A Multiscale Approach to Automatic Medical Image Segmentation Using Self-Organizing Map

In this paper,a new medical image classification scheme is proposed using selforganizing map(SOM)combined with multiscale technique.It addresses the problem of the handling of edge pixels in the traditional multiscale SOM classifiers.First,to solve the difficulty in manual selection of edge pixels,a multiscale edge detection algorithm based on wavelet transform is proposed.Edge pixels detected are then selected into the training set as a new class and a multiscale SOM classifier is trained using this training set.In this new scheme,the SOM classifier can perform both the classification on the entire image and the edge detection simultaneously.On the other hand,the misclassification of the traditional multiscale SOM classifier in regions near edges is graeatly reduced and the correct classification is improved at the same time.     

Generalizing self-organizing map for categorical data

The self-organizing map (SOM) is an unsupervised neural network which projects high-dimensional data onto a low-dimensional grid and visually reveals the topological order of the original data. Self-organizing maps have been successfully applied to many fields, including engineering and business domains. However, the conventional SOM training algorithm handles only numeric data. Categorical data are usually converted to a set of binary data before training of an SOM takes place. If a simple transformation scheme is adopted, the similarity information embedded between categorical values may be lost. Consequently, the trained SOM is unable to reflect the correct topological order. This paper proposes a generalized self-organizing map model that offers an intuitive method of specifying the similarity between categorical values via distance hierarchies and, hence, enables the direct process of categorical values during training. In fact, distance hierarchy unifies the distance computation of both numeric and categorical values. The unification is done by mapping the values to distance hierarchies and then measuring the distance in the hierarchies. Experiments on synthetic and real datasets were conducted, and the results demonstrated the effectiveness of the generalized SOM model.     

Investigation of self-organizing map for genetic algorithm

This paper describes self-organizing maps for genetic algorithm (SOM-GA) which is the combinational algorithm of a real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA) and self-organizing map (SOM). The self-organizing maps are trained with the information of the individuals in the population. Sub-populations are defined by the help of the trained map. The RCGA is performed in the sub-populations. The use of the sub-population search algorithm improves the local search performance of the RCGA. The search performance is compared with the real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA) in three test functions. The results show that SOM-GA can find better solutions in shorter CPU time than RCGA. Although the computational cost for training SOM is expensive, the results show that the convergence speed of SOM-GA is accelerated according to the development of SOM training.     

Conformal self-organizing map for a genus-zero manifold

This paper presents the implementation of a surface mesh on a genus-zero manifold with 3D scattered data of sculpture surfaces using the conformal self-organizing map (CSM). It starts with a regular mesh on a sphere and gradually shapes the regular mesh to match its object’s surface by using the CSM. It can drape a uniform mesh on an object with a high degree of conformality. It accomplishes the surface reconstruction and also defines a conformal mapping from a sphere to the object’s manifold.     

Comparison of visualization of optimal clustering using self-organizing map and growing hierarchical self-organizing map in cellular manufacturing system

The present research deals with the cell formation problem (CFP) of cellular manufacturing system which is a NP-hard problem thus, the development of optimum machine-part cell formation algorithms has always been the primary attraction in the design of cellular manufacturing system. In this proposed work, the self-organizing map (SOM) approach has been used which is able to project data from a high-dimensional space to a low-dimensional space so it is considered a visualized approach for explaining a complicated CFP data set. However, for a large data set with a high dimensionality, a traditional flat SOM seems difficult to further explain the concepts inside the clusters. We propose one such possible solution for a large CFP data set by using the SOM in a hierarchical manner known as growing hierarchical self-organizing map (GHSOM). In the present work, the two novel contributions using GHSOM are: the choice of optimum architecture through the minimum pattern units extracted at layer 1 for the respective threshold values and selection. Furthermore, the experimental results clearly indicated that the machine-part visual clustering using GHSOM can be successfully applied in identifying a cohesive set of part family that is processed by a machine group. Computational experience specifically with the proposed GHSOM algorithm, on a set of 15 CFP problems from the literature, has shown that it performs remarkably well. The GHSOM algorithm obtained solutions that are at least as good as the ones found the literature. For 75% of the cell formation problems, the GHSOM algorithm improved the goodness of cell formation through GTE performance measure using SOM as well as best one from the literature, in some cases by as much as more than 12.81% (GTE). Thus, comparing the results of the experiment in this paper with the SOM and GHSOM using the paired t-test it has been revealed that the GHSOM approach performed better than the SOM approach so far the group technology efficiency (GTE) measures of performance of the goodness of cell formation is concerned.     

A self-organizing map for adaptive processing of structured data

Recent developments in the area of neural networks produced models capable of dealing with structured data. Here, we propose the first fully unsupervised model, namely an extension of traditional self-organizing maps (SOMs), for the processing of labeled directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). The extension is obtained by using the unfolding procedure adopted in recurrent and recursive neural networks, with the replicated neurons in the unfolded network comprising of a full SOM. This approach enables the discovery of similarities among objects including vectors consisting of numerical data. The capabilities of the model are analyzed in detail by utilizing a relatively large data set taken from an artificial benchmark problem involving visual patterns encoded as labeled DAGs. The experimental results demonstrate clearly that the proposed model is capable of exploiting both information conveyed in the labels attached to each node of the input DAGs and information encoded in the DAG topology.     

改进的求解旅行商问题的自组织特征映射网络

对自组织特征映射（SOM）网络进行改进,要求神经元在训练过程中不仅数目保持不变而且在每次迭代中保持其权的均值与样本数据均值相同。当训练结束时,每一个城市都会对应于一个神经元的标号。此时,可能会出现两个及两个以上的城市对应于一个神经元的情况。为避免这个问题,采用小数标号代替整数标号。此时,每一个城市就对应于一个不同的实数索引标号,从而按照这个索引标号排列城市就得到了一条合理的路径。用此方法对旅行商问题(TSP)实验数据库（TSPLIB）中算例进行计算,实验结果表明所提算法是有效、可行的。     

Emergent self-organizing feature map for recognizing road sign images

Road sign recognition system remains a challenging part of designing an Intelligent Driving Support System. While there exist many approaches to classify road signs, none have adopted an unsupervised approach. This paper proposes a way of Self-Organizing feature mapping for recognizing a road sign. The emergent self-organizing map (ESOM) is employed for the feature mapping in this study. It has the capability of visualizing the distance structures as well as the density structure of high-dimensional data sets, in which the ESOM is suitable to detect non-trivial cluster structures. This paper discusses the usage of ESOM for road sign detection and classification. The benchmarking against some other commonly used classifiers was performed. The results demonstrate that the ESOM approach outperforms the others in conducting the same simulations of the road sign recognition. We further demonstrate that the result obtained with ESOM is significantly more superior than traditional SOM which does not take into the boundary effect like ESOM did.     

An improved time-adaptive self-organizing map for high-speed shape modeling

In this paper, an improved active contour model based on the time-adaptive self-organizing map with a high convergence speed and low computational complexity is proposed. For this purpose, the active contour model based on the original time-adaptive self-organizing map is modified in two ways: adaptation of the speed parameter and reduction of the number of neurons. By adapting the speed parameter, the neuron motion speed is determined based on the distance of each neuron from the shape boundary which results in an increase in the speed of convergence of the contour. Using a smaller number of neurons, the computational complexity is reduced. To achieve this, the number of neurons used in the contour is determined based on the boundary curvature. The proposed model is studied and compared with the original time-adaptive self-organizing map. Both models are used in several experiments including a tracking application. Results reveal the higher speed and very good performance of the proposed model for real-time applications.     

基于自组织映射的流形学习与可视化

针对自组织映射(SOM)在学习和可视化高维数据内在的低维流形结构时容易产生“拓扑缺陷”的这一问题,提出了一种新的流形学习算法--动态自组织映射(DSOM)。该算法按照数据的邻域结构逐步扩展训练数据集合,对网络进行渐进训练,以避免局部极值,克服“拓扑缺陷”问题;同时,网络规模也随之动态扩展,以降低算法的时间复杂度。实验表明,该算法能更加真实地学习和可视化高维数据内在的低维流形结构;此外,与传统的流形学习算法相比,该算法对邻域大小和噪声也更加鲁棒。所提算法的网络规模和训练数据集合都将按照数据内在的邻域结构进行同步扩展,从而能更加简洁并真实地学习和可视化高维数据内在的低维流形结构。     

A self-organizing map for transactional data and the related categorical domain

After projecting high dimensional data into a two-dimension map via the SOM, users can easily view the inner structure of the data on the 2-D map. In the early stage of data mining, it is useful for any kind of data to inspect their inner structure. However, few studies apply the SOM to transactional data and the related categorical domain, which are usually accompanied with concept hierarchies. Concept hierarchies contain information about the data but are almost ignored in such researches. This may cause mistakes in mapping. In this paper, we propose an extended SOM model, the SOMCD, which can map the varied kinds of data in the categorical domain into a 2-D map and visualize the inner structure on the map. By using tree structures to represent the different kinds of data objects and the neurons’ prototypes, a new devised distance measure which takes information embedded in concept hierarchies into consideration can properly find the similarity between the data objects and the neurons. Besides the distance measure, we base the SOMCD on a tree-growing adaptation method and integrate the U-Matrix for visualization. Users can hierarchically separate the trained neurons on the SOMCD's map into different groups and cluster the data objects eventually. From the experiments in synthetic and real datasets, the SOMCD performs better than other SOM variants and clustering algorithms in visualization, mapping and clustering.     

Integration of self-organizing feature map and K-means algorithm for market segmentation

Cluster analysis is a common tool for market segmentation. Conventional research usually employs the multivariate analysis procedures. In recent years, due to their high performance in engineering, artificial neural networks have also been applied in the area of management. Thus, this study aims to compare three clustering methods: (1) the conventional two-stage method, (2) the self-organizing feature maps and (3) our proposed two-stage method, via both simulated and real-world data. The proposed two-stage method is a combination of the self-organizing feature maps and the K-means method. The simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme is slightly better than the conventional two-stage method with respect to the rate of misclassification, and the real-world data on the basis of Wilk's Lambda and discriminant analysis.Scope and purposeThe general idea of segmentation, or clustering, is to group items that are similar. A commonly used method is the multivariate analysis [4]. These methods consist of hierarchical methods, like Ward's minimum variance method, and the non-hierarchical methods, such as the K-means method. Owing to increase in computer power and decrease in computer costs, artificial neural networks (ANNs), which are distributed and parallel information processing systems successfully applied in the area of engineering, have recently been employed to solve the marketing problems. This study aims to discuss the possibility of integrating ANN and multivariate analysis. A two-stage method, which first uses the self-organizing feature maps to determine the number of clusters and the starting point and then employs the K-means method to find the final solution, is proposed. This method provides the marketing analysts a more sophisticated way to analyze the consumer behavior and determine the marking strategy. A case study is also employed to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.     

Meta-optimization based on self-organizing map and genetic algorithm

The paper considers the parametric optimization of search optimization algorithms (metaoptimization). The meta-optimization method enables to find the best strategy for an algorithm during the execution of the program based on this algorithm. The method uses the clusterization of a set of problems of a particular class with the help of Kohenen self-organizing maps and tackles the metaoptimization problem proper with the aid of the continuous genetic algorithm.     

Probabilistic self-organizing map and radial basis function networks

We propose in this paper a new learning algorithm probabilistic self-organizing map (PRSOM) using a probabilistic formalism for topological maps. This algorithm approximates the density distribution of the input set with a mixture of normal distributions. The unsupervised learning is based on the dynamic clusters principle and optimizes the likelihood function. A supervised version of this algorithm based on radial basis functions (RBF) is proposed. In order to validate the theoretical approach, we achieve regression tasks on simulated and real data using the PRSOM algorithm. Moreover, our results are compared with normalized Gaussian basis functions (NGBF) algorithm.     

A teaching method using a self-organizing map for reinforcement learning

We described a new preteaching method for re-inforcement learning using a self-organizing map (SOM). The purpose is to increase the learning rate using a small amount of teaching data generated by a human expert. In our proposed method, the SOM is used to generate the initial teaching data for the reinforcement learning agent from a small amount of teaching data. The reinforcement learning function of the agent is initialized by using the teaching data generated by the SOM in order to increase the probability of selecting the optimal actions it estimates. Because the agent can get high rewards from the start of reinforcement learning, it is expected that the learning rate will increase. The results of a mobile robot simulation showed that the learning rate had increased even though the human expert had showed only a small amount of teaching data. This work was presented in part at the 7th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 16–18, 2002     

Adaptive learning method in self-organizing map for edge preservingvector quantization

The Kohonen's self-organizing map algorithm for vector quantization of images is modified to reduce the edge degradation in the coded image. The learning procedure is performed by adaptive learning rates that are determined according to the image block activity. The simulation result of 4x4 vector quantization for 512x512 image coding demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed method.     

A scalable and automatic mechanism for resource allocation in self-organizing cloud

Taking advantage of the huge potential of consumers’ untapped computing power, self-organizing cloud is a novel computing paradigm where the consumers are able to contribute/sell their computing resources. Meanwhile, host machines held by the consumers are connected by a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network on the Internet. In this new architecture, due to large and varying multitudes of resources and prices, it is inefficient and tedious for consumers to select the proper resource manually. Thus, there is a high demand for a scalable and automatic mechanism to accomplish resource allocation. In view of this challenge, this paper proposes two novel economic strategies based on mechanism design. Concretely, we apply the Modified Vickrey Auction (MVA) mechanism to the case where the resource is sufficient; and the Continuous Double Auction (CDA) mechanism is employed when the resource is insufficient. We also prove that aforementioned mechanisms have dominant strategy incentive compatibility. Finally, extensive experiment results are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed strategies in terms of procurement cost and execution efficiency.     

Spatial data mining and visualization based on self-organizing map

Based on the traditional spatial data analysis, a novel mode of spatial data mining and visualization is proposed which integrates the self-organizing map for the actual problem. Simulations for IRIS data show that this method （computational and visual） can collaboratively discover complex pattems in large spatial datasets, in an effective and efficient way.     

Data validation and missing data reconstruction using self-organizing map for water treatment

Applications in the water treatment domain generally rely on complex sensors located at remote sites. The processing of the corresponding measurements for generating higher-level information such as optimization of coagulation dosing must therefore account for possible sensor failures and imperfect input data. In this paper, self-organizing map (SOM)-based methods are applied to multiparameter data validation and missing data reconstruction in a drinking water treatment. The SOM is a special kind of artificial neural networks that can be used for analysis and visualization of large high-dimensional data sets. It performs both in a nonlinear mapping from a high-dimensional data space to a low-dimensional space aiming to preserve the most important topological and metric relationships of the original data elements and, thus, inherently clusters the data. Combining the SOM results with those obtained by a fuzzy technique that uses marginal adequacy concept to identify the functional states (normal or abnormal), the SOM performances of validation and reconstruction process are tested successfully on the experimental data stemming from a coagulation process involved in drinking water treatment.