Improving Unsupervised Defect Segmentation by Applying Structural Similarity to Autoencoders

Convolutional autoencoders have emerged as popular methods for unsupervised defect segmentation on image data. Most commonly, this task is performed by thresholding a pixel-wise reconstruction error based on an $\ell^p$ distance. This procedure, however, leads to large residuals whenever the reconstruction encompasses slight localization inaccuracies around edges. It also fails to reveal defective regions that have been visually altered when intensity values stay roughly consistent. We show that these problems prevent these approaches from being applied to complex real-world scenarios and that it cannot be easily avoided by employing more elaborate architectures such as variational or feature matching autoencoders. We propose to use a perceptual loss function based on structural similarity which examines inter-dependencies between local image regions, taking into account luminance, contrast and structural information, instead of simply comparing single pixel values. It achieves significant performance gains on a challenging real-world dataset of nanofibrous materials and a novel dataset of two woven fabrics over the state of the art approaches for unsupervised defect segmentation that use pixel-wise reconstruction error metrics

Das House-Kapital: A Theory of Wealth-to-Income Ratios

This paper presents a novel dynamic general equilibrium model to examine the evolution of two major wealth-to-income ratios - housing wealth and non-residential wealth - in advanced countries since WWII. Our theory rests on three premises: (1) the overall land endowment is fixed; (2) the production of new houses requires land as an essential input; (3) land employed for real estate development must be permanently withdrawn from alternative uses. The model distinguishes, for the first time, between the extensive and the intensive margin of housing production. The calibrated model replicates the post WWII increase in the two major wealth-to-income ratios. It also suggests a moderate further increase in wealth-to-income ratios that is associated with a considerable future surge in land prices and house prices. Higher population density and technological progress do, however, not affect long run wealth-to-income ratios. The model also accounts for the close connection of house prices to land prices in the data

Assessing meaning in life on an international scale: Psychometric evidence for the Meaning in Life Questionnaire-Short Form among Chilean households

Several research projects have endeavored to articulate parsimonious and comprehensive accounts of wellbeing. A set of core concepts is seen to be emerging, including the psychological wellbeing module of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative’s international research on poverty. One of the core components of wellbeing according to this initiative and others is meaning in life. The present study focuses on a psychometric evaluation of a short measure of meaning in life to be used in international measurement of wellbeing, using data from a nationally-representative sample of households in Chile (N = 1,997). The factor structure of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire-Short Form (MLQ-SF) was confirmed, and shown to be invariant across gender and age. The items of the MLQ-SF formed a factor that was distinct from the items of other wellbeing measures that were assessed (psychological needs, life satisfaction, and domain satisfaction). Scores on the MLQ-SF were reliable in this sample, and correlated in the expected directions with other wellbeing indicators. We conclude that the MLQ-SF shows distinct promise as a measure of a core component of wellbeing—meaning in life—in international research.

Uninformed Students: Student-Teacher Anomaly Detection with Discriminative Latent Embeddings

We introduce a powerful student-teacher framework for the challenging problem of unsupervised anomaly detection and pixel-precise anomaly segmentation in high-resolution images. Student networks are trained to regress the output of a descriptive teacher network that was pretrained on a large dataset of patches from natural images. This circumvents the need for prior data annotation. Anomalies are detected when the outputs of the student networks differ from that of the teacher network. This happens when they fail to generalize outside the manifold of anomaly-free training data. The intrinsic uncertainty in the student networks is used as an additional scoring function that indicates anomalies. We compare our method to a large number of existing deep learning based methods for unsupervised anomaly detection. Our experiments demonstrate improvements over state-of-the-art methods on a number of real-world datasets, including the recently introduced MVTec Anomaly Detection dataset that was specifically designed to benchmark anomaly segmentation algorithms.Comment: Accepted to CVPR 202

Asymmetric deactivation of HIV-1 gp41 following fusion inhibitor binding.

Both equilibrium and nonequilibrium factors influence the efficacy of pharmaceutical agents that target intermediate states of biochemical reactions. We explored the intermediate state inhibition of gp41, part of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein complex (Env) that promotes viral entry through membrane fusion. This process involves a series of gp41 conformational changes coordinated by Env interactions with cellular CD4 and a chemokine receptor. In a kinetic window between CD4 binding and membrane fusion, the N- and C-terminal regions of the gp41 ectodomain become transiently susceptible to inhibitors that disrupt Env structural transitions. In this study, we sought to identify kinetic parameters that influence the antiviral potency of two such gp41 inhibitors, C37 and 5-Helix. Employing a series of C37 and 5-Helix variants, we investigated the physical properties of gp41 inhibition, including the ability of inhibitor-bound gp41 to recover its fusion activity once inhibitor was removed from solution. Our results indicated that antiviral activity critically depended upon irreversible deactivation of inhibitor-bound gp41. For C37, which targets the N-terminal region of the gp41 ectodomain, deactivation was a slow process that depended on chemokine receptor binding to Env. For 5-Helix, which targets the C-terminal region of the gp41 ectodomain, deactivation occurred rapidly following inhibitor binding and was independent of chemokine receptor levels. Due to this kinetic disparity, C37 inhibition was largely reversible, while 5-Helix inhibition was functionally irreversible. The fundamental difference in deactivation mechanism points to an unappreciated asymmetry in gp41 following inhibitor binding and impacts the development of improved fusion inhibitors and HIV-1 vaccines. The results also demonstrate how the activities of intermediate state inhibitors critically depend upon the final disposition of inhibitor-bound states

The intrinsic and synaptic properties of inverted pyramidal cells within the neocortex

Within the nervous system, the cortex is the area of the brain where higher order sensory, motor and cognitive processing occurs. The cortex contains a diverse array of cell types which form complicated and intricate circuits which gives rise to higher order sensory, motor and cognitive functions. The majority of neurons found in the cortex are pyramidal cells. While pyramidal cells differ based on soma size, dendrite span and cortical position, almost all share a noticeable defining characteristic: their apical dendrite extends toward the pial surface. However, there also exists a class of pyramidal cell where the apical dendrite extends in the opposite direction, toward the cortical white matter; these pyramidal cells appear to be upside down, or inverted. Utilizing physiological and histological techniques, inverted pyramidal cells (IPCs) within neocortex layer VI of the somatosensory cortex were examined and compared to the more common upright pyramidal cells (UPCs). This research produced a number of key findings: 1) the intrinsic physiology of IPCs differs from UPCs on a number of measures including input resistance, and action potential threshold and half-width; 2) IPCs, beyond the orientation of the apical dendrite, are morphologically dissimilar as compared to UPCs and 3) Stimulation of the underlying cortical white matter revealed IPCs are either integrated into different cortical circuits or process inputs differently. The main conclusions emphasize a need for further examination and classification of cortical neuronal cell types. These data are relevant to models of information processing through micro- and larger neocortical circuits and indicate that different cell types found within similar lamina can have different functional properties

The role of intolerance of uncertainty in the relationship between daily search for and presence of meaning in life

People who are highly intolerant of uncertainty have a propensity to fear the unknown, which influences perceptions and desires for control and predictability (Carleton, 2016). Processes related to searching for and maintaining meaning might deviate based on intolerance of uncertainty as meaning-making can be spurred by breakdowns in one’s sense of understanding or predictability (Park, 2010). The current study was designed to examine within-person relationships between daily search for and presence of meaning, while investigating how people’s intolerance of uncertainty (IU) influences the search-presence relationship. During a three-week daily diary study, results showed that daily search significantly predicted same-day presence and presence the following day. IU significantly moderated the effects of search on presence such that people who were highly intolerant of uncertainty experienced less presence when they engaged in searching than low IU participants. Results suggest researchers should consider the potential consequences of IU in limiting the development of a vital well-being resource, presence of meaning

Import of ADP/ATP carrier into mitochondria

We have identified the yeast homologue of Neurospora crassa MOM72, the mitochondrial import receptor for the ADP/ATP carrier (AAC), by functional studies and by cDNA sequencing. Mitochondria of a yeast mutant in which the gene for MOM72 was disrupted were impaired in specific binding and import of AAC. Unexpectedly, we found a residual, yet significant import of AAC into mitochondria lacking MOM72 that occurred via the receptor MOM19. We conclude that both MOM72 and MOM19 can direct AAC into mitochondria, albeit with different efficiency. Moreover, the precursor of MOM72 apparently does not require a positively charged sequence at the extreme amino terminus for targeting to mitochondria

Meaning in life: One link in the chain from religiousness to well-being

Meaning in life has been identified as a potential mediator of the link between religiousness and psychological health. The authors tested this hypothesis in 2 studies, using multiple methods and measures of religiousness and well-being. In the studies, meaning in life mediated the relation between religiousness and life satisfaction (Study 1A), as well as self-esteem and optimism (Study 1B). In addition, using an experience sampling method, the authors found that meaning in life also mediated the relation between daily religious behaviors and well-being (Study 2). The authors discuss these findings and suggest that meaning in life may be an effective conduit through which counselors and clients can discuss "ultimate" matters, even when they do not share similar perspectives on religion

Randomized trial of a calling-infused career work shop incorporating counselor self-disclosure.

a b s t r a c t A randomized controlled trial was used to test (1) the efficacy of a two-session career development workshop for college student participants; (2) the effect of counselor self-disclosure on outcomes; and (3) the effect of infusing calling and vocation concepts on outcomes. Both standard (person-environment fit) and calling/vocation-infused interventions improved career decision self-efficacy relative to a wait-list control. Counselor self-disclosure also increased participant career decision self-efficacy in both conditions and increased appraisals of meaning in life for participants in calling/vocationinfused workshops. Incorporating considerations of calling and vocation neither detracted from nor added to workshop effectiveness. Career development workshops were supported, as was the use of moderate counselor self-disclosure. Suggestions for career counseling practice and intervention research are discussed