Effect of low-degree astigmatism on the objective visual quality

AIM:To evaluate the effect of low-degree astigmatism on objective visual quality through the Optical Quality Analysis System(OQAS).METHODS:This study enrolled 46 participants(aged 23 to 30y,90 eyes)with normal or corrected-to-normal vision.The cylindrical lenses(0,0.5,0.75,1.0,and 1.25 D)were placed at the axial direction(180°,45°,90°,and 135°)in front of the eyes with the best correction to form 16 types of regular low-degree astigmatism.OQAS was used to detect the objective visual quality,recorded as the objective scattering index(OSI),OQAS values at contrasts of 100%,20%,and 9%predictive visual acuity(OV100%,OV20%,and OV9%),modulation transfer function cut-off(MTFcut-off)and Strehl ratio(SR).The mixed effect linear model was used to compare objective visual quality differences between groups and examine associations between astigmatic magnitude and objective visual quality parameters.RESULTS:Apparent negative relationships between the magnitude of low astigmatism and objective visual quality were observed.The increase of OSI per degree of astigmatism at 180°,45°,90°,and 135°axis were 0.38(95%CI:0.35,0.42),0.50(95%CI:0.46,0.53),0.49(95%CI:0.45,0.54)and 0.37(95%CI:0.34,0.41),respectively.The decrease of MTFcut-off per degree of astigmatism at 180°,45°,90°,and 135°axis were-10.30(95%CI:-11.43,-9.16),-12.73(95%CI:-13.62,-11.86),-12.75(95%CI:-13.79,-11.70),and-9.97(95%CI:-10.92,-9.03),respectively.At the same astigmatism degree,OSI at 45°and 90°axis were higher than that at 0°and 135°axis,while MTFcut-off were lower.CONCLUSION:Low astigmatism of only 0.50 D can significantly reduce the objective visual quality.

Distributed Stochastic Optimization with Compression for Non-Strongly Convex Objectives

We are investigating the distributed optimization problem,where a network of nodes works together to minimize a global objective that is a finite sum of their stored local functions.Since nodes exchange optimization parameters through the wireless network,large-scale training models can create communication bottlenecks,resulting in slower training times.To address this issue,CHOCO-SGD was proposed,which allows compressing information with arbitrary precision without reducing the convergence rate for strongly convex objective functions.Nevertheless,most convex functions are not strongly convex(such as logistic regression or Lasso),which raises the question of whether this algorithm can be applied to non-strongly convex functions.In this paper,we provide the first theoretical analysis of the convergence rate of CHOCO-SGD on non-strongly convex objectives.We derive a sufficient condition,which limits the fidelity of compression,to guarantee convergence.Moreover,our analysis demonstrates that within the fidelity threshold,this algorithm can significantly reduce transmission burden while maintaining the same convergence rate order as its no-compression equivalent.Numerical experiments further validate the theoretical findings by demonstrating that CHOCO-SGD improves communication efficiency and keeps the same convergence rate order simultaneously.And experiments also show that the algorithm fails to converge with low compression fidelity and in time-varying topologies.Overall,our study offers valuable insights into the potential applicability of CHOCO-SGD for non-strongly convex objectives.Additionally,we provide practical guidelines for researchers seeking to utilize this algorithm in real-world scenarios.

Large-field objective lens for multi-wavelength microscopy at mesoscale and submicron resolution

Conventional microscopes designed for submicron resolution in biological research are hindered by a limited field of view,typically around 1 mm.This restriction poses a challenge when attempting to simultaneously analyze various parts of a sample,such as different brain areas.In addition,conventional objective lenses struggle to perform consistently across the required range of wavelengths for brain imaging in vivo.Here we present a novel mesoscopic objective lens with an impressive field of view of 8 mm,a numerical aperture of 0.5,and a working wavelength range from 400 to 1000 nm.We achieved a resolution of 0.74μm in fluorescent beads imaging.The versatility of this lens was further demonstrated through high-quality images of mouse brain and kidney sections in a wide-field imaging system,a confocal laser scanning system,and a two-photon imaging system.This mesoscopic objective lens holds immense promise for advancing multi-wavelength imaging of large fields of view at high resolution.

Cultivating Cultural Self-Awareness to Teach Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is undisputably important in today’s world.Schools on every level in China attach great importance to educating young people with intercultural communication competence.Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiaotong developed the concept of cultural self-awareness to meet this urgent need.The paper explores the rich meanings of cultural self-awareness concept and how the idea is relevant to teaching intercultural communication.

Objective Model Selection in Physics: Exploring the Finite Information Quantity Approach

Traditional methods for selecting models in experimental data analysis are susceptible to researcher bias, hindering exploration of alternative explanations and potentially leading to overfitting. The Finite Information Quantity (FIQ) approach offers a novel solution by acknowledging the inherent limitations in information processing capacity of physical systems. This framework facilitates the development of objective criteria for model selection (comparative uncertainty) and paves the way for a more comprehensive understanding of phenomena through exploring diverse explanations. This work presents a detailed comparison of the FIQ approach with ten established model selection methods, highlighting the advantages and limitations of each. We demonstrate the potential of FIQ to enhance the objectivity and robustness of scientific inquiry through three practical examples: selecting appropriate models for measuring fundamental constants, sound velocity, and underwater electrical discharges. Further research is warranted to explore the full applicability of FIQ across various scientific disciplines.

Research on the Relationship between the School-Running Characteristics of Private Colleges and Universities and the Development Objectives of the Government

The development objectives of the Chinese government have a guiding effect on the school-running characteristics of private colleges and universities.This paper explores the relationship between the characteristics of private colleges and universities and the development objectives of the provincial government,using Jiangsu Province as a case study.All the schools have the consciousness of fully considering the development objectives of Jiangsu Province when formulating the school-running characteristics.Their characteristics all contain some training methods,training courses,or institutional construction aiming at the development objectives.Most universities can support the government’s objectives on employment and innovation.Only a third of the schools provide government support for science research.Private colleges and universities should make full use of the free and flexible advantages of private education,combine them with the continuous changes of policies and markets,and create clear,scientific,and dynamic school-running characteristics,in order to achieve long-term development.

Eclipse计划系统MU Objective工具在鼻咽癌容积调强放射治疗计划中的应用研究

目的:探讨Varian Eclipse计划系统MU Objective工具在鼻咽癌容积调强放射治疗(VMAT)计划中的应用,旨在保证治疗计划质量的同时降低治疗计划的机器跳数(MU)。方法:选取已接受容积调强放射治疗技术的21例鼻咽癌患者,在未使用MU Objective工具的情况下给每例患者设计治疗参考计划(MU_(ref));将使用MU Objective工具对MU_(ref)进行重新优化,分别设置MU_(ref)的MU的30%、50%、70%、90%和120%,分别命名为MU_(30%)、MU_(50%)、MU_(70%)、MU_(90%)和MU_(120%)。将治疗计划MU_(30%)、MU_(50%)、MU_(70%)、MU_(90%)和MU_(120%)分别与MU_(ref)进行配对t检验统计分析,比较两种治疗计划的靶区、危及器官(OAR)剂量分布和计划的MU。结果:使用MU Objective工具对参考计划优化MU后,与参考计划相比部分靶区和OAR剂量体积参数差异虽有统计学意义,但无临床意义。治疗计划参数为MU_(30%)、MU_(50%)、MU_(70%)和MU_(90%)时,与MU_(ref)比较计划MU平均分别减少21.5%、19.5%、16.6%和8%,差异有统计学意义(t=9.652,t=8.843,t=8.963,t=11.323;P<0.05)。在MU_(120%)时,治疗计划MU平均增加1.7%,但未显著提高靶区剂量覆盖。结论:对于鼻咽癌VMAT计划,使用Eclipse计划系统的MU Objective工具在减少计划MU的同时可获得与参考计划相似的剂量分布。MU Objective工具可作为鼻咽癌或其他部位VMAT计划的常规使用工具,以保证计划质量同时减少放射治疗计划的MU。

Objective Identification and Climatic Characteristics of Heavy-Precipitation Northeastern China Cold Vortexes

The northeastern China cold vortex(NCCV)plays an important role in regional rainstorms over East Asia.Using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Final reanalysis dataset and the Global Precipitation Measurement product,an objective algorithm for identifying heavy-precipitation NCCV(HPCV)events was designed,and the climatological features of 164 HPCV events from 2001 to 2019 were investigated.The number of HPCV events showed an upward linear trend,with the highest frequency of occurrence in summer.The most active region of HPCV samples was the Northeast China Plain between 40°–55°N.Most HPCV events lasted 3–5 days and had radii ranging from 250 to 1000 km.The duration of HPCV events with larger sizes was longer.About half of the HPCV events moved into(moved out of)the definition region(35°–60°N,115°–145°E),and half initiated(dissipated)within the region.The initial position was close to the western boundary of the definition region,and the final position was mainly near the eastern boundary.The locations associated with the precipitation were mostly concentrated within 2000 km southeast of the HPCV systems,and they were farther from the center in the cold season than in the warm season.

Multi‐objective particle swarm optimisation of complex product change plan considering service performance

Design change is an inevitable part of the product development process.This study proposes an improved binary multi‐objective PSO algorithm guided by problem char-acteristics(P‐BMOPSO)to solve the optimisation problem of complex product change plan considering service performance.Firstly,a complex product multi‐layer network with service performance is established for the first time to reveal the impact of change effect propagation on the product service performance.Secondly,the concept of service performance impact(SPI)is defined by decoupling the impact of strongly associated nodes on the service performance in the process of change affect propagation.Then,a triple‐objective selection model of change nodes is established,which includes the three indicators:SPI degree,change cost,and change time.Furthermore,an integer multi‐objective particle swarm optimisation algorithm guided by problem characteristics is developed to solve the model above.Experimental results on the design change problem of a certain type of Skyworth TV verify the effectiveness of the established optimisation model and the proposed P‐BMOPSO algorithm.

Multi-Objective Optimization with Artificial Neural Network Based Robust Paddy Yield Prediction Model

Agriculture plays a vital role in the food production process that occupies nearly one-third of the total surface of the earth.Rice is propagated from the seeds of paddy and it is a stable food almost used byfifty percent of the total world population.The extensive growth of the human population alarms us to ensure food security and the country should take proper food steps to improve the yield of food grains.This paper concentrates on improving the yield of paddy by predicting the factors that influence the growth of paddy with the help of Evolutionary Computation Techniques.Most of the researchers used to relay on historical records of meteorological parameters to predict the yield of paddy.There is a lack in analyzing the day to day impact of meteorological parameters such as direction of wind,relative humidity,Instant Wind Speed in paddy cultivation.The real time meteorological data collected and analysis the impact of weather parameters from the day of paddy sowing to till the last day of paddy harvesting with regular time series.A Robust Optimized Artificial Neural Network(ROANN)Algorithm with Genetic Algorithm(GA)and Multi Objective Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm(MOPSO)proposed to predict the factors that to be concentrated by farmers to improve the paddy yield in cultivation.A real time paddy data collected from farmers of Tamilnadu and the meteorological parameters were matched with the cropping pattern of the farmers to construct the database.The input parameters were optimized either by using GA or MOPSO optimization algorithms to reconstruct the database.Reconstructed database optimized by using Artificial Neural Network Back Propagation Algorithm.The reason for improving the growth of paddy was identified using the output of the Neural Network.Performance metrics such as Accuracy,Error Rate etc were used to measure the performance of the proposed algorithm.Comparative analysis made between ANN with GA and ANN with MOPSO to identify the recommendations for improving the paddy yield.

Salient Object Detection Based on a Novel Combination Framework Using the Perceptual Matching and Subjective-Objective Mapping Technologies

The integrity and fineness characterization of non-connected regions and contours is a major challenge for existing salient object detection.The key to address is how to make full use of the subjective and objective structural information obtained in different steps.Therefore,by simulating the human visual mechanism,this paper proposes a novel multi-decoder matching correction network and subjective structural loss.Specifically,the loss pays different attentions to the foreground,boundary,and background of ground truth map in a top-down structure.And the perceived saliency is mapped to the corresponding objective structure of the prediction map,which is extracted in a bottom-up manner.Thus,multi-level salient features can be effectively detected with the loss as constraint.And then,through the mapping of improved binary cross entropy loss,the differences between salient regions and objects are checked to pay attention to the error prone region to achieve excellent error sensitivity.Finally,through tracking the identifying feature horizontally and vertically,the subjective and objective interaction is maximized.Extensive experiments on five benchmark datasets demonstrate that compared with 12 state-of-the-art methods,the algorithm has higher recall and precision,less error and strong robustness and generalization ability,and can predict complete and refined saliency maps.

Enhanced Object Detection and Classification via Multi-Method Fusion

Advances in machine vision systems have revolutionized applications such as autonomous driving,robotic navigation,and augmented reality.Despite substantial progress,challenges persist,including dynamic backgrounds,occlusion,and limited labeled data.To address these challenges,we introduce a comprehensive methodology toenhance image classification and object detection accuracy.The proposed approach involves the integration ofmultiple methods in a complementary way.The process commences with the application of Gaussian filters tomitigate the impact of noise interference.These images are then processed for segmentation using Fuzzy C-Meanssegmentation in parallel with saliency mapping techniques to find the most prominent regions.The Binary RobustIndependent Elementary Features(BRIEF)characteristics are then extracted fromdata derived fromsaliency mapsand segmented images.For precise object separation,Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF(ORB)algorithms areemployed.Genetic Algorithms(GAs)are used to optimize Random Forest classifier parameters which lead toimproved performance.Our method stands out due to its comprehensive approach,adeptly addressing challengessuch as changing backdrops,occlusion,and limited labeled data concurrently.A significant enhancement hasbeen achieved by integrating Genetic Algorithms(GAs)to precisely optimize parameters.This minor adjustmentnot only boosts the uniqueness of our system but also amplifies its overall efficacy.The proposed methodologyhas demonstrated notable classification accuracies of 90.9%and 89.0%on the challenging Corel-1k and MSRCdatasets,respectively.Furthermore,detection accuracies of 87.2%and 86.6%have been attained.Although ourmethod performed well in both datasets it may face difficulties in real-world data especially where datasets havehighly complex backgrounds.Despite these limitations,GAintegration for parameter optimization shows a notablestrength in enhancing the overall adaptability and performance of our system.

Confusing Object Detection:A Survey

Confusing object detection(COD),such as glass,mirrors,and camouflaged objects,represents a burgeoning visual detection task centered on pinpointing and distinguishing concealed targets within intricate backgrounds,leveraging deep learning methodologies.Despite garnering increasing attention in computer vision,the focus of most existing works leans toward formulating task-specific solutions rather than delving into in-depth analyses of methodological structures.As of now,there is a notable absence of a comprehensive systematic review that focuses on recently proposed deep learning-based models for these specific tasks.To fill this gap,our study presents a pioneering review that covers both themodels and the publicly available benchmark datasets,while also identifying potential directions for future research in this field.The current dataset primarily focuses on single confusing object detection at the image level,with some studies extending to video-level data.We conduct an in-depth analysis of deep learning architectures,revealing that the current state-of-the-art(SOTA)COD methods demonstrate promising performance in single object detection.We also compile and provide detailed descriptions ofwidely used datasets relevant to these detection tasks.Our endeavor extends to discussing the limitations observed in current methodologies,alongside proposed solutions aimed at enhancing detection accuracy.Additionally,we deliberate on relevant applications and outline future research trajectories,aiming to catalyze advancements in the field of glass,mirror,and camouflaged object detection.

Floating Waste Discovery by Request via Object-Centric Learning

Discovering floating wastes,especially bottles on water,is a crucial research problem in environmental hygiene.Nevertheless,real-world applications often face challenges such as interference from irrelevant objects and the high cost associated with data collection.Consequently,devising algorithms capable of accurately localizing specific objects within a scene in scenarios where annotated data is limited remains a formidable challenge.To solve this problem,this paper proposes an object discovery by request problem setting and a corresponding algorithmic framework.The proposed problem setting aims to identify specified objects in scenes,and the associated algorithmic framework comprises pseudo data generation and object discovery by request network.Pseudo-data generation generates images resembling natural scenes through various data augmentation rules,using a small number of object samples and scene images.The network structure of object discovery by request utilizes the pre-trained Vision Transformer(ViT)model as the backbone,employs object-centric methods to learn the latent representations of foreground objects,and applies patch-level reconstruction constraints to the model.During the validation phase,we use the generated pseudo datasets as training sets and evaluate the performance of our model on the original test sets.Experiments have proved that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles-Bottle Detection(UAV-BD)dataset and self-constructed dataset Bottle,especially in multi-object scenarios.

Two-Layer Attention Feature Pyramid Network for Small Object Detection

Effective small object detection is crucial in various applications including urban intelligent transportation and pedestrian detection.However,small objects are difficult to detect accurately because they contain less information.Many current methods,particularly those based on Feature Pyramid Network(FPN),address this challenge by leveraging multi-scale feature fusion.However,existing FPN-based methods often suffer from inadequate feature fusion due to varying resolutions across different layers,leading to suboptimal small object detection.To address this problem,we propose the Two-layerAttention Feature Pyramid Network(TA-FPN),featuring two key modules:the Two-layer Attention Module(TAM)and the Small Object Detail Enhancement Module(SODEM).TAM uses the attention module to make the network more focused on the semantic information of the object and fuse it to the lower layer,so that each layer contains similar semantic information,to alleviate the problem of small object information being submerged due to semantic gaps between different layers.At the same time,SODEM is introduced to strengthen the local features of the object,suppress background noise,enhance the information details of the small object,and fuse the enhanced features to other feature layers to ensure that each layer is rich in small object information,to improve small object detection accuracy.Our extensive experiments on challenging datasets such as Microsoft Common Objects inContext(MSCOCO)and Pattern Analysis Statistical Modelling and Computational Learning,Visual Object Classes(PASCAL VOC)demonstrate the validity of the proposedmethod.Experimental results show a significant improvement in small object detection accuracy compared to state-of-theart detectors.

Rail-Pillar Net:A 3D Detection Network for Railway Foreign Object Based on LiDAR

Aiming at the limitations of the existing railway foreign object detection methods based on two-dimensional(2D)images,such as short detection distance,strong influence of environment and lack of distance information,we propose Rail-PillarNet,a three-dimensional(3D)LIDAR(Light Detection and Ranging)railway foreign object detection method based on the improvement of PointPillars.Firstly,the parallel attention pillar encoder(PAPE)is designed to fully extract the features of the pillars and alleviate the problem of local fine-grained information loss in PointPillars pillars encoder.Secondly,a fine backbone network is designed to improve the feature extraction capability of the network by combining the coding characteristics of LIDAR point cloud feature and residual structure.Finally,the initial weight parameters of the model were optimised by the transfer learning training method to further improve accuracy.The experimental results on the OSDaR23 dataset show that the average accuracy of Rail-PillarNet reaches 58.51%,which is higher than most mainstream models,and the number of parameters is 5.49 M.Compared with PointPillars,the accuracy of each target is improved by 10.94%,3.53%,16.96%and 19.90%,respectively,and the number of parameters only increases by 0.64M,which achieves a balance between the number of parameters and accuracy.

A Secure and Cost-Effective Training Framework Atop Serverless Computing for Object Detection in Blasting

The data analysis of blasting sites has always been the research goal of relevant researchers.The rise of mobile blasting robots has aroused many researchers’interest in machine learning methods for target detection in the field of blasting.Serverless Computing can provide a variety of computing services for people without hardware foundations and rich software development experience,which has aroused people’s interest in how to use it in the field ofmachine learning.In this paper,we design a distributedmachine learning training application based on the AWS Lambda platform.Based on data parallelism,the data aggregation and training synchronization in Function as a Service(FaaS)are effectively realized.It also encrypts the data set,effectively reducing the risk of data leakage.We rent a cloud server and a Lambda,and then we conduct experiments to evaluate our applications.Our results indicate the effectiveness,rapidity,and economy of distributed training on FaaS.

SMSTracker:A Self-Calibration Multi-Head Self-Attention Transformer for Visual Object Tracking

Visual object tracking plays a crucial role in computer vision.In recent years,researchers have proposed various methods to achieve high-performance object tracking.Among these,methods based on Transformers have become a research hotspot due to their ability to globally model and contextualize information.However,current Transformer-based object tracking methods still face challenges such as low tracking accuracy and the presence of redundant feature information.In this paper,we introduce self-calibration multi-head self-attention Transformer(SMSTracker)as a solution to these challenges.It employs a hybrid tensor decomposition self-organizing multihead self-attention transformermechanism,which not only compresses and accelerates Transformer operations but also significantly reduces redundant data,thereby enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of tracking.Additionally,we introduce a self-calibration attention fusion block to resolve common issues of attention ambiguities and inconsistencies found in traditional trackingmethods,ensuring the stability and reliability of tracking performance across various scenarios.By integrating a hybrid tensor decomposition approach with a self-organizingmulti-head self-attentive transformer mechanism,SMSTracker enhances the efficiency and accuracy of the tracking process.Experimental results show that SMSTracker achieves competitive performance in visual object tracking,promising more robust and efficient tracking systems,demonstrating its potential to providemore robust and efficient tracking solutions in real-world applications.

Learning Discriminatory Information for Object Detection on Urine Sediment Image

In clinical practice,the microscopic examination of urine sediment is considered an important in vitro examination with many broad applications.Measuring the amount of each type of urine sediment allows for screening,diagnosis and evaluation of kidney and urinary tract disease,providing insight into the specific type and severity.However,manual urine sediment examination is labor-intensive,time-consuming,and subjective.Traditional machine learning based object detection methods require hand-crafted features for localization and classification,which have poor generalization capabilities and are difficult to quickly and accurately detect the number of urine sediments.Deep learning based object detection methods have the potential to address the challenges mentioned above,but these methods require access to large urine sediment image datasets.Unfortunately,only a limited number of publicly available urine sediment datasets are currently available.To alleviate the lack of urine sediment datasets in medical image analysis,we propose a new dataset named UriSed2K,which contains 2465 high-quality images annotated with expert guidance.Two main challenges are associated with our dataset:a large number of small objects and the occlusion between these small objects.Our manuscript focuses on applying deep learning object detection methods to the urine sediment dataset and addressing the challenges presented by this dataset.Specifically,our goal is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the detection algorithm and,in doing so,provide medical professionals with an automatic detector that saves time and effort.We propose an improved lightweight one-stage object detection algorithm called Discriminatory-YOLO.The proposed algorithm comprises a local context attention module and a global background suppression module,which aid the detector in distinguishing urine sediment features in the image.The local context attention module captures context information beyond the object region,while the global background suppression module emphasizes objects in uninformative backgrounds.We comprehensively evaluate our method on the UriSed2K dataset,which includes seven categories of urine sediments,such as erythrocytes(red blood cells),leukocytes(white blood cells),epithelial cells,crystals,mycetes,broken erythrocytes,and broken leukocytes,achieving the best average precision(AP)of 95.3%while taking only 10 ms per image.The source code and dataset are available at https://github.com/binghuiwu98/discriminatoryyolov5.

Local saliency consistency-based label inference for weakly supervised salient object detection using scribble annotations

Recently,weak supervision has received growing attention in the field of salient object detection due to the convenience of labelling.However,there is a large performance gap between weakly supervised and fully supervised salient object detectors because the scribble annotation can only provide very limited foreground/background information.Therefore,an intuitive idea is to infer annotations that cover more complete object and background regions for training.To this end,a label inference strategy is proposed based on the assumption that pixels with similar colours and close positions should have consistent labels.Specifically,k-means clustering algorithm was first performed on both colours and coordinates of original annotations,and then assigned the same labels to points having similar colours with colour cluster centres and near coordinate cluster centres.Next,the same annotations for pixels with similar colours within each kernel neighbourhood was set further.Extensive experiments on six benchmarks demonstrate that our method can significantly improve the performance and achieve the state-of-the-art results.