Memes are one of the most popular types of content used in an online disinformation campaign. They are primarily effective on social media platforms since they can easily reach many users. Memes in a disinformation campaign achieve their goal of influencing the users through several rhetorical and psychological techniques, such as causal oversimplification, name-calling, and smear. The SemEval 2024 Task 4 \textit{Multilingual Detection of Persuasion Technique in Memes} on identifying such techniques in the memes is divided across three sub-tasks: ($\mathbf{1}$) Hierarchical multi-label classification using only textual content of the meme, ($\mathbf{2}$) Hierarchical multi-label classification using both, textual and visual content of the meme and ($\mathbf{3}$) Binary classification of whether the meme contains a persuasion technique or not using it's textual and visual content. This paper proposes an ensemble of Class Definition Prediction (CDP) and hyperbolic embeddings-based approaches for this task. We enhance meme classification accuracy and comprehensiveness by integrating HypEmo's hierarchical label embeddings (Chen et al., 2023) and a multi-task learning framework for emotion prediction. We achieve a hierarchical F1-score of 0.60, 0.67, and 0.48 on the respective sub-tasks.
Advances in neural sensing technology are making it possible to observe the olfactory process in great detail. In this paper, we conceptualize smell from a Data Science and AI perspective, that relates the properties of odorants to how they are sensed and analyzed in the olfactory system from the nose to the brain. Drawing distinctions to color vision, we argue that smell presents unique measurement challenges, including the complexity of stimuli, the high dimensionality of the sensory apparatus, as well as what constitutes ground truth. In the face of these challenges, we argue for the centrality of odorant-receptor interactions in developing a theory of olfaction. Such a theory is likely to find widespread industrial applications, and enhance our understanding of smell, and in the longer-term, how it relates to other senses and language. As an initial use case of the data, we present results using machine learning-based classification of neural responses to odors as they are recorded in the mouse olfactory bulb with calcium imaging.
Active Learning (AL) has the potential to solve a major problem of digital pathology: the efficient acquisition of labeled data for machine learning algorithms. However, existing AL methods often struggle in realistic settings with artifacts, ambiguities, and class imbalances, as commonly seen in the medical field. The lack of precise uncertainty estimations leads to the acquisition of images with a low informative value. To address these challenges, we propose Focused Active Learning (FocAL), which combines a Bayesian Neural Network with Out-of-Distribution detection to estimate different uncertainties for the acquisition function. Specifically, the weighted epistemic uncertainty accounts for the class imbalance, aleatoric uncertainty for ambiguous images, and an OoD score for artifacts. We perform extensive experiments to validate our method on MNIST and the real-world Panda dataset for the classification of prostate cancer. The results confirm that other AL methods are 'distracted' by ambiguities and artifacts which harm the performance. FocAL effectively focuses on the most informative images, avoiding ambiguities and artifacts during acquisition. For both experiments, FocAL outperforms existing AL approaches, reaching a Cohen's kappa of 0.764 with only 0.69% of the labeled Panda data.
Vision-Language Models (VLMs) have demonstrated impressive performance on zero-shot classification, i.e. classification when provided merely with a list of class names. In this paper, we tackle the case of zero-shot classification in the presence of unlabeled data. We leverage the graph structure of the unlabeled data and introduce ZLaP, a method based on label propagation (LP) that utilizes geodesic distances for classification. We tailor LP to graphs containing both text and image features and further propose an efficient method for performing inductive inference based on a dual solution and a sparsification step. We perform extensive experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of our method on 14 common datasets and show that ZLaP outperforms the latest related works. Code: https://github.com/vladan-stojnic/ZLaP
In this paper, we analyze the effectiveness of transfer learning on classifying electronic components. Transfer learning reuses pre-trained models to save time and resources in building a robust classifier rather than learning from scratch. Our work introduces a lightweight CNN, coined as VoltaVision, and compares its performance against more complex models. We test the hypothesis that transferring knowledge from a similar task to our target domain yields better results than state-of-the-art models trained on general datasets. Our dataset and code for this work are available at https://github.com/AnasIshfaque/VoltaVision.
In recent years, deep neural networks (DNNs) have gained remarkable achievement in computer vision tasks, and the success of DNNs often depends greatly on the richness of data. However, the acquisition process of data and high-quality ground truth requires a lot of manpower and money. In the long, tedious process of data annotation, annotators are prone to make mistakes, resulting in incorrect labels of images, i.e., noisy labels. The emergence of noisy labels is inevitable. Moreover, since research shows that DNNs can easily fit noisy labels, the existence of noisy labels will cause significant damage to the model training process. Therefore, it is crucial to combat noisy labels for computer vision tasks, especially for classification tasks. In this survey, we first comprehensively review the evolution of different deep learning approaches for noisy label combating in the image classification task. In addition, we also review different noise patterns that have been proposed to design robust algorithms. Furthermore, we explore the inner pattern of real-world label noise and propose an algorithm to generate a synthetic label noise pattern guided by real-world data. We test the algorithm on the well-known real-world dataset CIFAR-10N to form a new real-world data-guided synthetic benchmark and evaluate some typical noise-robust methods on the benchmark.
Wireless signal recognition (WSR) is crucial in modern and future wireless communication networks since it aims to identify properties of the received signal. Although many deep learning-based WSR models have been developed, they still rely on a large amount of labeled training data. Thus, they cannot tackle the few-sample problem in the practically and dynamically changing wireless communication environment. To overcome this challenge, a novel SSwsrNet framework is proposed by using the deep residual shrinkage network (DRSN) and semi-supervised learning. The DRSN can learn discriminative features from noisy signals. Moreover, a modular semi-supervised learning method that combines labeled and unlabeled data using MixMatch is exploited to further improve the classification performance under few-sample conditions. Extensive simulation results on automatic modulation classification (AMC) and wireless technology classification (WTC) demonstrate that our proposed WSR scheme can achieve better performance than the benchmark schemes in terms of classification accuracy. This novel method enables more robust and adaptive signal recognition for next-generation wireless networks.
Accurate utterance classification in motivational interviews is crucial to automatically understand the quality and dynamics of client-therapist interaction, and it can serve as a key input for systems mediating such interactions. Motivational interviews exhibit three important characteristics. First, there are two distinct roles, namely client and therapist. Second, they are often highly emotionally charged, which can be expressed both in text and in prosody. Finally, context is of central importance to classify any given utterance. Previous works did not adequately incorporate all of these characteristics into utterance classification approaches for mental health dialogues. In contrast, we present M3TCM, a Multi-modal, Multi-task Context Model for utterance classification. Our approach for the first time employs multi-task learning to effectively model both joint and individual components of therapist and client behaviour. Furthermore, M3TCM integrates information from the text and speech modality as well as the conversation context. With our novel approach, we outperform the state of the art for utterance classification on the recently introduced AnnoMI dataset with a relative improvement of 20% for the client- and by 15% for therapist utterance classification. In extensive ablation studies, we quantify the improvement resulting from each contribution.
Automating long-horizon tasks with a robotic arm has been a central research topic in robotics. Optimization-based action planning is an efficient approach for creating an action plan to complete a given task. Construction of a reliable planning method requires a design process of conditions, e.g., to avoid collision between objects. The design process, however, has two critical issues: 1) iterative trials--the design process is time-consuming due to the trial-and-error process of modifying conditions, and 2) manual redesign--it is difficult to cover all the necessary conditions manually. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a future-predictive success-or-failure-classification method to obtain conditions automatically. The key idea behind the proposed method is an end-to-end approach for determining whether the action plan can complete a given task instead of manually redesigning the conditions. The proposed method uses a long-horizon future-prediction method to enable success-or-failure classification without the execution of an action plan. This paper also proposes a regularization term called transition consistency regularization to provide easy-to-predict feature distribution. The regularization term improves future prediction and classification performance. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated through classification and robotic-manipulation experiments.
The classification of insect pests is a critical task in agricultural technology, vital for ensuring food security and environmental sustainability. However, the complexity of pest identification, due to factors like high camouflage and species diversity, poses significant obstacles. Existing methods struggle with the fine-grained feature extraction needed to distinguish between closely related pest species. Although recent advancements have utilized modified network structures and combined deep learning approaches to improve accuracy, challenges persist due to the similarity between pests and their surroundings. To address this problem, we introduce InsectMamba, a novel approach that integrates State Space Models (SSMs), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Multi-Head Self-Attention mechanism (MSA), and Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs) within Mix-SSM blocks. This integration facilitates the extraction of comprehensive visual features by leveraging the strengths of each encoding strategy. A selective module is also proposed to adaptively aggregate these features, enhancing the model's ability to discern pest characteristics. InsectMamba was evaluated against strong competitors across five insect pest classification datasets. The results demonstrate its superior performance and verify the significance of each model component by an ablation study.
Breast cancer classification stands as a pivotal pillar in ensuring timely diagnosis and effective treatment. This study with histopathological images underscores the profound significance of harnessing the synergistic capabilities of colour space ensembling and quantum-classical stacking to elevate the precision of breast cancer classification. By delving into the distinct colour spaces of RGB, HSV and CIE L*u*v, the authors initiated a comprehensive investigation guided by advanced methodologies. Employing the DenseNet121 architecture for feature extraction the authors have capitalized on the robustness of Random Forest, SVM, QSVC, and VQC classifiers. This research encompasses a unique feature fusion technique within the colour space ensemble. This approach not only deepens our comprehension of breast cancer classification but also marks a milestone in personalized medical assessment. The amalgamation of quantum and classical classifiers through stacking emerges as a potent catalyst, effectively mitigating the inherent constraints of individual classifiers, paving a robust path towards more dependable and refined breast cancer identification. Through rigorous experimentation and meticulous analysis, fusion of colour spaces like RGB with HSV and RGB with CIE L*u*v, presents an classification accuracy, nearing the value of unity. This underscores the transformative potential of our approach, where the fusion of diverse colour spaces and the synergy of quantum and classical realms converge to establish a new horizon in medical diagnostics. Thus the implications of this research extend across medical disciplines, offering promising avenues for advancing diagnostic accuracy and treatment efficacy.
Hyperspectral image (HSI) classification techniques have been intensively studied and a variety of models have been developed. However, these HSI classification models are confined to pocket models and unrealistic ways of dataset partitioning. The former limits the generalization performance of the model and the latter is partitioned leading to inflated model evaluation metrics, which results in plummeting model performance in the real world. Therefore, we propose a universal knowledge embedded contrastive learning framework (KnowCL) for supervised, unsupervised, and semisupervised HSI classification, which largely closes the gap between HSI classification models between pocket models and standard vision backbones. We present a new HSI processing pipeline in conjunction with a range of data transformation and augmentation techniques that provide diverse data representations and realistic data partitioning. The proposed framework based on this pipeline is compatible with all kinds of backbones and can fully exploit labeled and unlabeled samples with the expected training time. Furthermore, we design a new loss function, which can adaptively fuse the supervised loss and unsupervised loss, enhancing the learning performance. This proposed new classification paradigm shows great potential in exploring for HSI classification technology. The code can be accessed at \url{https://github.com/quanweiliu/KnowCL}.
Cognitive Radios (CRs) build upon Software Defined Radios (SDRs) to allow for autonomous reconfiguration of communication architectures. In recent years, CRs have been identified as an enabler for Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) applications in which secondary users opportunistically share licensed spectrum. A major challenge for DSA is accurately characterizing the spectral environment, which requires blind signal classification. Existing work in this area has focused on simplistic channel models; however, more challenging fading channels (e.g., frequency selective fading channels) cause existing methods to be computationally complex or insufficient. This paper develops a novel blind modulation classification algorithm, which uses a set of higher order statistics to overcome these challenges. The set of statistics forms a signature, which can either be used directly for classification or can be processed using big data analytical techniques, such as principle component analysis (PCA), to learn the environment. The algorithm is tested in simulation on both flat fading and selective fading channel models. Results of this blind classification algorithm are shown to improve upon those which use single value higher order statistical methods.
This paper introduces a novel sector-based methodology for star-galaxy classification, leveraging the latest Sloan Digital Sky Survey data (SDSS-DR18). By strategically segmenting the sky into sectors aligned with SDSS observational patterns and employing a dedicated convolutional neural network (CNN), we achieve state-of-the-art performance for star galaxy classification. Our preliminary results demonstrate a promising pathway for efficient and precise astronomical analysis, especially in real-time observational settings.
Objective: Freely preprocess drug codes recorded in electronic health records and insurance claims to drug classes that may then be used in biomedical research. Materials and Methods: We developed a drug classification pipeline for linking National Drug Codes to the World Health Organization Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification. To implement our solution, we created an R package interface to the National Library of Medicine's RxNorm API. Results: Using the classification pipeline, 59.4% of all unique NDC were linked to an ATC, resulting in 95.5% of all claims being successfully linked to a drug classification. We identified 12,004 unique NDC codes that were classified as being an opioid or non-opioid prescription for treating pain. Discussion: Our proposed pipeline performed similarly well to other NDC classification routines using commercial databases. A check of a small, random sample of non-active NDC found the pipeline to be accurate for classifying these codes. Conclusion: The RxNorm NDC classification pipeline is a practical and reliable tool for categorizing drugs in large-scale administrative claims data.
Emotion detection in textual data has received growing interest in recent years, as it is pivotal for developing empathetic human-computer interaction systems. This paper introduces a method for categorizing emotions from text, which acknowledges and differentiates between the diversified similarities and distinctions of various emotions. Initially, we establish a baseline by training a transformer-based model for standard emotion classification, achieving state-of-the-art performance. We argue that not all misclassifications are of the same importance, as there are perceptual similarities among emotional classes. We thus redefine the emotion labeling problem by shifting it from a traditional classification model to an ordinal classification one, where discrete emotions are arranged in a sequential order according to their valence levels. Finally, we propose a method that performs ordinal classification in the two-dimensional emotion space, considering both valence and arousal scales. The results show that our approach not only preserves high accuracy in emotion prediction but also significantly reduces the magnitude of errors in cases of misclassification.
Illegal landfills are a critical issue due to their environmental, economic, and public health impacts. This study leverages aerial imagery for environmental crime monitoring. While advances in artificial intelligence and computer vision hold promise, the challenge lies in training models with high-resolution literature datasets and adapting them to open-access low-resolution images. Considering the substantial quality differences and limited annotation, this research explores the adaptability of models across these domains. Motivated by the necessity for a comprehensive evaluation of waste detection algorithms, it advocates cross-domain classification and super-resolution enhancement to analyze the impact of different image resolutions on waste classification as an evaluation to combat the proliferation of illegal landfills. We observed performance improvements by enhancing image quality but noted an influence on model sensitivity, necessitating careful threshold fine-tuning.
Today, skin cancer is considered as one of the most dangerous and common cancers in the world which demands special attention. Skin cancer may be developed in different types; including melanoma, actinic keratosis, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma. Among them, melanoma is more unpredictable. Melanoma cancer can be diagnosed at early stages increasing the possibility of disease treatment. Automatic classification of skin lesions is a challenging task due to diverse forms and grades of the disease, demanding the requirement of novel methods implementation. Deep convolution neural networks (CNN) have shown an excellent potential for data and image classification. In this article, we inspect skin lesion classification problem using CNN techniques. Remarkably, we present that prominent classification accuracy of lesion detection can be obtained by proper designing and applying of transfer learning framework on pre-trained neural networks, without any requirement for data enlargement procedures i.e. merging VGG16 and VGG19 architectures pre-trained by a generic dataset with modified AlexNet network, and then, fine-tuned by a subject-specific dataset containing dermatology images. The convolution neural network was trained using 2541 images and, in particular, dropout was used to prevent the network from overfitting. Finally, the validity of the model was checked by applying the K-fold cross validation method. The proposed model increased classification accuracy by 3% (from 94.2% to 98.18%) in comparison with other methods.
Spatial correlations between different ground objects are an important feature of mining land cover research. Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) can effectively capture such spatial feature representations and have demonstrated promising results in performing hyperspectral imagery (HSI) classification tasks of complex land. However, the existing GCN-based HSI classification methods are prone to interference from redundant information when extracting complex features. To classify complex scenes more effectively, this study proposes a novel spatial-spectral reliable contrastive graph convolutional classification framework named S2RC-GCN. Specifically, we fused the spectral and spatial features extracted by the 1D- and 2D-encoder, and the 2D-encoder includes an attention model to automatically extract important information. We then leveraged the fused high-level features to construct graphs and fed the resulting graphs into the GCNs to determine more effective graph representations. Furthermore, a novel reliable contrastive graph convolution was proposed for reliable contrastive learning to learn and fuse robust features. Finally, to test the performance of the model on complex object classification, we used imagery taken by Gaofen-5 in the Jiang Xia area to construct complex land cover datasets. The test results show that compared with other models, our model achieved the best results and effectively improved the classification performance of complex remote sensing imagery.
In this study, we present an advanced convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture for ship classification based on optical satellite imagery, which significantly enhances performance through the integration of a convolutional block attention module (CBAM) and additional architectural innovations. Building upon the foundational ResNet50 model, we first incorporated a standard CBAM to direct the model's focus toward more informative features, achieving an accuracy of 87% compared to 85% of the baseline ResNet50. Further augmentations involved multiscale feature integration, depthwise separable convolutions, and dilated convolutions, culminating in an enhanced ResNet model with improved CBAM. This model demonstrated a remarkable accuracy of 95%, with precision, recall, and F1 scores all witnessing substantial improvements across various ship classes. In particular, the bulk carrier and oil tanker classes exhibited nearly perfect precision and recall rates, underscoring the enhanced capability of the model to accurately identify and classify ships. Attention heatmap analyses further validated the efficacy of the improved model, revealing more focused attention on relevant ship features regardless of background complexities. These findings underscore the potential of integrating attention mechanisms and architectural innovations into CNNs for high-resolution satellite imagery classification. This study navigates through the class imbalance and computational costs and proposes future directions for scalability and adaptability in new or rare ship-type recognition. This study lays the groundwork for applying advanced deep learning techniques in remote sensing, offering insights into scalable and efficient satellite image classification.