In this paper, we first give an introduction to the theoretical basis of the privacy-utility equilibrium in federated learning based on Bayesian privacy definitions and total variation distance privacy definitions. We then present the \textit{Learn-to-Distort-Data} framework, which provides a principled approach to navigate the privacy-utility equilibrium by explicitly modeling the distortion introduced by the privacy-preserving mechanism as a learnable variable and optimizing it jointly with the model parameters. We demonstrate the applicability of our framework to a variety of privacy-preserving mechanisms on the basis of data distortion and highlight its connections to related areas such as adversarial training, input robustness, and unlearnable examples. These connections enable leveraging techniques from these areas to design effective algorithms for privacy-utility equilibrium in federated learning under the \textit{Learn-to-Distort-Data} framework.
In this paper, we set the mathematical foundations of the Dynamical Low-Rank Approximation (DLRA) method for stochastic differential equations (SDEs). DLRA aims at approximating the solution as a linear combination of a small number of basis vectors with random coefficients (low rank format) with the peculiarity that both the basis vectors and the random coefficients vary in time. While the formulation and properties of DLRA are now well understood for random/parametric equations, the same cannot be said for SDEs and this work aims to fill this gap. We start by rigorously formulating a Dynamically Orthogonal (DO) approximation (an instance of DLRA successfully used in applications) for SDEs, which we then generalize to define a parametrization independent DLRA for SDEs. We show local well-posedness of the DO equations and their equivalence with the DLRA formulation. We also characterize the explosion time of the DO solution by a loss of linear independence of the random coefficients defining the solution expansion and give sufficient conditions for global existence.
In this paper, we propose a novel loss function aimed at optimizing the binary flare prediction problem by embedding the intrinsic ordinal flare characteristics into the binary cross-entropy (BCE) loss function. This modification is intended to provide the model with better guidance based on the ordinal characteristics of the data and improve the overall performance of the models. For our experiments, we employ a ResNet34-based model with transfer learning to predict $\geq$M-class flares by utilizing the shape-based features of magnetograms of active region (AR) patches spanning from $-$90$^{\circ}$ to $+$90$^{\circ}$ of solar longitude as our input data. We use a composite skill score (CSS) as our evaluation metric, which is calculated as the geometric mean of the True Skill Score (TSS) and the Heidke Skill Score (HSS) to rank and compare our models' performance. The primary contributions of this work are as follows: (i) We introduce a novel approach to encode ordinality into a binary loss function showing an application to solar flare prediction, (ii) We enhance solar flare forecasting by enabling flare predictions for each AR across the entire solar disk, without any longitudinal restrictions, and evaluate and compare performance. (iii) Our candidate model, optimized with the proposed loss function, shows an improvement of $\sim$7%, $\sim$4%, and $\sim$3% for AR patches within $\pm$30$^\circ$, $\pm$60$^\circ$, and $\pm$90$^\circ$ of solar longitude, respectively in terms of CSS, when compared with standard BCE. Additionally, we demonstrate the ability to issue flare forecasts for ARs in near-limb regions (regions between $\pm$60$^{\circ}$ to $\pm$90$^{\circ}$) with a CSS=0.34 (TSS=0.50 and HSS=0.23), expanding the scope of AR-based models for solar flare prediction. This advances the reliability of solar flare forecasts, leading to more effective prediction capabilities.
In this work, we propose a simple yet effective method to tackle the problem of imbalanced multi-class semantic segmentation in deep learning systems. One of the key properties for a good training set is the balancing among the classes. When the input distribution is heavily imbalanced in the number of instances, the learning process could be hindered or difficult to carry on. To this end, we propose a Dynamic Label Injection (DLI) algorithm to impose a uniform distribution in the input batch. Our algorithm computes the current batch defect distribution and re-balances it by transferring defects using a combination of Poisson-based seamless image cloning and cut-paste techniques. A thorough experimental section on the Magnetic Tiles dataset shows better results of DLI compared to other balancing loss approaches also in the challenging weakly-supervised setup. The code is available at //github.com/covisionlab/dynamic-label-injection.git
In this paper, we propose a novel method for detecting DeepFakes, enhancing the generalization of detection through semantic decoupling. There are now multiple DeepFake forgery technologies that not only possess unique forgery semantics but may also share common forgery semantics. The unique forgery semantics and irrelevant content semantics may promote over-fitting and hamper generalization for DeepFake detectors. For our proposed method, after decoupling, the common forgery semantics could be extracted from DeepFakes, and subsequently be employed for developing the generalizability of DeepFake detectors. Also, to pursue additional generalizability, we designed an adaptive high-pass module and a two-stage training strategy to improve the independence of decoupled semantics. Evaluation on FF++, Celeb-DF, DFD, and DFDC datasets showcases our method's excellent detection and generalization performance. Code is available at: //github.com/leaffeall/DFS-GDD.
In this article, we aim to provide a general and complete understanding of semi-supervised (SS) causal inference for treatment effects. Specifically, we consider two such estimands: (a) the average treatment effect and (b) the quantile treatment effect, as prototype cases, in an SS setting, characterized by two available data sets: (i) a labeled data set of size $n$, providing observations for a response and a set of high dimensional covariates, as well as a binary treatment indicator; and (ii) an unlabeled data set of size $N$, much larger than $n$, but without the response observed. Using these two data sets, we develop a family of SS estimators which are ensured to be: (1) more robust and (2) more efficient than their supervised counterparts based on the labeled data set only. Beyond the 'standard' double robustness results (in terms of consistency) that can be achieved by supervised methods as well, we further establish root-n consistency and asymptotic normality of our SS estimators whenever the propensity score in the model is correctly specified, without requiring specific forms of the nuisance functions involved. Such an improvement of robustness arises from the use of the massive unlabeled data, so it is generally not attainable in a purely supervised setting. In addition, our estimators are shown to be semi-parametrically efficient as long as all the nuisance functions are correctly specified. Moreover, as an illustration of the nuisance estimators, we consider inverse-probability-weighting type kernel smoothing estimators involving unknown covariate transformation mechanisms, and establish in high dimensional scenarios novel results on their uniform convergence rates, which should be of independent interest. Numerical results on both simulated and real data validate the advantage of our methods over their supervised counterparts with respect to both robustness and efficiency.
In this paper, we propose a data-driven method to learn interpretable topological features of biomolecular data and demonstrate the efficacy of parsimonious models trained on topological features in predicting the stability of synthetic mini proteins. We compare models that leverage automatically-learned structural features against models trained on a large set of biophysical features determined by subject-matter experts (SME). Our models, based only on topological features of the protein structures, achieved 92%-99% of the performance of SME-based models in terms of the average precision score. By interrogating model performance and feature importance metrics, we extract numerous insights that uncover high correlations between topological features and SME features. We further showcase how combining topological features and SME features can lead to improved model performance over either feature set used in isolation, suggesting that, in some settings, topological features may provide new discriminating information not captured in existing SME features that are useful for protein stability prediction.
In this paper, we address the issue of increasing the performance of reinforcement learning (RL) solutions for autonomous racing cars when navigating under conditions where practical vehicle modelling errors (commonly known as \emph{model mismatches}) are present. To address this challenge, we propose a partial end-to-end algorithm that decouples the planning and control tasks. Within this framework, an RL agent generates a trajectory comprising a path and velocity, which is subsequently tracked using a pure pursuit steering controller and a proportional velocity controller, respectively. In contrast, many current learning-based (i.e., reinforcement and imitation learning) algorithms utilise an end-to-end approach whereby a deep neural network directly maps from sensor data to control commands. By leveraging the robustness of a classical controller, our partial end-to-end driving algorithm exhibits better robustness towards model mismatches than standard end-to-end algorithms.
In this paper, we introduce a fast Fourier-Galerkin method for solving boundary integral equations on torus-shaped surfaces, which are diffeomorphic to a torus. We analyze the properties of the integral operator's kernel to derive the decay pattern of the entries in the representation matrix. Leveraging this decay pattern, we devise a truncation strategy that efficiently compresses the dense representation matrix of the integral operator into a sparser form containing only $\mathcal{O}(N\ln^2 N)$ nonzero entries, where $N$ denotes the degrees of freedom of the discretization method. We prove that this truncation strategy achieves a quasi-optimal convergence order of $\mathcal{O}(N^{-p/2}\ln N)$, with $p$ representing the degree of regularity of the exact solution to the boundary integral equation. Additionally, we confirm that the truncation strategy preserves stability throughout the solution process. Numerical experiments validate our theoretical findings and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
In this paper, we study the existence of equilibrium in a single-leader-multiple-follower game with decision-dependent chance constraints (DDCCs), where decision-dependent uncertainties (DDUs) exist in the constraints of followers. DDUs refer to the uncertainties impacted by the leader's strategy, while the leader cannot capture their exact probability distributions. To address such problems, we first use decision-dependent ambiguity sets under moment information and Cantelli's inequality to transform DDCCs into second-order cone constraints. This simplifies the game model by eliminating the probability distributions. We further prove that there exists at least one equilibrium point for this game by applying Kakutani's fixed-point theorem. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the impact of DDUs on the equilibrium of such game models.
In this paper, we propose a novel multi-task learning architecture, which incorporates recent advances in attention mechanisms. Our approach, the Multi-Task Attention Network (MTAN), consists of a single shared network containing a global feature pool, together with task-specific soft-attention modules, which are trainable in an end-to-end manner. These attention modules allow for learning of task-specific features from the global pool, whilst simultaneously allowing for features to be shared across different tasks. The architecture can be built upon any feed-forward neural network, is simple to implement, and is parameter efficient. Experiments on the CityScapes dataset show that our method outperforms several baselines in both single-task and multi-task learning, and is also more robust to the various weighting schemes in the multi-task loss function. We further explore the effectiveness of our method through experiments over a range of task complexities, and show how our method scales well with task complexity compared to baselines.