Complexity Reduction in Image-Based Breast Cancer Care

The diversity of malignancies of the breast requires personalized diagnostic and therapeutic decision making in a complex situation. This thesis contributes in three clinical areas: (1) For clinical diagnostic image evaluation, computer-aided detection and diagnosis of mass and non-mass lesions in breast MRI is developed. 4D texture features characterize mass lesions. For non-mass lesions, a combined detection/characterisation method utilizes the bilateral symmetry of the breast s contrast agent uptake. (2) To improve clinical workflows, a breast MRI reading paradigm is proposed, exemplified by a breast MRI reading workstation prototype. Instead of mouse and keyboard, it is operated using multi-touch gestures. The concept is extended to mammography screening, introducing efficient navigation aids. (3) Contributions to finite element modeling of breast tissue deformations tackle two clinical problems: surgery planning and the prediction of the breast deformation in a MRI biopsy device

Improving Model-Based Software Synthesis: A Focus on Mathematical Structures

Computer hardware keeps increasing in complexity. Software design needs to keep up with this. The right models and abstractions empower developers to leverage the novelties of modern hardware. This thesis deals primarily with Models of Computation, as a basis for software design, in a family of methods called software synthesis. We focus on Kahn Process Networks and dataflow applications as abstractions, both for programming and for deriving an efficient execution on heterogeneous multicores. The latter we accomplish by exploring the design space of possible mappings of computation and data to hardware resources. Mapping algorithms are not at the center of this thesis, however. Instead, we examine the mathematical structure of the mapping space, leveraging its inherent symmetries or geometric properties to improve mapping methods in general. This thesis thoroughly explores the process of model-based design, aiming to go beyond the more established software synthesis on dataflow applications. We starting with the problem of assessing these methods through benchmarking, and go on to formally examine the general goals of benchmarks. In this context, we also consider the role modern machine learning methods play in benchmarking. We explore different established semantics, stretching the limits of Kahn Process Networks. We also discuss novel models, like Reactors, which are designed to be a deterministic, adaptive model with time as a first-class citizen. By investigating abstractions and transformations in the Ohua language for implicit dataflow programming, we also focus on programmability. The focus of the thesis is in the models and methods, but we evaluate them in diverse use-cases, generally centered around Cyber-Physical Systems. These include the 5G telecommunication standard, automotive and signal processing domains. We even go beyond embedded systems and discuss use-cases in GPU programming and microservice-based architectures

Supplementing Frequency Domain Interpolation Methods for Character Animation

The animation of human characters entails difficulties exceeding those met simulating objects, machines or plants. A person's gait is a product of nature affected by mood and physical condition. Small deviations from natural movement are perceived with ease by an unforgiving audience. Motion capture technology is frequently employed to record human movement. Subsequent playback on a skeleton underlying the character being animated conveys many of the subtleties of the original motion. Played-back recordings are of limited value, however, when integration in a virtual environment requires movements beyond those in the motion library, creating a need for the synthesis of new motion from pre-recorded sequences. An existing approach involves interpolation between motions in the frequency domain, with a blending space defined by a triangle network whose vertices represent input motions. It is this branch of character animation which is supplemented by the methods presented in this thesis, with work undertaken in three distinct areas. The first is a streamlined approach to previous work. It provides benefits including an efficiency gain in certain contexts, and a very different perspective on triangle network construction in which they become adjustable and intuitive user-interface devices with an increased flexibility allowing a greater range of motions to be blended than was possible with previous networks. Interpolation-based synthesis can never exhibit the same motion variety as can animation methods based on the playback of rearranged frame sequences. Limitations such as this were addressed by the second phase of work, with the creation of hybrid networks. These novel structures use properties of frequency domain triangle blending networks to seamlessly integrate playback-based animation within them. The third area focussed on was distortion found in both frequency- and time-domain blending. A new technique, single-source harmonic switching, was devised which greatly reduces it, and adds to the benefits of blending in the frequency domain

MANIFOLD REPRESENTATIONS OF MUSICAL SIGNALS AND GENERATIVE SPACES

Tra i diversi campi di ricerca nell\u2019ambito dell\u2019informatica musicale, la sintesi e la generazione di segnali audio incarna la pluridisciplinalita\u300 di questo settore, nutrendo insieme le pratiche scientifiche e musicale dalla sua creazione. Inerente all\u2019informatica dalla sua creazione, la generazione audio ha ispirato numerosi approcci, evolvendo colle pratiche musicale e gli progressi tecnologici e scientifici. Inoltre, alcuni processi di sintesi permettono anche il processo inverso, denominato analisi, in modo che i parametri di sintesi possono anche essere parzialmente o totalmente estratti dai suoni, dando una rappresentazione alternativa ai segnali analizzati. Per di piu\u300, la recente ascesa dei algoritmi di l\u2019apprendimento automatico ha vivamente interrogato il settore della ricerca scientifica, fornendo potenti data-centered metodi che sollevavano diversi epistemologici interrogativi, nonostante i sui efficacia. Particolarmente, un tipo di metodi di apprendimento automatico, denominati modelli generativi, si concentrano sulla generazione di contenuto originale usando le caratteristiche che hanno estratti dei dati analizzati. In tal caso, questi modelli non hanno soltanto interrogato i precedenti metodi di generazione, ma anche sul modo di integrare questi algoritmi nelle pratiche artistiche. Mentre questi metodi sono progressivamente introdotti nel settore del trattamento delle immagini, la loro applicazione per la sintesi di segnali audio e ancora molto marginale. In questo lavoro, il nostro obiettivo e di proporre un nuovo metodo di audio sintesi basato su questi nuovi tipi di generativi modelli, rafforazti dalle nuove avanzati dell\u2019apprendimento automatico. Al primo posto, facciamo una revisione dei approcci esistenti nei settori dei sistemi generativi e di sintesi sonore, focalizzando sul posto di nostro lavoro rispetto a questi disciplini e che cosa possiamo aspettare di questa collazione. In seguito, studiamo in maniera piu\u300 precisa i modelli generativi, e come possiamo utilizzare questi recenti avanzati per l\u2019apprendimento di complesse distribuzione di suoni, in un modo che sia flessibile e nel flusso creativo del utente. Quindi proponiamo un processo di inferenza / generazione, il quale rifletta i processi di analisi/sintesi che sono molto usati nel settore del trattamento del segnale audio, usando modelli latenti, che sono basati sull\u2019utilizzazione di un spazio continuato di alto livello, che usiamo per controllare la generazione. Studiamo dapprima i risultati preliminari ottenuti con informazione spettrale estratte da diversi tipi di dati, che valutiamo qualitativamente e quantitativamente. Successiva- mente, studiamo come fare per rendere questi metodi piu\u300 adattati ai segnali audio, fronteggiando tre diversi aspetti. Primo, proponiamo due diversi metodi di regolarizzazione di questo generativo spazio che sono specificamente sviluppati per l\u2019audio : una strategia basata sulla traduzione segnali / simboli, e una basata su vincoli percettivi. Poi, proponiamo diversi metodi per fronteggiare il aspetto temporale dei segnali audio, basati sull\u2019estrazione di rappresentazioni multiscala e sulla predizione, che permettono ai generativi spazi ottenuti di anche modellare l\u2019aspetto dinamico di questi segnali. Per finire, cambiamo il nostro approccio scientifico per un punto di visto piu\u301 ispirato dall\u2019idea di ricerca e creazione. Primo, descriviamo l\u2019architettura e il design della nostra libreria open-source, vsacids, sviluppata per permettere a esperti o non-esperti musicisti di provare questi nuovi metodi di sintesi. Poi, proponiamo una prima utilizzazione del nostro modello con la creazione di una performance in real- time, chiamata \ue6go, basata insieme sulla nostra libreria vsacids e sull\u2019uso di une agente di esplorazione, imparando con rinforzo nel corso della composizione. Finalmente, tramo dal lavoro presentato alcuni conclusioni sui diversi modi di migliorare e rinforzare il metodo di sintesi proposto, nonche\u301 eventuale applicazione artistiche.Among the diverse research fields within computer music, synthesis and generation of audio signals epitomize the cross-disciplinarity of this domain, jointly nourishing both scientific and artistic practices since its creation. Inherent in computer music since its genesis, audio generation has inspired numerous approaches, evolving both with musical practices and scientific/technical advances. Moreover, some syn- thesis processes also naturally handle the reverse process, named analysis, such that synthesis parameters can also be partially or totally extracted from actual sounds, and providing an alternative representation of the analyzed audio signals. On top of that, the recent rise of machine learning algorithms earnestly questioned the field of scientific research, bringing powerful data-centred methods that raised several epistemological questions amongst researchers, in spite of their efficiency. Especially, a family of machine learning methods, called generative models, are focused on the generation of original content using features extracted from an existing dataset. In that case, such methods not only questioned previous approaches in generation, but also the way of integrating this methods into existing creative processes. While these new generative frameworks are progressively introduced in the domain of image generation, the application of such generative techniques in audio synthesis is still marginal. In this work, we aim to propose a new audio analysis-synthesis framework based on these modern generative models, enhanced by recent advances in machine learning. We first review existing approaches, both in sound synthesis and in generative machine learning, and focus on how our work inserts itself in both practices and what can be expected from their collation. Subsequently, we focus a little more on generative models, and how modern advances in the domain can be exploited to allow us learning complex sound distributions, while being sufficiently flexible to be integrated in the creative flow of the user. We then propose an inference / generation process, mirroring analysis/synthesis paradigms that are natural in the audio processing domain, using latent models that are based on a continuous higher-level space, that we use to control the generation. We first provide preliminary results of our method applied on spectral information, extracted from several datasets, and evaluate both qualitatively and quantitatively the obtained results. Subsequently, we study how to make these methods more suitable for learning audio data, tackling successively three different aspects. First, we propose two different latent regularization strategies specifically designed for audio, based on and signal / symbol translation and perceptual constraints. Then, we propose different methods to address the inner temporality of musical signals, based on the extraction of multi-scale representations and on prediction, that allow the obtained generative spaces that also model the dynamics of the signal. As a last chapter, we swap our scientific approach to a more research & creation-oriented point of view: first, we describe the architecture and the design of our open-source library, vsacids, aiming to be used by expert and non-expert music makers as an integrated creation tool. Then, we propose an first musical use of our system by the creation of a real-time performance, called aego, based jointly on our framework vsacids and an explorative agent using reinforcement learning to be trained during the performance. Finally, we draw some conclusions on the different manners to improve and reinforce the proposed generation method, as well as possible further creative applications.A\u300 travers les diffe\u301rents domaines de recherche de la musique computationnelle, l\u2019analysie et la ge\u301ne\u301ration de signaux audio sont l\u2019exemple parfait de la trans-disciplinarite\u301 de ce domaine, nourrissant simultane\u301ment les pratiques scientifiques et artistiques depuis leur cre\u301ation. Inte\u301gre\u301e a\u300 la musique computationnelle depuis sa cre\u301ation, la synthe\u300se sonore a inspire\u301 de nombreuses approches musicales et scientifiques, e\u301voluant de pair avec les pratiques musicales et les avance\u301es technologiques et scientifiques de son temps. De plus, certaines me\u301thodes de synthe\u300se sonore permettent aussi le processus inverse, appele\u301 analyse, de sorte que les parame\u300tres de synthe\u300se d\u2019un certain ge\u301ne\u301rateur peuvent e\u302tre en partie ou entie\u300rement obtenus a\u300 partir de sons donne\u301s, pouvant ainsi e\u302tre conside\u301re\u301s comme une repre\u301sentation alternative des signaux analyse\u301s. Paralle\u300lement, l\u2019inte\u301re\u302t croissant souleve\u301 par les algorithmes d\u2019apprentissage automatique a vivement questionne\u301 le monde scientifique, apportant de puissantes me\u301thodes d\u2019analyse de donne\u301es suscitant de nombreux questionnements e\u301piste\u301mologiques chez les chercheurs, en de\u301pit de leur effectivite\u301 pratique. En particulier, une famille de me\u301thodes d\u2019apprentissage automatique, nomme\u301e mode\u300les ge\u301ne\u301ratifs, s\u2019inte\u301ressent a\u300 la ge\u301ne\u301ration de contenus originaux a\u300 partir de caracte\u301ristiques extraites directement des donne\u301es analyse\u301es. Ces me\u301thodes n\u2019interrogent pas seulement les approches pre\u301ce\u301dentes, mais aussi sur l\u2019inte\u301gration de ces nouvelles me\u301thodes dans les processus cre\u301atifs existants. Pourtant, alors que ces nouveaux processus ge\u301ne\u301ratifs sont progressivement inte\u301gre\u301s dans le domaine la ge\u301ne\u301ration d\u2019image, l\u2019application de ces techniques en synthe\u300se audio reste marginale. Dans cette the\u300se, nous proposons une nouvelle me\u301thode d\u2019analyse-synthe\u300se base\u301s sur ces derniers mode\u300les ge\u301ne\u301ratifs, depuis renforce\u301s par les avance\u301es modernes dans le domaine de l\u2019apprentissage automatique. Dans un premier temps, nous examinerons les approches existantes dans le domaine des syste\u300mes ge\u301ne\u301ratifs, sur comment notre travail peut s\u2019inse\u301rer dans les pratiques de synthe\u300se sonore existantes, et que peut-on espe\u301rer de l\u2019hybridation de ces deux approches. Ensuite, nous nous focaliserons plus pre\u301cise\u301ment sur comment les re\u301centes avance\u301es accomplies dans ce domaine dans ce domaine peuvent e\u302tre exploite\u301es pour l\u2019apprentissage de distributions sonores complexes, tout en e\u301tant suffisamment flexibles pour e\u302tre inte\u301gre\u301es dans le processus cre\u301atif de l\u2019utilisateur. Nous proposons donc un processus d\u2019infe\u301rence / g\ue9n\ue9ration, refle\u301tant les paradigmes d\u2019analyse-synthe\u300se existant dans le domaine de ge\u301ne\u301ration audio, base\u301 sur l\u2019usage de mode\u300les latents continus que l\u2019on peut utiliser pour contro\u302ler la ge\u301ne\u301ration. Pour ce faire, nous e\u301tudierons de\u301ja\u300 les re\u301sultats pre\u301liminaires obtenus par cette me\u301thode sur l\u2019apprentissage de distributions spectrales, prises d\u2019ensembles de donne\u301es diversifie\u301s, en adoptant une approche a\u300 la fois quantitative et qualitative. Ensuite, nous proposerons d\u2019ame\u301liorer ces me\u301thodes de manie\u300re spe\u301cifique a\u300 l\u2019audio sur trois aspects distincts. D\u2019abord, nous proposons deux strate\u301gies de re\u301gularisation diffe\u301rentes pour l\u2019analyse de signaux audio : une base\u301e sur la traduction signal/ symbole, ainsi qu\u2019une autre base\u301e sur des contraintes perceptives. Nous passerons par la suite a\u300 la dimension temporelle de ces signaux audio, proposant de nouvelles me\u301thodes base\u301es sur l\u2019extraction de repre\u301sentations temporelles multi-e\u301chelle et sur une ta\u302che supple\u301mentaire de pre\u301diction, permettant la mode\u301lisation de caracte\u301ristiques dynamiques par les espaces ge\u301ne\u301ratifs obtenus. En dernier lieu, nous passerons d\u2019une approche scientifique a\u300 une approche plus oriente\u301e vers un point de vue recherche & cre\u301ation. Premie\u300rement, nous pre\u301senterons notre librairie open-source, vsacids, visant a\u300 e\u302tre employe\u301e par des cre\u301ateurs experts et non-experts comme un outil inte\u301gre\u301. Ensuite, nous proposons une premie\u300re utilisation musicale de notre syste\u300me par la cre\u301ation d\u2019une performance temps re\u301el, nomme\u301e \ue6go, base\u301e a\u300 la fois sur notre librarie et sur un agent d\u2019exploration appris dynamiquement par renforcement au cours de la performance. Enfin, nous tirons les conclusions du travail accompli jusqu\u2019a\u300 maintenant, concernant les possibles ame\u301liorations et de\u301veloppements de la me\u301thode de synthe\u300se propose\u301e, ainsi que sur de possibles applications cre\u301atives

Sample supervised search centric approaches in geographic object-based image analysis

Sample supervised search centric image segmentation denotes a general method where quality segments are generated based on the provision of a selection of reference segments. The main purpose of such a method is to correctly segment a multitude of identical elements in an image based on these reference segments. An efficient search algorithm traverses the parameter space of a given segmentation algorithm. A supervised quality measure guides the search for the best segmentation results, or rather the best performing parameter set. This method, which is academically pursued in the context of remote sensing and elsewhere, shows promise in assisting the generation of earth observation information products. The method may find applications specifically within the context of user driven geographic object-based image analysis approaches, mainly in respect of very high resolution optical data. Rapid mapping activities as well as general land-cover mapping or targeted element identification may benefit from such a method. In this work it is suggested that sample supervised search centric geographic segment generation forms the basis of a set of methods, or rather a methodological avenue. The original formulation of the method, although promising, is limited in the quality of the segments it can produce – it is still limited by the inherent capability of the given segmentation algorithm. From an optimisation viewpoint, various structures may be encoded forming the fitness or search landscape traversed by a given search algorithm. These structures may interact or have an interplay with the given segmentation algorithm. Various method variants considering expanded fitness landscapes are possible. Additional processes, or constituents, such as data mapping, classification and post-segmentation heuristics may be embedded into such a method. Three distinct and novel method variants are proposed and evaluated based on this concept of expanded fitness landscapes

Untangling hotel industry’s inefficiency: An SFA approach applied to a renowned Portuguese hotel chain

The present paper explores the technical efficiency of four hotels from Teixeira Duarte Group - a renowned Portuguese hotel chain. An efficiency ranking is established from these four hotel units located in Portugal using Stochastic Frontier Analysis. This methodology allows to discriminate between measurement error and systematic inefficiencies in the estimation process enabling to investigate the main inefficiency causes. Several suggestions concerning efficiency improvement are undertaken for each hotel studied.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Learning Curricula in Open-Ended Worlds

Deep reinforcement learning (RL) provides powerful methods for training optimal sequential decision-making agents. As collecting real-world interactions can entail additional costs and safety risks, the common paradigm of sim2real conducts training in a simulator, followed by real-world deployment. Unfortunately, RL agents easily overfit to the choice of simulated training environments, and worse still, learning ends when the agent masters the specific set of simulated environments. In contrast, the real-world is highly open-ended—featuring endlessly evolving environments and challenges, making such RL approaches unsuitable. Simply randomizing across a large space of simulated environments is insufficient, as it requires making arbitrary distributional assumptions, and as the design space grows, it can become combinatorially less likely to sample specific environment instances that are useful for learning. An ideal learning process should automatically adapt the training environment to maximize the learning potential of the agent over an open-ended task space that matches or surpasses the complexity of the real world. This thesis develops a class of methods called Unsupervised Environment Design (UED), which seeks to enable such an open-ended process via a principled approach for gradually improving the robustness and generality of the learning agent. Given a potentially open-ended environment design space, UED automatically generates an infinite sequence or curriculum of training environments at the frontier of the learning agent’s capabilities. Through both extensive empirical studies and theoretical arguments founded on minimax-regret decision theory and game theory, the findings in this thesis show that UED autocurricula can produce RL agents exhibiting significantly improved robustness and generalization to previously unseen environment instances. Such autocurricula are promising paths toward open-ended learning systems that approach general intelligence—a long sought-after ambition of artificial intelligence research—by continually generating and mastering additional challenges of their own design

Machine-learning methods for weak lensing analysis of the ESA Euclid sky survey

A clear picture has emerged from the last three decades of research: our Universe is expanding at an accelerated rate. The cause of this expansion remains elusive, but in essence acts as a repulsive force. This so-called dark energy represents about 69% of the energy content in the Universe. A further 26% of the energy is contained in dark matter, a form of matter that is invisible electromagnetically. Understanding the nature of these two major components of the Universe is at the top of the list of unsolved problems. To unveil answers, ambitious experiments are devised to survey an ever larger and deeper fraction of the sky. One such project is the European Space Agency (ESA) telescope Euclid, which will probe dark matter and infer desperately needed information about dark energy. Because light bundles follow null geodesics, their trajectories are affected by the mass distribution along the line of sight, which includes dark matter. This is gravitational lensing. In the vast majority of cases, deformations of the source objects are weak, and profiles are slightly sheared. The nature of the dark components can be fathomed by measuring the shear over a large fraction of the sky. The shear can be recovered by a statistical analysis of a large number of objects. In this thesis, we take on the development of the necessary tools to measure the shear. Shear measurement techniques have been developed and improved for more than two decades. Their performance, however, do not meet the unprecedented requirements imposed by future surveys. Requirements trickle down from the targeted determination of the cosmological parameters. We aim at preparing novel and innovative methods. These methods are tested against the Euclid requirements. Contributions can be classified into two major themes. A key step in the processing of weak gravitational lensing data is the correction of image deformations generated by the instrument itself. This point spread function (PSF) correction is the first theme. The second is the shear measurement itself, and in particular, producing accurate measurements. We explore machine-learning methods, and notably artificial neural networks. These methods are, for the most part, data-driven. Schemes must first be trained against a representative sample of data. Crafting optimal training sets and choosing the method parameters can be crucial for the performance. We dedicate an important fraction of this dissertation to describing simulations behind the datasets and motivating our parameter choices. We propose schemes to build a clean selection of stars and model the PSF to the Euclid requirements in the first part of this thesis. Shear measurements are notoriously biased because of their small size and their low intensity. We introduce an approach that produces unbiased estimates of shear. This is achieved by processing data from any shape measurement technique with artificial neural networks, and predicting corrected estimates of the shape of the galaxies, or directly the shear. We demonstrate that simple networks with simple trainings are sufficient to reach the Euclid requirements on shear measurements