Emergence of Shape Bias in Convolutional Neural Networks through Activation Sparsity

Current deep-learning models for object recognition are known to be heavily biased toward texture. In contrast, human visual systems are known to be biased toward shape and structure. What could be the design principles in human visual systems that led to this difference? How could we introduce more shape bias into the deep learning models? In this paper, we report that sparse coding, a ubiquitous principle in the brain, can in itself introduce shape bias into the network. We found that enforcing the sparse coding constraint using a non-differential Top-K operation can lead to the emergence of structural encoding in neurons in convolutional neural networks, resulting in a smooth decomposition of objects into parts and subparts and endowing the networks with shape bias. We demonstrated this emergence of shape bias and its functional benefits for different network structures with various datasets. For object recognition convolutional neural networks, the shape bias leads to greater robustness against style and pattern change distraction. For the image synthesis generative adversary networks, the emerged shape bias leads to more coherent and decomposable structures in the synthesized images. Ablation studies suggest that sparse codes tend to encode structures, whereas the more distributed codes tend to favor texture. Our code is host at the github repository: \url{https://github.com/Crazy-Jack/nips2023_shape_vs_texture}Comment: Published as NeurIPS 2023 (Oral

Treatment and Prognosis of Hepatitis B Virus Concomitant with Alcoholism

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global disease worldwide. The Asia-Pacific region has a high prevalence of viral hepatitis, and Taiwan is a region of high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with increasing alcoholic liver disease. We have investigated the prognosis and treatment of patients with concomitant hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and alcoholism. The 10-year cumulative incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is much higher in patients with concomitant alcoholism and HBV infection than in those with alcoholism or HBV infection alone. Treatment with antiviral therapy and abstinence may be started in patients with decompensated cirrhosis and compensated cirrhosis with high HBV DNA. In pre-cirrhotic cases, treatment with antiviral therapy and abstinence may be started in patients with persistently elevated ALT levels and high HBV DNA, and significant fibrosis with minimal elevated or normal ALT levels and mild high HBV DNA. Treatment with antiviral therapy and abstinence reduces the incidence of HCC in patients with concomitant HBV infection and alcoholism. In conclusion, patients with concomitant HBV infection and alcoholism have high incidence of cirrhosis, HCC, and mortality. Treatment with antiviral therapy and abstinence may be started to reduce the incidence of cirrhosis, HCC, and mortality in these patients

Gamified mathematics practice: Designing with e-commerce and computational concepts.

learning Mathematics: first, students who face difficulty understanding and are too shy to participate in discussions and subsequently do not manage to resolve their doubts, and second, dull e-learning websites. The many rules in Mathematics compounds the problem further. We thus aim to address these problems through a gamified-commerce oriented Mathematics learning practice system, Alzebra, for informal learning. Focusing on principles of Information Systems Analysis and Design, e-commerceoriented computational concepts are embedded in the game to motivate online practice. The system concept, design methodology and user testing outcomes are presented. Significance lies in deriving perception towards gamification and components which users liked or disliked and the efficacy of our hybrid approach in systems development

Universal Global Imprints of Genome Growth and Evolution – Equivalent Length and Cumulative Mutation Density

BACKGROUND: Segmental duplication is widely held to be an important mode of genome growth and evolution. Yet how this would affect the global structure of genomes has been little discussed. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we show that equivalent length, or L(e), a quantity determined by the variance of fluctuating part of the distribution of the k-mer frequencies in a genome, characterizes the latter's global structure. We computed the L(e)s of 865 complete chromosomes and found that they have nearly universal but (k-dependent) values. The differences among the L(e) of a chromosome and those of its coding and non-coding parts were found to be slight. CONCLUSIONS: We verified that these non-trivial results are natural consequences of a genome growth model characterized by random segmental duplication and random point mutation, but not of any model whose dominant growth mechanism is not segmental duplication. Our study also indicates that genomes have a nearly universal cumulative "point" mutation density of about 0.73 mutations per site that is compatible with the relatively low mutation rates of (1-5) x 10(-3)/site/Mya previously determined by sequence comparison for the human and E. coli genomes

Toward Inter-Connection on OpenFlow Research Networks

With the advance of Future Internet technologies, many research issues andideas are growing fast in recent years. In the field of network virtualization, softwaredefined network becomes a common topic on network research. In Taiwan, manyinstitutes and laboratories of universities already built their bench-scale testbed forresearch and educational use with OpenFlow protocol. As time goes by, stitchingexperimental networks is a growing trend to fulfill requirements for large scaleemulation. Hence, this paper revealed a progressing deployment which connectsdifferent experimental networks with centralized control policy. The objective is tobuild an integrated research network with a proposed solution which utilizesOpenFlow protocol to deal with the inter-connections. With a centralized controllerand implemented architecture, the deployment not only solves the limitation of VLANtag number in network but also improves the flexibility of configuration. This designcould be a solution for the realistic constraints of network environment in Taiwan, andit also supports the possibility of stitching regional experimental networks fornetworking research

Planning and Implantation of NetFPGA Platform on Network Emulation Testbed

The concepts of cloud computing and Internet applications have expanded gradually and have become more and more important. Researchers need a new, high-speed network to build experimental environments for testing new network protocolswithout affecting existing traffic. In this paper, we describe a way to integrate NetFPGA platform, OpenFlow concept and NetFPGA reference designs into anetwork testbed to improve the packet processing speed and the dynamic adjustability for network emulation experiments. Furthermore, combined with Tunneling and VPLS, the proposed network testbed can be connected to distributed network, thus providing researchers a traffic-controllable and NIC-programmable experimental networking testbed in intra-communicating part

Paraholcoglossum and Tsiorchis, Two New Orchid Genera Established by Molecular and Morphological Analyses of the Holcoglossum Alliance

BACKGROUND: Holcoglossum is a small orchid genus of 12 species ranging from SW China to Thailand and NE India. Although molecular and morphological analyses have been performed to establish the phylogenetic relationships within this genus, the interspecific relations and its relations with allied genera, such as Rhynchostylis, Aerides and Vanda, remain unclear. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In addition to morphological analysis, maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference analyses were performed based on fragments of the nuclear ITS and chloroplast trnL-F and matK genes of 31 taxa (15 Holcoglossum, 14 Aeridinae, 2 outgroups) representing all major clades of the Holcoglossum alliance. The results suggest that Holcoglossum is triphyletic, comprising three clades: the Holcoglossum clade, its sister clade, and a distant clade more closely related to Rhynchostylis, Aerides, and Vanda than to the Holcoglossum clade. The Holcoglossum clade is further divided into three subclades; the genetic distances between these three subclades also support this delimitation. The molecular conclusion is consistent with their distinct morphological characters. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that the latter two clades comprise two new genera, Paraholcoglossum and Tsiorchis, and Holcoglossum clade divides into three sections. In addition, a new section, Holcoglossum sect. Nujiangensia, and a new species, Holcoglossum linearifolium, are proposed. Some new combinations are made, and a new scheme is provided for the classification of all species of Holcoglossum, Paraholcoglossum, and Tsiorchis