Learning Zero Constellations for Binary MOCZ in Fading Channels

In this work, we propose two methods to design zero constellations for binary modulation on conjugate-reciprocal zeros (BMOCZ). In the first approach, we treat constellation design as a multi-label binary classification problem and learn the zero locations for a direct zero-testing (DiZeT) decoder. In the second approach, we introduce a neural network (NN)-based decoder and jointly learn the decoder and zero constellation parameters. We show that the NN-based decoder can directly generalize to flat-fading channels, despite being trained under additive white Gaussian noise. Furthermore, the results of numerical simulations demonstrate that learned zero constellations outperform the canonical, Huffman BMOCZ constellation, with the proposed NN-based decoder achieving large performance gain at the expense of increased computational complexity.

Towards Scalable Lottery Ticket Networks using Genetic Algorithms

Building modern deep learning systems that are not just effective but also efficient requires rethinking established paradigms for model training and neural architecture design. Instead of adapting highly overparameterized networks and subsequently applying model compression techniques to reduce resource consumption, a new class of high-performing networks skips the need for expensive parameter updates, while requiring only a fraction of parameters, making them highly scalable. The Strong Lottery Ticket Hypothesis posits that within randomly initialized, sufficiently overparameterized neural networks, there exist subnetworks that can match the accuracy of the trained original model-without any training. This work explores the usage of genetic algorithms for identifying these strong lottery ticket subnetworks. We find that for instances of binary and multi-class classification tasks, our approach achieves better accuracies and sparsity levels than the current state-of-the-art without requiring any gradient information. In addition, we provide justification for the need for appropriate evaluation metrics when scaling to more complex network architectures and learning tasks.

MOTGNN: Interpretable Graph Neural Networks for Multi-Omics Disease Classification

Integrating multi-omics data, such as DNA methylation, mRNA expression, and microRNA (miRNA) expression, offers a comprehensive view of the biological mechanisms underlying disease. However, the high dimensionality and complex interactions among omics layers present major challenges for predictive modeling. We propose Multi-Omics integration with Tree-generated Graph Neural Network (MOTGNN), a novel and interpretable framework for binary disease classification. MOTGNN employs eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) to perform omics-specific supervised graph construction, followed by modality-specific Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) for hierarchical representation learning, and a deep feedforward network for cross-omics integration. On three real-world disease datasets, MOTGNN outperforms state-of-the-art baselines by 5-10% in accuracy, ROC-AUC, and F1-score, and remains robust to severe class imbalance (e.g., 87.2% vs. 33.4% F1 on imbalanced data). The model maintains computational efficiency through sparse graphs (2.1-2.8 edges per node) and provides built-in interpretability, revealing both top-ranked biomarkers and the relative contributions of each omics modality. These results highlight MOTGNN's potential to improve both predictive accuracy and interpretability in multi-omics disease modeling.

ProteoKnight: Convolution-based phage virion protein classification and uncertainty analysis

\textbf{Introduction:} Accurate prediction of Phage Virion Proteins (PVP) is essential for genomic studies due to their crucial role as structural elements in bacteriophages. Computational tools, particularly machine learning, have emerged for annotating phage protein sequences from high-throughput sequencing. However, effective annotation requires specialized sequence encodings. Our paper introduces ProteoKnight, a new image-based encoding method that addresses spatial constraints in existing techniques, yielding competitive performance in PVP classification using pre-trained convolutional neural networks. Additionally, our study evaluates prediction uncertainty in binary PVP classification through Monte Carlo Dropout (MCD). \textbf{Methods:} ProteoKnight adapts the classical DNA-Walk algorithm for protein sequences, incorporating pixel colors and adjusting walk distances to capture intricate protein features. Encoded sequences were classified using multiple pre-trained CNNs. Variance and entropy measures assessed prediction uncertainty across proteins of various classes and lengths. \textbf{Results:} Our experiments achieved 90.8% accuracy in binary classification, comparable to state-of-the-art methods. Multi-class classification accuracy remains suboptimal. Our uncertainty analysis unveils variability in prediction confidence influenced by protein class and sequence length. \textbf{Conclusions:} Our study surpasses frequency chaos game representation (FCGR) by introducing novel image encoding that mitigates spatial information loss limitations. Our classification technique yields accurate and robust PVP predictions while identifying low-confidence predictions.

Ensemble-Based Graph Representation of fMRI Data for Cognitive Brain State Classification

Understanding and classifying human cognitive brain states based on neuroimaging data remains one of the foremost and most challenging problems in neuroscience, owing to the high dimensionality and intrinsic noise of the signals. In this work, we propose an ensemble-based graph representation method of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data for the task of binary brain-state classification. Our method builds the graph by leveraging multiple base machine-learning models: each edge weight reflects the difference in posterior probabilities between two cognitive states, yielding values in the range [-1, 1] that encode confidence in a given state. We applied this approach to seven cognitive tasks from the Human Connectome Project (HCP 1200 Subject Release), including working memory, gambling, motor activity, language, social cognition, relational processing, and emotion processing. Using only the mean incident edge weights of the graphs as features, a simple logistic-regression classifier achieved average accuracies from 97.07% to 99.74%. We also compared our ensemble graphs with classical correlation-based graphs in a classification task with a graph neural network (GNN). In all experiments, the highest classification accuracy was obtained with ensemble graphs. These results demonstrate that ensemble graphs convey richer topological information and enhance brain-state discrimination. Our approach preserves edge-level interpretability of the fMRI graph representation, is adaptable to multiclass and regression tasks, and can be extended to other neuroimaging modalities and pathological-state classification.

HOG-CNN: Integrating Histogram of Oriented Gradients with Convolutional Neural Networks for Retinal Image Classification

The analysis of fundus images is critical for the early detection and diagnosis of retinal diseases such as Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), Glaucoma, and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Traditional diagnostic workflows, however, often depend on manual interpretation and are both time- and resource-intensive. To address these limitations, we propose an automated and interpretable clinical decision support framework based on a hybrid feature extraction model called HOG-CNN. Our key contribution lies in the integration of handcrafted Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) features with deep convolutional neural network (CNN) representations. This fusion enables our model to capture both local texture patterns and high-level semantic features from retinal fundus images. We evaluated our model on three public benchmark datasets: APTOS 2019 (for binary and multiclass DR classification), ORIGA (for Glaucoma detection), and IC-AMD (for AMD diagnosis); HOG-CNN demonstrates consistently high performance. It achieves 98.5\% accuracy and 99.2 AUC for binary DR classification, and 94.2 AUC for five-class DR classification. On the IC-AMD dataset, it attains 92.8\% accuracy, 94.8\% precision, and 94.5 AUC, outperforming several state-of-the-art models. For Glaucoma detection on ORIGA, our model achieves 83.9\% accuracy and 87.2 AUC, showing competitive performance despite dataset limitations. We show, through comprehensive appendix studies, the complementary strength of combining HOG and CNN features. The model's lightweight and interpretable design makes it particularly suitable for deployment in resource-constrained clinical environments. These results position HOG-CNN as a robust and scalable tool for automated retinal disease screening.

Multi-Attention Stacked Ensemble for Lung Cancer Detection in CT Scans

In this work, we address the challenge of binary lung nodule classification (benign vs malignant) using CT images by proposing a multi-level attention stacked ensemble of deep neural networks. Three pretrained backbones - EfficientNet V2 S, MobileViT XXS, and DenseNet201 - are each adapted with a custom classification head tailored to 96 x 96 pixel inputs. A two-stage attention mechanism learns both model-wise and class-wise importance scores from concatenated logits, and a lightweight meta-learner refines the final prediction. To mitigate class imbalance and improve generalization, we employ dynamic focal loss with empirically calculated class weights, MixUp augmentation during training, and test-time augmentation at inference. Experiments on the LIDC-IDRI dataset demonstrate exceptional performance, achieving 98.09 accuracy and 0.9961 AUC, representing a 35 percent reduction in error rate compared to state-of-the-art methods. The model exhibits balanced performance across sensitivity (98.73) and specificity (98.96), with particularly strong results on challenging cases where radiologist disagreement was high. Statistical significance testing confirms the robustness of these improvements across multiple experimental runs. Our approach can serve as a robust, automated aid for radiologists in lung cancer screening.

Efficient Memristive Spiking Neural Networks Architecture with Supervised In-Situ STDP Method

Memristor-based Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) with temporal spike encoding enable ultra-low-energy computation, making them ideal for battery-powered intelligent devices. This paper presents a circuit-level memristive spiking neural network (SNN) architecture trained using a proposed novel supervised in-situ learning algorithm inspired by spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP). The proposed architecture efficiently implements lateral inhibition and the refractory period, eliminating the need for external microcontrollers or ancillary control hardware. All synapses of the winning neurons are updated in parallel, enhancing training efficiency. The modular design ensures scalability with respect to input data dimensions and output class count. The SNN is evaluated in LTspice for pattern recognition (using 5x3 binary images) and classification tasks using the Iris and Breast Cancer Wisconsin (BCW) datasets. During testing, the system achieved perfect pattern recognition and high classification accuracies of 99.11\% (Iris) and 97.9\% (BCW). Additionally, it has demonstrated robustness, maintaining an average recognition rate of 93.4\% under 20\% input noise. The impact of stuck-at-conductance faults and memristor device variations was also analyzed.

Robust Five-Class and binary Diabetic Retinopathy Classification Using Transfer Learning and Data Augmentation

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of vision loss worldwide, and early diagnosis through automated retinal image analysis can significantly reduce the risk of blindness. This paper presents a robust deep learning framework for both binary and five-class DR classification, leveraging transfer learning and extensive data augmentation to address the challenges of class imbalance and limited training data. We evaluate a range of pretrained convolutional neural network architectures, including variants of ResNet and EfficientNet, on the APTOS 2019 dataset. For binary classification, our proposed model achieves a state-of-the-art accuracy of 98.9%, with a precision of 98.6%, recall of 99.3%, F1-score of 98.9%, and an AUC of 99.4%. In the more challenging five-class severity classification task, our model obtains a competitive accuracy of 84.6% and an AUC of 94.1%, outperforming several existing approaches. Our findings also demonstrate that EfficientNet-B0 and ResNet34 offer optimal trade-offs between accuracy and computational efficiency across both tasks. These results underscore the effectiveness of combining class-balanced augmentation with transfer learning for high-performance DR diagnosis. The proposed framework provides a scalable and accurate solution for DR screening, with potential for deployment in real-world clinical environments.

Comparison of Optimised Geometric Deep Learning Architectures, over Varying Toxicological Assay Data Environments

Geometric deep learning is an emerging technique in Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven cheminformatics, however the unique implications of different Graph Neural Network (GNN) architectures are poorly explored, for this space. This study compared performances of Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs), Graph Attention Networks (GATs) and Graph Isomorphism Networks (GINs), applied to 7 different toxicological assay datasets of varying data abundance and endpoint, to perform binary classification of assay activation. Following pre-processing of molecular graphs, enforcement of class-balance and stratification of all datasets across 5 folds, Bayesian optimisations were carried out, for each GNN applied to each assay dataset (resulting in 21 unique Bayesian optimisations). Optimised GNNs performed at Area Under the Curve (AUC) scores ranging from 0.728-0.849 (averaged across all folds), naturally varying between specific assays and GNNs. GINs were found to consistently outperform GCNs and GATs, for the top 5 of 7 most data-abundant toxicological assays. GATs however significantly outperformed over the remaining 2 most data-scarce assays. This indicates that GINs are a more optimal architecture for data-abundant environments, whereas GATs are a more optimal architecture for data-scarce environments. Subsequent analysis of the explored higher-dimensional hyperparameter spaces, as well as optimised hyperparameter states, found that GCNs and GATs reached measurably closer optimised states with each other, compared to GINs, further indicating the unique nature of GINs as a GNN algorithm.