Self2Self+: Single-Image Denoising with Self-Supervised Learning and Image Quality Assessment Loss

Recently, denoising methods based on supervised learning have exhibited promising performance. However, their reliance on external datasets containing noisy-clean image pairs restricts their applicability. To address this limitation, researchers have focused on training denoising networks using solely a set of noisy inputs. To improve the feasibility of denoising procedures, in this study, we proposed a single-image self-supervised learning method in which only the noisy input image is used for network training. Gated convolution was used for feature extraction and no-reference image quality assessment was used for guiding the training process. Moreover, the proposed method sampled instances from the input image dataset using Bernoulli sampling with a certain dropout rate for training. The corresponding result was produced by averaging the generated predictions from various instances of the trained network with dropouts. The experimental results indicated that the proposed method achieved state-of-the-art denoising performance on both synthetic and real-world datasets. This highlights the effectiveness and practicality of our method as a potential solution for various noise removal tasks.Comment: Technical report and supplemantry materials are combined into one paper. - Technical report: Page 1~7 - Supplemantry materials : Page 8~1

Enhanced elastic scattering of He-2 and He-3 from solids by multiple-edge diffraction

We report on a method of enhanced elastic and coherent reflection of He-4(2) and He-4(3) from a micro-structured solid surface under grazing incidence conditions. The van der Waals bound ground-state helium clusters exhibit fundamental quantum effects: He-4(2), characterized by a single ro-vibrational bound state of 10(-7) eV dissociation energy, is known to be a quantum halo state; and He-4(3) is the only electronic ground-state triatomic system possessing an Efimov state in addition to the ro-vibrational ground state. Classical methods to select and manipulate these clusters by interaction with a solid surface fail due to their exceedingly fragile bonds. Quantum reflection under grazing incidence conditions was demonstrated as a viable tool for elastic scattering from a solid surface but suffers from small reflection probabilities for typical conditions. Here we demonstrate that multiple-edge diffraction enables enhanced elastic scattering of the clusters from a solid. A dual-period reflection grating, where the strips consist of micro-structured edge arrays, shows an up to ten fold increased reflection probability as compared to its conventional counterpart where the strips are plane patches enabling quantum reflection of the clusters. The observed diffraction patterns of the clusters provide evidence of the coherent and elastic nature of scattering by multiple-edge diffraction

Experimental test of Babinet???s Principle in matter-wave diffraction

We report on an experimental test of Babinet's principle in quantum reflection of an atom beam from diffraction gratings. The He beam is reflected and diffracted from a square-wave grating at near grazing-incidence conditions. According to Babinet's principle the diffraction peak intensities (except for the specular-reflected beam) are expected to be identical for any pair of gratings of complementary geometry. We observe conditions where Babinet's principle holds and also where it fails. Our data indicate breakdown conditions when either the incident or a diffracted beam propagates close to the grating surface. At these conditions, the incident or the diffracted He beam is strongly affected by the dispersive interaction between the atoms and the grating surface. Babinet's principle is also found to break down, when the complementary grating pair shows a large asymmetry in the strip widths. For very small strip widths, edge diffraction from half planes becomes dominant, whereas for the complementary wide strips the atom-surface interactions leads to a strong reduction of all non-specular diffraction peak intensities

Killing Pharaohs in Exodus: The Anonymity of the Egyptian Kings, the Deconstruction of Their Individuality, and the Egyptian Practice of <i>Damnatio Memoriae</i>

Scholars have understood the anonymity of the Egyptian kings in Exodus in various ways. Some argue that the Israelite author intentionally anonymized the foreign kings for possible rhetorical effects. Others believe that the anonymity was a simple case of inadvertent forgetting. Although these approaches have merit in contributing to a more robust understanding of the anonymity of Pharaohs, a different approach may also have something to offer in grasping a fuller understanding of the absence of the Pharaonic names. In this regard, this article seeks to examine the anonymity in conversation with the Egyptian practice of damnatio memoriae (i.e., damnation of memory). According to this method, the proto-Israelite transmitters of the Exodus traditions deliberately obliterated the names of the Egyptian kings for the purpose of terminating their existence and memory from the proto-Israelite community

Exploiting AS Hierarchy for Scalable Route Selection

Multi-homing is a common practice among many (especially large) customer (or stub) networks. Although the purpose of multi-homing is primarily for enhanced reliability, it has also increasingly been used for load balancing and latency reduction. In this paper, we address the problem of how to perform scalable route selection in a multi-homed stub network to optimize network latency to various destinations as measured by round-trip-time (RTT). A straightforward method is to simply perform RTT measurements (e.g., using ping) to each destination via each provider and select the one with the minimum RTT as the “best ” next-hop to the destination. Is there a more scalable alternative? To answer this question, we carry out a measurementbased study to analyze the differences of RTTs in using two different providers in a multi-homed stub network to reach a large number of randomly selected destinations. Our study reveals that because of the AS hierarchy, for a large fraction of the network prefixes, the two AS paths through two providers merge in the core of the Internet. Furthermore, the router at which the two router level paths merge is actually in the AS at which the AS level paths merge. This phenomenon causes the RTT difference between the two paths through the two providers to be determined by the non-shared portion of the paths. Our study reveals that most of the two router level paths through the two upstream providers merge at the AS at which the two AS level paths merge. Based on this finding, we devise a scalable route (next-hop provider) selection algorithm using BGP information in a multi-homed stub network. We also present a preliminary evaluation