pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
What do physics-informed DeepONets learn? Understanding and improving training for scientific computing applications
Authors: Emily Williams, Amanda Howard, Brek Meuris, Panos Stinis
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Transfer Learning

Physics-informed deep operator networks (DeepONets) have emerged as a promising approach toward numerically approximating the solution of partial differential equations (PDEs). In this work, we aim to develop further understanding of what is being learned by physics-informed DeepONets by assessing the universality of the extracted basis functions and demonstrating their potential toward model reduction with spectral methods. Results provide clarity about measuring the performance of a physics-informed DeepONet through the decays of singular values and expansion coefficients. In addition, we propose a transfer learning approach for improving training for physics-informed DeepONets between parameters of the same PDE as well as across different, but related, PDEs where these models struggle to train well. This approach results in significant error reduction and learned basis functions that are more effective in representing the solution of a PDE.
Advancements in Myocardial Infarction Detection and Classification Using Wearable Devices: A Comprehensive Review
Authors: Abhijith S, Arjun Rajesh, Mansi Manoj, Sandra Davis Kollannur, Sujitta R V, Jerrin Thomas Panachakel
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Myocardial infarction detection

Myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, is a critical health condition caused by restricted blood flow to the heart. Early-stage detection through continuous ECG monitoring is essential to minimize irreversible damage. This review explores advancements in MI classification methodologies for wearable devices, emphasizing their potential in real-time monitoring and early diagnosis. It critically examines traditional approaches, such as morphological filtering and wavelet decomposition, alongside cutting-edge techniques, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and VLSI-based methods. By synthesizing findings on machine learning, deep learning, and hardware innovations, this paper highlights their strengths, limitations, and future prospects. The integration of these techniques into wearable devices offers promising avenues for efficient, accurate, and energy-aware MI detection, paving the way for next-generation wearable healthcare solutions.
An End-to-End Smart Predict-then-Optimize Framework for Vehicle Relocation Problems in Large-Scale Vehicle Crowd Sensing
Authors: Xinyu Wang, Yiyang Peng, Wei Ma
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making

Ubiquitous mobile devices have catalyzed the development of vehicle crowd sensing (VCS). In particular, vehicle sensing systems show great potential in the flexible acquisition of spatio-temporal urban data through built-in sensors under diverse sensing scenarios. However, vehicle systems often exhibit biased coverage due to the heterogeneous nature of trip requests and routes. To achieve a high sensing coverage, a critical challenge lies in optimally relocating vehicles to minimize the divergence between vehicle distributions and target sensing distributions. Conventional approaches typically employ a two-stage predict-then-optimize (PTO) process: first predicting real-time vehicle distributions and subsequently generating an optimal relocation strategy based on the predictions. However, this approach can lead to suboptimal decision-making due to the propagation of errors from upstream prediction. To this end, we develop an end-to-end Smart Predict-then-Optimize (SPO) framework by integrating optimization into prediction within the deep learning architecture, and the entire framework is trained by minimizing the task-specific matching divergence rather than the upstream prediction error. Methodologically, we formulate the vehicle relocation problem by quadratic programming (QP) and incorporate a novel unrolling approach based on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) within the SPO framework to compute gradients of the QP layer, facilitating backpropagation and gradient-based optimization for end-to-end learning. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is validated by real-world taxi datasets in Hong Kong. Utilizing the alternating differentiation method, the general SPO framework presents a novel concept of addressing decision-making problems with uncertainty, demonstrating significant potential for advancing applications in intelligent transportation systems.
Streamlining Prediction in Bayesian Deep Learning
Authors: Rui Li, Marcus Klasson, Arno Solin, Martin Trapp
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Deep Learning, Prediction

The rising interest in Bayesian deep learning (BDL) has led to a plethora of methods for estimating the posterior distribution. However, efficient computation of inferences, such as predictions, has been largely overlooked with Monte Carlo integration remaining the standard. In this work we examine streamlining prediction in BDL through a single forward pass without sampling. For this we use local linearisation on activation functions and local Gaussian approximations at linear layers. Thus allowing us to analytically compute an approximation to the posterior predictive distribution. We showcase our approach for both MLP and transformers, such as ViT and GPT-2, and assess its performance on regression and classification tasks. Open-source library: https://github.com/AaltoML/SUQ
FastSwitch: Optimizing Context Switching Efficiency in Fairness-aware Large Language Model Serving
Authors: Ao Shen, Zhiyao Li, Mingyu Gao
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Fairness, GPU, Language Modeling, Language Modelling, Large Language Model, Scheduling

Serving numerous users and requests concurrently requires good fairness in Large Language Models (LLMs) serving system. This ensures that, at the same cost, the system can meet the Service Level Objectives (SLOs) of more users , such as time to first token (TTFT) and time between tokens (TBT), rather than allowing a few users to experience performance far exceeding the SLOs. To achieve better fairness, the preemption-based scheduling policy dynamically adjusts the priority of each request to maintain balance during runtime. However, existing systems tend to overly prioritize throughput, overlooking the overhead caused by preemption-induced context switching, which is crucial for maintaining fairness through priority adjustments. In this work, we identify three main challenges that result in this overhead. 1) Inadequate I/O utilization. 2) GPU idleness. 3) Unnecessary I/O transmission during multi-turn conversations. Our key insight is that the block-based KV cache memory policy in existing systems, while achieving near-zero memory waste, leads to discontinuity and insufficient granularity in the KV cache memory. To respond, we introduce FastSwitch, a fairness-aware serving system that not only aligns with existing KV cache memory allocation policy but also mitigates context switching overhead. Our evaluation shows that FastSwitch outperforms the state-of-the-art LLM serving system vLLM with speedups of 1.4-11.2x across different tail TTFT and TBT.
When does a bridge become an aeroplane?
Authors: Tina A. Dardeno, Lawrence A. Bull, Nikolaos Dervilis, Keith Worden
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Structural Health Monitoring, Transfer Learning

Despite recent advances in population-based structural health monitoring (PBSHM), knowledge transfer between highly-disparate structures (i.e., heterogeneous populations) remains a challenge. It has been proposed that heterogeneous transfer may be accomplished via intermediate structures that bridge the gap in information between the structures of interest. A key aspect of the technique is the idea that by varying parameters such as material properties and geometry, one structure can be continuously morphed into another. The current work demonstrates the development of these interpolating structures, via case studies involving the parameterisation of (and transfer between) a simple, simulated 'bridge' and 'aeroplane'. The facetious question 'When is a bridge not an aeroplane?' has been previously asked in the context of predicting positive transfer based on structural similarity. While the obvious answer to this question is 'Always,' the current work demonstrates that in some cases positive transfer can be achieved between highly-disparate systems.
Preserving Deep Representations In One-Shot Pruning: A Hessian-Free Second-Order Optimization Framework
Authors: Ryan Lucas, Rahul Mazumder
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00

We present SNOWS, a one-shot post-training pruning framework aimed at reducing the cost of vision network inference without retraining. Current leading one-shot pruning methods minimize layer-wise least squares reconstruction error which does not take into account deeper network representations. We propose to optimize a more global reconstruction objective. This objective accounts for nonlinear activations deep in the network to obtain a better proxy for the network loss. This nonlinear objective leads to a more challenging optimization problem -- we demonstrate it can be solved efficiently using a specialized second-order optimization framework. A key innovation of our framework is the use of Hessian-free optimization to compute exact Newton descent steps without needing to compute or store the full Hessian matrix. A distinct advantage of SNOWS is that it can be readily applied on top of any sparse mask derived from prior methods, readjusting their weights to exploit nonlinearities in deep feature representations. SNOWS obtains state-of-the-art results on various one-shot pruning benchmarks including residual networks and Vision Transformers (ViT/B-16 and ViT/L-16, 86m and 304m parameters respectively).
ProteinWeaver: A Divide-and-Assembly Approach for Protein Backbone Design
Authors: Yiming Ma, Fei Ye, Yi Zhou, Zaixiang Zheng, Dongyu Xue, Quanquan Gu
Date: 2024-11-08 00:00:00
Tasks: Protein Design

Nature creates diverse proteins through a 'divide and assembly' strategy. Inspired by this idea, we introduce ProteinWeaver, a two-stage framework for protein backbone design. Our method first generates individual protein domains and then employs an SE(3) diffusion model to flexibly assemble these domains. A key challenge lies in the assembling step, given the complex and rugged nature of the inter-domain interaction landscape. To address this challenge, we employ preference alignment to discern complex relationships between structure and interaction landscapes through comparative analysis of generated samples. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that ProteinWeaver: (1) generates high-quality, novel protein backbones through versatile domain assembly; (2) outperforms RFdiffusion, the current state-of-the-art in backbone design, by 13\% and 39\% for long-chain proteins; (3) shows the potential for cooperative function design through illustrative case studies. To sum up, by introducing a `divide-and-assembly' paradigm, ProteinWeaver advances protein engineering and opens new avenues for functional protein design.
Large Models Enabled Ubiquitous Wireless Sensing
Authors: Shun Hu
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Prediction

In the era of 5G communication, the knowledge of channel state information (CSI) is crucial for enhancing network performance. This paper explores the utilization of language models for spatial CSI prediction within MIMO-OFDM systems. We begin by outlining the significance of accurate CSI in enabling advanced functionalities such as adaptive modulation. We review existing methodologies for CSI estimation, emphasizing the shift from traditional to data-driven approaches. Then a novel framework for spatial CSI prediction using realistic environment information is proposed, and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness. This research paves way for innovative strategies in managing wireless networks.
Break the ID-Language Barrier: An Adaption Framework for Sequential Recommendation
Authors: Xiaohan Yu, Li Zhang, Xin Zhao, Yue Wang
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Recommendation Systems, Sequential Recommendation

The recent breakthrough of large language models (LLMs) in natural language processing has sparked exploration in recommendation systems, however, their limited domain-specific knowledge remains a critical bottleneck. Specifically, LLMs lack key pieces of information crucial for sequential recommendations, such as user behavior patterns. To address this critical gap, we propose IDLE-Adapter, a novel framework that integrates pre-trained ID embeddings, rich in domain-specific knowledge, into LLMs to improve recommendation accuracy. IDLE-Adapter acts as a bridge, transforming sparse user-item interaction data into dense, LLM-compatible representations through a Pre-trained ID Sequential Model, Dimensionality Alignment, Layer-wise Embedding Refinement, and Layer-wise Distribution Alignment. Furthermore, IDLE-Adapter demonstrates remarkable flexibility by seamlessly integrating ID embeddings from diverse ID-based sequential models and LLM architectures. Extensive experiments across various datasets demonstrate the superiority of IDLE-Adapter, achieving over 10\% and 20\% improvements in HitRate@5 and NDCG@5 metrics, respectively, compared to state-of-the-art methods.
Dynamic Retail Pricing via Q-Learning -- A Reinforcement Learning Framework for Enhanced Revenue Management
Authors: Mohit Apte, Ketan Kale, Pranav Datar, Pratiksha Deshmukh
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making, Management, Q-Learning, Reinforcement Learning (RL)

This paper explores the application of a reinforcement learning (RL) framework using the Q-Learning algorithm to enhance dynamic pricing strategies in the retail sector. Unlike traditional pricing methods, which often rely on static demand models, our RL approach continuously adapts to evolving market dynamics, offering a more flexible and responsive pricing strategy. By creating a simulated retail environment, we demonstrate how RL effectively addresses real-time changes in consumer behavior and market conditions, leading to improved revenue outcomes. Our results illustrate that the RL model not only surpasses traditional methods in terms of revenue generation but also provides insights into the complex interplay of price elasticity and consumer demand. This research underlines the significant potential of applying artificial intelligence in economic decision-making, paving the way for more sophisticated, data-driven pricing models in various commercial domains.
Transfer Learning for Deep Learning-based Prediction of Lattice Thermal Conductivity
Authors: L. Klochko, M. d'Aquin, A. Togo, L. Chaput
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Transfer Learning

Machine learning promises to accelerate the material discovery by enabling high-throughput prediction of desirable macro-properties from atomic-level descriptors or structures. However, the limited data available about precise values of these properties have been a barrier, leading to predictive models with limited precision or the ability to generalize. This is particularly true of lattice thermal conductivity (LTC): existing datasets of precise (ab initio, DFT-based) computed values are limited to a few dozen materials with little variability. Based on such datasets, we study the impact of transfer learning on both the precision and generalizability of a deep learning model (ParAIsite). We start from an existing model (MEGNet~\cite{Chen2019}) and show that improvements are obtained by fine-tuning a pre-trained version on different tasks. Interestingly, we also show that a much greater improvement is obtained when first fine-tuning it on a large datasets of low-quality approximations of LTC (based on the AGL model) and then applying a second phase of fine-tuning with our high-quality, smaller-scale datasets. The promising results obtained pave the way not only towards a greater ability to explore large databases in search of low thermal conductivity materials but also to methods enabling increasingly precise predictions in areas where quality data are rare.
Active partitioning: inverting the paradigm of active learning
Authors: Marius Tacke, Matthias Busch, Kevin Linka, Christian J. Cyron, Roland C. Aydin
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Active Learning

Datasets often incorporate various functional patterns related to different aspects or regimes, which are typically not equally present throughout the dataset. We propose a novel, general-purpose partitioning algorithm that utilizes competition between models to detect and separate these functional patterns. This competition is induced by multiple models iteratively submitting their predictions for the dataset, with the best prediction for each data point being rewarded with training on that data point. This reward mechanism amplifies each model's strengths and encourages specialization in different patterns. The specializations can then be translated into a partitioning scheme. The amplification of each model's strengths inverts the active learning paradigm: while active learning typically focuses the training of models on their weaknesses to minimize the number of required training data points, our concept reinforces the strengths of each model, thus specializing them. We validate our concept -- called active partitioning -- with various datasets with clearly distinct functional patterns, such as mechanical stress and strain data in a porous structure. The active partitioning algorithm produces valuable insights into the datasets' structure, which can serve various further applications. As a demonstration of one exemplary usage, we set up modular models consisting of multiple expert models, each learning a single partition, and compare their performance on more than twenty popular regression problems with single models learning all partitions simultaneously. Our results show significant improvements, with up to 54% loss reduction, confirming our partitioning algorithm's utility.
A gentle push funziona benissimo: making instructed models in Italian via contrastive activation steering
Authors: Daniel Scalena, Elisabetta Fersini, Malvina Nissim
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00

Adapting models to a language that was only partially present in the pre-training data requires fine-tuning, which is expensive in terms of both data and computational resources. As an alternative to fine-tuning, we explore the potential of activation steering-based techniques to enhance model performance on Italian tasks. Through our experiments we show that Italian steering (i) can be successfully applied to different models, (ii) achieves performances comparable to, or even better than, fine-tuned models for Italian, and (iii) yields higher quality and consistency in Italian generations. We also discuss the utility of steering and fine-tuning in the contemporary LLM landscape where models are anyway getting high Italian performances even if not explicitly trained in this language.
Machine learning-based classification for Single Photon Space Debris Light Curves
Authors: Nadine M. Trummer, Amit Reza, Michael A. Steindorfer, Christiane Helling
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00

The growing number of man-made debris in Earth's orbit poses a threat to active satellite missions due to the risk of collision. Characterizing unknown debris is, therefore, of high interest. Light Curves (LCs) are temporal variations of object brightness and have been shown to contain information such as shape, attitude, and rotational state. Since 2015, the Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) group of Space Research Institute (IWF) Graz has been building a space debris LC catalogue. The LCs are captured on a Single Photon basis, which sets them apart from CCD-based measurements. In recent years, Machine Learning (ML) models have emerged as a viable technique for analyzing LCs. This work aims to classify Single Photon Space Debris using the ML framework. We have explored LC classification using k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN), Random Forest (RDF), XGBoost (XGB), and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifiers in order to assess the difference in performance between traditional and deep models. Instead of performing classification on the direct LCs data, we extracted features from the data first using an automated pipeline. We apply our models on three tasks, which are classifying individual objects, objects grouped into families according to origin (e.g., GLONASS satellites), and grouping into general types (e.g., rocket bodies). We successfully classified Space Debris LCs captured on Single Photon basis, obtaining accuracies as high as 90.7%. Further, our experiments show that the classifiers provide better classification accuracy with automated extracted features than other methods.
Evaluating and Improving the Robustness of Security Attack Detectors Generated by LLMs
Authors: Samuele Pasini, Jinhan Kim, Tommaso Aiello, Rocio Cabrera Lozoya, Antonino Sabetta, Paolo Tonella
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: RAG, Retrieval-augmented Generation

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used in software development to generate functions, such as attack detectors, that implement security requirements. However, LLMs struggle to generate accurate code, resulting, e.g., in attack detectors that miss well-known attacks when used in practice. This is most likely due to the LLM lacking knowledge about some existing attacks and to the generated code being not evaluated in real usage scenarios. We propose a novel approach integrating Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and Self-Ranking into the LLM pipeline. RAG enhances the robustness of the output by incorporating external knowledge sources, while the Self-Ranking technique, inspired to the concept of Self-Consistency, generates multiple reasoning paths and creates ranks to select the most robust detector. Our extensive empirical study targets code generated by LLMs to detect two prevalent injection attacks in web security: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and SQL injection (SQLi). Results show a significant improvement in detection performance compared to baselines, with an increase of up to 71%pt and 37%pt in the F2-Score for XSS and SQLi detection, respectively.
Semantic Edge Computing and Semantic Communications in 6G Networks: A Unifying Survey and Research Challenges
Authors: Milin Zhang, Mohammad Abdi, Venkat R. Dasari, Francesco Restuccia
Date: 2024-11-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Edge-computing

Semantic Edge Computing (SEC) and Semantic Communications (SemComs) have been proposed as viable approaches to achieve real-time edge-enabled intelligence in sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks. On one hand, SemCom leverages the strength of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) to encode and communicate the semantic information only, while making it robust to channel distortions by compensating for wireless effects. Ultimately, this leads to an improvement in the communication efficiency. On the other hand, SEC has leveraged distributed DNNs to divide the computation of a DNN across different devices based on their computational and networking constraints. Although significant progress has been made in both fields, the literature lacks a systematic view to connect both fields. In this work, we fulfill the current gap by unifying the SEC and SemCom fields. We summarize the research problems in these two fields and provide a comprehensive review of the state of the art with a focus on their technical strengths and challenges.