Study on low-rank coal flotation collector screening and performance based on molecular polarity index.

CONTEXT: Extensive studies using a trial-and-error approach have been conducted on low-rank coal flotation collectors. However, screening efficient collectors remains a considerable challenge due to the lack of suitable screening principles. It has proven that polar compounds such as carboxylic acids and esters are effective collectors for low-rank coal flotation. In this work, the effects of carboxylic acid, alcohol, and methyl ester on the floatability of low-rank coal were compared, the flotation performance of the polar collector was evaluated with theoretical calculations, a suitable evaluation parameter was determined and a screening principle based on this parameter was determined. The results show that the enhancement effects of polar collectors on low-rank coal floatability follow the order of methyl decanoate > methyl laurate > methyl octanoate > sec-octanol > methyl oleate (or methyl oleate > sec-octanol) > n-octanoic acid. Compared with the molecular polarity index, the hydrophobicity indices log P and dipole moment cannot be used to accurately evaluate different types of collectors and the same type of collectors, respectively. At room temperature, liquid polar compounds with molecular polarity indices in the range of 6.0 ~ 8.0 kcal/mol effectively enhance the floatability of low-rank coal. The molecular polarity index of the collector is used for the first time to screen effective collectors of low-rank coal in this work. This parameter is anticipated to be highly important for the development and research of low-rank coal and other mineral collectors. METHODS: To obtain reasonable and accurate molecular structure, geometry optimization and frequency calculations of the studied collectors were conducted via the Gaussian 09 software package based on density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-311 + G (d, p) level. The integral equation formalism for the polarizable continuum model (IEF-PCM) was utilized with water as the solvent (dielectric constant = 78.36, T = 298 K) for all the calculations. Then, the atomic charge distributions (MPA and NPA) and electrostatic potential maps, the dipole moment and molecular polarity index, and the log P and water solubilities of studied collectors were shown or calculated by Gauss View 5.0, Mutiwfn program and website ( https://www.molsoft.com/mprop/mprop.cgi ), respectively.

Algebraic constraints and algorithms for common lines in cryo-EM.

We revisit the topic of common lines between projection images in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). We derive a novel low-rank constraint on a certain 2n × n matrix storing properly scaled basis vectors for the common lines between n projection images of one molecular conformation. Using this algebraic constraint and others, we give optimization algorithms to denoise common lines and recover the unknown 3D rotations associated with the images. As an application, we develop a clustering algorithm to partition a set of noisy images into homogeneous communities using common lines, in the case of discrete heterogeneity in cryo-EM. We demonstrate the methods on synthetic and experimental datasets.

Retrospective motion correction for cardiac multi-parametric mapping with dictionary matching-based image synthesis and a low-rank constraint.

PURPOSE: To develop a model-based motion correction (MoCo) method that does not need an analytical signal model to improve the quality of cardiac multi-parametric mapping. METHODS: The proposed method constructs a hybrid loss that includes a dictionary-matching loss and a signal low-rankness loss, where the former registers the multi-contrast original images to a set of motion-free synthetic images and the latter forces the deformed images to be spatiotemporally coherent. We compared the proposed method with non-MoCo, a pairwise registration method (Pairwise-MI), and a groupwise registration method (pTVreg) via a free-breathing Multimapping dataset of 15 healthy subjects, both quantitatively and qualitatively. RESULTS: The proposed method achieved the lowest contour tracking errors (epicardium: 2.00 ± 0.39 mm vs 4.93 ± 2.29 mm, 3.50 ± 1.26 mm, and 2.61 ± 1.00 mm, and endocardium: 1.84 ± 0.34 mm vs 4.93 ± 2.40 mm, 3.43 ± 1.27 mm, and 2.55 ± 1.09 mm for the proposed method, non-MoCo, Pairwise-MI, and pTVreg, respectively; all p < 0.01) and the lowest dictionary matching errors among all methods. The proposed method also achieved the highest scores on the visual quality of mapping (T1: 4.74 ± 0.33 vs 2.91 ± 0.82, 3.58 ± 0.87, and 3.97 ± 1.05, and T2: 4.48 ± 0.56 vs 2.59 ± 0.81, 3.56 ± 0.93, and 4.14 ± 0.80 for the proposed method, non-MoCo, Pairwise-MI, and pTVreg, respectively; all p < 0.01). Finally, the proposed method had similar T1 and T2 mean values and SDs relative to the breath-hold reference in nearly all myocardial segments, whereas all other methods led to significantly different T1 and T2 measures and increases of SDs in multiple segments. CONCLUSION: The proposed method significantly improves the motion correction accuracy and mapping quality compared with non-MoCo and alternative image-based methods.

Highly accelerated non-contrast-enhanced time-resolved 4D MRA using stack-of-stars golden-angle radial acquisition with a self-calibrated low-rank subspace reconstruction.

PURPOSE: To develop a highly accelerated non-contrast-enhanced 4D-MRA technique by combining stack-of-stars golden-angle radial acquisition with a modified self-calibrated low-rank subspace reconstruction. METHODS: A low-rank subspace reconstruction framework was introduced in radial 4D MRA (SUPER 4D MRA) by combining stack-of-stars golden-angle radial acquisition with control-label k-space subtraction-based low-rank subspace modeling. Radial 4D MRA data were acquired and reconstructed using the proposed technique on 12 healthy volunteers and 1 patient with steno-occlusive disease. The performance of SUPER 4D MRA was compared with two temporally constrained reconstruction methods (golden-angle radial sparse parallel [GRASP] and GRASP-Pro) at different acceleration rates in terms of image quality and delineation of blood dynamics. RESULTS: SUPER 4D MRA outperformed the other two reconstruction methods, offering superior image quality with a clear background and detailed delineation of cerebrovascular structures as well as great temporal fidelity in blood flow dynamics. SUPER 4D MRA maintained excellent performance even at higher acceleration rates. CONCLUSIONS: SUPER 4D MRA is a promising technique for highly accelerating 4D MRA acquisition without comprising both temporal fidelity and image quality.

Compression of room impulse responses for compact storage and fast low-latency convolution.

Room impulse responses (RIRs) are used in several applications, such as augmented reality and virtual reality. These applications require a large number of RIRs to be convolved with audio, under strict latency constraints. In this paper, we consider the compression of RIRs, in conjunction with fast time-domain convolution. We consider three different methods of RIR approximation for the purpose of RIR compression and compare them to state-of-the-art compression. The methods are evaluated using several standard objective quality measures, both channel-based and signal-based. We also propose a novel low-rank-based algorithm for fast time-domain convolution and show how the convolution can be carried out without the need to decompress the RIR. Numerical simulations are performed using RIRs of different lengths, recorded in three different rooms. It is shown that compression using low-rank approximation is a very compelling option to the state-of-the-art Opus compression, as it performs as well or better than on all but one considered measure, with the added benefit of being amenable to fast time-domain convolution. Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13636-024-00363-5.

QRAGE-Simultaneous multiparametric quantitative MRI of water content, T1, T2*, and magnetic susceptibility at ultrahigh field strength.

PURPOSE: To introduce quantitative rapid gradient-echo (QRAGE), a novel approach for the simultaneous mapping of multiple quantitative MRI parameters, including water content, T1, T2*, and magnetic susceptibility at ultrahigh field strength. METHODS: QRAGE leverages a newly developed multi-echo MPnRAGE sequence, facilitating the acquisition of 171 distinct contrast images across a range of inversion and TE points. To maintain a short acquisition time, we introduce MIRAGE2, a novel model-based reconstruction method that exploits prior knowledge of temporal signal evolution, represented as damped complex exponentials. MIRAGE2 minimizes local Block-Hankel and Casorati matrices. Parameter maps are derived from the reconstructed contrast images through postprocessing steps. We validate QRAGE through extensive simulations, phantom studies, and in vivo experiments, demonstrating its capability for high-precision imaging. RESULTS: In vivo brain measurements show the promising performance of QRAGE, with test-retest SDs and deviations from reference methods of < 0.8% for water content, < 17 ms for T1, and < 0.7 ms for T2*. QRAGE achieves whole-brain coverage at a 1-mm isotropic resolution in just 7 min and 15 s, comparable to the acquisition time of an MP2RAGE scan. In addition, QRAGE generates a contrast image akin to the UNI image produced by MP2RAGE. CONCLUSION: QRAGE is a new, successful approach for simultaneously mapping multiple MR parameters at ultrahigh field.

Topology-preserving segmentation of abdominal muscle layers from ultrasound images.

BACKGROUND: In clinical anesthesia, precise segmentation of muscle layers from abdominal ultrasound images is crucial for identifying nerve block locations accurately. Despite deep learning advancements, challenges persist in segmenting muscle layers with accurate topology due to pseudo and weak edges caused by acoustic artifacts in ultrasound imagery. PURPOSE: To assist anesthesiologists in locating nerve block areas, we have developed a novel deep learning algorithm that can accurately segment muscle layers in abdominal ultrasound images with interference. METHODS: We propose a comprehensive approach emphasizing the preservation of the segmentation's low-rank property to ensure correct topology. Our methodology integrates a Semantic Feature Extraction (SFE) module for redundant encoding, a Low-rank Reconstruction (LR) module to compress this encoding, and an Edge Reconstruction (ER) module to refine segmentation boundaries. Our evaluation involved rigorous testing on clinical datasets, comparing our algorithm against seven established deep learning-based segmentation methods using metrics such as Mean Intersection-over-Union (MIoU) and Hausdorff distance (HD). Statistical rigor was ensured through effect size quantification with Cliff's Delta, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) for multivariate analysis, and application of the Holm-Bonferroni method for multiple comparisons correction. RESULTS: We demonstrate that our method outperforms other industry-recognized deep learning approaches on both MIoU and HD metrics, achieving the best outcomes with 88.21%/4.98 ( p m a x = 0.1893 $p_{max}=0.1893$ ) on the standard test set and 85.48%/6.98 ( p m a x = 0.0448 $p_{max}=0.0448$ ) on the challenging test set. The best&worst results for the other models on the standard test set were (87.20%/5.72)&(83.69%/8.12), and on the challenging test set were (81.25%/10.00)&(71.74%/16.82). Ablation studies further validate the distinct contributions of the proposed modules, which synergistically achieve a balance between maintaining topological integrity and edge precision. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings validate the effective segmentation of muscle layers with accurate topology in complex ultrasound images, leveraging low-rank constraints. The proposed method not only advances the field of medical imaging segmentation but also offers practical benefits for clinical anesthesia by improving the reliability of nerve block localization.

Abdominal MR Multitasking for radiotherapy treatment planning: A motion-resolved and multicontrast 3D imaging approach.

PURPOSE: Radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP) using MR has been used increasingly for the abdominal site. Multiple contrast weightings and motion-resolved imaging are desired for accurate delineation of the target and various organs-at-risk and patient-tailored planning. Current MR protocols achieve these through multiple scans with distinct contrast and variable respiratory motion management strategies and acquisition parameters, leading to a complex and inaccurate planning process. This study presents a standalone MR Multitasking (MT)-based technique to produce volumetric, motion-resolved, multicontrast images for abdominal radiotherapy treatment planning. METHODS: The MT technique resolves motion and provides a wide range of contrast weightings by repeating a magnetization-prepared (saturation recovery and T2 preparations) spoiled gradient-echo readout series and adopting the MT image reconstruction framework. The performance of the technique was assessed through digital phantom simulations and in vivo studies of both healthy volunteers and patients with liver tumors. RESULTS: In the digital phantom study, the MT technique presented structural details and motion in excellent agreement with the digital ground truth. The in vivo studies showed that the motion range was highly correlated (R2 = 0.82) between MT and 2D cine imaging. MT allowed for a flexible contrast-weighting selection for better visualization. Initial clinical testing with interobserver analysis demonstrated acceptable target delineation quality (Dice coefficient = 0.85 ± 0.05, Hausdorff distance = 3.3 ± 0.72 mm). CONCLUSION: The developed MT-based, abdomen-dedicated technique is capable of providing motion-resolved, multicontrast volumetric images in a single scan, which may facilitate abdominal radiotherapy treatment planning.

Diffusion model based on generalized map for accelerated MRI.

In recent years, diffusion models have made significant progress in accelerating magnetic resonance imaging. Nevertheless, it still has inherent limitations, such as prolonged iteration times and sluggish convergence rates. In this work, we present a novel generalized map generation model based on mean-reverting SDE, called GM-SDE, to alleviate these shortcomings. Notably, the core idea of GM-SDE is optimizing the initial values of the iterative algorithm. Specifically, the training process of GM-SDE diffuses the original k-space data to an intermediary degraded state with fixed Gaussian noise, while the reconstruction process generates the data by reversing this process. Based on the generalized map, three variants of GM-SDE are proposed to learn k-space data with different structural characteristics to improve the effectiveness of model training. GM-SDE also exhibits flexibility, as it can be integrated with traditional constraints, thereby further enhancing its overall performance. Experimental results showed that the proposed method can reduce reconstruction time and deliver excellent image reconstruction capabilities compared to the complete diffusion-based method.

Reconstructing blood flow in data-poor regimes: a vasculature network kernel for Gaussian process regression.

Blood flow reconstruction in the vasculature is important for many clinical applications. However, in clinical settings, the available data are often quite limited. For instance, transcranial Doppler ultrasound is a non-invasive clinical tool that is commonly used in clinical settings to measure blood velocity waveforms at several locations. This amount of data is grossly insufficient for training machine learning surrogate models, such as deep neural networks or Gaussian process regression. In this work, we propose a Gaussian process regression approach based on empirical kernels constructed by data generated from physics-based simulations-enabling near-real-time reconstruction of blood flow in data-poor regimes. We introduce a novel methodology to reconstruct the kernel within the vascular network. The proposed kernel encodes both spatiotemporal and vessel-to-vessel correlations, thus enabling blood flow reconstruction in vessels that lack direct measurements. We demonstrate that any prediction made with the proposed kernel satisfies the conservation of mass principle. The kernel is constructed by running stochastic one-dimensional blood flow simulations, where the stochasticity captures the epistemic uncertainties, such as lack of knowledge about boundary conditions and uncertainties in vasculature geometries. We demonstrate the performance of the model on three test cases, namely, a simple Y-shaped bifurcation, abdominal aorta and the circle of Willis in the brain.

High Spatial-Resolution and Acquisition-Efficiency Cardiac MR T1 Mapping Based on Radial bSSFP and a Low-Rank Tensor Constraint.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac T1 mapping is valuable for evaluating myocardial fibrosis, yet its resolution and acquisition efficiency are limited, potentially obscuring visualization of small pathologies. PURPOSE: To develop a technique for high-resolution cardiac T1 mapping with a less-than-100-millisecond acquisition window based on radial MOdified Look-Locker Inversion recovery (MOLLI) and a calibrationless space-contrast-coil locally low-rank tensor (SCC-LLRT) constrained reconstruction. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. SUBJECTS/PHANTOM: Sixteen healthy subjects (age 25 ± 3 years, 44% females) and 12 patients with suspected cardiomyopathy (age 57 ± 15 years, 42% females), NiCl2-agar phantom. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3-T, standard MOLLI, radial MOLLI, inversion-recovery spin-echo, late gadolinium enhancement. ASSESSMENT: SCC-LLRT was compared to a conventional locally low-rank (LLR) method through simulations using Normalized Root-Mean-Square Error (NRMSE) and Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). Radial MOLLI was compared to standard MOLLI across phantom, healthy subjects, and patients. Three independent readers subjectively evaluated the quality of T1 maps using a 5-point scale (5 = best). STATISTICAL TESTS: Paired t-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, intraclass correlation coefficient analysis, linear regression, Bland-Altman analysis. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: In simulations, SCC-LLRT demonstrated a significant improvement in NRMSE and SSIM compared to LLR. In phantom, both radial MOLLI and standard MOLLI provided consistent T1 estimates across different heart rates. In healthy subjects, radial MOLLI exhibited a significantly lower mean T1 (1115 ± 39 msec vs. 1155 ± 36 msec), similar T1 SD (74 ± 14 msec vs. 67 ± 23 msec, P = 0.20), and similar T1 reproducibility (28 ± 18 msec vs. 22 ± 15 msec, P = 0.34) compared to standard MOLLI. In patients, the proposed method significantly improved the sharpness of myocardial boundaries (4.50 ± 0.65 vs. 3.25 ± 0.43), the conspicuity of papillary muscles and fine structures (4.33 ± 0.74 vs. 3.33 ± 0.47), and artifacts (4.75 ± 0.43 vs. 3.83 ± 0.55). The reconstruction time for a single slice was 5.2 hours. DATA CONCLUSION: The proposed method enables high-resolution cardiac T1 mapping with a short acquisition window and improved image quality. EVIDENCE LEVEL: 1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.

Reduced-rank clustered coefficient regression for addressing multicollinearity in heterogeneous coefficient estimation.

Clustered coefficient regression (CCR) extends the classical regression model by allowing regression coefficients varying across observations and forming clusters of observations. It has become an increasingly useful tool for modeling the heterogeneous relationship between the predictor and response variables. A typical issue of existing CCR methods is that the estimation and clustering results can be unstable in the presence of multicollinearity. To address the instability issue, this paper introduces a low-rank structure of the CCR coefficient matrix and proposes a penalized non-convex optimization problem with an adaptive group fusion-type penalty tailor-made for this structure. An iterative algorithm is developed to solve this non-convex optimization problem with guaranteed convergence. An upper bound for the coefficient estimation error is also obtained to show the statistical property of the estimator. Empirical studies on both simulated datasets and a COVID-19 mortality rate dataset demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method to existing methods.

Ferumoxytol-Enhanced 5D Multiphase Steady-State Imaging Using Rotating Cartesian K-Space With Low-Rank Reconstruction for Pediatric Congenital Heart Disease.

BACKGROUND: The rotating Cartesian k-space multiphase steady-state imaging with contrast (ROCK-MUSIC) pulse sequence enables acquisition of whole-heart, cardiac phase-resolved images in pediatric congenital heart disease (CHD) without reliance on the ventilator gating signal. Multidimensional reconstruction with low rank tensor (LRT) has shown promise for resolving complex cardiorespiratory motion. PURPOSE: To enhance ROCK-MUSIC by resolving cardiorespiratory phases using LRT reconstruction and to enable semi-automatic hyperparameter tuning by developing an image quality scoring model. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective. POPULATION: Thirty patients (45% female, age 2 days to 6.7 years) with CHD. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3-T, four-dimensional (4D) spoiled gradient recalled echo sequence. ASSESSMENT: Eigenvector-based iTerative Self-consistent Parallel Imaging Reconstruction (ESPIRiT) served as the reference comparison for LRT reconstruction. A 4-point Likert scale was used for cardiac and vascular image quality scoring based on cardiac chamber definition, lumen signal uniformity, vascular margin clarity, and motion artifact. Ejection fraction and ventricular volumes were assessed in 16 patients. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and edge sharpness were computed. STATISTICAL TESTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Bland-Altman. A P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Relative to ESPIRiT, LRT images received significantly higher cardiac (2.81 ± 0.57 vs. 3.19 ± 0.54) and vascular (2.81 ± 0.60 vs. 3.36 ± 0.53) image quality scores. Image quality scoring with semi-automated hyperparameter tuning showed strong correlations (R2 = 0.748) among image quality, SNR, and septal sharpness. Comparison of ejection fraction and volumetry derived from ESPIRiT, and LRT showed no significant systematic difference (P = 0.32). DATA CONCLUSION: Integration of low-rank reconstruction with ROCK-MUSIC acquisition may be feasible, and semi-automatic hyperparameter tuning could be effective for generating cardiorespiratory resolved images. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.

DP-SSLoRA: A privacy-preserving medical classification model combining differential privacy with self-supervised low-rank adaptation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Concerns about patient privacy issues have limited the application of medical deep learning models in certain real-world scenarios. Differential privacy (DP) can alleviate this problem by injecting random noise into the model. However, naively applying DP to medical models will not achieve a satisfactory balance between privacy and utility due to the high dimensionality of medical models and the limited labeled samples. METHODS: This work proposed the DP-SSLoRA model, a privacy-preserving classification model for medical images combining differential privacy with self-supervised low-rank adaptation. In this work, a self-supervised pre-training method is used to obtain enhanced representations from unlabeled publicly available medical data. Then, a low-rank decomposition method is employed to mitigate the impact of differentially private noise and combined with pre-trained features to conduct the classification task on private datasets. RESULTS: In the classification experiments using three real chest-X ray datasets, DP-SSLoRA achieves good performance with strong privacy guarantees. Under the premise of ɛ=2, with the AUC of 0.942 in RSNA, the AUC of 0.9658 in Covid-QU-mini, and the AUC of 0.9886 in Chest X-ray 15k. CONCLUSION: Extensive experiments on real chest X-ray datasets show that DP-SSLoRA can achieve satisfactory performance with stronger privacy guarantees. This study provides guidance for studying privacy-preserving in the medical field. Source code is publicly available online. https://github.com/oneheartforone/DP-SSLoRA.

An unrolled neural network for accelerated dynamic MRI based on second-order half-quadratic splitting model.

The reconstruction of dynamic magnetic resonance images from incomplete k-space data has sparked significant research interest due to its potential to reduce scan time. However, traditional iterative optimization algorithms fail to faithfully reconstruct images at higher acceleration factors and incur long reconstruction time. Furthermore, end-to-end deep learning-based reconstruction algorithms suffer from large model parameters and lack robustness in the reconstruction results. Recently, unrolled deep learning models, have shown immense potential in algorithm stability and applicability flexibility. In this paper, we propose an unrolled deep learning network based on a second-order Half-Quadratic Splitting(HQS) algorithm, where the forward propagation process of this framework strictly follows the computational flow of the HQS algorithm. In particular, we propose a degradation-sense module by associating random sampling patterns with intermediate variables to guide the iterative process. We introduce the Information Fusion Transformer(IFT) to extract both local and non-local prior information from image sequences, thereby removing aliasing artifacts resulting from random undersampling. Finally, we impose low-rank constraints within the HQS algorithm to further enhance the reconstruction results. The experiments demonstrate that each component module of our proposed model contributes to the improvement of the reconstruction task. Our proposed method achieves comparably satisfying performance to the state-of-the-art methods and it exhibits excellent generalization capabilities across different sampling masks. At the low acceleration factor, there is a 0.7% enhancement in the PSNR. Furthermore, when the acceleration factor reached 8 and 12, the PSNR achieves an improvement of 3.4% and 5.8% respectively.

Advanced Hyperspectral Image Analysis: Superpixelwise Multiscale Adaptive T-HOSVD for 3D Feature Extraction.

Hyperspectral images (HSIs) possess an inherent three-order structure, prompting increased interest in extracting 3D features. Tensor analysis and low-rank representations, notably truncated higher-order SVD (T-HOSVD), have gained prominence for this purpose. However, determining the optimal order and addressing sensitivity to changes in data distribution remain challenging. To tackle these issues, this paper introduces an unsupervised Superpixelwise Multiscale Adaptive T-HOSVD (SmaT-HOSVD) method. Leveraging superpixel segmentation, the algorithm identifies homogeneous regions, facilitating the extraction of local features to enhance spatial contextual information within the image. Subsequently, T-HOSVD is adaptively applied to the obtained superpixel blocks for feature extraction and fusion across different scales. SmaT-HOSVD harnesses superpixel blocks and low-rank representations to extract 3D features, effectively capturing both spectral and spatial information of HSIs. By integrating optimal-rank estimation and multiscale fusion strategies, it acquires more comprehensive low-rank information and mitigates sensitivity to data variations. Notably, when trained on subsets comprising 2%, 1%, and 1% of the Indian Pines, University of Pavia, and Salinas datasets, respectively, SmaT-HOSVD achieves impressive overall accuracies of 93.31%, 97.21%, and 99.25%, while maintaining excellent efficiency. Future research will explore SmaT-HOSVD's applicability in deep-sea HSI classification and pursue additional avenues for advancing the field.

A Hierarchical Low-Rank Denoising Model for Remote Sensing Images Based on Deep Unfolding.

Recently, the low-rank representation (LRR) model has been widely used in the field of remote sensing image denoising due to its excellent noise suppression capability. However, those low-rank-based methods always discard important edge details as residuals, leading to a common issue of blurred edges in denoised results. To address this problem, we take a new look at low-rank residuals and try to extract edge information from them. Therefore, a hierarchical denoising framework was combined with a low-rank model to extract edge information from low-rank residuals within the edge subspace. A prior knowledge matrix was designed to enable the model to learn necessary structural information rather than noise. Also, such traditional model-driven approaches require multiple iterations, and the solutions may be very complex and computationally intensive. To further enhance the noise suppression performance and computing efficiency, a hierarchical low-rank denoising model based on deep unrolling (HLR-DUR) was proposed, integrating deep neural networks into the hierarchical low-rank denoising framework to expand the information capture and representation capabilities of the proposed shallow model. Sufficient experiments on optical images, hyperspectral images (HSI), and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images showed that HLR-DUR achieved state-of-the-art (SOTA) denoising results.

Development of a Method for Commercial Style Transfer of Historical Architectural Facades Based on Stable Diffusion Models.

In the sphere of urban renewal of historic districts, preserving and innovatively reinterpreting traditional architectural styles remains a primary research focus. However, the modernization and adaptive reuse of traditional buildings often necessitate changes in their functionality. To cater to the demands of tourism in historic districts, many traditional residential buildings require conversion to commercial use, resulting in a mismatch between their external form and their internal function. This study explored an automated approach to transform traditional residences into commercially viable designs, offering an efficient and scalable solution for the modernization of historic architecture. We developed a methodology based on diffusion models, focusing on a dataset of nighttime shopfront facades. By training a low-rank adaptation (LoRA) model and integrating the ControlNet model, we enhanced the accuracy and stability of the generated images. The methodology's performance was validated through qualitative and quantitative assessments, optimizing the batch size, repetition, and learning rate configurations. These evaluations confirmed the method's effectiveness. Our findings significantly advance the modern commercial style transformation of historical architectural facades, providing a novel solution that maintains the aesthetic and functional integrity, thereby fostering breakthroughs in traditional design thinking and exploring new possibilities for the preservation and commercial adaptation of historical buildings.

Low-rank prior-based Fast-RPCA for clutter filtering and noise suppression in non-contrast ultrasound microvascular imaging.

Accurate and real-time separation of blood signal from clutter and noise signals is a critical step in clinical non-contrast ultrasound microvascular imaging. Despite the widespread adoption of singular value decomposition (SVD) and robust principal component analysis (RPCA) for clutter filtering and noise suppression, the SVD's sensitivity to threshold selection, along with the RPCA's limitations in undersampling conditions and heavy computational burden often result in suboptimal performance in complex clinical applications. To address those challenges, this study presents a novel low-rank prior-based fast RPCA (LP-fRPCA) approach to enhance the adaptability and robustness of clutter filtering and noise suppression with reduced computational cost. A low-rank prior constraint is integrated into the non-convex RPCA model to achieve a robust and efficient approximation of clutter subspace, while an accelerated alternating projection iterative algorithm is developed to improve convergence speed and computational efficiency. The performance of the LP-fRPCA method was evaluated against SVD with a tissue/blood threshold (SVD1), SVD with both tissue/blood and blood/noise thresholds (SVD2), and the classical RPCA based on the alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm through phantom and in vivo non-contrast experiments on rabbit kidneys. In the slow flow phantom experiment of 0.2 mm/s, LP-fRPCA achieved an average increase in contrast ratio (CR) of 10.68 dB, 9.37 dB, and 8.66 dB compared to SVD1, SVD2, and RPCA, respectively. In the in vivo rabbit kidney experiment, the power Doppler results demonstrate that the LP-fRPCA method achieved a superior balance in the trade-off between insufficient clutter filtering and excessive suppression of blood flow. Additionally, LP-fRPCA significantly reduced the runtime of RPCA by up to 94-fold. Consequently, the LP-fRPCA method promises to be a potential tool for clinical non-contrast ultrasound microvascular imaging.

An adaptive kernel dictionary-based low-rank representation method for subspace clustering.

Low-rank representation (LRR) is a classic subspace clustering (SC) algorithm, and many LRR-based methods have been proposed. Generally, LRR-based methods use denoized data as dictionaries for data reconstruction purpose. However, the dictionaries used in LRR-based algorithms are fixed, leading to poor clustering performance. In addition, most of these methods assume that the input data are linearly correlated. However, in practice, data are mostly nonlinearly correlated. To address these problems, we propose a novel adaptive kernel dictionary-based LRR (AKDLRR) method for SC. Specifically, to explore nonlinear information, the given data are mapped to the Hilbert space via the kernel technique. The dictionary in AKDLRR is not fixed; it adaptively learns from the data in the kernel space, making AKDLRR robust to noise and yielding good clustering performance. To solve the AKDLRR model, an efficient procedure including an alternative optimization strategy is proposed. In addition, a theoretical analysis of the convergence performance of AKDLRR is presented, which reveals that AKDLRR can converge in at most three iterations under certain conditions. The experimental results show that AKDLRR can achieve the best clustering performance and has excellent speed in comparison with other algorithms.