A Fast, Semi-Automatic Brain Structure Segmentation Algorithm for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Medical image segmentation has become an essential technique in clinical and research-oriented applications. Because manual segmentation methods are tedious, and fully automatic segmentation lacks the flexibility of human intervention or correction, semi-automatic methods have become the preferred type of medical image segmentation. We present a hybrid, semi-automatic segmentation method in 3D that integrates both region-based and boundary-based procedures. Our method differs from previous hybrid methods in that we perform region-based and boundary-based approaches separately, which allows for more efficient segmentation. A region-based technique is used to generate an initial seed contour that roughly represents the boundary of a target brain structure, alleviating the local minima problem in the subsequent model deformation phase. The contour is deformed under a unique force equation independent of image edges. Experiments on MRI data show that this method can achieve high accuracy and efficiency primarily due to the unique seed initialization technique

Approximation of the inertial manifold for a nonlocal dynamical system

We consider inertial manifolds and their approximation for a class of partial differential equations with a nonlocal Laplacian operator $-(-\Delta)^{\frac{\alpha}{2}}$, with $0<\alpha<2$. The nonlocal or fractional Laplacian operator represents an anomalous diffusion effect. We first establish the existence of an inertial manifold and highlight the influence of the parameter $\alpha$. Then we approximate the inertial manifold when a small normal diffusion $\varepsilon \Delta$ (with $\varepsilon \in (0, 1)$) enters the system, and obtain the estimate for the Hausdorff semi-distance between the inertial manifolds with and without normal diffusion.Comment: 19page

Global solutions for a nonlocal Ginzberg-Landau equation and a nonlocal Fokker-Plank equation

This work is devoted to the study of a nonlocal Ginzberg-Landau equation by the semigroup method and a nonlocal Fokker-Plank equation by the viscosity vanishing method. For the nonlocal Ginzberg-Landau equation, there exists a unique global solution in the set $C^0(\mathbb{R}^+,\,H_0^{\frac{\alpha}{2}}(D))\cap L_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^+,\,H_0^{\alpha}(D))$, for $\alpha\in (0,\,2)$. For the nonlocal Fokker-Plank equation, the regularity of the solution is weaker than that of the nonlocal Ginzberg-Landau equation due to the drift term

A parameter estimator based on Smoluchowski-Kramers approximation

We devise a simplified parameter estimator for a second order stochastic differential equation by a first order system based on the Smoluchowski-Kramers approximation. We establish the consistency of the estimator by using {\Gamma}-convergence theory. We further illus- trate our estimation method by an experimentally studied movement model of a colloidal particle immersed in water under conservative force and constant diffusion

Quantum criticality of the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model within displaced Fock states

The spin-boson model is analytically studied using displaced Fock states (DFS) without discretization of the continuum bath. In the orthogonal displaced Fock basis, the ground-state wavefunction can be systematically improved in a controllable way. Interestingly, the zeroth-order DFS reproduces exactly the well known Silbey-Harris results. In the framework of the second-order DFS, the magnetization and the entanglement entropy are exactly calculated. It is found that the magnetic critical exponent $\beta$ is converged to $0.5$ in the whole sub-Ohmic bath regime $0<s<1$, compared with that by the exactly solvable generalized Silbey-Harris ansatz. It is strongly suggested that the system with sub-Ohmic bath is always above its upper critical dimension, in sharp contrast with the previous findings. This is the first evidence of the violation of the quantum-classical Mapping for .Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Improved Silbey-Harris polaron ansatz for the spin-boson model

In this paper, the well-known Silbey-Harris (SH) polaron ansatz for the spin-boson model is improved by adding orthogonal displaced Fock states. The obtained results for the ground state in all baths converge very quickly within finite displaced Fock states and corresponding SH results are corrected considerably. Especially for the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model, the converging results are obtained for 0 < s < 1/2 in the fourth-order correction and very accurate critical coupling strengths of the quantum phase transition are achieved. Converging magnetization in the biased spin-boson model is also arrived at. Since the present improved SH ansatz can yield very accurate, even almost exact results, it should have wide applications and extensions in various spin-boson model and related fields.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1410.099

Concise analytic solutions to the quantum Rabi model with two arbitrary qubits

Using extended coherent states, an analytical exact study has been carried out for the quantum Rabi model (QRM) with two arbitrary qubits in a very concise way. The $G$-functions with $2 \times 2$ determinants are generally derived. For the same coupling constants, the simplest $G$-function, resembling that in the one-qubit QRM, can be obtained. Zeros of the $G$-function yield the whole regular spectrum. The exceptional eigenvalues, which do not belong to the zeros of the $G$ function, are obtained in the closed form. The Dark states in the case of the same coupling can be detected clearly in a continued-fraction technique. The present concise solution is conceptually clear and practically feasible to the general two-qubit QRM and therefore has many applications.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Exact solvability, non-integrability, and genuine multipartite entanglement dynamics of the Dicke model

In this paper, the finite size Dicke model of arbitrary number of qubits is solved analytically in an unified way within extended coherent states. For the $N=2k$ or $2k-1$ Dicke models ($k$ is an integer), the $G$-function, which is only an energy dependent $k \times k$ determinant, is derived in a transparent manner. The regular spectrum is completely and uniquely given by stable zeros of the $G$-function. The closed-form exceptional eigenvalues are also derived. The level distribution controlled by the pole structure of the $G$-functions suggests non-integrability for $N>1$ model at any finite coupling in the sense of recent criterion in literature. A preliminary application to the exact dynamics of genuine multipartite entanglement in the finite $N$ Dicke model is presented using the obtained exact solutions.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Sliced Latin hypercube designs with arbitrary run sizes

Latin hypercube designs achieve optimal univariate stratifications and are useful for computer experiments. Sliced Latin hypercube designs are Latin hypercube designs that can be partitioned into smaller Latin hypercube designs. In this work, we give, to the best of our knowledge, the first construction of sliced Latin hypercube designs that allow arbitrarily chosen run sizes for the slices. We also provide an algorithm to reduce correlations of our proposed designs

Slow manifold and parameter estimation for a nonlocal fast-slow stochastic evolutionary system

We establish a slow manifold for a fast-slow stochastic evolutionary system with anomalous diffusion, where both fast and slow components are influ- enced by white noise. Furthermore, we prove the exponential tracking property for the random slow manifold and this leads to a lower dimensional reduced sys- tem based on the slow manifold. Also we consider parameter estimation for this nonlocal fast-slow stochastic dynamical system, where only the slow component is observable. In quantifying parameters in stochastic evolutionary systems, this offers an advantage of dimension reduction