Invariable Features Research Articles

Missing log synthesis based on stacking ensemble learning with invariable features

Geophysical logging is a vital measurement technique for exploring underground resources such as oil, natural gas, minerals, and groundwater. However, the missing log problem caused by different reasons will hinder the progress of practical applications. Due to the structure of geological reservoirs being so complex, many prediction methods for revealing the complex nonlinear relationships between different well logs have been proposed in the literature. However, many of these methods are insufficient to explore the reliable ccorrelations and complementary information among different well logs. In addition, the adaptability of these prediction models across different wells is poor, especially on small datasets. To address these problems in certain extent, several novel invariant features are proposed to be extracted at first for robustly estimating missing logs. And then, with the extracted invariant features, three heterogeneous machine learning models are integrated in the stacking ensemble manner for predicting missing logs in small datasets. Multiple experiments were conducted to validate the performance of the proposed method. Experimental results illustrated that the proposed method can efficiently restore missing logs and has stable robustness among different wells. Specifically, the quantitative Pearson Coefficient (PCC) between the estimated logs and the corresponding truth logs can achieve 95.2%.

Sonar image target detection based on multi-region optimal selection strategy

To overcome the adverse effects of noise and shadow regions on target detection in side-scan sonar images, more precisely, it is difficult to accurately detect targets, a target detection technology based on a multi-region optimal selection strategy of spectral clustering combined with the entropy weight method is proposed in this study. First, the cluster numbers for spectral clustering are set in advance based on prior knowledge, and the pixels of the sonar image are clustered into several different regions. Second, the invariable features of translation, rotation and scaling up that each region is extracted and used to construct the feature criterion matrix for the multiple regions. Last, the entropy weight method is used to calculate the weights of each feature and the comprehensive weighted score of each region for this feature criterion matrix to obtain the final target region. Experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively overcome the adverse effects of noise and shadow regions in side-scan sonar images, but also achieve the selection of optimal target region among multiple regions after image clustering, thus verifying the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method in this study.

Invariable Features of a Firm and Value Creation in Agency Banking Projects: A Case of Retail Banking in Kenya

To maintain their competitiveness in the face of constantly changing technologies, the majority of banking institutions are forming non-equity financing strategic collaborations. The traditional financial banking systems have been put to the test by the rise in the use of mobile financial services. The objective of the study was to ascertain how invariable features of a firm influenced agency banking project value creation. According to a pragmatic paradigm philosophy, the study accepted both descriptive and inferential statistics. 400 personnel of strategic alliances who were involved in agency banking programs in Kenyan counties were the population’s intended audience. A total sample of 200 people, including 50 agency bank supervisors and 150 agency employees, was drawn using simple random and deliberate sampling. An open-ended, closed-ended, and interviewing guide was used to get the data. The following models were used to analyse the data: Pearson Correlation, Simple Regression, Multiple Regression, and the Mean, Composite Mean, Standard Deviation, and composite standard deviation. The study found that there is no significant association between invariable aspects of a firm and value creation in agency banking projects, leading to the adoption of the null hypothesis. It was recommended that future researchers to examine the influence of company characteristics on corporate governance in agency banking projects

Semantic-aligned reinforced attention model for zero-shot learning

Zero-shot learning (ZSL) aims to recognize unseen images from invisible classes, by transferring semantic knowledge from visible classes to invisible classes. Such as, although humans have never seen a zebra, if we know that “a horse with stripes is a zebra”, then we can easily recognize it when we see a zebra. Given semantic descriptions, the human can capture intrinsic visual clues from different channels or appearance factors (e.g., color, texture) on salient parts. But computers are not smart enough to recognize it with high accuracy, they still need to make progress in the learning of semantic-aligned visual representations. Therefore, we propose a semantic-aligned reinforced attention (SRA) model to improve the attributes localization ability. We aim to discover invariable features related to class-level semantic attributes from variable intra-class vision information, and thereby avoid misalignment between much visual information and simple semantic representations. Specially, during the localization of spatial attention, we develop an efficient constraint directly on feature map to ensure the intra-attention compactness and inter-attention dispersion characteristics like human gaze. While for the channel, we proposed a novel attributes attention cross entropy loss to exploit the supervision effect of each semantic attribute subset. Experiments on three ZSL benchmarks, i.e., CUB, SUN and AWA2, indicate the competitiveness of our proposed method against the state-of-the-art ZSL methods. • Propose a ZSL model to mimic human cognitive process by exploiting the reinforced attention from both space and channel. • Develop an efficient loss for constraint on feature map for better interpretation. • Achieve superior or competitive performance on widely used standard benchmarks.

Strategies for research groups to boost their degree of consolidation

In Mexico, formal research groups are known as Academic Bodies (AB) and are recognized by a government program called Program for Professional Teacher Development (Prodep). Universities do not always manage these formal research groups and their evolution, for this reason the objective of this research is to analyze the universities in the state of Oaxaca that have AB to identify the variables that affect the evolution in its degree of consolidation and propose strategies for its management. The methodology used is the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis and as a result, an operationalization of variables was obtained according to the operating rules of PRODEP in Mexico for the AB. The measurement of the productivity of the AB, the variables knowledge regarding the rules of operation, invariable features of the consolidated academic bodies, strategic planning and evaluation instrument were studied. In addition, a strategic plan was developed in order to encourage the members to continuous improvement and thus have an increase in the consolidation of the AB.

An Exploratory Study on the Stable Radiomics Features of Metastatic Small Pulmonary Nodules in Colorectal Cancer Patients.

ObjectivesTo identify the relatively invariable radiomics features as essential characteristics during the growth process of metastatic pulmonary nodules with a diameter of 1 cm or smaller from colorectal cancer (CRC).MethodsThree hundred and twenty lung nodules were enrolled in this study (200 CRC metastatic nodules in the training cohort, 60 benign nodules in the verification cohort 1, 60 CRC metastatic nodules in the verification cohort 2). All the nodules were divided into four groups according to the maximum diameter: 0 to 0.25 cm, 0.26 to 0.50 cm, 0.51 to 0.75 cm, 0.76 to 1.0 cm. These pulmonary nodules were manually outlined in computed tomography (CT) images with ITK-SNAP software, and 1724 radiomics features were extracted. Kruskal-Wallis test was performed to compare the four different levels of nodules. Cross-validation was used to verify the results. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient is calculated to evaluate the correlation between features.ResultsIn training cohort, 90 features remained stable during the growth process of metastasis nodules. In verification cohort 1, 293 features remained stable during the growth process of benign nodules. In verification cohort 2, 118 features remained stable during the growth process of metastasis nodules. It is concluded that 20 features remained stable in metastatic nodules (training cohort and verification cohort 2) but not stable in benign nodules (verification cohort 1). Through the cross-validation (n=100), 11 features remained stable more than 90 times.ConclusionsThis study suggests that a small number of radiomics features from CRC metastatic pulmonary nodules remain relatively stable from small to large, and they do not remain stable in benign nodules. These stable features may reflect the essential characteristics of metastatic nodules and become a valuable point for identifying metastatic pulmonary nodules from benign nodules.

Identification in Digital Economy Computer Systems

Abstract—A new method of interactive identification is proposed—trusted identification of a person using untrusted devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, etc.). It is shown that static, unchangeable, or almost invariable biometric features can be used in criminology, but it is impractical for digital economy computer systems. It is inefficient to use fingerprints, iris and retina, vascular pattern, etc., as characteristics. On the contrary, it is necessary to use inherent human dynamic characteristics , for example, those manifested in reflexes. As such, eye movements can be used when reading and/or tracking a stimulus, as well as saccades, pulse wave, and others. For decision-making it is proposed to use artificial neural networks.

Fractal properties of settlement system as factor of its sustainability: Ural in the 18th–20th centuries

The thoughts by N. Salingaros on sustainable design, translated and introduced into scientific discourse by the author of the paper, served as a basis for primary analysis of the layout of a small industrial town and the settlement system of the industrial part of the Urals. Invariable features of the town layout have been reconstructed based on the materials by W. de Gennin and modern historical and cultural studies. The paper shows the elements of fractality and self-similarity in the layout of small industrial towns and in the Ural settlement system, which correspond to the parameters established by N. Salingaros. A conclusion is made about sustainability as an additional internal resource of the settlement system in the region.

Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies.

Cetaceans are fully aquatic predatory mammals that have successfully colonized virtually all marine habitats. Their adaptation to these habitats, so radically different from those of their terrestrial ancestors, can give us comparative insights into the evolution of female roles and kinship in mammalian societies. We provide a review of the diversity of such roles across the Cetacea, which are unified by some key and apparently invariable life-history features. Mothers are uniparous, while paternal care is completely absent as far as we currently know. Maternal input is extensive, lasting months to many years. Hence, female reproductive rates are low, every cetacean calf is a significant investment, and offspring care is central to female fitness. Here strategies diverge, especially between toothed and baleen whales, in terms of mother-calf association and related social structures, which range from ephemeral grouping patterns to stable, multi-level, societies in which social groups are strongly organized around female kinship. Some species exhibit social and/or spatial philopatry in both sexes, a rare phenomenon in vertebrates. Communal care can be vital, especially among deep-diving species, and can be supported by female kinship. Female-based sociality, in its diverse forms, is therefore a prevailing feature of cetacean societies. Beyond the key role in offspring survival, it provides the substrate for significant vertical and horizontal cultural transmission, as well as the only definitive non-human examples of menopause. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.

Human action recognition based on spatio-temporal three-dimensional scattering transform descriptor and an improved VLAD feature encoding algorithm

The local spatio-temporal descriptor and feature encoding algorithm are two crucial key steps for human action recognition based on spatio-temporal interest points (STIP). Since the local descriptors for STIP are essentially a type of motion information based on the texture, the key point of local feature description is to extract invariable, robust and distinguishable local texture features and motion information in reference spatio-temporal volume. Scattering transform is an image transform method based on directional wavelet transform and scale convolution, which has local translation invariance, rotation invariance and elastic deformation stability for local texture features. A novel local descriptor for STIP based on spatio-temporal three-dimensional scattering transform is proposed in this paper, which extends the original scattering transform to spatio-temporal three-dimensional space. Compared to the traditional descriptors, such as HOG, HOF and so on, the proposed scattering transform coefficients based histogram of oriented gradients (STC-HOG) descriptor can capture more robust and distinguishable motion information of local texture for STIP. In order to incorporate the local descriptors into action video representation, the feature encoding algorithm is indispensable. For the problem that vector of locally aggregated descriptors (VLAD) loses feature distribution location information during feature encoding, a histogram of distribution vector of locally aggregated descriptors (HOD-VALD) based on Gaussian kernel is proposed. We validated the proposed algorithm for human action recognition on multiple public available datasets, such as KTH, UCF Sports, HMDB51 and so on. The evaluation experiment results indicate that the proposed descriptor and encoding method can improve the efficiency of human action recognition and the recognition accuracy.

Surgical histopathology of limited dorsal myeloschisis with flat skin lesion.

Limited dorsal myeloschisis (LDM) is characterized by two invariable features: a focal closed neural tube defect and a fibroneural stalk linking the skin lesion to the underlying spinal cord. Although detailed histopathological findings of the LDM stalk were originally described by Pang et al., the precise relationship between the histopathological findings and clinical manifestations including intraoperative findings has not been fully determined. We retrospectively analyzed the histopathological findings of the almost entire stalk and their relevance to the clinical manifestations in six Japanese LDM patients with flat skin lesions. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-immunopositive neuroglial tissues were observed in three of the six patients. Unlike neuroglial tissues, peripheral nerve fibers were observed in every stalk. In four patients, dermal melanocytosis, "Mongolian spot," was seen surrounding the cigarette-burn lesion. In three of these four patients, numerous melanocytes were distributed linearly along the long axis of the LDM stalk, which might represent migration of melanocytes from trunk neural crest cells during formation of the LDM stalk. Immunopositivity for GFAP in the LDM stalk was observed in as few as 50% of our patients, despite the relatively extensive histopathological examination. We confirm that the clinical diagnosis of LDM should be made based on comprehensive histopathological examination as well as clinical manifestations. The profuse network of peripheral nerve fibers in every stalk and the high incidence of melanocyte accumulation associated with dermal melanocytosis might assist the histopathological diagnosis of LDM.

EKPHRASIS AND ITS FUNCTIONING IN THE NOVEL "POINT COUNTER POINT" BY ALDOUS HUXLEY

The current article features the phenomenon of ekphrasis in the novel "Point Counter Point" by Aldous Huxley. The ekphrastic text consists of two conspicuous parts, the central and the peripheral ones. Various aspects of ekphrasis are subjected to analysis. The aesthetic component of the ekphrastic text reveals itself in the description of the picture painted by the main hero as a genuine work of art with great aesthetic value. The semiotic component manifests itself in the phenomenon of semiotic transference: the iconic signs of painting are translated into the verbal signs of a work of literature. The ekphrastic text, the signifier, points at the signified, i.e. the painting, described in the novel. The archetypal component reveals itself in the specific features of the description of the painting, as represented both in an ekphrastic dialogue and a monologue. These invariable features refer the reader to the archetypal scheme of such a description, elaborated in the ancient Greek classic literature. The linguistic component reveals itself in the perceptive vocabulary of the ekphrastic description that encourages the reader-beholder to marvel at the image and evokes a sense of beauty. The hermeneutic aspect reveals itself not only in the interpretation of the painting but also in the interpretation of the meaning of art itself, which is timeless and opposite to the mundane. The article also considers the following functions of ekphrasis: an aesthetically-appreciative, a semiotic, an archetypal, an emotionally-expressive, a character-drawing, and a hermeneutic function.

EKPHRASIS AND ITS FUNCTIONING IN SOMERSET MAUGHAM′S NOVEL “THE MOON AND SIXPENCE”

The article investigates the phenomenon of verbal representation of a work of fine arts in literature known under the term of ekphrasis. The object of investigation is ekphrasis as presented in the novel by S. Maugham “The Moon and Sixpence”. Specific features of ekphrasis, its functions and linguistic means of expression are subjected to analysis. The novel contains five ekphrastic inclusions – descriptions of the pictures painted by the main character: a full-length portrait, a landscape, a wall-painting, a fruit-piece, a family portrait. Being different in genre, these pictures share some common features typical of ekphrasis. The description, given in the form of a dialogue or a monologue, includes the invariable features characteristic of an archetypal scheme of ekphrasis. Linguistic manifestation of these archetypal features is connected with visual perception, with strong emotions, with the notions of beauty, miracle, mystery, singularity, spirituality, looking life-like. Ekphrastic descriptions reflect the impression the pictures have made on a certain character, his/her being either an art connoisseur or an ignoramus. Ekphrasis fulfils various functions: an aesthetically-appreciative, a descriptive, an emotionally-expressive, a character-drawing and a hermeneutic function.

Passive impulsive source range estimation based on warping operator in shallow water

An approach to passive impulsive source range estimation in shallow water is proposed. The approach is based on warping transformation of the energy density function of the received signal. Because of the influence of the sea bottom, it is difficult to find a warping operator adapted to the dispersion characteristics of modes in shallow water. Even though the modes can be separated from each other by using the warping operator adapted to the ideal waveguide, it is impossible to obtain the analytic solutions of the characteristic frequencies, while the energy density function of the received signal is not affected by the sea bottom. Like the received signal and the autocorrelation function of the signal, the frequency spectrum of the warped energy density function of the received signal also owns invariable frequency features. These characteristic frequencies equal the difference in the cut-off frequency between two modes in ideal waveguide, which are easy to calculate with the knowledge of the depth and the average sound speed of the water. What is more, the warping operator transforms mode pairs in energy density function with the same mode number difference into one monotone, which means one characteristic frequency is not unique for one mode pair. In shallow water, the acoustic field is typically composed of a group of modes with close mode numbers. Therefore, the smaller the mode number difference, the more the mode pairs, and the higher the spectral peak of the corresponding monotone is. When the source range is unknown, the approximate relation formula between the extracted characteristic frequency in a supposed source range and the real characteristic frequency is derived, based on which a fast passive source range estimation method is proposed. The proposed method successfully avoids using the guide source and the calculation of replica field, which is necessary in existing passive range estimation algorithms. And applying warping operator to the energy density function of the received signal makes it easy to obtain the analytic solutions of the characteristic frequencies, which is impossible in previous researches. The method is successfully applied to the Yellow Sea impulsive signal data collected by a single hydrophone in November 2011. The mean relative error of range estimation is less than 8%.

Las revoluciones de Thomas Kuhn, una mirada discontinuista

Resumen Se discuten algunas divergencias entre La revolución copernicana (1957) y La estructura de las revoluciones científicas (1962), de Thomas Kuhn. Se muestra que presentan una consideración diferente de los factores extracientíficos, que tienen en la primera un peso explicativo mayor. Se propone que en 1957 Kuhn maneja una historiografía casuística, centrada en la revolución copernicana, y en 1962 una historiografía estructural, centrada en los rasgos invariantes de las revoluciones científicas. Se concluye que las diferencias entre las dos obras son lo suficientemente profundas como para no considerarlas expresión de una misma visión de la ciencia.

A Novel Approach for Face Recognition System Based on Rotational Invariant Transform and Artificial Neural Networks

Face detection is the first step in the face recognition system. The Neural network as well as Gabor wavelet based face detection is proposed in this paper. The proposed system applies neural network algorithm to make the slanting face upright and Gabor wavelet is used to extract the invariable features from the selected window. The principal component analysis is applied to identify the person from the data base. The Proposed system gives very high detection efficiency with low number of false alarms. We have shown the results on different test sets with different degrees of variability of the face patterns. In this paper, we present a new approach for determining the orientation of face in the selected window and then use this information to rotate the face upright

Perceptual Color Map in Macaque Visual Area V4

Colors distinguishable with trichromatic vision can be defined by a 3D color space, such as red-green-blue or hue-saturation-lightness (HSL) space, but it remains unclear how the cortex represents colors along these dimensions. Using intrinsic optical imaging and electrophysiology, and systematically choosing color stimuli from HSL coordinates, we examined how perceptual colors are mapped in visual area V4 in behaving macaques. We show that any color activates 1-4 separate cortical patches within "globs," millimeter-sized color-preferring modules. Most patches belong to different hue or lightness clusters, in which sequential representations follow the color order in HSL space. Some patches overlap greatly with those of related colors, forming stacks, possibly representing invariable features, whereas few seem positioned irregularly. However, for any color, saturation increases the activity of all its patches. These results reveal how the color map in V4 is organized along the framework of the perceptual HSL space, whereupon different multipatch activity patterns represent different colors. We propose that such distributed and combinatorial representations may expand the encodable color space of small cortical maps and facilitate binding color information to other image features.

Trajectory of human movement during sit to stand: a new modeling approach based on movement decomposition and multi-phase cost function

The purpose of this work is to develop a computational model to describe the task of sit to stand (STS). STS is an important movement skill which is frequently performed in human daily activities, but has rarely been studied from the perspective of optimization principles. In this study, we compared the recorded trajectories of STS with the trajectories generated by several conventional optimization-based models (i.e., minimum torque, minimum torque change and kinetic energy cost models) and also with the trajectories produced by a novel multi-phase cost model (MPCM). In the MPCM, we suggested that any complex task, such as STS, is decomposable into successive motion phases, so that each phase requires a distinct strategy to be performed. In this way, we proposed a multi-phase cost function to describe the STS task. The results revealed that the conventional optimization-based models failed to correctly predict the invariable features of STS, such as hip flexion and ankle dorsiflexion movements. However, the MPCM not only predicted the general features of STS with a sufficient accuracy, but also showed a potential flexibility to distinguish between the movement strategies from one subject to the other. According to the results, it seems plausible to hypothesize that the central nervous system might apply different strategies when planning different phases of a complex task. The application areas of the proposed model could be generating optimized trajectories of STS for clinical applications (such as functional electrical stimulation) or providing clinical and engineering insights to develop more efficient rehabilitation devices and protocols.

Commentary – Consciousness and aura: Two controversial concepts on epilepsy

Commentary – Consciousness and aura: Two controversial concepts on epilepsy

ANO10 c.1150_1151del is a founder mutation causing autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia in Roma/Gypsies

A recent report (Vermeer et al. in Am J Hum Genet 87:813-819, 2010) implicated for the first time the ANO10 gene in the genetic basis of autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxias. One of the three described families were Roma/Gypsies from Serbia, where the affected individuals were homozygous for the truncating p.Leu384fs mutation and displayed distinct phenotypic features (Vermeer et al. in Am J Hum Genet 87:813-819, 2010). Based on the history and population genetics of the Roma/Gypsies, we hypothesised that p.Leu384fs could be another founder mutation in this population, whose identification in a larger number of genetically homogeneous patients will contribute to defining the phenotypic spectrum of the disorder. Here, we describe additional patients from neighbouring Bulgaria, outlining invariable ANO10-ataxia features and confirming global intellectual decline as part of the phenotype resulting from complete Anactomin 10 deficit.