This study explores the utilization of Dermatoscopic synthetic data generated through stable diffusion models as a strategy for enhancing the robustness of machine learning model training. Synthetic data generation plays a pivotal role in mitigating challenges associated with limited labeled datasets, thereby facilitating more effective model training. In this context, we aim to incorporate enhanced data transformation techniques by extending the recent success of few-shot learning and a small amount of data representation in text-to-image latent diffusion models. The optimally tuned model is further used for rendering high-quality skin lesion synthetic data with diverse and realistic characteristics, providing a valuable supplement and diversity to the existing training data. We investigate the impact of incorporating newly generated synthetic data into the training pipeline of state-of-art machine learning models, assessing its effectiveness in enhancing model performance and generalization to unseen real-world data. Our experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the synthetic data generated through stable diffusion models helps in improving the robustness and adaptability of end-to-end CNN and vision transformer models on two different real-world skin lesion datasets.

Large language models (LLMs) are powerful dialogue agents, but specializing them towards fulfilling a specific function can be challenging. Instructing tuning, i.e. tuning models on instruction and sample responses generated by humans (Ouyang et al., 2022), has proven as an effective method to do so, yet requires a number of data samples that a) might not be available or b) costly to generate. Furthermore, this cost increases when the goal is to make the LLM follow a specific workflow within a dialogue instead of single instructions. Inspired by the self-play technique in reinforcement learning and the use of LLMs to simulate human agents, we propose a more effective method for data collection through LLMs engaging in a conversation in various roles. This approach generates a training data via "self-talk" of LLMs that can be refined and utilized for supervised fine-tuning. We introduce an automated way to measure the (partial) success of a dialogue. This metric is used to filter the generated conversational data that is fed back in LLM for training. Based on our automated and human evaluations of conversation quality, we demonstrate that such self-talk data improves results. In addition, we examine the various characteristics that showcase the quality of generated dialogues and how they can be connected to their potential utility as training data.

Few-shot Learning aims to learn and distinguish new categories with a very limited number of available images, presenting a significant challenge in the realm of deep learning. Recent researchers have sought to leverage the additional textual or linguistic information of these rare categories with a pre-trained language model to facilitate learning, thus partially alleviating the problem of insufficient supervision signals. However, the full potential of the textual information and pre-trained language model have been underestimated in the few-shot learning till now, resulting in limited performance enhancements. To address this, we propose a simple but effective framework for few-shot learning tasks, specifically designed to exploit the textual information and language model. In more detail, we explicitly exploit the zero-shot capability of the pre-trained language model with the learnable prompt. And we just add the visual feature with the textual feature for inference directly without the intricate designed fusion modules in previous works. Additionally, we apply the self-ensemble and distillation to further enhance these components. Our extensive experiments conducted across four widely used few-shot datasets demonstrate that our simple framework achieves impressive results. Particularly noteworthy is its outstanding performance in the 1-shot learning task, surpassing state-of-the-art methods by an average of 3.0\% in classification accuracy. \footnote{We will make the source codes of the proposed framework publicly available upon acceptance. }.

he evaluation of the impact of actions undertaken is essential in management. This paper assesses the impact of efforts considered to mitigate risk and create safe environments on a global scale. We measure this impact by looking at the probability of improvement over a specific short period of time. Using the World Risk Index, we conduct a temporal analysis of global disaster risk dynamics from 2011 to 2021. This temporal exploration through the lens of the World Risk Index provides insights into the complex dynamics of disaster risk. We found that, despite sustained efforts, the global landscape remains divided into two main clusters: high susceptibility and moderate susceptibility, regardless of geographical location. This clustering was achieved using a semi-supervised approach through the Label Spreading algorithm, with 98% accuracy. We also found that the prediction of clusters achieved through supervised learning on the period considered in this study (one, three, and five years) showed that the Logistic regression (almost 99% at each stage) performed better than other classifiers. This suggests that the current policies and mechanisms are not effective in helping countries move from a hazardous position to a safer one during the period considered. In fact, statistical projections using a scenario analysis indicate that there is only a 1% chance of such a shift occurring within a five-year timeframe. This sobering reality highlights the need for a paradigm shift. Traditional long-term disaster management strategies are not effective for countries that are highly vulnerable. Our findings indicate the need for an innovative approach that is tailored to the specific vulnerabilities of these nations. As the threat of vulnerability persists, our research calls for the development of new strategies that can effectively address the ongoing challenges of disaster risk management

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the predominant form of dementia, poses a growing global challenge and underscores the urgency of accurate and early diagnosis. The clinical technique radiologists adopt for distinguishing between mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD using Machine Resonance Imaging (MRI) encounter hurdles because they are not consistent and reliable. Machine learning has been shown to offer promise for early AD diagnosis. However, existing models focused on focal fine-grain features without considerations to focal structural features that give off information on neurodegeneration of the brain cerebral cortex. Therefore, this paper proposes a machine learning (ML) framework that integrates Gamma correction, an image enhancement technique, and includes a structure-focused neurodegeneration convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture called SNeurodCNN for discriminating between AD and MCI. The ML framework leverages the mid-sagittal and para-sagittal brain image viewpoints of the structure-focused Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) dataset. Through experiments, our proposed machine learning framework shows exceptional performance. The parasagittal viewpoint set achieves 97.8% accuracy, with 97.0% specificity and 98.5% sensitivity. The midsagittal viewpoint is shown to present deeper insights into the structural brain changes given the increase in accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity, which are 98.1% 97.2%, and 99.0%, respectively. Using GradCAM technique, we show that our proposed model is capable of capturing the structural dynamics of MCI and AD which exist about the frontal lobe, occipital lobe, cerebellum, and parietal lobe. Therefore, our model itself as a potential brain structural change Digi-Biomarker for early diagnosis of AD.

In-context Learning (ICL) is one of the key methods for enhancing the performance of large language models on specific tasks by providing a set of few-shot examples. However, the ICL capability of different types of models shows significant variation due to factors such as model architecture, volume of learning data, and the size of parameters. Generally, the larger the model's parameter size and the more extensive the learning data, the stronger its ICL capability. In this paper, we propose a method SLEICL that involves learning from examples using strong language models and then summarizing and transferring these learned skills to weak language models for inference and application. This ensures the stability and effectiveness of ICL. Compared to directly enabling weak language models to learn from prompt examples, SLEICL reduces the difficulty of ICL for these models. Our experiments, conducted on up to eight datasets with five language models, demonstrate that weak language models achieve consistent improvement over their own zero-shot or few-shot capabilities using the SLEICL method. Some weak language models even surpass the performance of GPT4-1106-preview (zero-shot) with the aid of SLEICL.

The back-end module of Distributed Collaborative Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (DCSLAM) requires solving a nonlinear Pose Graph Optimization (PGO) under a distributed setting, also known as SE(d)-synchronization. Most existing distributed graph optimization algorithms employ a simple sequential partitioning scheme, which may result in unbalanced subgraph dimensions due to the different geographic locations of each robot, and hence imposes extra communication load. Moreover, the performance of current Riemannian optimization algorithms can be further accelerated. In this letter, we propose a novel distributed pose graph optimization algorithm combining multi-level partitioning with an accelerated Riemannian optimization method. Firstly, we employ the multi-level graph partitioning algorithm to preprocess the naive pose graph to formulate a balanced optimization problem. In addition, inspired by the accelerated coordinate descent method, we devise an Improved Riemannian Block Coordinate Descent (IRBCD) algorithm and the critical point obtained is globally optimal. Finally, we evaluate the effects of four common graph partitioning approaches on the correlation of the inter-subgraphs, and discover that the Highest scheme has the best partitioning performance. Also, we implement simulations to quantitatively demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art distributed pose graph optimization protocols.

The development of facial biometric systems has contributed greatly to the development of the computer vision field. Nowadays, there's always a need to develop a multimodal system that combines multiple biometric traits in an efficient, meaningful way. In this paper, we introduce "IdentiFace" which is a multimodal facial biometric system that combines the core of facial recognition with some of the most important soft biometric traits such as gender, face shape, and emotion. We also focused on developing the system using only VGG-16 inspired architecture with minor changes across different subsystems. This unification allows for simpler integration across modalities. It makes it easier to interpret the learned features between the tasks which gives a good indication about the decision-making process across the facial modalities and potential connection. For the recognition problem, we acquired a 99.2% test accuracy for five classes with high intra-class variations using data collected from the FERET database[1]. We achieved 99.4% on our dataset and 95.15% on the public dataset[2] in the gender recognition problem. We were also able to achieve a testing accuracy of 88.03% in the face-shape problem using the celebrity face-shape dataset[3]. Finally, we achieved a decent testing accuracy of 66.13% in the emotion task which is considered a very acceptable accuracy compared to related work on the FER2013 dataset[4].

Low-resource African languages pose unique challenges for natural language processing (NLP) tasks, including natural language generation (NLG). In this paper, we develop Cheetah, a massively multilingual NLG language model for African languages. Cheetah supports 517 African languages and language varieties, allowing us to address the scarcity of NLG resources and provide a solution to foster linguistic diversity. We demonstrate the effectiveness of Cheetah through comprehensive evaluations across six generation downstream tasks. In five of the six tasks, Cheetah significantly outperforms other models, showcasing its remarkable performance for generating coherent and contextually appropriate text in a wide range of African languages. We additionally conduct a detailed human evaluation to delve deeper into the linguistic capabilities of Cheetah. The introduction of Cheetah has far-reaching benefits for linguistic diversity. By leveraging pretrained models and adapting them to specific languages, our approach facilitates the development of practical NLG applications for African communities. The findings of this study contribute to advancing NLP research in low-resource settings, enabling greater accessibility and inclusion for African languages in a rapidly expanding digital landscape. We publicly release our models for research.

The way the media presents events can significantly affect public perception, which in turn can alter people's beliefs and views. Media bias describes a one-sided or polarizing perspective on a topic. This article summarizes the research on computational methods to detect media bias by systematically reviewing 3140 research papers published between 2019 and 2022. To structure our review and support a mutual understanding of bias across research domains, we introduce the Media Bias Taxonomy, which provides a coherent overview of the current state of research on media bias from different perspectives. We show that media bias detection is a highly active research field, in which transformer-based classification approaches have led to significant improvements in recent years. These improvements include higher classification accuracy and the ability to detect more fine-granular types of bias. However, we have identified a lack of interdisciplinarity in existing projects, and a need for more awareness of the various types of media bias to support methodologically thorough performance evaluations of media bias detection systems. Concluding from our analysis, we see the integration of recent machine learning advancements with reliable and diverse bias assessment strategies from other research areas as the most promising area for future research contributions in the field.