Flammability index (FI) and cone calorimetry outcomes, such as maximum heat release rate, null me to igni null on, total smoke release, and fi re growth rate, are cri null cal factors in evalua null ng the fi re safety of polymers. However, predic null ng these proper null es is challenging due to the complexity of material behavior under heat exposure. In this work, we inves null gate the use of machine learning (ML) techniques to predict these fl ammability metrics. We generated synthe null c polymers using Synthe null c Data Vault to augment the experimental dataset. Our comprehensive ML inves null ga null on employed both our polymer descriptors and those generated by the RDkit library. Despite the challenges of limited experimental data, our models demonstrate the poten null al to accurately predict FI and cone calorimetry outcomes, which could be instrumental in designing safer polymers. Addi null onally, we developed POLYCOMPRED, a module integrated into the cloud based MatVerse pla null orm, providing an accessible, web based interface for fl ammability predic null on. This work provides not only the predic null ve modeling of polymer fl ammability but also an interac null ve analysis tool for the discovery and design of new materials with tailored fi re resistant proper null es. 2

This paper proposes a data privacy protection framework based on federated learning, which aims to realize effective cross-domain data collaboration under the premise of ensuring data privacy through distributed learning. Federated learning greatly reduces the risk of privacy breaches by training the model locally on each client and sharing only model parameters rather than raw data. The experiment verifies the high efficiency and privacy protection ability of federated learning under different data sources through the simulation of medical, financial, and user data. The results show that federated learning can not only maintain high model performance in a multi-domain data environment but also ensure effective protection of data privacy. The research in this paper provides a new technical path for cross-domain data collaboration and promotes the application of large-scale data analysis and machine learning while protecting privacy.

Accurate evaluation of forecasting models is essential for ensuring reliable predictions. Current practices for evaluating and comparing forecasting models focus on summarising performance into a single score, using metrics such as SMAPE. While convenient, averaging performance over all samples dilutes relevant information about model behavior under varying conditions. This limitation is especially problematic for time series forecasting, where multiple layers of averaging--across time steps, horizons, and multiple time series in a dataset--can mask relevant performance variations. We address this limitation by proposing ModelRadar, a framework for evaluating univariate time series forecasting models across multiple aspects, such as stationarity, presence of anomalies, or forecasting horizons. We demonstrate the advantages of this framework by comparing 24 forecasting methods, including classical approaches and different machine learning algorithms. NHITS, a state-of-the-art neural network architecture, performs best overall but its superiority varies with forecasting conditions. For instance, concerning the forecasting horizon, we found that NHITS (and also other neural networks) only outperforms classical approaches for multi-step ahead forecasting. Another relevant insight is that classical approaches such as ETS or Theta are notably more robust in the presence of anomalies. These and other findings highlight the importance of aspect-based model evaluation for both practitioners and researchers. ModelRadar is available as a Python package.

View-invariant representation learning from egocentric (first-person, ego) and exocentric (third-person, exo) videos is a promising approach toward generalizing video understanding systems across multiple viewpoints. However, this area has been underexplored due to the substantial differences in perspective, motion patterns, and context between ego and exo views. In this paper, we propose a novel masked ego-exo modeling that promotes both causal temporal dynamics and cross-view alignment, called Bootstrap Your Own Views (BYOV), for fine-grained view-invariant video representation learning from unpaired ego-exo videos. We highlight the importance of capturing the compositional nature of human actions as a basis for robust cross-view understanding. Specifically, self-view masking and cross-view masking predictions are designed to learn view-invariant and powerful representations concurrently. Experimental results demonstrate that our BYOV significantly surpasses existing approaches with notable gains across all metrics in four downstream ego-exo video tasks. The code is available at https://github.com/park-jungin/byov.

Purpose: Research has revealed that strength training can reduce the incidence of chronic diseases and physical deterioration at any age. Therefore, having a movement diagnostic system is crucial for training alone. Hence, this study developed an artificial intelligence and computer vision-based barbell squat coaching system with a real-time mode that immediately diagnoses the issue and provides feedback after each squat. In addition, a replay mode allows users to examine their previous squats and check their comments. Initially, four primary characteristics of the barbell squat were identified: body joint angles, dorsiflexion, the ratio of knee-to-hip movement, and barbell stability. Methods: We collect 8,151 squats from 77 participants, categorizing them as good squats and six issues. Then, we trained the diagnosis models with three machine-learning architectures. Furthermore, this research applied the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method to enhance the accuracy of issue prediction and reduce the computation time by feature selection. Results: The F1 score of the six issues reached 86.86%, 69.01%, 77.42%, 90.74%, 95.83%, and 100%. Each squat diagnosis took less than 0.5 seconds. Finally, this study examined the efficacy of the proposed system with two groups of participants trained with and without the system. Subsequently, participants trained with the system exhibited substantial improvements in their squat technique, as assessed both by the system itself and by a professional weightlifting coach. Conclusion: This is a comprehensive study that integrates artificial intelligence, computer vision and multivariable processing technologies, aimed at building a real-time, user-friendly barbell squat feedback and training system.

In continual learning (CL), catastrophic forgetting often arises due to feature drift. This challenge is particularly prominent in the exemplar-free continual learning (EFCL) setting, where samples from previous tasks cannot be retained, making it difficult to preserve prior knowledge. To address this issue, some EFCL methods aim to identify feature spaces that minimize the impact on previous tasks while accommodating new ones. However, they rely on static features or outdated statistics stored from old tasks, which prevents them from capturing the dynamic evolution of the feature space in CL, leading to performance degradation over time. In this paper, we introduce the Drift-Resistant Space (DRS), which effectively handles feature drifts without requiring explicit feature modeling or the storage of previous tasks. A novel parameter-efficient fine-tuning approach called Low-Rank Adaptation Subtraction (LoRA-) is proposed to develop the DRS. This method subtracts the LoRA weights of old tasks from the initial pre-trained weight before processing new task data to establish the DRS for model training. Therefore, LoRA- enhances stability, improves efficiency, and simplifies implementation. Furthermore, stabilizing feature drifts allows for better plasticity by learning with a triplet loss. Our method consistently achieves state-of-the-art results, especially for long task sequences, across multiple datasets.

Accurate spatial-temporal prediction of network-based travelers' requests is crucial for the effective policy design of ridesharing platforms. Having knowledge of the total demand between various locations in the upcoming time slots enables platforms to proactively prepare adequate supplies, thereby increasing the likelihood of fulfilling travelers' requests and redistributing idle drivers to areas with high potential demand to optimize the global supply-demand equilibrium. This paper delves into the prediction of Origin-Destination (OD) demands at a fine-grained spatial level, especially when confronted with an expansive set of local regions. While this task holds immense practical value, it remains relatively unexplored within the research community. To fill this gap, we introduce a novel prediction model called OD-CED, which comprises an unsupervised space coarsening technique to alleviate data sparsity and an encoder-decoder architecture to capture both semantic and geographic dependencies. Through practical experimentation, OD-CED has demonstrated remarkable results. It achieved an impressive reduction of up to 45% reduction in root-mean-square error and 60% in weighted mean absolute percentage error over traditional statistical methods when dealing with OD matrices exhibiting a sparsity exceeding 90%.

Predictive coding (PC) is an influential theory of information processing in the brain, providing a biologically plausible alternative to backpropagation. It is motivated in terms of Bayesian inference, as hidden states and parameters are optimised via gradient descent on variational free energy. However, implementations of PC rely on maximum \textit{a posteriori} (MAP) estimates of hidden states and maximum likelihood (ML) estimates of parameters, limiting their ability to quantify epistemic uncertainty. In this work, we investigate a Bayesian extension to PC that estimates a posterior distribution over network parameters. This approach, termed Bayesian Predictive coding (BPC), preserves the locality of PC and results in closed-form Hebbian weight updates. Compared to PC, our BPC algorithm converges in fewer epochs in the full-batch setting and remains competitive in the mini-batch setting. Additionally, we demonstrate that BPC offers uncertainty quantification comparable to existing methods in Bayesian deep learning, while also improving convergence properties. Together, these results suggest that BPC provides a biologically plausible method for Bayesian learning in the brain, as well as an attractive approach to uncertainty quantification in deep learning.

Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are ubiquitous in key decision-making contexts such as organizational justice or healthcare, which has spawned a great demand for fairness in these procedures. In this paper we focus on the application of fair ML in finance, more concretely on the use of fairness techniques on credit scoring. This paper makes two contributions. On the one hand, it addresses the existent gap concerning the application of established methods in the literature to the case of multiple sensitive variables through the use of a new technique called logical processors(LP). On the other hand, it also explores the novel method of multistage processors (MP) to investigate whether the combination of fairness methods can work synergistically to produce solutions with improved fairness or accuracy. Furthermore, we examine the intersection of these two lines of research by exploring the integration of fairness methods in the multivariate case. The results are very promising and suggest that logical processors are an appropriate way of handling multiple sensitive variables. Furthermore, multistage processors are capable of improving the performance of existing methods. Introduction In the last decades, institutions have been increasingly relying on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to aid in decision-making. Furthermore, the interplay between discrimination and calibration suggests that building a model avoiding spurious relationships between variables may increase reliability [5]. This paper will focus on the application of fair ML models in a financial context to address the problem of credit scoring, which plays a key role in loan approval [6]. Although a plethora of metrics and models have been proposed in the literature for bias mitigation, there are still many open challenges surrounding this topic. More concretely, this work is interested in exploring two particular research gaps. On the one hand, there is a demand for methods that handle multiple sensitive variables both from ethical and legal frameworks [7]. Furthermore, there are concerns about the unique discrimination that some individuals experience due to their belonging to the intersection of protected groups [8].

Graph layouts and node embeddings are two distinct paradigms for non-parametric graph representation learning. In the former, nodes are embedded into 2D space for visualization purposes. In the latter, nodes are embedded into a high-dimensional vector space for downstream processing. State-of-the-art algorithms for these two paradigms, force-directed layouts and random-walk-based contrastive learning (such as DeepWalk and node2vec), have little in common. In this work, we show that both paradigms can be approached with a single coherent framework based on established neighbor embedding methods. Specifically, we introduce graph t-SNE, a neighbor embedding method for two-dimensional graph layouts, and graph CNE, a contrastive neighbor embedding method that produces high-dimensional node representations by optimizing the InfoNCE objective. We show that both graph t-SNE and graph CNE strongly outperform state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of local structure preservation, while being conceptually simpler.