检测会计异常是财务报表审核中的反复挑战。最近，已经提出了源自深度学习（DL）的新方法来审核声明的基本会计记录的大量。但是，由于它们的大量参数，这种模型表现出固有不透明的缺点。同时，隐藏模型的内部运作通常会阻碍其现实世界的应用。该观察结果在财务审计中尤其如此，因为审计师必须合理地解释和证明其审计决定是合理的。如今，已经提出了各种可解释的AI（XAI）技术来应对这一挑战，例如Shapley添加说明（Shap）。但是，在经常在财务审核中应用的无监督DL中，这些方法在编码变量级别上解释了模型输出。结果，人类审计师通常很难理解自动编码器神经网络（AENNS）的解释。为了减轻此缺点，我们提出（重塑），该属性在汇总属性级别上解释了模型输出。此外，我们引入了一个评估框架，以比较XAI方法在审计中的多功能性。我们的实验结果表明，经验证据表明，与最先进的基线相比，重塑结果是多功能解释的。我们将这种属性级别的解释视为在财务审计中采用无监督的DL技术的必要下一步。

正在进行的“数字化转型”从根本上改变了审计证据的性质，记录和数量。如今，国际审计标准（ISA）要求审计师检查财务报表的大量基础数字会计记录。结果，审计公司还“数字化”了他们的分析能力并投资深度学习（DL），这是机器学习的成功子学科。 DL的应用提供了从多个客户（例如在同一行业或管辖权中运营的组织）学习专业审计模型的能力。通常，法规要求审核员遵守严格的数据机密性措施。同时，最近有趣的发现表明，大规模的DL模型容易受到泄漏敏感培训数据信息的影响。如今，尚不清楚审计公司在遵守数据保护法规的同时如何应用DL模型。在这项工作中，我们提出了一个联合学习框架，以培训DL模型，以审核多个客户的相关会计数据。该框架涵盖了差异隐私和拆分学习能力，以减轻模型推断中的数据机密性风险。我们评估了在三个现实世界中付款数据集中检测会计异常的方法。我们的结果提供了经验证据，表明审计师可以从DL模型中受益，这些模型从专有客户数据的多个来源积累知识。

国际审计标准要求直接评估财务报表的潜在会计期刊条目。由人工智能的进步驱动，深度学习启发的审计技术出现了审查大量日记帐分类数据。但是，在定期审计中，大多数提出的方法都适用于从相对的静止期刊入学人群中学到，例如财政季度或年份。忽略审计相关分布变更在培训数据中不明显的情况或随时间逐步可用。相比之下，在持续审计中，深度学习模型在录制的日记条目流中持续培训，例如，最后一小时。导致以前知识干扰新信息的情况，并将完全覆盖。这项工作提出了一个持续的异常检测框架，以克服这两个挑战，旨在从日记帐数据经验流中学习。框架是基于故意设计的审计场景和两个现实世界数据集的评估。我们的实验结果提供了初步证据，即这种学习方案提供了减少假冒警报和假阴性决策的能力。

Computational units in artificial neural networks follow a simplified model of biological neurons. In the biological model, the output signal of a neuron runs down the axon, splits following the many branches at its end, and passes identically to all the downward neurons of the network. Each of the downward neurons will use their copy of this signal as one of many inputs dendrites, integrate them all and fire an output, if above some threshold. In the artificial neural network, this translates to the fact that the nonlinear filtering of the signal is performed in the upward neuron, meaning that in practice the same activation is shared between all the downward neurons that use that signal as their input. Dendrites thus play a passive role. We propose a slightly more complex model for the biological neuron, where dendrites play an active role: the activation in the output of the upward neuron becomes optional, and instead the signals going through each dendrite undergo independent nonlinear filterings, before the linear combination. We implement this new model into a ReLU computational unit and discuss its biological plausibility. We compare this new computational unit with the standard one and describe it from a geometrical point of view. We provide a Keras implementation of this unit into fully connected and convolutional layers and estimate their FLOPs and weights change. We then use these layers in ResNet architectures on CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, Imagenette, and Imagewoof, obtaining performance improvements over standard ResNets up to 1.73%. Finally, we prove a universal representation theorem for continuous functions on compact sets and show that this new unit has more representational power than its standard counterpart.

The open-radio access network (O-RAN) embraces cloudification and network function virtualization for base-band function processing by dis-aggregated radio units (RUs), distributed units (DUs), and centralized units (CUs). These enable the cloud-RAN vision in full, where multiple mobile network operators (MNOs) can install their proprietary or open RUs, but lease on-demand computational resources for DU-CU functions from commonly available open-clouds via open x-haul interfaces. In this paper, we propose and compare the performances of min-max fairness and Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) auction-based x-haul and DU-CU resource allocation mechanisms to create a multi-tenant O-RAN ecosystem that is sustainable for small, medium, and large MNOs. The min-max fair approach minimizes the maximum OPEX of RUs through cost-sharing proportional to their demands, whereas the VCG auction-based approach minimizes the total OPEX for all resources utilized while extracting truthful demands from RUs. We consider time-wavelength division multiplexed (TWDM) passive optical network (PON)-based x-haul interfaces where PON virtualization technique is used to flexibly provide optical connections among RUs and edge-clouds at macro-cell RU locations as well as open-clouds at the central office locations. Moreover, we design efficient heuristics that yield significantly better economic efficiency and network resource utilization than conventional greedy resource allocation algorithms and reinforcement learning-based algorithms.

When testing conditions differ from those represented in training data, so-called out-of-distribution (OOD) inputs can mar the reliability of black-box learned components in the modern robot autonomy stack. Therefore, coping with OOD data is an important challenge on the path towards trustworthy learning-enabled open-world autonomy. In this paper, we aim to demystify the topic of OOD data and its associated challenges in the context of data-driven robotic systems, drawing connections to emerging paradigms in the ML community that study the effect of OOD data on learned models in isolation. We argue that as roboticists, we should reason about the overall system-level competence of a robot as it performs tasks in OOD conditions. We highlight key research questions around this system-level view of OOD problems to guide future research toward safe and reliable learning-enabled autonomy.

Autoencoders are a popular model in many branches of machine learning and lossy data compression. However, their fundamental limits, the performance of gradient methods and the features learnt during optimization remain poorly understood, even in the two-layer setting. In fact, earlier work has considered either linear autoencoders or specific training regimes (leading to vanishing or diverging compression rates). Our paper addresses this gap by focusing on non-linear two-layer autoencoders trained in the challenging proportional regime in which the input dimension scales linearly with the size of the representation. Our results characterize the minimizers of the population risk, and show that such minimizers are achieved by gradient methods; their structure is also unveiled, thus leading to a concise description of the features obtained via training. For the special case of a sign activation function, our analysis establishes the fundamental limits for the lossy compression of Gaussian sources via (shallow) autoencoders. Finally, while the results are proved for Gaussian data, numerical simulations on standard datasets display the universality of the theoretical predictions.

Profile extrusion is a continuous production process for manufacturing plastic profiles from molten polymer. Especially interesting is the design of the die, through which the melt is pressed to attain the desired shape. However, due to an inhomogeneous velocity distribution at the die exit or residual stresses inside the extrudate, the final shape of the manufactured part often deviates from the desired one. To avoid these deviations, the shape of the die can be computationally optimized, which has already been investigated in the literature using classical optimization approaches. A new approach in the field of shape optimization is the utilization of Reinforcement Learning (RL) as a learning-based optimization algorithm. RL is based on trial-and-error interactions of an agent with an environment. For each action, the agent is rewarded and informed about the subsequent state of the environment. While not necessarily superior to classical, e.g., gradient-based or evolutionary, optimization algorithms for one single problem, RL techniques are expected to perform especially well when similar optimization tasks are repeated since the agent learns a more general strategy for generating optimal shapes instead of concentrating on just one single problem. In this work, we investigate this approach by applying it to two 2D test cases. The flow-channel geometry can be modified by the RL agent using so-called Free-Form Deformation, a method where the computational mesh is embedded into a transformation spline, which is then manipulated based on the control-point positions. In particular, we investigate the impact of utilizing different agents on the training progress and the potential of wall time saving by utilizing multiple environments during training.

The recent emergence of new algorithms for permuting models into functionally equivalent regions of the solution space has shed some light on the complexity of error surfaces, and some promising properties like mode connectivity. However, finding the right permutation is challenging, and current optimization techniques are not differentiable, which makes it difficult to integrate into a gradient-based optimization, and often leads to sub-optimal solutions. In this paper, we propose a Sinkhorn re-basin network with the ability to obtain the transportation plan that better suits a given objective. Unlike the current state-of-art, our method is differentiable and, therefore, easy to adapt to any task within the deep learning domain. Furthermore, we show the advantage of our re-basin method by proposing a new cost function that allows performing incremental learning by exploiting the linear mode connectivity property. The benefit of our method is compared against similar approaches from the literature, under several conditions for both optimal transport finding and linear mode connectivity. The effectiveness of our continual learning method based on re-basin is also shown for several common benchmark datasets, providing experimental results that are competitive with state-of-art results from the literature.

Digital media have enabled the access to unprecedented literary knowledge. Authors, readers, and scholars are now able to discover and share an increasing amount of information about books and their authors. Notwithstanding, digital archives are still unbalanced: writers from non-Western countries are less represented, and such a condition leads to the perpetration of old forms of discrimination. In this paper, we present the Under-Represented Writers Knowledge Graph (URW-KG), a resource designed to explore and possibly amend this lack of representation by gathering and mapping information about works and authors from Wikidata and three other sources: Open Library, Goodreads, and Google Books. The experiments based on KG embeddings showed that the integrated information encoded in the graph allows scholars and users to be more easily exposed to non-Western literary works and authors with respect to Wikidata alone. This opens to the development of fairer and effective tools for author discovery and exploration.