Convolutional Neural Networks, as most artificial neural networks, are commonly viewed as methods different in essence from kernel-based methods. We provide a systematic translation of Convolutional Neural Networks (ConvNets) into their kernel-based counterparts, Convolutional Kernel Networks (CKNs), and demonstrate that this perception is unfounded both formally and empirically. We show that, given a Convolutional Neural Network, we can design a corresponding Convolutional Kernel Network, easily trainable using a new stochastic gradient algorithm based on an accurate gradient computation, that performs on par with its Convolutional Neural Network counterpart. We present experimental results supporting our claims on landmark ConvNet architectures comparing each ConvNet to its CKN counterpart over several parameter settings.

Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder, affecting about 1% of the population at all ages. As many as 60% of people with epilepsy experience focal seizures which originate in a certain brain area and are limited to part of one cerebral hemisphere. In focal epilepsy patients, a precise surgical removal of the seizure onset zone can lead to effective seizure control or even a seizure-free outcome. Thus, correct identification of the seizure onset zone is essential. For clinical evaluation purposes, electroencephalography (EEG) recordings are commonly used. However, their interpretation is usually done manually by physicians and is time-consuming and error-prone. In this work, we propose an automated epileptic signal classification method based on modern deep learning methods. In contrast to previous approaches, the network is trained directly on the EEG recordings, avoiding hand-crafted feature extraction and selection procedures. This exploits the ability of deep neural networks to detect and extract relevant features automatically, that may be too complex or subtle to be noticed by humans. The proposed network structure is based on a convolutional neural network with residual connections. We demonstrate that our network produces state-of-the-art performance on two benchmark data sets, a data set from Bonn University and the Bern-Barcelona data set. We conclude that modern deep learning approaches can reach state-of-the-art performance on epileptic EEG classification and automated seizure onset zone identification tasks when trained on raw EEG data. This suggests that such approaches have potential for improving clinical practice.

We introduce Independently Recurrent Long Short-term Memory cells: IndyLSTMs. These differ from regular LSTM cells in that the recurrent weights are not modeled as a full matrix, but as a diagonal matrix, i.e.\ the output and state of each LSTM cell depends on the inputs and its own output/state, as opposed to the input and the outputs/states of all the cells in the layer. The number of parameters per IndyLSTM layer, and thus the number of FLOPS per evaluation, is linear in the number of nodes in the layer, as opposed to quadratic for regular LSTM layers, resulting in potentially both smaller and faster models. We evaluate their performance experimentally by training several models on the popular \iamondb and CASIA online handwriting datasets, as well as on several of our in-house datasets. We show that IndyLSTMs, despite their smaller size, consistently outperform regular LSTMs both in terms of accuracy per parameter, and in best accuracy overall. We attribute this improved performance to the IndyLSTMs being less prone to overfitting.

Despite the huge success of Long Short-Term Memory networks, their applications in environmental sciences are scarce. We argue that one reason is the difficulty to interpret the internals of trained networks. In this study, we look at the application of LSTMs for rainfall-runoff forecasting, one of the central tasks in the field of hydrology, in which the river discharge has to be predicted from meteorological observations. LSTMs are particularly well-suited for this problem since memory cells can represent dynamic reservoirs and storages, which are essential components in state-space modelling approaches of the hydrological system. On basis of two different catchments, one with snow influence and one without, we demonstrate how the trained model can be analyzed and interpreted. In the process, we show that the network internally learns to represent patterns that are consistent with our qualitative understanding of the hydrological system.

Compressed sensing in MRI enables high subsampling factors while maintaining diagnostic image quality. This technique enables shortened scan durations and/or improved image resolution. Further, compressed sensing can increase the diagnostic information and value from each scan performed. Overall, compressed sensing has significant clinical impact in improving the diagnostic quality and patient experience for imaging exams. However, a number of challenges exist when moving compressed sensing from research to the clinic. These challenges include hand-crafted image priors, sensitive tuning parameters, and long reconstruction times. Data-driven learning provides a solution to address these challenges. As a result, compressed sensing can have greater clinical impact. In this tutorial, we will review the compressed sensing formulation and outline steps needed to transform this formulation to a deep learning framework. Supplementary open source code in python will be used to demonstrate this approach with open databases. Further, we will discuss considerations in applying data-driven compressed sensing in the clinical setting.

Predicting odor's pleasantness simplifies the evaluation of odors and has the potential to be applied in perfumes and environmental monitoring industry. Classical algorithms for predicting odor's pleasantness generally use a manual feature extractor and an independent classifier. Manual designing a good feature extractor depend on expert knowledge and experience is the key to the accuracy of the algorithms. In order to circumvent this difficulty, we proposed a model for predicting odor's pleasantness by using convolutional neural network. In our model, the convolutional neural layers replace manual feature extractor and show better performance. The experiments show that the correlation between our model and human is over 90% on pleasantness rating. And our model has 99.9% accuracy in distinguishing between absolutely pleasant or unpleasant odors.

We provide a comprehensive investigation of different custom and off-the-shelf architectures as well as different approaches to generating feature vectors for offensive language detection. We also show that these approaches work well on small and noisy datasets such as on the Offensive Language Identification Dataset (OLID), so it should be possible to use them for other applications.

A central problem in hyperspectral image classification is obtaining high classification accuracy when using a limited amount of labelled data. In this paper we present a novel graph-based framework, which aims to tackle this problem in the presence of large scale data input. Our approach utilises a novel superpixel method, specifically designed for hyperspectral data, to define meaningful local regions in an image, which with high probability share the same classification label. We then extract spectral and spatial features from these regions and use these to produce a contracted weighted graph-representation, where each node represents a region rather than a pixel. Our graph is then fed into a graph-based semi-supervised classifier which gives the final classification. We show that using superpixels in a graph representation is an effective tool for speeding up graphical classifiers applied to hyperspectral images. We demonstrate through exhaustive quantitative and qualitative results that our proposed method produces accurate classifications when an incredibly small amount of labelled data is used. We show that our approach mitigates the major drawbacks of existing approaches, resulting in our approach outperforming several comparative state-of-the-art techniques.

Feature engineering is one of the most costly aspects of developing effective machine learning models, and that cost is even greater in specialized problem domains, like malware classification, where expert skills are necessary to identify useful features. Recent work, however, has shown that deep learning models can be used to automatically learn feature representations directly from the raw, unstructured bytes of the binaries themselves. In this paper, we explore what these models are learning about malware. To do so, we examine the learned features at multiple levels of resolution, from individual byte embeddings to end-to-end analysis of the model. At each step, we connect these byte-oriented activations to their original semantics through parsing and disassembly of the binary to arrive at human-understandable features. Through our results, we identify several interesting features learned by the model and their connection to manually-derived features typically used by traditional machine learning models. Additionally, we explore the impact of training data volume and regularization on the quality of the learned features and the efficacy of the classifiers, revealing the somewhat paradoxical insight that better generalization does not necessarily result in better performance for byte-based malware classifiers.

Since AlphaGo and AlphaGo Zero have achieved breakground successes in the game of Go, the programs have been generalized to solve other tasks. Subsequently, AlphaZero was developed to play Go, Chess and Shogi. In the literature, the algorithms are explained well. However, AlphaZero contains many parameters, and for neither AlphaGo, AlphaGo Zero nor AlphaZero, there is sufficient discussion about how to set parameter values in these algorithms. Therefore, in this paper, we choose 12 parameters in AlphaZero and evaluate how these parameters contribute to training. We focus on three objectives~(training loss, time cost and playing strength). For each parameter, we train 3 models using 3 different values~(minimum value, default value, maximum value). We use the game of play 6$\times$6 Othello, on the AlphaZeroGeneral open source re-implementation of AlphaZero. Overall, experimental results show that different values can lead to different training results, proving the importance of such a parameter sweep. We categorize these 12 parameters into time-sensitive parameters and time-friendly parameters. Moreover, through multi-objective analysis, this paper provides an insightful basis for further hyper-parameter optimization.