Partial multi-task learning where training examples are annotated for one of the target tasks is a promising idea in remote sensing as it allows combining datasets annotated for different tasks and predicting more tasks with fewer network parameters. The na\"ive approach to partial multi-task learning is sub-optimal due to the lack of all-task annotations for learning joint representations. This paper proposes using knowledge distillation to replace the need of ground truths for the alternate task and enhance the performance of such approach. Experiments conducted on the public ISPRS 2D Semantic Labeling Contest dataset show the effectiveness of the proposed idea on partial multi-task learning for semantic tasks including object detection and semantic segmentation in aerial images.
This research presents a comprehensive approach to predicting the duration of traffic incidents and classifying them as short-term or long-term across the Sydney Metropolitan Area. Leveraging a dataset that encompasses detailed records of traffic incidents, road network characteristics, and socio-economic indicators, we train and evaluate a variety of advanced machine learning models including Gradient Boosted Decision Trees (GBDT), Random Forest, LightGBM, and XGBoost. The models are assessed using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for regression tasks and F1 score for classification tasks. Our experimental results demonstrate that XGBoost and LightGBM outperform conventional models with XGBoost achieving the lowest RMSE of 33.7 for predicting incident duration and highest classification F1 score of 0.62 for a 30-minute duration threshold. For classification, the 30-minute threshold balances performance with 70.84% short-term duration classification accuracy and 62.72% long-term duration classification accuracy. Feature importance analysis, employing both tree split counts and SHAP values, identifies the number of affected lanes, traffic volume, and types of primary and secondary vehicles as the most influential features. The proposed methodology not only achieves high predictive accuracy but also provides stakeholders with vital insights into factors contributing to incident durations. These insights enable more informed decision-making for traffic management and response strategies. The code is available by the link: //github.com/Future-Mobility-Lab/SydneyIncidents
Threshold selection is a fundamental problem in any threshold-based extreme value analysis. While models are asymptotically motivated, selecting an appropriate threshold for finite samples is difficult and highly subjective through standard methods. Inference for high quantiles can also be highly sensitive to the choice of threshold. Too low a threshold choice leads to bias in the fit of the extreme value model, while too high a choice leads to unnecessary additional uncertainty in the estimation of model parameters. We develop a novel methodology for automated threshold selection that directly tackles this bias-variance trade-off. We also develop a method to account for the uncertainty in the threshold estimation and propagate this uncertainty through to high quantile inference. Through a simulation study, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method for threshold selection and subsequent extreme quantile estimation, relative to the leading existing methods, and show how the method's effectiveness is not sensitive to the tuning parameters. We apply our method to the well-known, troublesome example of the River Nidd dataset.
There is an ongoing need for scalable tools to aid researchers in both retrospective and prospective standardization of discrete entity types -- such as disease names, cell types or chemicals -- that are used in metadata associated with biomedical data. When metadata are not well-structured or precise, the associated data are harder to find and are often burdensome to reuse, analyze or integrate with other datasets due to the upfront curation effort required to make the data usable -- typically through retrospective standardization and cleaning of the (meta)data. With the goal of facilitating the task of standardizing metadata -- either in bulk or in a one-by-one fashion; for example, to support auto-completion of biomedical entities in forms -- we have developed an open-source tool called text2term that maps free-text descriptions of biomedical entities to controlled terms in ontologies. The tool is highly configurable and can be used in multiple ways that cater to different users and expertise levels -- it is available on PyPI and can be used programmatically as any Python package; it can also be used via a command-line interface; or via our hosted, graphical user interface-based Web application (//text2term.hms.harvard.edu); or by deploying a local instance of our interactive application using Docker.
Compared to widely used likelihood-based approaches, the minimum contrast (MC) method offers a computationally efficient method for estimation and inference of spatial point processes. These relative gains in computing time become more pronounced when analyzing complicated multivariate point process models. Despite this, there has been little exploration of the MC method for multivariate spatial point processes. Therefore, this article introduces a new MC method for parametric multivariate spatial point processes. A contrast function is computed based on the trace of the power of the difference between the conjectured $K$-function matrix and its nonparametric unbiased edge-corrected estimator. Under standard assumptions, we derive the asymptotic normality of our MC estimator. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulation studies of bivariate log-Gaussian Cox processes and five-variate product-shot-noise Cox processes.
Machine learning (ML) methods, which fit to data the parameters of a given parameterized model class, have garnered significant interest as potential methods for learning surrogate models for complex engineering systems for which traditional simulation is expensive. However, in many scientific and engineering settings, generating high-fidelity data on which to train ML models is expensive, and the available budget for generating training data is limited, so that high-fidelity training data are scarce. ML models trained on scarce data have high variance, resulting in poor expected generalization performance. We propose a new multifidelity training approach for scientific machine learning via linear regression that exploits the scientific context where data of varying fidelities and costs are available: for example, high-fidelity data may be generated by an expensive fully resolved physics simulation whereas lower-fidelity data may arise from a cheaper model based on simplifying assumptions. We use the multifidelity data within an approximate control variate framework to define new multifidelity Monte Carlo estimators for linear regression models. We provide bias and variance analysis of our new estimators that guarantee the approach's accuracy and improved robustness to scarce high-fidelity data. Numerical results demonstrate that our multifidelity training approach achieves similar accuracy to the standard high-fidelity only approach with orders-of-magnitude reduced high-fidelity data requirements.
Incorporating prior knowledge into pre-trained language models has proven to be effective for knowledge-driven NLP tasks, such as entity typing and relation extraction. Current pre-training procedures usually inject external knowledge into models by using knowledge masking, knowledge fusion and knowledge replacement. However, factual information contained in the input sentences have not been fully mined, and the external knowledge for injecting have not been strictly checked. As a result, the context information cannot be fully exploited and extra noise will be introduced or the amount of knowledge injected is limited. To address these issues, we propose MLRIP, which modifies the knowledge masking strategies proposed by ERNIE-Baidu, and introduce a two-stage entity replacement strategy. Extensive experiments with comprehensive analyses illustrate the superiority of MLRIP over BERT-based models in military knowledge-driven NLP tasks.
We derive information-theoretic generalization bounds for supervised learning algorithms based on the information contained in predictions rather than in the output of the training algorithm. These bounds improve over the existing information-theoretic bounds, are applicable to a wider range of algorithms, and solve two key challenges: (a) they give meaningful results for deterministic algorithms and (b) they are significantly easier to estimate. We show experimentally that the proposed bounds closely follow the generalization gap in practical scenarios for deep learning.
Artificial neural networks thrive in solving the classification problem for a particular rigid task, acquiring knowledge through generalized learning behaviour from a distinct training phase. The resulting network resembles a static entity of knowledge, with endeavours to extend this knowledge without targeting the original task resulting in a catastrophic forgetting. Continual learning shifts this paradigm towards networks that can continually accumulate knowledge over different tasks without the need to retrain from scratch. We focus on task incremental classification, where tasks arrive sequentially and are delineated by clear boundaries. Our main contributions concern 1) a taxonomy and extensive overview of the state-of-the-art, 2) a novel framework to continually determine the stability-plasticity trade-off of the continual learner, 3) a comprehensive experimental comparison of 11 state-of-the-art continual learning methods and 4 baselines. We empirically scrutinize method strengths and weaknesses on three benchmarks, considering Tiny Imagenet and large-scale unbalanced iNaturalist and a sequence of recognition datasets. We study the influence of model capacity, weight decay and dropout regularization, and the order in which the tasks are presented, and qualitatively compare methods in terms of required memory, computation time, and storage.
Graph representation learning for hypergraphs can be used to extract patterns among higher-order interactions that are critically important in many real world problems. Current approaches designed for hypergraphs, however, are unable to handle different types of hypergraphs and are typically not generic for various learning tasks. Indeed, models that can predict variable-sized heterogeneous hyperedges have not been available. Here we develop a new self-attention based graph neural network called Hyper-SAGNN applicable to homogeneous and heterogeneous hypergraphs with variable hyperedge sizes. We perform extensive evaluations on multiple datasets, including four benchmark network datasets and two single-cell Hi-C datasets in genomics. We demonstrate that Hyper-SAGNN significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on traditional tasks while also achieving great performance on a new task called outsider identification. Hyper-SAGNN will be useful for graph representation learning to uncover complex higher-order interactions in different applications.
Machine-learning models have demonstrated great success in learning complex patterns that enable them to make predictions about unobserved data. In addition to using models for prediction, the ability to interpret what a model has learned is receiving an increasing amount of attention. However, this increased focus has led to considerable confusion about the notion of interpretability. In particular, it is unclear how the wide array of proposed interpretation methods are related, and what common concepts can be used to evaluate them. We aim to address these concerns by defining interpretability in the context of machine learning and introducing the Predictive, Descriptive, Relevant (PDR) framework for discussing interpretations. The PDR framework provides three overarching desiderata for evaluation: predictive accuracy, descriptive accuracy and relevancy, with relevancy judged relative to a human audience. Moreover, to help manage the deluge of interpretation methods, we introduce a categorization of existing techniques into model-based and post-hoc categories, with sub-groups including sparsity, modularity and simulatability. To demonstrate how practitioners can use the PDR framework to evaluate and understand interpretations, we provide numerous real-world examples. These examples highlight the often under-appreciated role played by human audiences in discussions of interpretability. Finally, based on our framework, we discuss limitations of existing methods and directions for future work. We hope that this work will provide a common vocabulary that will make it easier for both practitioners and researchers to discuss and choose from the full range of interpretation methods.