Xinhui Li

Xinhui Li, Mingjia Li, Yaxing Wang et al.

Domain generalization in semantic segmentation aims to alleviate the performance degradation on unseen domains through learning domain-invariant features. Existing methods diversify images in the source domain by adding complex or even abnormal textures to reduce the sensitivity to domain specific features. However, these approaches depend heavily on the richness of the texture bank, and training them can be time-consuming. In contrast to importing textures arbitrarily or augmenting styles randomly, we focus on the single source domain itself to achieve generalization. In this paper, we present a novel adaptive texture filtering mechanism to suppress the influence of texture without using augmentation, thus eliminating the interference of domain-specific features. Further, we design a hierarchical guidance generalization network equipped with structure-guided enhancement modules, which purpose is to learn the domain-invariant generalized knowledge. Extensive experiments together with ablation studies on widely-used datasets are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model, and reveal its superiority over other state-of-the-art alternatives.

Yujia Xie, Xinhui Li, Vince D. Calhoun · gatech

We present Predictive Sparse Manifold Transform (PSMT), a minimalistic, interpretable and biologically plausible framework for learning and predicting natural dynamics. PSMT incorporates two layers where the first sparse coding layer represents the input sequence as sparse coefficients over an overcomplete dictionary and the second manifold learning layer learns a geometric embedding space that captures topological similarity and dynamic temporal linearity in sparse coefficients. We apply PSMT on a natural video dataset and evaluate the reconstruction performance with respect to contextual variability, the number of sparse coding basis functions and training samples. We then interpret the dynamic topological organization in the embedding space. We next utilize PSMT to predict future frames compared with two baseline methods with a static embedding space. We demonstrate that PSMT with a dynamic embedding space can achieve better prediction performance compared to static baselines. Our work establishes that PSMT is an efficient unsupervised generative framework for prediction of future visual stimuli.

Zewang Zhang, Yibin Zheng, Xinhui Li et al.

In this paper, we develop a new multi-singer Chinese neural singing voice synthesis (SVS) system named WeSinger. To improve the accuracy and naturalness of synthesized singing voice, we design several specifical modules and techniques: 1) A deep bi-directional LSTM-based duration model with multi-scale rhythm loss and post-processing step; 2) A Transformer-alike acoustic model with progressive pitch-weighted decoder loss; 3) a 24 kHz pitch-aware LPCNet neural vocoder to produce high-quality singing waveforms; 4) A novel data augmentation method with multi-singer pre-training for stronger robustness and naturalness. To our knowledge, WeSinger is the first SVS system to adopt 24 kHz LPCNet and multi-singer pre-training simultaneously. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness of WeSinger in terms of accuracy and naturalness, and WeSinger achieves state-of-the-art performance on the recent public Chinese singing corpus Opencpop\footnote{https://wenet.org.cn/opencpop/}. Some synthesized singing samples are available online\footnote{https://zzw922cn.github.io/wesinger/}.

Xinhui Li, Alex Fedorov, Mrinal Mathur et al.

Deep learning has been widely applied in neuroimaging, including predicting brain-phenotype relationships from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumes. MRI data usually requires extensive preprocessing prior to modeling, but variation introduced by different MRI preprocessing pipelines may lead to different scientific findings, even when using the identical data. Motivated by the data-centric perspective, we first evaluate how preprocessing pipeline selection can impact the downstream performance of a supervised learning model. We next propose two pipeline-invariant representation learning methodologies, MPSL and PXL, to improve robustness in classification performance and to capture similar neural network representations. Using 2000 human subjects from the UK Biobank dataset, we demonstrate that proposed models present unique and shared advantages, in particular that MPSL can be used to improve out-of-sample generalization to new pipelines, while PXL can be used to improve within-sample prediction performance. Both MPSL and PXL can learn more similar between-pipeline representations. These results suggest that our proposed models can be applied to mitigate pipeline-related biases, and to improve prediction robustness in brain-phenotype modeling.

Enqiang Xu, Xinhui Li, Zhigong Zhou et al.

In the rapidly evolving field of e-commerce, the effectiveness of search re-ranking models is crucial for enhancing user experience and driving conversion rates. Despite significant advancements in feature representation and model architecture, the integration of multimodal information remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by investigating the computation and fusion of textual and visual information in the context of re-ranking. We propose \textbf{A}dvancing \textbf{R}e-Ranking with \textbf{M}ulti\textbf{m}odal Fusion and \textbf{T}arget-Oriented Auxiliary Tasks (ARMMT), which integrates an attention-based multimodal fusion technique and an auxiliary ranking-aligned task to enhance item representation and improve targeting capabilities. This method not only enriches the understanding of product attributes but also enables more precise and personalized recommendations. Experimental evaluations on JD.com's search platform demonstrate that ARMMT achieves state-of-the-art performance in multimodal information integration, evidenced by a 0.22\% increase in the Conversion Rate (CVR), significantly contributing to Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV). This pioneering approach has the potential to revolutionize e-commerce re-ranking, leading to elevated user satisfaction and business growth.

Xinyu He, Xinhui Li, Xiaojie Guo

Domain adaptive object detection (DAOD) aims to generalize an object detector trained on labeled source-domain data to a target domain without annotations, the core principle of which is \emph{source-target feature alignment}. Typically, existing approaches employ adversarial learning to align the distributions of the source and target domains as a whole, barely considering the varying significance of distinct regions, say instances under different circumstances and foreground \emph{vs} background areas, during feature alignment. To overcome the shortcoming, we investigates a differential feature alignment strategy. Specifically, a prediction-discrepancy feedback instance alignment module (dubbed PDFA) is designed to adaptively assign higher weights to instances of higher teacher-student detection discrepancy, effectively handling heavier domain-specific information. Additionally, an uncertainty-based foreground-oriented image alignment module (UFOA) is proposed to explicitly guide the model to focus more on regions of interest. Extensive experiments on widely-used DAOD datasets together with ablation studies are conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed method and reveal its superiority over other SOTA alternatives. Our code is available at https://github.com/EstrellaXyu/Differential-Alignment-for-DAOD.

Hongze Li, Zesheng Zhou, Zhenbiao Cao et al.

Traditional Federated Domain Generalization (FedDG) methods focus on learning domain-invariant features or adapting to unseen target domains, often overlooking the unique knowledge embedded within the source domain, especially in strictly isolated federated learning environments. Through experimentation, we discovered a counterintuitive phenomenon.: features learned from a complete source domain have superior generalization capabilities compared to those learned directly from the target domain. This insight leads us to propose the Federated Source Domain Awareness Framework (FedSDAF), the first systematic approach to enhance FedDG by leveraging source domain-aware features. FedSDAF employs a dual-adapter architecture that decouples "local expertise" from "global generalization consensus". A Domain-Aware Adapter, retained locally, extracts and protects the unique discriminative knowledge of each source domain, while a Domain-Invariant Adapter, shared across clients, builds a robust global consensus. To enable knowledge exchange, we introduce a Bidirectional Knowledge Distillation mechanism that facilitates efficient dialogue between the adapters. Extensive experiments on four benchmark datasets (OfficeHome, PACS, VLCS, DomainNet) show that FedSDAF significantly outperforms existing FedDG methods.The source code is available at https://github.com/pizzareapers/FedSDAF.

Victoria Yan, Honor Chotkowski, Fengran Wang et al.

Cognitive assessments require normative data as essential benchmarks for evaluating individual performance. Hence, developing new cognitive tests based on novel image stimuli is challenging due to the lack of readily available normative data. Traditional data collection methods are costly, time-consuming, and infrequently updated, limiting their practical utility. Recent advancements in generative multimodal large language models (MLLMs) offer a new approach to generate synthetic normative data from existing cognitive test images. We investigated the feasibility of using MLLMs, specifically GPT-4o and GPT-4o-mini, to synthesize normative textual responses for established image-based cognitive assessments, such as the "Cookie Theft" picture description task. Two distinct prompting strategies-naive prompts with basic instructions and advanced prompts enriched with contextual guidance-were evaluated. Responses were analyzed using embeddings to assess their capacity to distinguish diagnostic groups and demographic variations. Performance metrics included BLEU, ROUGE, BERTScore, and an LLM-as-a-judge evaluation. Advanced prompting strategies produced synthetic responses that more effectively distinguished between diagnostic groups and captured demographic diversity compared to naive prompts. Superior models generated responses exhibiting higher realism and diversity. BERTScore emerged as the most reliable metric for contextual similarity assessment, while BLEU was less effective for evaluating creative outputs. The LLM-as-a-judge approach provided promising preliminary validation results. Our study demonstrates that generative multimodal LLMs, guided by refined prompting methods, can feasibly generate robust synthetic normative data for existing cognitive tests, thereby laying the groundwork for developing novel image-based cognitive assessments without the traditional limitations.

Xinhui Li, Xiaojie Guo

Domain Generalized Semantic Segmentation (DGSS) aims to improve the generalization ability of models across unseen domains without access to target data during training. Recent advances in DGSS have increasingly exploited vision foundation models (VFMs) via parameter-efficient fine-tuning strategies. However, most existing approaches concentrate on global feature fine-tuning, while overlooking hierarchical adaptation across feature levels, which is crucial for precise dense prediction. In this paper, we propose Multi-Granularity Feature Calibration (MGFC), a novel framework that performs coarse-to-fine alignment of VFM features to enhance robustness under domain shifts. Specifically, MGFC first calibrates coarse-grained features to capture global contextual semantics and scene-level structure. Then, it refines medium-grained features by promoting category-level feature discriminability. Finally, fine-grained features are calibrated through high-frequency spatial detail enhancement. By performing hierarchical and granularity-aware calibration, MGFC effectively transfers the generalization strengths of VFMs to the domain-specific task of DGSS. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that our method outperforms state-of-the-art DGSS approaches, highlighting the effectiveness of multi-granularity adaptation for the semantic segmentation task of domain generalization.

Xinhui Li, Xinyu He, Qiming Hu et al.

In this paper, we introduce, for the first time, the concept of Set Pivot Learning, a paradigm shift that redefines domain generalization (DG) based on Vision Foundation Models (VFMs). Traditional DG assumes that the target domain is inaccessible during training, but the emergence of VFMs, trained on vast and diverse data, renders this assumption unclear and obsolete. Traditional DG assumes that the target domain is inaccessible during training, but the emergence of VFMs, which are trained on vast and diverse datasets, renders this assumption unclear and obsolete. To address this challenge, we propose Set Pivot Learning (SPL), a new definition of domain migration task based on VFMs, which is more suitable for current research and application requirements. Unlike conventional DG methods, SPL prioritizes adaptive refinement over rigid domain transfer, ensuring continuous alignment with evolving real-world conditions. Specifically, SPL features two key attributes: (i) Dynamic adaptation, transitioning from static domain alignment to flexible, task-driven feature optimization, enabling models to evolve with downstream scenarios; (ii) VFM-centric tuning, leveraging pretrained knowledge as a pivot to hone task-specific representations while preserving cross-domain robustness. Building on SPL, we propose a Dynamic Prompt Fine-Tuning method, which combines a Dynamic Class-aware Prompter with a Prompt-guided Feature Focuser, to elevate VFM performance in targeted scenarios. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets show the effectiveness of our method, highlighting its superiority over state-of-the-art methods, particularly in generalized segmentation.

Shilun Lin, Wenchao Su, Li Meng et al.

This paper presents Nana-HDR, a new non-attentive non-autoregressive model with hybrid Transformer-based Dense-fuse encoder and RNN-based decoder for TTS. It mainly consists of three parts: Firstly, a novel Dense-fuse encoder with dense connections between basic Transformer blocks for coarse feature fusion and a multi-head attention layer for fine feature fusion. Secondly, a single-layer non-autoregressive RNN-based decoder. Thirdly, a duration predictor instead of an attention model that connects the above hybrid encoder and decoder. Experiments indicate that Nana-HDR gives full play to the advantages of each component, such as strong text encoding ability of Transformer-based encoder, stateful decoding without being bothered by exposure bias and local information preference, and stable alignment provided by duration predictor. Due to these advantages, Nana-HDR achieves competitive performance in naturalness and robustness on two Mandarin corpora.

Shilun Lin, Fenglong Xie, Li Meng et al.

In this work, a robust and efficient text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis system named Triple M is proposed for large-scale online application. The key components of Triple M are: 1) A sequence-to-sequence model adopts a novel multi-guidance attention to transfer complementary advantages from guiding attention mechanisms to the basic attention mechanism without in-domain performance loss and online service modification. Compared with single attention mechanism, multi-guidance attention not only brings better naturalness to long sentence synthesis, but also reduces the word error rate by 26.8%. 2) A new efficient multi-band multi-time vocoder framework, which reduces the computational complexity from 2.8 to 1.0 GFLOP and speeds up LPCNet by 2.75x on a single CPU.