dubbed e-G2C, featuring continuous lightweight anomaly detection, event-driven coarse/precise conversion, and on-chip adaptation. e-G2C utilizes neural network (NN) based G2C conversion and integrates 1) an architecture supporting anomaly detection and coarse/precise conversion via time multiplexing to balance the effectiveness and power, 2) an algorithm-hardware co-designed vector-wise sparsity resulting in a 1.6-1.7$\times$ speedup, 3) hybrid dataflows for enhancing near 100% utilization for normal/depth-wise(DW)/point-wise(PW) convolutions (Convs), and 4) an on-chip detection threshold adaptation engine for continuous effectiveness. The achieved 0.14-8.31 $\mu$J/inference energy efficiency outperforms prior arts under similar complexity, promising real-time detection/conversion and possibly life-critical interventions
A Fast Algorithm for Onboard Atmospheric Powered Descent Guidance
Authors: Yushu Chen, Guangwen Yang, Lu Wang, Qingzhong Gan, Haipeng Chen, Quanyong Xu
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00

Atmospheric powered descent guidance can be solved by successive convexification; however, its onboard application is impeded by the sharp increase in computation caused by nonlinear aerodynamic forces. The problem has to be converted into a sequence of convex subproblems instead of a single convex problem when aerodynamic forces are ignored. Besides, each subproblem is significantly more complicated, which increases computation. A fast real-time interior point method was presented to solve the correlated convex subproblems onboard in the work. The main contributions are as follows: Firstly, an algorithm was proposed to accelerate the solution of linear systems that cost most of the computation in each iterative step by exploiting the specific problem structure. Secondly, a warm-starting scheme was introduced to refine the initial value of a subproblem with a rough approximate solution of the former subproblem, which lessened the iterative steps required for each subproblem. The method proposed reduced the run time by a factor of 9 compared with the fastest publicly available solver tested in Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the efficiency of solvers. Runtimes on the order of 0.6 s are achieved on a radiation-hardened flight processor, which demonstrated the potential of the real-time onboard application.
Deep autoencoders for physics-constrained data-driven nonlinear materials modeling
Authors: Xiaolong He, Qizhi He, Jiun-Shyan Chen
Date: 2022-09-03 00:00:00

Physics-constrained data-driven computing is an emerging computational paradigm that allows simulation of complex materials directly based on material database and bypass the classical constitutive model construction. However, it remains difficult to deal with high-dimensional applications and extrapolative generalization. This paper introduces deep learning techniques under the data-driven framework to address these fundamental issues in nonlinear materials modeling. To this end, an autoencoder neural network architecture is introduced to learn the underlying low-dimensional representation (embedding) of the given material database. The offline trained autoencoder and the discovered embedding space are then incorporated in the online data-driven computation such that the search of optimal material state from database can be performed on a low-dimensional space, aiming to enhance the robustness and predictability with projected material data. To ensure numerical stability and representative constitutive manifold, a convexity-preserving interpolation scheme tailored to the proposed autoencoder-based data-driven solver is proposed for constructing the material state. In this study, the applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated by modeling nonlinear biological tissues. A parametric study on data noise, data size and sparsity, training initialization, and model architectures, is also conducted to examine the robustness and convergence property of the proposed approach.
Optimal $(0,1)$-Matrix Completion with Majorization Ordered Objectives (To the memory of Pravin Varaiya)
Authors: Yanfang Mo, Wei Chen, Keyou You, Li Qiu
Date: 2022-09-09 00:00:00
Tasks: Matrix Completion, Portfolio Optimization

We propose and examine two optimal $(0,1)$-matrix completion problems with majorization ordered objectives. They elevate the seminal study by Gale and Ryser from feasibility to optimality in partial order programming (POP), referring to optimization with partially ordered objectives. We showcase their applications in electric vehicle charging, portfolio optimization, and secure data storage. Solving such integer POP (iPOP) problems is challenging because of the possible non-comparability among objective values and the integer requirements. Nevertheless, we prove the essential uniqueness of all optimal objective values and identify two particular ones for each of the two inherently symmetric iPOP problems. Furthermore, for every optimal objective value, we decompose the construction of an associated optimal~$(0,1)$-matrix into a series of sorting processes, respectively agreeing with the rule of thumb "peak shaving" or "valley filling." We show that the resulting algorithms have linear time complexities and verify their empirical efficiency via numerical simulations compared to the standard order-preserving method for POP.