Self-Organizing Time Map: An Abstraction of Temporal Multivariate Patterns

This paper adopts and adapts Kohonen's standard Self-Organizing Map (SOM) for exploratory temporal structure analysis. The Self-Organizing Time Map (SOTM) implements SOM-type learning to one-dimensional arrays for individual time units, preserves the orientation with short-term memory and arranges the arrays in an ascending order of time. The two-dimensional representation of the SOTM attempts thus twofold topology preservation, where the horizontal direction preserves time topology and the vertical direction data topology. This enables discovering the occurrence and exploring the properties of temporal structural changes in data. For representing qualities and properties of SOTMs, we adapt measures and visualizations from the standard SOM paradigm, as well as introduce a measure of temporal structural changes. The functioning of the SOTM, and its visualizations and quality and property measures, are illustrated on artificial toy data. The usefulness of the SOTM in a real-world setting is shown on poverty, welfare and development indicators

Neuroengineering of Clustering Algorithms

Cluster analysis can be broadly divided into multivariate data visualization, clustering algorithms, and cluster validation. This dissertation contributes neural network-based techniques to perform all three unsupervised learning tasks. Particularly, the first paper provides a comprehensive review on adaptive resonance theory (ART) models for engineering applications and provides context for the four subsequent papers. These papers are devoted to enhancements of ART-based clustering algorithms from (a) a practical perspective by exploiting the visual assessment of cluster tendency (VAT) sorting algorithm as a preprocessor for ART offline training, thus mitigating ordering effects; and (b) an engineering perspective by designing a family of multi-criteria ART models: dual vigilance fuzzy ART and distributed dual vigilance fuzzy ART (both of which are capable of detecting complex cluster structures), merge ART (aggregates partitions and lessens ordering effects in online learning), and cluster validity index vigilance in fuzzy ART (features a robust vigilance parameter selection and alleviates ordering effects in offline learning). The sixth paper consists of enhancements to data visualization using self-organizing maps (SOMs) by depicting in the reduced dimension and topology-preserving SOM grid information-theoretic similarity measures between neighboring neurons. This visualization\u27s parameters are estimated using samples selected via a single-linkage procedure, thereby generating heatmaps that portray more homogeneous within-cluster similarities and crisper between-cluster boundaries. The seventh paper presents incremental cluster validity indices (iCVIs) realized by (a) incorporating existing formulations of online computations for clusters\u27 descriptors, or (b) modifying an existing ART-based model and incrementally updating local density counts between prototypes. Moreover, this last paper provides the first comprehensive comparison of iCVIs in the computational intelligence literature --Abstract, page iv

Methods of Hierarchical Clustering

We survey agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithms and discuss efficient implementations that are available in R and other software environments. We look at hierarchical self-organizing maps, and mixture models. We review grid-based clustering, focusing on hierarchical density-based approaches. Finally we describe a recently developed very efficient (linear time) hierarchical clustering algorithm, which can also be viewed as a hierarchical grid-based algorithm.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, 69 reference

Medical imaging analysis with artificial neural networks

Given that neural networks have been widely reported in the research community of medical imaging, we provide a focused literature survey on recent neural network developments in computer-aided diagnosis, medical image segmentation and edge detection towards visual content analysis, and medical image registration for its pre-processing and post-processing, with the aims of increasing awareness of how neural networks can be applied to these areas and to provide a foundation for further research and practical development. Representative techniques and algorithms are explained in detail to provide inspiring examples illustrating: (i) how a known neural network with fixed structure and training procedure could be applied to resolve a medical imaging problem; (ii) how medical images could be analysed, processed, and characterised by neural networks; and (iii) how neural networks could be expanded further to resolve problems relevant to medical imaging. In the concluding section, a highlight of comparisons among many neural network applications is included to provide a global view on computational intelligence with neural networks in medical imaging

Self-Organizing Maps and Parton Distributions Functions

We present a new method to extract parton distribution functions from high energy experimental data based on a specific type of neural networks, the Self-Organizing Maps. We illustrate the features of our new procedure that are particularly useful for an anaysis directed at extracting generalized parton distributions from data. We show quantitative results of our initial analysis of the parton distribution functions from inclusive deep inelastic scattering.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "Workshop on Exclusive Reactions at High Momentum Transfer (IV)", Jefferson Lab, May 18th -21st, 201

Abstracting GIS Layers from Hyperspectral Imagery

Modern warfare methods in the urban environment necessitates the use of multiple layers of sensors to manage the battle space. Hyperspectral imagers are one possible sensor modality to provide remotely sensed images that can be converted into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) layers. GIS layers abstract knowledge of roads, buildings, and scene content and contain shape files that outline and highlight scene features. Creating shape files is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. The availability of shape files that reflect the current configuration of an area of interest significantly enhances Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace (IPB). The solution presented in this thesis is a novel process to automate the creation of shape files by exploiting the spectral-spatial relationship of a hyperspectral image cube. It is assumed that “a-priori” endmember spectra, a spectral database, or specific scene knowledge is not available. The topological neighborhood of a Self Organizing Map (SOM) is segmented and used as a spectral filter to produce six initial object maps that are spatially processed with logical and morphological operations. A novel road finding algorithm connects road segments under significantly tree-occluded roadways into a contiguous road network. The manual abstraction of GIS shape files is improved into a semi-automated process. The resulting shape files are not susceptible to deviation from orthorectified imagery as they are produced directly from the hyperspectral imagery. The results are eight separate high-quality GIS layers (Vegetation, Non-Tree Vegetation, Trees, Fields, Buildings, Major Buildings, Roadways, and Parking Areas) that follow the terrain of the hyperspectral image and are separately and automatically labeled. Spatial processing improves layer accuracy from 85% to 94%. Significant layer accuracies include the “road network” at 93%, “buildings” at 97%, and “major buildings” at 98%

Visualization of clusters in geo-referenced data using three-dimensional self-organizing maps

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de InformaçãoThe Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is an artificial neural network that performs simultaneously vector quantization and vector projection. Due to this characteristic, the SOM is an effective method for clustering analysis via visualization. The SOM can be visualized through the output space, generally a regular two-dimensional grid of nodes, and through the input space, emphasizing the vector quantization process. Among all the strategies for visualizing the SOM, we are particularly interested in those that allow dealing with spatial dependency, linking the SOM to the geographic visualization with color. One possible approach, commonly used, is the cartographic representation of data with label colors defined from the output space of a two-dimensional SOM. However, in the particular case of geo-referenced data, it is possible to consider the use of a three-dimensional SOM for this purpose, thus adding one more dimension in the analysis. In this dissertation is presented a method for clustering geo-referenced data that integrates the visualization of both perspectives of a three dimensional SOM: linking its output space to the cartographic representation through a ordered set of colors; and exploring the use of frontiers among geo-referenced elements, computed according to the distances in the input space between their Best Matching Units

XPySom: High-performance self-organizing maps

In this paper, we introduce XPySom, a new open-source Python implementation of the well-known Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) technique. It is designed to achieve high performance on a single node, exploiting widely available Python libraries for vector processing on multi-core CPUs and GP-GPUs. We present results from an extensive experimental evaluation of XPySom in comparison to widely used open-source SOM implementations, showing that it outperforms the other available alternatives. Indeed, our experimentation carried out using the Extended MNIST open data set shows a speed-up of about 7x and 100x when compared to the best open-source multi-core implementations we could find with multi-core and GP-GPU acceleration, respectively, achieving the same accuracy levels in terms of quantization error