We study algebraic varieties associated with the camera resectioning problem. We characterize these resectioning varieties' multigraded vanishing ideals using Gr\"obner basis techniques. As an application, we derive and re-interpret celebrated results in geometric computer vision related to camera-point duality. We also clarify some relationships between the classical problems of optimal resectioning and triangulation, state a conjectural formula for the Euclidean distance degree of the resectioning variety, and discuss how this conjecture relates to the recently-resolved multiview conjecture.
We analyze the computational complexity of basic reconfiguration problems for the recently introduced surface Chemical Reaction Networks (sCRNs), where ordered pairs of adjacent species nondeterministically transform into a different ordered pair of species according to a predefined set of allowed transition rules (chemical reactions). In particular, two questions that are fundamental to the simulation of sCRNs are whether a given configuration of molecules can ever transform into another given configuration, and whether a given cell can ever contain a given species, given a set of transition rules. We show that these problems can be solved in polynomial time, are NP-complete, or are PSPACE-complete in a variety of different settings, including when adjacent species just swap instead of arbitrary transformation (swap sCRNs), and when cells can change species a limited number of times (k-burnout). Most problems turn out to be at least NP-hard except with very few distinct species (2 or 3).
For a sequence of classification tasks that arrive over time, it is common that tasks are evolving in the sense that consecutive tasks often have a higher similarity. The incremental learning of a growing sequence of tasks holds promise to enable accurate classification even with few samples per task by leveraging information from all the tasks in the sequence (forward and backward learning). However, existing techniques developed for continual learning and concept drift adaptation are either designed for tasks with time-independent similarities or only aim to learn the last task in the sequence. This paper presents incremental minimax risk classifiers (IMRCs) that effectively exploit forward and backward learning and account for evolving tasks. In addition, we analytically characterize the performance improvement provided by forward and backward learning in terms of the tasks' expected quadratic change and the number of tasks. The experimental evaluation shows that IMRCs can result in a significant performance improvement, especially for reduced sample sizes.
We settle the parameterized complexities of several variants of independent set reconfiguration and dominating set reconfiguration, parameterized by the number of tokens. We show that both problems are XL-complete when there is no limit on the number of moves, XNL-complete when a maximum length $\ell$ for the sequence is given in binary in the input, and XNLP-complete when $\ell$ is given in unary. The problems were known to be $\mathrm{W}[1]$- and $\mathrm{W}[2]$-hard respectively when $\ell$ is also a parameter. We complete the picture by showing membership in those classes. Moreover, we show that for all the variants that we consider, token sliding and token jumping are equivalent under pl-reductions. We introduce partitioned variants of token jumping and token sliding, and give pl-reductions between the four variants that have precise control over the number of tokens and the length of the reconfiguration sequence.
A new approach to analyzing intrinsic properties of the Josephus function, $J_{_k}$, is presented in this paper. The linear structure between extreme points of $J_{_k}$ is fully revealed, leading to the design of an efficient algorithm for evaluating $J_{_k}(n)$. Algebraic expressions that describe how recursively compute extreme points, including fixed points, are derived. The existence of consecutive extreme and also fixed points for all $k\geq 2$ is proven as a consequence, which generalizes Knuth result for $k=2$. Moreover, an extensive comparative numerical experiment is conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm for evaluating the Josephus function compared to established algorithms. The results show that the proposed scheme is highly effective in computing $J_{_k}(n)$ for large inputs.
We study the minority-opinion dynamics over a fully-connected network of $n$ nodes with binary opinions. Upon activation, a node receives a sample of opinions from a limited number of neighbors chosen uniformly at random. Each activated node then adopts the opinion that is least common within the received sample. Unlike all other known consensus dynamics, we prove that this elementary protocol behaves in dramatically different ways, depending on whether activations occur sequentially or in parallel. Specifically, we show that its expected consensus time is exponential in $n$ under asynchronous models, such as asynchronous GOSSIP. On the other hand, despite its chaotic nature, we show that it converges within $O(\log^2 n)$ rounds with high probability under synchronous models, such as synchronous GOSSIP. Finally, our results shed light on the bit-dissemination problem, that was previously introduced to model the spread of information in biological scenarios. Specifically, our analysis implies that the minority-opinion dynamics is the first stateless solution to this problem, in the parallel passive-communication setting, achieving convergence within a polylogarithmic number of rounds. This, together with a known lower bound for sequential stateless dynamics, implies a parallel-vs-sequential gap for this problem that is nearly quadratic in the number $n$ of nodes. This is in contrast to all known results for problems in this area, which exhibit a linear gap between the parallel and the sequential setting.
Manually grading D3 data visualizations is a challenging endeavor, and is especially difficult for large classes with hundreds of students. Grading an interactive visualization requires a combination of interactive, quantitative, and qualitative evaluation that are conventionally done manually and are difficult to scale up as the visualization complexity, data size, and number of students increase. We present VisGrader, a first-of-its kind automatic grading method for D3 visualizations that scalably and precisely evaluates the data bindings, visual encodings, interactions, and design specifications used in a visualization. Our method enhances students learning experience, enabling them to submit their code frequently and receive rapid feedback to better inform iteration and improvement to their code and visualization design. We have successfully deployed our method and auto-graded D3 submissions from more than 4000 students in a visualization course at Georgia Tech, and received positive feedback for expanding its adoption.
Pre-trained Language Models (PLMs) which are trained on large text corpus via self-supervised learning method, have yielded promising performance on various tasks in Natural Language Processing (NLP). However, though PLMs with huge parameters can effectively possess rich knowledge learned from massive training text and benefit downstream tasks at the fine-tuning stage, they still have some limitations such as poor reasoning ability due to the lack of external knowledge. Research has been dedicated to incorporating knowledge into PLMs to tackle these issues. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of Knowledge-Enhanced Pre-trained Language Models (KE-PLMs) to provide a clear insight into this thriving field. We introduce appropriate taxonomies respectively for Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Natural Language Generation (NLG) to highlight these two main tasks of NLP. For NLU, we divide the types of knowledge into four categories: linguistic knowledge, text knowledge, knowledge graph (KG), and rule knowledge. The KE-PLMs for NLG are categorized into KG-based and retrieval-based methods. Finally, we point out some promising future directions of KE-PLMs.
We consider the problem of discovering $K$ related Gaussian directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), where the involved graph structures share a consistent causal order and sparse unions of supports. Under the multi-task learning setting, we propose a $l_1/l_2$-regularized maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for learning $K$ linear structural equation models. We theoretically show that the joint estimator, by leveraging data across related tasks, can achieve a better sample complexity for recovering the causal order (or topological order) than separate estimations. Moreover, the joint estimator is able to recover non-identifiable DAGs, by estimating them together with some identifiable DAGs. Lastly, our analysis also shows the consistency of union support recovery of the structures. To allow practical implementation, we design a continuous optimization problem whose optimizer is the same as the joint estimator and can be approximated efficiently by an iterative algorithm. We validate the theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of the joint estimator in experiments.
AI is undergoing a paradigm shift with the rise of models (e.g., BERT, DALL-E, GPT-3) that are trained on broad data at scale and are adaptable to a wide range of downstream tasks. We call these models foundation models to underscore their critically central yet incomplete character. This report provides a thorough account of the opportunities and risks of foundation models, ranging from their capabilities (e.g., language, vision, robotics, reasoning, human interaction) and technical principles(e.g., model architectures, training procedures, data, systems, security, evaluation, theory) to their applications (e.g., law, healthcare, education) and societal impact (e.g., inequity, misuse, economic and environmental impact, legal and ethical considerations). Though foundation models are based on standard deep learning and transfer learning, their scale results in new emergent capabilities,and their effectiveness across so many tasks incentivizes homogenization. Homogenization provides powerful leverage but demands caution, as the defects of the foundation model are inherited by all the adapted models downstream. Despite the impending widespread deployment of foundation models, we currently lack a clear understanding of how they work, when they fail, and what they are even capable of due to their emergent properties. To tackle these questions, we believe much of the critical research on foundation models will require deep interdisciplinary collaboration commensurate with their fundamentally sociotechnical nature.
This work considers the question of how convenient access to copious data impacts our ability to learn causal effects and relations. In what ways is learning causality in the era of big data different from -- or the same as -- the traditional one? To answer this question, this survey provides a comprehensive and structured review of both traditional and frontier methods in learning causality and relations along with the connections between causality and machine learning. This work points out on a case-by-case basis how big data facilitates, complicates, or motivates each approach.