Zhuo Zuo

Haoran Liu, Yihan Zhan, Mingzhe Liu et al.

This review presents a comprehensive survey and benchmark of pulse shape discrimination (PSD) algorithms for radiation detection, classifying nearly sixty methods into statistical (time-domain, frequency-domain, neural network-based) and prior-knowledge (machine learning, deep learning) paradigms. We implement and evaluate all algorithms on two standardized datasets: an unlabeled set from a 241Am-9Be source and a time-of-flight labeled set from a 238Pu-9Be source, using metrics including Figure of Merit (FOM), F1-score, ROC-AUC, and inter-method correlations. Our analysis reveals that deep learning models, particularly Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs) and hybrid approaches combining statistical features with neural regression, often outperform traditional methods. We discuss architectural suitabilities, the limitations of FOM, alternative evaluation metrics, and performance across energy thresholds. Accompanying this work, we release an open-source toolbox in Python and MATLAB, along with the datasets, to promote reproducibility and advance PSD research.

Haoran Liu, Peng Li, Ming-Zhe Liu et al.

This study utilized the Tempotron, a robust classifier based on a third-generation neural network model, for pulse shape discrimination. By eliminating the need for manual feature extraction, the Tempotron model can process pulse signals directly, generating discrimination results based on prior knowledge. The study performed experiments using GPU acceleration, resulting in over 500 times faster compared to the CPU-based model, and investigated the impact of noise augmentation on the Tempotron performance. Experimental results substantiated that Tempotron serves as a formidable classifier, adept at accomplishing high discrimination accuracy on both AmBe and time-of-flight PuBe datasets. Furthermore, analyzing the neural activity of Tempotron during training shed light on its learning characteristics and aided in selecting its hyperparameters. Moreover, the study addressed the constraints and potential avenues for future development in utilizing the Tempotron for pulse shape discrimination. The dataset used in this study and the GPU-based Tempotron are publicly available on GitHub at https://github.com/HaoranLiu507/TempotronGPU.

Haoran Liu, Mingzhe Liu, Peng Li et al.

Improving the efficiency of current neural networks and modeling them in biological neural systems have become popular research directions in recent years. Pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN) is a well applicated model for imitating the computation characteristics of the human brain in computer vision and neural network fields. However, differences between the PCNN and biological neural systems remain: limited neural connection, high computational cost, and lack of stochastic property. In this study, random-coupled neural network (RCNN) is proposed. It overcomes these difficulties in PCNN's neuromorphic computing via a random inactivation process. This process randomly closes some neural connections in the RCNN model, realized by the random inactivation weight matrix of link input. This releases the computational burden of PCNN, making it affordable to achieve vast neural connections. Furthermore, the image and video processing mechanisms of RCNN are researched. It encodes constant stimuli as periodic spike trains and periodic stimuli as chaotic spike trains, the same as biological neural information encoding characteristics. Finally, the RCNN is applicated to image segmentation, fusion, and pulse shape discrimination subtasks. It is demonstrated to be robust, efficient, and highly anti-noised, with outstanding performance in all applications mentioned above.