This work studies networked agents cooperating to track a dynamical state of nature under partial information. The proposed algorithm is a distributed Bayesian filtering algorithm for finite-state hidden Markov models (HMMs). It can be used for sequential state estimation tasks, as well as for modeling opinion formation over social networks under dynamic environments. We show that the disagreement with the optimal centralized solution is asymptotically bounded for the class of geometrically ergodic state transition models, which includes rapidly changing models. We also derive recursions for calculating the probability of error and establish convergence under Gaussian observation models. Simulations are provided to illustrate the theory and to compare against alternative approaches.

在本文中，我们考虑了分散的优化问题，在这些问题中，代理具有个人成本函数，以最大程度地减少受到子空间约束的约束，这些子空间约束需要整个网络的最小化器才能位于低维子空间中。这种约束的公式包括共识或单任务优化作为特殊情况，并允许更一般的任务相关性模型，例如多任务平滑度和耦合优化。为了应对沟通限制，我们提出并研究一种自适应分散策略，在该策略中，代理人在与邻居进行交流之前，使用差异随机量化器来压缩其估计。分析表明，在量化噪声的某些一般条件下，对于足够小的步长$ \ mu $，该策略在均方误差和平均比特率方面都是稳定的：通过减少$ \ mu $，可以将估计错误保持较小（按$ \ mu $）保持较小，而不会无限地增加比特率为$ \ mu \ rightarrow 0 $。模拟说明了理论发现和提议方法的有效性，表明可以实现分散学习，但仅需少量。

这项工作提出了一种分散的架构，其中个别代理旨在解决分类问题，同时观察不同尺寸的流特征，并从可能不同的分布产生。在社会学习的背景下，已经开发了几种有用的策略，通过跨分布式代理的本地合作解决了决策问题，并允许他们从流数据中学习。然而，传统的社会学习策略依赖于每个代理人对观察结果分布的重要知识的基本假设。在这项工作中，我们通过引入一种机器学习框架来克服这一问题，该机器学习框架利用图形的社交交互，导致分布式分类问题的完全数据驱动的解决方案。在拟议的社交机器学习（SML）策略中，存在两个阶段：在训练阶段，分类器被独立培训，以使用有限数量的训练样本来产生一组假设的信念;在预测阶段，分类器评估流媒体未标记的观察，并与邻近分类器共享他们的瞬时信仰。我们表明SML策略使得代理能够在这种高度异构的环境下一致地学习，并且即使在预测阶段决定未标记的样本时，即使在预测阶段也允许网络继续学习。预测决策用于以明显不同的方式不断地提高性能，这些方式与大多数现有的静态分类方案不同，在培训之后，未标记数据的决策不会重新用于改善未来的性能。

Diversity Searcher is a tool originally developed to help analyse diversity in news media texts. It relies on a form of automated content analysis and thus rests on prior assumptions and depends on certain design choices related to diversity and fairness. One such design choice is the external knowledge source(s) used. In this article, we discuss implications that these sources can have on the results of content analysis. We compare two data sources that Diversity Searcher has worked with - DBpedia and Wikidata - with respect to their ontological coverage and diversity, and describe implications for the resulting analyses of text corpora. We describe a case study of the relative over- or under-representation of Belgian political parties between 1990 and 2020 in the English-language DBpedia, the Dutch-language DBpedia, and Wikidata, and highlight the many decisions needed with regard to the design of this data analysis and the assumptions behind it, as well as implications from the results. In particular, we came across a staggering over-representation of the political right in the English-language DBpedia.

Artificial intelligence(AI) systems based on deep neural networks (DNNs) and machine learning (ML) algorithms are increasingly used to solve critical problems in bioinformatics, biomedical informatics, and precision medicine. However, complex DNN or ML models that are unavoidably opaque and perceived as black-box methods, may not be able to explain why and how they make certain decisions. Such black-box models are difficult to comprehend not only for targeted users and decision-makers but also for AI developers. Besides, in sensitive areas like healthcare, explainability and accountability are not only desirable properties of AI but also legal requirements -- especially when AI may have significant impacts on human lives. Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is an emerging field that aims to mitigate the opaqueness of black-box models and make it possible to interpret how AI systems make their decisions with transparency. An interpretable ML model can explain how it makes predictions and which factors affect the model's outcomes. The majority of state-of-the-art interpretable ML methods have been developed in a domain-agnostic way and originate from computer vision, automated reasoning, or even statistics. Many of these methods cannot be directly applied to bioinformatics problems, without prior customization, extension, and domain adoption. In this paper, we discuss the importance of explainability with a focus on bioinformatics. We analyse and comprehensively overview of model-specific and model-agnostic interpretable ML methods and tools. Via several case studies covering bioimaging, cancer genomics, and biomedical text mining, we show how bioinformatics research could benefit from XAI methods and how they could help improve decision fairness.

Kernel machines have sustained continuous progress in the field of quantum chemistry. In particular, they have proven to be successful in the low-data regime of force field reconstruction. This is because many physical invariances and symmetries can be incorporated into the kernel function to compensate for much larger datasets. So far, the scalability of this approach has however been hindered by its cubical runtime in the number of training points. While it is known, that iterative Krylov subspace solvers can overcome these burdens, they crucially rely on effective preconditioners, which are elusive in practice. Practical preconditioners need to be computationally efficient and numerically robust at the same time. Here, we consider the broad class of Nystr\"om-type methods to construct preconditioners based on successively more sophisticated low-rank approximations of the original kernel matrix, each of which provides a different set of computational trade-offs. All considered methods estimate the relevant subspace spanned by the kernel matrix columns using different strategies to identify a representative set of inducing points. Our comprehensive study covers the full spectrum of approaches, starting from naive random sampling to leverage score estimates and incomplete Cholesky factorizations, up to exact SVD decompositions.

We present an automatic method for annotating images of indoor scenes with the CAD models of the objects by relying on RGB-D scans. Through a visual evaluation by 3D experts, we show that our method retrieves annotations that are at least as accurate as manual annotations, and can thus be used as ground truth without the burden of manually annotating 3D data. We do this using an analysis-by-synthesis approach, which compares renderings of the CAD models with the captured scene. We introduce a 'cloning procedure' that identifies objects that have the same geometry, to annotate these objects with the same CAD models. This allows us to obtain complete annotations for the ScanNet dataset and the recent ARKitScenes dataset.

Objective: Imbalances of the electrolyte concentration levels in the body can lead to catastrophic consequences, but accurate and accessible measurements could improve patient outcomes. While blood tests provide accurate measurements, they are invasive and the laboratory analysis can be slow or inaccessible. In contrast, an electrocardiogram (ECG) is a widely adopted tool which is quick and simple to acquire. However, the problem of estimating continuous electrolyte concentrations directly from ECGs is not well-studied. We therefore investigate if regression methods can be used for accurate ECG-based prediction of electrolyte concentrations. Methods: We explore the use of deep neural networks (DNNs) for this task. We analyze the regression performance across four electrolytes, utilizing a novel dataset containing over 290000 ECGs. For improved understanding, we also study the full spectrum from continuous predictions to binary classification of extreme concentration levels. To enhance clinical usefulness, we finally extend to a probabilistic regression approach and evaluate different uncertainty estimates. Results: We find that the performance varies significantly between different electrolytes, which is clinically justified in the interplay of electrolytes and their manifestation in the ECG. We also compare the regression accuracy with that of traditional machine learning models, demonstrating superior performance of DNNs. Conclusion: Discretization can lead to good classification performance, but does not help solve the original problem of predicting continuous concentration levels. While probabilistic regression demonstrates potential practical usefulness, the uncertainty estimates are not particularly well-calibrated. Significance: Our study is a first step towards accurate and reliable ECG-based prediction of electrolyte concentration levels.

Earthquakes, fire, and floods often cause structural collapses of buildings. The inspection of damaged buildings poses a high risk for emergency forces or is even impossible, though. We present three recent selected missions of the Robotics Task Force of the German Rescue Robotics Center, where both ground and aerial robots were used to explore destroyed buildings. We describe and reflect the missions as well as the lessons learned that have resulted from them. In order to make robots from research laboratories fit for real operations, realistic test environments were set up for outdoor and indoor use and tested in regular exercises by researchers and emergency forces. Based on this experience, the robots and their control software were significantly improved. Furthermore, top teams of researchers and first responders were formed, each with realistic assessments of the operational and practical suitability of robotic systems.

Fine-grained semantic segmentation of a person's face and head, including facial parts and head components, has progressed a great deal in recent years. However, it remains a challenging task, whereby considering ambiguous occlusions and large pose variations are particularly difficult. To overcome these difficulties, we propose a novel framework termed Mask-FPAN. It uses a de-occlusion module that learns to parse occluded faces in a semi-supervised way. In particular, face landmark localization, face occlusionstimations, and detected head poses are taken into account. A 3D morphable face model combined with the UV GAN improves the robustness of 2D face parsing. In addition, we introduce two new datasets named FaceOccMask-HQ and CelebAMaskOcc-HQ for face paring work. The proposed Mask-FPAN framework addresses the face parsing problem in the wild and shows significant performance improvements with MIOU from 0.7353 to 0.9013 compared to the state-of-the-art on challenging face datasets.