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Data augmentation (DA) is widely employed to improve the generalization performance of deep models. However, most existing DA methods use augmentation operations with random magnitudes throughout training. While this fosters diversity, it can also inevitably introduce uncontrolled variability in augmented data, which may cause misalignment with the evolving training status of the target models. Both theoretical and empirical findings suggest that this misalignment increases the risks of underfitting and overfitting. To address these limitations, we propose AdaAugment, an innovative and tuning-free Adaptive Augmentation method that utilizes reinforcement learning to dynamically adjust augmentation magnitudes for individual training samples based on real-time feedback from the target network. Specifically, AdaAugment features a dual-model architecture consisting of a policy network and a target network, which are jointly optimized to effectively adapt augmentation magnitudes. The policy network optimizes the variability within the augmented data, while the target network utilizes the adaptively augmented samples for training. Extensive experiments across benchmark datasets and deep architectures demonstrate that AdaAugment consistently outperforms other state-of-the-art DA methods in effectiveness while maintaining remarkable efficiency.

Although Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) is the most important imaging for visualizing cerebrovascular anatomy, its interpretation by clinicians remains difficult. This is particularly true when treating arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), where entangled vasculature connecting arteries and veins needs to be carefully identified.The presented method aims to enhance DSA image series by highlighting critical information via automatic classification of vessels using a combination of two learning models: An unsupervised machine learning method based on Independent Component Analysis that decomposes the phases of flow and a convolutional neural network that automatically delineates the vessels in image space. The proposed method was tested on clinical DSA images series and demonstrated efficient differentiation between arteries and veins that provides a viable solution to enhance visualizations for clinical use., Comment: Paper accepted for publication at SPIE Medical Imaging 2024

Many existing transfer learning methods rely on leveraging information from source data that closely resembles the target data. However, this approach often overlooks valuable knowledge that may be present in different yet potentially related auxiliary samples. When dealing with a limited amount of target data and a diverse range of source models, our paper introduces a novel approach, Distributionally Robust Optimization for Transfer Learning (TransDRO), that breaks free from strict similarity constraints. TransDRO is designed to optimize the most adversarial loss within an uncertainty set, defined as a collection of target populations generated as a convex combination of source distributions that guarantee excellent prediction performances for the target data. TransDRO effectively bridges the realms of transfer learning and distributional robustness prediction models. We establish the identifiability of TransDRO and its interpretation as a weighted average of source models closest to the baseline model. We also show that TransDRO achieves a faster convergence rate than the model fitted with the target data. Our comprehensive numerical studies and analysis of multi-institutional electronic health records data using TransDRO further substantiate the robustness and accuracy of TransDRO, highlighting its potential as a powerful tool in transfer learning applications.

Graph contrastive learning (GCL) shows great potential in unsupervised graph representation learning. Data augmentation plays a vital role in GCL, and its optimal choice heavily depends on the downstream task. Many GCL methods with automated data augmentation face the risk of insufficient information as they fail to preserve the essential information necessary for the downstream task. To solve this problem, we propose InfoMin-Max for automated Graph contrastive learning (GIMM), which prevents GCL from encoding redundant information and losing essential information. GIMM consists of two major modules: (1) automated graph view generator, which acquires the approximation of InfoMin's optimal views through adversarial training without requiring task-relevant information; (2) view comparison, which learns an excellent encoder by applying InfoMax to view representations. To the best of our knowledge, GIMM is the first method that combines the InfoMin and InfoMax principles in GCL. Besides, GIMM introduces randomness to augmentation, thus stabilizing the model against perturbations. Extensive experiments on unsupervised and semi-supervised learning for node and graph classification demonstrate the superiority of our GIMM over state-of-the-art GCL methods with automated and manual data augmentation.

User generated content (UGC) refers to videos that are uploaded by users and shared over the Internet. UGC may have low quality due to noise and previous compression. When re-encoding UGC for streaming or downloading, a traditional video coding pipeline will perform rate-distortion (RD) optimization to choose coding parameters. However, in the UGC video coding case, since the input is not pristine, quality ``saturation'' (or even degradation) can be observed, i.e., increased bitrate only leads to improved representation of coding artifacts and noise present in the UGC input. In this paper, we study the saturation problem in UGC compression, where the goal is to identify and avoid during encoding, the coding parameters and rates that lead to quality saturation. We proposed a geometric criterion for saturation detection that works with rate-distortion optimization, and only requires a few frames from the UGC video. In addition, we show how to combine the proposed saturation detection method with existing video coding systems that implement rate-distortion optimization for efficient compression of UGC videos., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, accepted at International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, & Signal Processing (ICASSP) 2023

Reproducibility, the ability to reproduce the results of published papers or studies using their computer code and data, is a cornerstone of reliable scientific methodology. Studies where results cannot be reproduced by the scientific community should be treated with caution. Over the past decade, the importance of reproducible research has been frequently stressed in a wide range of scientific journals such as \textit{Nature} and \textit{Science} and international magazines such as \textit{The Economist}. However, multiple studies have demonstrated that scientific results are often not reproducible across research areas such as psychology and medicine. Statistics, the science concerned with developing and studying methods for collecting, analyzing, interpreting and presenting empirical data, prides itself on its openness when it comes to sharing both computer code and data. In this paper, we examine reproducibility in the field of statistics by attempting to reproduce the results in 93 published papers in prominent journals utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data during the 2010-2021 period. Overall, from both the computer code and the data perspective, among all the 93 examined papers, we could only reproduce the results in 14 (15.1%) papers, that is, the papers provide both executable computer code (or software) with the real fMRI data, and our results matched the results in the paper. Finally, we conclude with some author-specific and journal-specific recommendations to improve the research reproducibility in statistics.

Video shared over the internet is commonly referred to as user generated content (UGC). UGC video may have low quality due to various factors including previous compression. UGC video is uploaded by users, and then it is re-encoded to be made available at various levels of quality. In a traditional video coding pipeline the encoder parameters are optimized to minimize a rate-distortion criterion, but when the input signal has low quality, this results in sub-optimal coding parameters optimized to preserve undesirable artifacts. In this paper we formulate the UGC compression problem as that of compression of a noisy/corrupted source. The noisy source coding theorem reveals that an optimal UGC compression system is comprised of optimal denoising of the UGC signal, followed by compression of the denoised signal. Since optimal denoising is unattainable and users may be against modification of their content, we propose encoding the UGC signal, and using denoised references only to compute distortion, so the encoding process can be guided towards perceptually better solutions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy for JPEG compression of UGC images and videos., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, accepted at International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) 2022