pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Deep Pattern Network for Click-Through Rate Prediction
Authors: Hengyu Zhang, Junwei Pan, Dapeng Liu, Jie Jiang, Xiu Li
Date: 2024-04-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Click-Through Rate Prediction, Prediction, Recommendation Systems, Self-Supervised Learning

Click-through rate (CTR) prediction tasks play a pivotal role in real-world applications, particularly in recommendation systems and online advertising. A significant research branch in this domain focuses on user behavior modeling. Current research predominantly centers on modeling co-occurrence relationships between the target item and items previously interacted with by users in their historical data. However, this focus neglects the intricate modeling of user behavior patterns. In reality, the abundance of user interaction records encompasses diverse behavior patterns, indicative of a spectrum of habitual paradigms. These patterns harbor substantial potential to significantly enhance CTR prediction performance. To harness the informational potential within user behavior patterns, we extend Target Attention (TA) to Target Pattern Attention (TPA) to model pattern-level dependencies. Furthermore, three critical challenges demand attention: the inclusion of unrelated items within behavior patterns, data sparsity in behavior patterns, and computational complexity arising from numerous patterns. To address these challenges, we introduce the Deep Pattern Network (DPN), designed to comprehensively leverage information from user behavior patterns. DPN efficiently retrieves target-related user behavior patterns using a target-aware attention mechanism. Additionally, it contributes to refining user behavior patterns through a pre-training paradigm based on self-supervised learning while promoting dependency learning within sparse patterns. Our comprehensive experiments, conducted across three public datasets, substantiate the superior performance and broad compatibility of DPN.
Causal Deconfounding via Confounder Disentanglement for Dual-Target Cross-Domain Recommendation
Authors: JiaJie Zhu, Yan Wang, Feng Zhu, Zhu Sun
Date: 2024-04-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Disentanglement

In recent years, dual-target Cross-Domain Recommendation (CDR) has been proposed to capture comprehensive user preferences in order to ultimately enhance the recommendation accuracy in both data-richer and data-sparser domains simultaneously. However, in addition to users' true preferences, the user-item interactions might also be affected by confounders (e.g., free shipping, sales promotion). As a result, dual-target CDR has to meet two challenges: (1) how to effectively decouple observed confounders, including single-domain confounders and cross-domain confounders, and (2) how to preserve the positive effects of observed confounders on predicted interactions, while eliminating their negative effects on capturing comprehensive user preferences. To address the above two challenges, we propose a Causal Deconfounding framework via Confounder Disentanglement for dual-target Cross-Domain Recommendation, called CD2CDR. In CD2CDR, we first propose a confounder disentanglement module to effectively decouple observed single-domain and cross-domain confounders. We then propose a causal deconfounding module to preserve the positive effects of such observed confounders and eliminate their negative effects via backdoor adjustment, thereby enhancing the recommendation accuracy in each domain. Extensive experiments conducted on five real-world datasets demonstrate that CD2CDR significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
DREAM: A Dual Representation Learning Model for Multimodal Recommendation
Authors: Kangning Zhang, Yingjie Qin, Jiarui Jin, Yifan Liu, Ruilong Su, Weinan Zhang, Yong Yu
Date: 2024-04-17 00:00:00
Tasks: Multimodal Recommendation, Representation Learning

Multimodal recommendation focuses primarily on effectively exploiting both behavioral and multimodal information for the recommendation task. However, most existing models suffer from the following issues when fusing information from two different domains: (1) Previous works do not pay attention to the sufficient utilization of modal information by only using direct concatenation, addition, or simple linear layers for modal information extraction. (2) Previous works treat modal features as learnable embeddings, which causes the modal embeddings to gradually deviate from the original modal features during learning. We refer to this issue as Modal Information Forgetting. (3) Previous approaches fail to account for the significant differences in the distribution between behavior and modality, leading to the issue of representation misalignment. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel Dual REpresentAtion learning model for Multimodal Recommendation called DREAM. For sufficient information extraction, we introduce separate dual lines, including Behavior Line and Modal Line, in which the Modal-specific Encoder is applied to empower modal representations. To address the issue of Modal Information Forgetting, we introduce the Similarity Supervised Signal to constrain the modal representations. Additionally, we design a Behavior-Modal Alignment module to fuse the dual representations through Intra-Alignment and Inter-Alignment. Extensive experiments on three public datasets demonstrate that the proposed DREAM method achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) results. The source code will be available upon acceptance.
Threat Behavior Textual Search by Attention Graph Isomorphism
Authors: Chanwoo Bae, Guanhong Tao, Zhuo Zhang, Xiangyu Zhang
Date: 2024-04-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Attribute, Malware Analysis, Sentence, Sentence Embeddings

Cyber attacks cause over \$1 trillion loss every year. An important task for cyber security analysts is attack forensics. It entails understanding malware behaviors and attack origins. However, existing automated or manual malware analysis can only disclose a subset of behaviors due to inherent difficulties (e.g., malware cloaking and obfuscation). As such, analysts often resort to text search techniques to identify existing malware reports based on the symptoms they observe, exploiting the fact that malware samples share a lot of similarity, especially those from the same origin. In this paper, we propose a novel malware behavior search technique that is based on graph isomorphism at the attention layers of Transformer models. We also compose a large dataset collected from various agencies to facilitate such research. Our technique outperforms state-of-the-art methods, such as those based on sentence embeddings and keywords by 6-14%. In the case study of 10 real-world malwares, our technique can correctly attribute 8 of them to their ground truth origins while using Google only works for 3 cases.
Exploring Augmentation and Cognitive Strategies for AI based Synthetic Personae
Authors: Rafael Arias Gonzalez, Steve DiPaola
Date: 2024-04-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Data Augmentation, Position

Large language models (LLMs) hold potential for innovative HCI research, including the creation of synthetic personae. However, their black-box nature and propensity for hallucinations pose challenges. To address these limitations, this position paper advocates for using LLMs as data augmentation systems rather than zero-shot generators. We further propose the development of robust cognitive and memory frameworks to guide LLM responses. Initial explorations suggest that data enrichment, episodic memory, and self-reflection techniques can improve the reliability of synthetic personae and open up new avenues for HCI research.
Intelligent Message Behavioral Identification System
Authors: Yuvaraju Chinnam, Bosubabu Sambana
Date: 2024-04-14 00:00:00

On social media platforms, the act of predicting reposting is seen as a challenging issue related to Short Message Services (SMS). This study examines the issue of predicting picture reposting in SMS and forecasts users' behavior in sharing photographs on Twitter. Several research vary. The paper introduces a network called Image Retweet Modeling (IRM) that models heterogeneous image retransmission. It considers the user's previous reposting of the image tweet, the next contact in the SMS, and the preferences of the reposted person. Three aspects connected to content. A text-guided multimodal neural network is developed to create a novel multi-faceted attention ranking network methodology. This allows for learning the joint image Twitter representation and user preference representation in the prediction job. Multiple experiments conducted on extensive data sets demonstrate that our approach outperforms current methods on Social Network platforms.
Reconfigurable Edge Hardware for Intelligent IDS: Systematic Approach
Authors: Wadid Foudhaili, Anouar Nechi, Celine Thermann, Mohammad Al Johmani, Rainer Buchty, Mladen Berekovic, Saleh Mulhem
Date: 2024-04-13 00:00:00
Tasks: Intrusion Detection

Intrusion detection systems (IDS) are crucial security measures nowadays to enforce network security. Their task is to detect anomalies in network communication and identify, if not thwart, possibly malicious behavior. Recently, machine learning has been deployed to construct intelligent IDS. This approach, however, is quite challenging particularly in distributed, highly dynamic, yet resource-constrained systems like Edge setups. In this paper, we tackle this issue from multiple angles by analyzing the concept of intelligent IDS (I-IDS) while addressing the specific requirements of Edge devices with a special focus on reconfigurability. Then, we introduce a systematic approach to constructing the I-IDS on reconfigurable Edge hardware. For this, we implemented our proposed IDS on state-of-the-art Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) technology as (1) a purely FPGA-based dataflow processor (DFP) and (2) a co-designed approach featuring RISC-V soft-core as FPGA-based soft-core processor (SCP). We complete our paper with a comparison of the state of the art (SoA) in this domain. The results show that DFP and SCP are both suitable for Edge applications from hardware resource and energy efficiency perspectives. Our proposed DFP solution clearly outperforms the SoA and demonstrates that required high performance can be achieved without prohibitively high hardware costs. This makes our proposed DFP suitable for Edge-based high-speed applications like modern communication technology.
COBRAPRO: A MATLAB toolbox for Physics-based Battery Modeling and Co-simulation Parameter Optimization
Authors: Sara Ha, Simona Onori
Date: 2024-04-15 00:00:00

COBRAPRO is a new open-source physics-based battery modeling software with the capability to conduct closed-loop parameter optimization using experimental data. Physics-based battery models require systematic parameter calibration to accurately predict battery behavior across different usage scenarios. While parameter calibration is essential to predict the dynamic behavior of batteries, many existing open-source DFN modeling tools lack integrated parameter identification routines. COBRAPRO addresses this gap by featuring an embedded parameter optimization framework that optimizes the model parameters by minimizing the error between the simulated and experimentally observed current-voltage data. With COBRAPRO, users can non-invasively identify unknown battery model parameters for any given battery chemistry.
Kinematics Modeling of Peroxy Free Radicals: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach
Authors: Subhadarsi Nayak, Hrithwik Shalu, Joseph Stember
Date: 2024-04-12 00:00:00
Tasks: Deep Reinforcement Learning

Tropospheric ozone, known as a concerning air pollutant, has been associated with health issues including asthma, bronchitis, and impaired lung function. The rates at which peroxy radicals react with NO play a critical role in the overall formation and depletion of tropospheric ozone. However, obtaining comprehensive kinetic data for these reactions remains challenging. Traditional approaches to determine rate constants are costly and technically intricate. Fortunately, the emergence of machine learning-based models offers a less resource and time-intensive alternative for acquiring kinetics information. In this study, we leveraged deep reinforcement learning to predict ranges of rate constants (\textit{k}) with exceptional accuracy, achieving a testing set accuracy of 100%. To analyze reactivity trends based on the molecular structure of peroxy radicals, we employed 51 global descriptors as input parameters. These descriptors were derived from optimized minimum energy geometries of peroxy radicals using the quantum composite G3B3 method. Through the application of Integrated Gradients (IGs), we gained valuable insights into the significance of the various descriptors in relation to reaction rates. We successfully validated and contextualized our findings by conducting cross-comparisons with established trends in the existing literature. These results establish a solid foundation for pioneering advancements in chemistry, where computer analysis serves as an inspirational source driving innovation.
TransLinkGuard: Safeguarding Transformer Models Against Model Stealing in Edge Deployment
Authors: Qinfeng Li, Zhiqiang Shen, Zhenghan Qin, Yangfan Xie, Xuhong Zhang, Tianyu Du, Jianwei Yin
Date: 2024-04-17 00:00:00

Proprietary large language models (LLMs) have been widely applied in various scenarios. Additionally, deploying LLMs on edge devices is trending for efficiency and privacy reasons. However, edge deployment of proprietary LLMs introduces new security challenges: edge-deployed models are exposed as white-box accessible to users, enabling adversaries to conduct effective model stealing (MS) attacks. Unfortunately, existing defense mechanisms fail to provide effective protection. Specifically, we identify four critical protection properties that existing methods fail to simultaneously satisfy: (1) maintaining protection after a model is physically copied; (2) authorizing model access at request level; (3) safeguarding runtime reverse engineering; (4) achieving high security with negligible runtime overhead. To address the above issues, we propose TransLinkGuard, a plug-and-play model protection approach against model stealing on edge devices. The core part of TransLinkGuard is a lightweight authorization module residing in a secure environment, e.g., TEE. The authorization module can freshly authorize each request based on its input. Extensive experiments show that TransLinkGuard achieves the same security protection as the black-box security guarantees with negligible overhead.
Black-box Adversarial Transferability: An Empirical Study in Cybersecurity Perspective
Authors: Khushnaseeb Roshan, Aasim Zafar
Date: 2024-04-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Cyber Attack Detection, Deep Learning

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence within the realm of cybersecurity raises significant security concerns. The vulnerability of deep learning models in adversarial attacks is one of the major issues. In adversarial machine learning, malicious users try to fool the deep learning model by inserting adversarial perturbation inputs into the model during its training or testing phase. Subsequently, it reduces the model confidence score and results in incorrect classifications. The novel key contribution of the research is to empirically test the black-box adversarial transferability phenomena in cyber attack detection systems. It indicates that the adversarial perturbation input generated through the surrogate model has a similar impact on the target model in producing the incorrect classification. To empirically validate this phenomenon, surrogate and target models are used. The adversarial perturbation inputs are generated based on the surrogate-model for which the hacker has complete information. Based on these adversarial perturbation inputs, both surrogate and target models are evaluated during the inference phase. We have done extensive experimentation over the CICDDoS-2019 dataset, and the results are classified in terms of various performance metrics like accuracy, precision, recall, and f1-score. The findings indicate that any deep learning model is highly susceptible to adversarial attacks, even if the attacker does not have access to the internal details of the target model. The results also indicate that white-box adversarial attacks have a severe impact compared to black-box adversarial attacks. There is a need to investigate and explore adversarial defence techniques to increase the robustness of the deep learning models against adversarial attacks.
Multimodal Attack Detection for Action Recognition Models
Authors: Furkan Mumcu, Yasin Yilmaz
Date: 2024-04-13 00:00:00
Tasks: Action Recognition, Temporal Action Localization

Adversarial machine learning attacks on video action recognition models is a growing research area and many effective attacks were introduced in recent years. These attacks show that action recognition models can be breached in many ways. Hence using these models in practice raises significant security concerns. However, there are very few works which focus on defending against or detecting attacks. In this work, we propose a novel universal detection method which is compatible with any action recognition model. In our extensive experiments, we show that our method consistently detects various attacks against different target models with high true positive rates while satisfying very low false positive rates. Tested against four state-of-the-art attacks targeting four action recognition models, the proposed detector achieves an average AUC of 0.911 over 16 test cases while the best performance achieved by the existing detectors is 0.645 average AUC. This 41.2% improvement is enabled by the robustness of the proposed detector to varying attack methods and target models. The lowest AUC achieved by our detector across the 16 test cases is 0.837 while the competing detector's performance drops as low as 0.211. We also show that the proposed detector is robust to varying attack strengths. In addition, we analyze our method's real-time performance with different hardware setups to demonstrate its potential as a practical defense mechanism.
PASA: Attack Agnostic Unsupervised Adversarial Detection using Prediction & Attribution Sensitivity Analysis
Authors: Dipkamal Bhusal, Md Tanvirul Alam, Monish K. Veerabhadran, Michael Clifford, Sara Rampazzi, Nidhi Rastogi
Date: 2024-04-12 00:00:00
Tasks: Autonomous Driving, Sensitivity

Deep neural networks for classification are vulnerable to adversarial attacks, where small perturbations to input samples lead to incorrect predictions. This susceptibility, combined with the black-box nature of such networks, limits their adoption in critical applications like autonomous driving. Feature-attribution-based explanation methods provide relevance of input features for model predictions on input samples, thus explaining model decisions. However, we observe that both model predictions and feature attributions for input samples are sensitive to noise. We develop a practical method for this characteristic of model prediction and feature attribution to detect adversarial samples. Our method, PASA, requires the computation of two test statistics using model prediction and feature attribution and can reliably detect adversarial samples using thresholds learned from benign samples. We validate our lightweight approach by evaluating the performance of PASA on varying strengths of FGSM, PGD, BIM, and CW attacks on multiple image and non-image datasets. On average, we outperform state-of-the-art statistical unsupervised adversarial detectors on CIFAR-10 and ImageNet by 14\% and 35\% ROC-AUC scores, respectively. Moreover, our approach demonstrates competitive performance even when an adversary is aware of the defense mechanism.
The Path To Autonomous Cyber Defense
Authors: Sean Oesch, Phillipe Austria, Amul Chaulagain, Brian Weber, Cory Watson, Matthew Dixson, Amir Sadovnik
Date: 2024-04-12 00:00:00

Defenders are overwhelmed by the number and scale of attacks against their networks.This problem will only be exacerbated as attackers leverage artificial intelligence to automate their workflows. We propose a path to autonomous cyber agents able to augment defenders by automating critical steps in the cyber defense life cycle.
Quantifying AI Vulnerabilities: A Synthesis of Complexity, Dynamical Systems, and Game Theory
Authors: B Kereopa-Yorke
Date: 2024-04-07 00:00:00
Tasks: NER

The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems across critical domains necessitates robust security evaluation frameworks. We propose a novel approach that introduces three metrics: System Complexity Index (SCI), Lyapunov Exponent for AI Stability (LEAIS), and Nash Equilibrium Robustness (NER). SCI quantifies the inherent complexity of an AI system, LEAIS captures its stability and sensitivity to perturbations, and NER evaluates its strategic robustness against adversarial manipulation. Through comparative analysis, we demonstrate the advantages of our framework over existing techniques. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications, potential applications, limitations, and future research directions. Our work contributes to the development of secure and trustworthy AI technologies by providing a holistic, theoretically grounded approach to AI security evaluation. As AI continues to advance, prioritising and advancing AI security through interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial to ensure its responsible deployment for the benefit of society.
Thermal Crosstalk Modelling and Compensation Methods for Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuits
Authors: Isidora Teofilovic, Ali Cem, David Sanchez-Jacome, Daniel Perez-Lopez, Francesco Da Ros
Date: 2024-03-19 00:00:00

Photonic integrated circuits play an important role in the field of optical computing, promising faster and more energy-efficient operations compared to their digital counterparts. This advantage stems from the inherent suitability of optical signals to carry out matrix multiplication. However, even deterministic phenomena such as thermal crosstalk make precise programming of photonic chips a challenging task. Here, we train and experimentally evaluate three models incorporating varying degrees of physics intuition to predict the effect of thermal crosstalk in different locations of an integrated programmable photonic mesh. We quantify the effect of thermal crosstalk by the resonance wavelength shift in the power spectrum of a microring resonator implemented in the chip, achieving modelling errors <0.5 pm. We experimentally validate the models through compensation of the crosstalk-induced wavelength shift. Finally, we evaluate the generalization capabilities of one of the models by employing it to predict and compensate for the effect of thermal crosstalk for parts of the chip it was not trained on, revealing root-mean-square-errors of <2.0 pm.