Improved heuristics for solving large-scale Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy image segmentation using the ordered median problem

Abstract

The discrete ordered median problem can be applied in a wide variety of areas. The application of this problem in electron tomography image segmentation is currently being considered since high-quality images are obtained when this model is applied. However, its application means that a high computing time is required to obtain solutions for large-scale instances. The size of the images is of great importance in electron tomography experiments, since the larger the image size, the higher the quality of the image. With the goal of reducing the computation times, this paper introduces different heuristic procedures to obtain feasible solutions for the ordered median problem that provide high-quality images in low computing times. Moreover, some noticeable improvements for the heuristic techniques are developed, taking advantage of the particular versions of the ordered median function that have been proven to be especially suitable for electron tomography image segmentation.