Harmonizing Output Imbalance for semantic segmentation on extremely-imbalanced input data

Semantic segmentation is a high level computer vision task that assigns a label for each pixel of an image. It is challenging to deal with extremely-imbalanced data in which the ratio of target pixels to background pixels is lower than 1:1000. Such severe input imbalance leads to output imbalance for poor model training. This paper considers three issues for extremely-imbalanced data: inspired by the region-based Dice loss, an implicit measure for the output imbalance is proposed, and an adaptive algorithm is designed for guiding the output imbalance hyperparameter selection; then it is generalized to distribution-based loss for dealing with output imbalance; and finally a compound loss with our adaptive hyperparameter selection algorithm can keep the consistency of training and inference for harmonizing the output imbalance. With four popular deep architectures on our private dataset from three different input imbalance scales and three public datasets, extensive experiments demonstrate the competitive/promising performance of the proposed method.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, 2 appendixe

Stochastic Systems: Modeling, Optimization, and Applications

The special issue of Mathematical Problems in Engineering deals with the issues of modeling, optimization, and applications associated with stochastic systems. This special issue provides a forum for researchers and practitioners to publish quality research work on modeling, optimization approaches, and their applications in the context of theory analysis and engineering developments. The accepted papers in this special issue include stochastic stability, stabilization and control optimization, stochastic optimization, particle swarm optimization, modeling and identification methods, signal processing, and robust filtering. The issue includes thirty-nine papers out of which six consider the stability and stabilization problems of stochastic systems. Twelve papers cover the problems of the controller design and relevant optimization algorithms

Combined 3D-QSAR and Docking Modelling Study on Indolocarbazole Series Compounds as Tie-2 Inhibitors

Tie-2, a kind of endothelial cell tyrosine kinase receptor, is required for embryonic blood vessel development and tumor angiogenesis. Several compounds that showed potent activity toward this attractive anticancer drug target in the assay have been reported. In order to investigate the structure-activity correlation of indolocarbazole series compounds and modify them to improve their selectivity and activity, 3D-QSAR models were built using CoMFA and CoMSIA methods and molecular docking was used to check the results. Based on the common sketch align, two good QSAR models with high predictabilities (CoMFA model: q2 = 0.823, r2 = 0.979; CoMSIA model: q2 = 0.804, r2 = 0.967) were obtained and the contour maps obtained from both models were applied to identify the influence on the biological activity. Molecular docking was then used to confirm the results. Combined with the molecular docking results, the detail binding mode between the ligands and Tie-2 was elucidated, which enabled us to interpret the structure-activity relationship. These satisf actory results not only offered help to comprehend the action mechanism of indolocarbazole series compounds, but also provide new information for the design of new potent inhibitors

Study on a novel fault diagnosis method based on information fusion method

For the low accuracy and calculation speed of traditional fault diagnosis methods, the chaos optimization algorithm (COA), quantum particle swarm optimization (QPSO) algorithm and support vector machine (SVM) are introduced into the fault diagnosis to propose a novel fault diagnosis (CQPSMFD) method in this paper. In the proposed CQPSMFD method, the COA is used to initialize the parameters of the QPSO algorithm in order to obtain the CQPSO algorithm with the better convergence speed. Then the CQPSO algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of the SVM model to construct a high-precision SVM model (CQPSM) with the higher accuracy and stronger generalization ability. Next, the CQPSMFD method based on CQPSM method is proposed for motor. Finally, the experiment data from Case Western bearing dataset and actual motor are selected to verify the CQPSMFD method. The results show that the CQPSO algorithm can obtain the optimal parameter combination and the CQPSMFD method can effectively improve the fault diagnosis accuracy and speed

A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Globins in Fungi

BACKGROUND: ALL GLOBINS BELONG TO ONE OF THREE FAMILIES: the F (flavohemoglobin) and S (sensor) families that exhibit the canonical 3/3 α-helical fold, and the T (truncated 3/3 fold) globins characterized by a shortened 2/2 α-helical fold. All eukaryote 3/3 hemoglobins are related to the bacterial single domain F globins. It is known that Fungi contain flavohemoglobins and single domain S globins. Our aims are to provide a census of fungal globins and to examine their relationships to bacterial globins. RESULTS: Examination of 165 genomes revealed that globins are present in >90% of Ascomycota and ∼60% of Basidiomycota genomes. The S globins occur in Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota in addition to the phyla that have FHbs. Unexpectedly, group 1 T globins were found in one Blastocladiomycota and one Chytridiomycota genome. Phylogenetic analyses were carried out on the fungal globins, alone and aligned with representative bacterial globins. The Saccharomycetes and Sordariomycetes with two FHbs form two widely divergent clusters separated by the remaining fungal sequences. One of the Saccharomycete groups represents a new subfamily of FHbs, comprising a previously unknown N-terminal and a FHb missing the C-terminal moiety of its reductase domain. The two Saccharomycete groups also form two clusters in the presence of bacterial FHbs; the surrounding bacterial sequences are dominated by Proteobacteria and Bacilli (Firmicutes). The remaining fungal FHbs cluster with Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. The Sgbs cluster separately from their bacterial counterparts, except for the intercalation of two Planctomycetes and a Proteobacterium between the Fungi incertae sedis and the Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota. CONCLUSION: Our results are compatible with a model of globin evolution put forward earlier, which proposed that eukaryote F, S and T globins originated via horizontal gene transfer of their bacterial counterparts to the eukaryote ancestor, resulting from the endosymbiotic events responsible for the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts

High-Resolution Melting Analysis as a Powerful Tool to Discriminate and Genotype Pseudomonas savastanoi Pathovars and Strains

Pseudomonas savastanoi is a serious pathogen of Olive, Oleander, Ash, and several other Oleaceae. Its epiphytic or endophytic presence in asymptomatic plants is crucial for the spread of Olive and Oleander knot disease, as already ascertained for P. savastanoi pv. savastanoi (Psv) on Olive and for pv. nerii (Psn) on Oleander, while no information is available for pv. fraxini (Psf) on Ash. Nothing is known yet about the distribution on the different host plants and the real host range of these pathovars in nature, although cross-infections were observed following artificial inoculations. A multiplex Real-Time PCR assay was recently developed to simultaneously and quantitatively discriminate in vitro and in planta these P. savastanoi pathovars, for routine culture confirmation and for epidemiological and diagnostical studies. Here an innovative High-Resolution Melting Analysis (HRMA)-based assay was set up to unequivocally discriminate Psv, Psn and Psf, according to several single nucleotide polymorphisms found in their Type Three Secretion System clusters. The genetic distances among 56 P. savastanoi strains belonging to these pathovars were also evaluated, confirming and refining data previously obtained by fAFLP. To our knowledge, this is the first time that HRMA is applied to a bacterial plant pathogen, and one of the few multiplex HRMA-based assays developed so far. This protocol provides a rapid, sensitive, specific tool to differentiate and detect Psv, Psn and Psf strains, also in vivo and against other related bacteria, with lower costs than conventional multiplex Real-Time PCR. Its application is particularly suitable for sanitary certification programs for P. savastanoi, aimed at avoiding the spreading of this phytopathogen through asymptomatic plants

Study and Verification of a New Method to Test the Bonding Ability between Basalt Fiber and Asphalt Mortar

The bonding ability between basalt fiber bundle and asphalt mortar has a great influence on the properties of basalt fiber reinforced asphalt mixtures, yet the studies about the bonding between them is very limited. In this paper, a new test instrument called fiber-asphalt pulling machine and a new index called the nominal bonding stress (NBS) were designed and adopted to test and reveal the bonding between basalt fiber bundle and asphalt mortar. The procedures and rationality analysis of this new experiment was specified in this paper. In order to verify the reliability of the NBS index, the NBS values derived from this new test method and the rheological property indexes values of asphalt mortar under different powder–cement ratios were adopted to analyze the correlation between them. Two kinds of basalt fibers produced by two different manufacturers were adopted to conduct the parallel experiment. The results show that the nominal bonding stress between basalt fiber and asphalt mortar derived from this new test has a great correlation with the rheological properties of asphalt mortar, which also proves the credibility of this new test method and the NBS index