Only Positive Cases: 5-fold High-order Attention Interaction Model for Skin Segmentation Derived Classification

Computer-aided diagnosis of skin diseases is an important tool. However, the interpretability of computer-aided diagnosis is currently poor. Dermatologists and patients cannot intuitively understand the learning and prediction process of neural networks, which will lead to a decrease in the credibility of computer-aided diagnosis. In addition, traditional methods need to be trained using negative samples in order to predict the presence or absence of a lesion, but medical data is often in short supply. In this paper, we propose a multiple high-order attention interaction model (MHA-UNet) for use in a highly explainable skin lesion segmentation task. MHA-UNet is able to obtain the presence or absence of a lesion by explainable reasoning without the need for training on negative samples. Specifically, we propose a high-order attention interaction mechanism that introduces squeeze attention to a higher level for feature attention. In addition, a multiple high-order attention interaction (MHAblock) module is proposed by combining the different features of different orders. For classifying the presence or absence of lesions, we conducted classification experiments on several publicly available datasets in the absence of negative samples, based on explainable reasoning about the interaction of 5 attention orders of MHAblock. The highest positive detection rate obtained from the experiments was 81.0% and the highest negative detection rate was 83.5%. For segmentation experiments, comparison experiments of the proposed method with 13 medical segmentation models and external validation experiments with 8 state-of-the-art models in three public datasets and our clinical dataset demonstrate the state-of-the-art performance of our model. The code is available from https://github.com/wurenkai/MHA-UNet

Real-Time Marker Localization Learning for GelStereo Tactile Sensing

Visuotactile sensing technology is becoming more popular in tactile sensing, but the effectiveness of the existing marker detection localization methods remains to be further explored. Instead of contour-based blob detection, this paper presents a learning-based marker localization network for GelStereo visuotactile sensing called Marknet. Specifically, the Marknet presents a grid regression architecture to incorporate the distribution of the GelStereo markers. Furthermore, a marker rationality evaluator (MRE) is modelled to screen suitable prediction results. The experimental results show that the Marknet combined with MRE achieves 93.90% precision for irregular markers in contact areas, which outperforms the traditional contour-based blob detection method by a large margin of 42.32%. Meanwhile, the proposed learning-based marker localization method can achieve better real-time performance beyond the blob detection interface provided by the OpenCV library through GPU acceleration, which we believe will lead to considerable perceptual sensitivity gains in various robotic manipulation tasks

MindLLM: Pre-training Lightweight Large Language Model from Scratch, Evaluations and Domain Applications

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable performance across various natural language tasks, marking significant strides towards general artificial intelligence. While general artificial intelligence is leveraged by developing increasingly large-scale models, there could be another branch to develop lightweight custom models that better serve certain domains, taking into account the high cost of training and deploying LLMs and the scarcity of resources. In this paper, we present MindLLM, a novel series of bilingual lightweight large language models, trained from scratch, alleviating such burdens by offering models with 1.3 billion and 3 billion parameters. A thorough account of experiences accrued during large model development is given, covering every step of the process, including data construction, model architecture, evaluation, and applications. Such insights are hopefully valuable for fellow academics and developers. MindLLM consistently matches or surpasses the performance of other open-source larger models on some public benchmarks. We also introduce an innovative instruction tuning framework tailored for smaller models to enhance their capabilities efficiently. Moreover, we explore the application of MindLLM in specific vertical domains such as law and finance, underscoring the agility and adaptability of our lightweight models.Comment: Working in progres

Crust: Verifiable And Efficient Private Information Retrieval with Sublinear Online Time

Private Information Retrieval (PIR) is a cryptographic primitive that enables a user to retrieve information from a database without revealing the particular information they are seeking, thus preserving their privacy. PIR schemes suffer from high computation overhead. By running an offline preprocessing phase, PIR schemes can achieve sublinear online server computation. On the other hand, although protocols for honest-but-curious servers have been well-studied in both single-server and multi-server scenarios, little work has been done for the case where the server is malicious. In this paper, we propose a simple but efficient sublinear PIR scheme named Crust. The scheme is tailored for verifiability and provides privacy and data integrity against malicious servers. Our scheme can work with two servers or a single server. Aside from verifiability, our scheme is very efficient. Compared to state-of-the-art two-server and single-server sublinear PIR schemes, our scheme is 22x more efficient in online computation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first PIR scheme that achieves verifiability, as well as amortized $O(\sqrt{n})$ server computation

MusiLingo: Bridging Music and Text with Pre-trained Language Models for Music Captioning and Query Response

Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown immense potential in multimodal applications, yet the convergence of textual and musical domains remains relatively unexplored. To address this gap, we present MusiLingo, a novel system for music caption generation and music-related query responses. MusiLingo employs a single projection layer to align music representations from the pre-trained frozen music audio model MERT with the frozen LLaMA language model, bridging the gap between music audio and textual contexts. We train it on an extensive music caption dataset and fine-tune it with instructional data. Due to the scarcity of high-quality music Q&A datasets, we created the MusicInstruct (MI) dataset from MusicCaps, tailored for open-ended music inquiries. Empirical evaluations demonstrate its competitive performance in generating music captions and composing music-related Q&A pairs. Our introduced dataset enables notable advancements beyond previous ones

Impact of fracturing liquid absorption on the production and water-block unlocking for shale gas reservoir

A large amount of liquid is pumped into the shale gas reservoir during hydraulic fracturing, and the fluid flowback ratio is usually low. However, field experience showed that the liquids did not cause severe damage to shale gas reservoir. It is urgent to clarify the water block unlocking mechanism of a shale gas reservoir. This work is to discuss the water block unlocking mechanism in shale gas reservoir. Based on the characteristic study of shale gas formation, the fracturing fluid absorption mechanism, absorption ability and impact on shale gas formation damage are systematically studied. Study shows that ultra-low water saturation, abundant micro- to nano- tubulars and a huge contact area are the control factors for strong fluid absorption ability of gas-shale. The strong water absorption capacity of the shale gas formation matrix is a key factor in removing water block. Organic matter also has an important influence on absorption ability and gas production. A conceptual evaluation criterion for water block unlocking is proposed based on core absorption capacity, original water saturation and fracture density. The shut-in after hydraulic fracturing is beneficial to gas production and can reduce water production for certain shale gas reservoir.Cited as: Shen, Y., Ge, H., Zhang, X., Chang, L., Liu, D., Liu, J. Impact of fracturing liquid absorption on the production and water-block unlocking for shale gas reservoir. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2018, 2(2): 163-172, doi: 10.26804/ager.2018.02.0