Showing 1–21 of 21 results for author: Yu, N Y

A Multimodal Clinically Informed Coarse-to-Fine Framework for Longitudinal CT Registration in Proton Therapy

Authors: Caiwen Jiang, Yuzhen Ding, Mi Jia, Samir H. Patel, Terence T. Sio, Jonathan B. Ashman, Lisa A. McGee, Jean-Claude M. Rwigema, William G. Rule, Sameer R. Keole, Sujay A. Vora, William W. Wong, Nathan Y. Yu, Michele Y. Halyard, Steven E. Schild, Dinggang Shen, Wei Liu

Abstract: Proton therapy offers superior organ-at-risk sparing but is highly sensitive to anatomical changes, making accurate deformable image registration (DIR) across longitudinal CT scans essential. Conventional DIR methods are often too slow for emerging online adaptive workflows, while existing deep learning-based approaches are primarily designed for generic benchmarks and underutilize clinically rele… ▽ More Proton therapy offers superior organ-at-risk sparing but is highly sensitive to anatomical changes, making accurate deformable image registration (DIR) across longitudinal CT scans essential. Conventional DIR methods are often too slow for emerging online adaptive workflows, while existing deep learning-based approaches are primarily designed for generic benchmarks and underutilize clinically relevant information beyond images. To address this gap, we propose a clinically scalable coarse-to-fine deformable registration framework that integrates multimodal information from the proton radiotherapy workflow to accommodate diverse clinical scenarios. The model employs dual CNN-based encoders for hierarchical feature extraction and a transformer-based decoder to progressively refine deformation fields. Beyond CT intensities, clinically critical priors, including target and organ-at-risk contours, dose distributions, and treatment planning text, are incorporated through anatomy- and risk-guided attention, text-conditioned feature modulation, and foreground-aware optimization, enabling anatomically focused and clinically informed deformation estimation. We evaluate the proposed framework on a large-scale proton therapy DIR dataset comprising 1,222 paired planning and repeat CT scans across multiple anatomical regions and disease types. Extensive experiments demonstrate consistent improvements over state-of-the-art methods, enabling fast and robust clinically meaningful registration. △ Less

Submitted 14 April, 2026; originally announced April 2026.

An Automated Retrieval-Augmented Generation LLaMA-4 109B-based System for Evaluating Radiotherapy Treatment Plans

Authors: Junjie Cui, Peilong Wang, Jason Holmes, Leshan Sun, Michael L. Hinni, Barbara A. Pockaj, Sujay A. Vora, Terence T. Sio, William W. Wong, Nathan Y. Yu, Steven E. Schild, Joshua R. Niska, Sameer R. Keole, Jean-Claude M. Rwigema, Samir H. Patel, Lisa A. McGee, Carlos A. Vargas, Wei Liu

Abstract: Purpose: To develop a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system powered by LLaMA-4 109B for automated, protocol-aware, and interpretable evaluation of radiotherapy treatment plans. Methods and Materials: We curated a multi-protocol dataset of 614 radiotherapy plans across four disease sites and constructed a knowledge base containing normalized dose metrics and protocol-defined constraints. Th… ▽ More Purpose: To develop a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system powered by LLaMA-4 109B for automated, protocol-aware, and interpretable evaluation of radiotherapy treatment plans. Methods and Materials: We curated a multi-protocol dataset of 614 radiotherapy plans across four disease sites and constructed a knowledge base containing normalized dose metrics and protocol-defined constraints. The RAG system integrates three core modules: a retrieval engine optimized across five SentenceTransformer backbones, a percentile prediction component based on cohort similarity, and a clinical constraint checker. These tools are directed by a large language model (LLM) using a multi-step prompt-driven reasoning pipeline to produce concise, grounded evaluations. Results: Retrieval hyperparameters were optimized using Gaussian Process on a scalarized loss function combining root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and clinically motivated accuracy thresholds. The best configuration, based on all-MiniLM-L6-v2, achieved perfect nearest-neighbor accuracy within a 5-percentile-point margin and a sub-2pt MAE. When tested end-to-end, the RAG system achieved 100% agreement with the computed values by standalone retrieval and constraint-checking modules on both percentile estimates and constraint identification, confirming reliable execution of all retrieval, prediction and checking steps. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the feasibility of combining structured population-based scoring with modular tool-augmented reasoning for transparent, scalable plan evaluation in radiation therapy. The system offers traceable outputs, minimizes hallucination, and demonstrates robustness across protocols. Future directions include clinician-led validation, and improved domain-adapted retrieval models to enhance real-world integration. △ Less

Submitted 28 September, 2025; v1 submitted 24 September, 2025; originally announced September 2025.

Comments: 16 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to npj Digital Medicine

Diffusion Transformer-based Universal Dose Denoising for Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy

Authors: Yuzhen Ding, Jason Holmes, Hongying Feng, Martin Bues, Lisa A. McGee, Jean-Claude M. Rwigema, Nathan Y. Yu, Terence S. Sio, Sameer R. Keole, William W. Wong, Steven E. Schild, Jonathan B. Ashman, Sujay A. Vora, Daniel J. Ma, Samir H. Patel, Wei Liu

Abstract: Purpose: Intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) offers precise tumor coverage while sparing organs at risk (OARs) in head and neck (H&N) cancer. However, its sensitivity to anatomical changes requires frequent adaptation through online adaptive radiation therapy (oART), which depends on fast, accurate dose calculation via Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Reducing particle count accelerates MC but… ▽ More Purpose: Intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) offers precise tumor coverage while sparing organs at risk (OARs) in head and neck (H&N) cancer. However, its sensitivity to anatomical changes requires frequent adaptation through online adaptive radiation therapy (oART), which depends on fast, accurate dose calculation via Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Reducing particle count accelerates MC but degrades accuracy. To address this, denoising low-statistics MC dose maps is proposed to enable fast, high-quality dose generation. Methods: We developed a diffusion transformer-based denoising framework. IMPT plans and 3D CT images from 80 H&N patients were used to generate noisy and high-statistics dose maps using MCsquare (1 min and 10 min per plan, respectively). Data were standardized into uniform chunks with zero-padding, normalized, and transformed into quasi-Gaussian distributions. Testing was done on 10 H&N, 10 lung, 10 breast, and 10 prostate cancer cases, preprocessed identically. The model was trained with noisy dose maps and CT images as input and high-statistics dose maps as ground truth, using a combined loss of mean square error (MSE), residual loss, and regional MAE (focusing on top/bottom 10% dose voxels). Performance was assessed via MAE, 3D Gamma passing rate, and DVH indices. Results: The model achieved MAEs of 0.195 (H&N), 0.120 (lung), 0.172 (breast), and 0.376 Gy[RBE] (prostate). 3D Gamma passing rates exceeded 92% (3%/2mm) across all sites. DVH indices for clinical target volumes (CTVs) and OARs closely matched the ground truth. Conclusion: A diffusion transformer-based denoising framework was developed and, though trained only on H&N data, generalizes well across multiple disease sites. △ Less

Submitted 4 June, 2025; originally announced June 2025.

Personalizing Prostate Cancer Education for Patients Using an EHR-Integrated LLM Agent

Authors: Yuexing Hao, Jason Holmes, Mark R. Waddle, Brian J. Davis, Nathan Y. Yu, Kristin Vickers, Heather Preston, Drew Margolin, Corinna E. Lockenhoff, Aditya Vashistha, Saleh Kalantari, Marzyeh Ghassemi, Wei Liu

Abstract: Cancer patients often lack timely education and personalized support due to clinician workload. This quality improvement study develops and evaluates a Large Language Model (LLM) agent, MedEduChat, which is integrated with the clinic's electronic health records (EHR) and designed to enhance prostate cancer patient education. Fifteen non-metastatic prostate cancer patients and three clinicians recr… ▽ More Cancer patients often lack timely education and personalized support due to clinician workload. This quality improvement study develops and evaluates a Large Language Model (LLM) agent, MedEduChat, which is integrated with the clinic's electronic health records (EHR) and designed to enhance prostate cancer patient education. Fifteen non-metastatic prostate cancer patients and three clinicians recruited from the Mayo Clinic interacted with the agent between May 2024 and April 2025. Findings showed that MedEduChat has a high usability score (UMUX 83.7 out of 100) and improves patients' health confidence (Health Confidence Score rose from 9.9 to 13.9). Clinicians evaluated the patient-chat interaction history and rated MedEduChat as highly correct (2.9 out of 3), complete (2.7 out of 3), and safe (2.7 out of 3), with moderate personalization (2.3 out of 3). This study highlights the potential of LLM agents to improve patient engagement and health education. △ Less

Submitted 17 November, 2025; v1 submitted 27 September, 2024; originally announced September 2024.

Journal ref: npj Digital Medicine 2025

Retrospective Comparative Analysis of Prostate Cancer In-Basket Messages: Responses from Closed-Domain LLM vs. Clinical Teams

Authors: Yuexing Hao, Jason M. Holmes, Jared Hobson, Alexandra Bennett, Daniel K. Ebner, David M. Routman, Satomi Shiraishi, Samir H. Patel, Nathan Y. Yu, Chris L. Hallemeier, Brooke E. Ball, Mark R. Waddle, Wei Liu

Abstract: In-basket message interactions play a crucial role in physician-patient communication, occurring during all phases (pre-, during, and post) of a patient's care journey. However, responding to these patients' inquiries has become a significant burden on healthcare workflows, consuming considerable time for clinical care teams. To address this, we introduce RadOnc-GPT, a specialized Large Language M… ▽ More In-basket message interactions play a crucial role in physician-patient communication, occurring during all phases (pre-, during, and post) of a patient's care journey. However, responding to these patients' inquiries has become a significant burden on healthcare workflows, consuming considerable time for clinical care teams. To address this, we introduce RadOnc-GPT, a specialized Large Language Model (LLM) powered by GPT-4 that has been designed with a focus on radiotherapeutic treatment of prostate cancer with advanced prompt engineering, and specifically designed to assist in generating responses. We integrated RadOnc-GPT with patient electronic health records (EHR) from both the hospital-wide EHR database and an internal, radiation-oncology-specific database. RadOnc-GPT was evaluated on 158 previously recorded in-basket message interactions. Quantitative natural language processing (NLP) analysis and two grading studies with clinicians and nurses were used to assess RadOnc-GPT's responses. Our findings indicate that RadOnc-GPT slightly outperformed the clinical care team in "Clarity" and "Empathy," while achieving comparable scores in "Completeness" and "Correctness." RadOnc-GPT is estimated to save 5.2 minutes per message for nurses and 2.4 minutes for clinicians, from reading the inquiry to sending the response. Employing RadOnc-GPT for in-basket message draft generation has the potential to alleviate the workload of clinical care teams and reduce healthcare costs by producing high-quality, timely responses. △ Less

Submitted 26 September, 2024; originally announced September 2024.

Robust Optimization for Spot Scanning Proton Therapy based on Dose-Linear Energy Transfer (LET) Volume Constraints

Authors: Jingyuan Chen, Yunze Yang, Hongying Feng, Lian Zhang, Carlos E. Vargas, Nathan Y. Yu, Jean-Claude M. Rwigema, Sameer R. Keole, Sujay A. Vora, Jiajian Shen, Wei Liu

Abstract: Purpose: Historically, spot scanning proton therapy (SSPT) treatment planning utilizes dose volume constraints and linear-energy-transfer (LET) volume constraints separately to balance tumor control and organs-at-risk (OARs) protection. We propose a novel dose-LET volume constraint (DLVC)-based robust optimization (DLVCRO) method for SSPT in treating prostate cancer to obtain a desirable joint dos… ▽ More Purpose: Historically, spot scanning proton therapy (SSPT) treatment planning utilizes dose volume constraints and linear-energy-transfer (LET) volume constraints separately to balance tumor control and organs-at-risk (OARs) protection. We propose a novel dose-LET volume constraint (DLVC)-based robust optimization (DLVCRO) method for SSPT in treating prostate cancer to obtain a desirable joint dose and LET distribution to minimize adverse events (AEs). Methods: DLVCRO treats DLVC as soft constraints controlling the joint distribution of dose and LET. Ten prostate cancer patients were included with rectum and bladder as OARs. DLVCRO was compared with the conventional robust optimization (RO) method using the worst-case analysis method. Besides the dose-volume histogram (DVH) indices, the analogous LETVH and extra-biological-dose (xBD)-volume histogram indices were also used. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to measure statistical significance. Results: In nominal scenario, DLVCRO significantly improved dose, LET and xBD distributions to protect OARs (rectum: V70Gy: 3.07\% vs. 2.90\%, p = .0063, RO vs. DLVCRO; $\text{LET}_{\max}$ (keV/um): 11.53 vs. 9.44, p = .0101; $\text{xBD}_{\max}$ (Gy$\cdot$keV/um): 420.55 vs. 398.79, p = .0086; bladder: V65Gy: 4.82\% vs. 4.61\%, p = .0032; $\text{LET}_{\max}$ 8.97 vs. 7.51, p = .0047; $\text{xBD}_{\max}$ 490.11 vs. 476.71, p = .0641). The physical dose distributions in targets are comparable (D2%: 98.57\% vs. 98.39\%; p = .0805; CTV D2% - D98%: 7.10\% vs. 7.75\%, p = .4624). In the worst-case scenario, DLVCRO robustly enhanced OAR while maintaining the similar plan robustness in target dose coverage and homogeneity. Conclusion: DLVCRO upgrades 2D DVH-based to 3D DLVH-based treatment planning to adjust dose/LET distributions simultaneously and robustly. DLVCRO is potentially a powerful tool to improve patient outcomes in SSPT. △ Less

Submitted 6 May, 2024; originally announced May 2024.

Joint Activity and Data Detection for Massive Grant-Free Access Using Deterministic Non-Orthogonal Signatures

Authors: Nam Yul Yu, Wei Yu

Abstract: Grant-free access is a key enabler for connecting wireless devices with low latency and low signaling overhead in massive machine-type communications (mMTC). For massive grant-free access, user-specific signatures are uniquely assigned to mMTC devices. In this paper, we first derive a sufficient condition for the successful identification of active devices through maximum likelihood (ML) estimatio… ▽ More Grant-free access is a key enabler for connecting wireless devices with low latency and low signaling overhead in massive machine-type communications (mMTC). For massive grant-free access, user-specific signatures are uniquely assigned to mMTC devices. In this paper, we first derive a sufficient condition for the successful identification of active devices through maximum likelihood (ML) estimation in massive grant-free access. The condition is represented by the coherence of a signature sequence matrix containing the signatures of all devices. Then, we present a design framework of non-orthogonal signature sequences in a deterministic fashion. The design principle relies on unimodular masking sequences with low correlation, which are applied as masking sequences to the columns of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrix. For example constructions, we use four polyphase masking sequences represented by characters over finite fields. Leveraging algebraic techniques, we show that the signature sequence matrix of proposed non-orthogonal sequences has theoretically bounded low coherence. Simulation results demonstrate that the deterministic non-orthogonal signatures achieve the excellent performance of joint activity and data detection by ML- and approximate message passing (AMP)-based algorithms for massive grant-free access in mMTC. △ Less

Submitted 3 February, 2024; originally announced February 2024.

Proton Pencil-Beam Scanning Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy and Hypofractionated Radiation Therapy for Thoracic Malignancies: Patterns of Practice Survey and Recommendations for Future Development from NRG Oncology and PTCOG

Authors: Wei Liu, Hongying Feng, Paige A. Taylor, Minglei Kang, Jiajian Shen, Jatinder Saini, Jun Zhou, Huan B. Giap, Nathan Y. Yu, Terence S. Sio, Pranshu Mohindra, Joe Y. Chang, Jeffrey D. Bradley, Ying Xiao, Charles B. Simone II, Liyong Lin

Abstract: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and hypofractionation using pencil-beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy (PBSPT) is an attractive option for thoracic malignancies. Combining the advantages of target coverage conformity and critical organ sparing from both PBSPT and SBRT, this new delivery technique has great potential to improve the therapeutic ratio, particularly for tumors near critical… ▽ More Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and hypofractionation using pencil-beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy (PBSPT) is an attractive option for thoracic malignancies. Combining the advantages of target coverage conformity and critical organ sparing from both PBSPT and SBRT, this new delivery technique has great potential to improve the therapeutic ratio, particularly for tumors near critical organs. Safe and effective implementation of PBSPT SBRT/hypofractionation to treat thoracic malignancies is more challenging than the conventionally-fractionated PBSPT due to concerns of amplified uncertainties at the larger dose per fraction. NRG Oncology and Particle Therapy Cooperative Group (PTCOG) Thoracic Subcommittee surveyed US proton centers to identify practice patterns of thoracic PBSPT SBRT/hypofractionation. From these patterns, we present recommendations for future technical development of proton SBRT/hypofractionation for thoracic treatment. Amongst other points, the recommendations highlight the need for volumetric image guidance and multiple CT-based robust optimization and robustness tools to minimize further the impact of uncertainties associated with respiratory motion. Advances in direct motion analysis techniques are urgently needed to supplement current motion management techniques. △ Less

Submitted 1 February, 2024; originally announced February 2024.

Comments: 36 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables

Artificial Intelligence-Facilitated Online Adaptive Proton Therapy Using Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy

Authors: Hongying Feng, Jie Shan, Carlos E. Vargas, Sameer R. Keole, Jean-Claude M. Rwigema, Nathan Y. Yu, Yuzhen Ding, Lian Zhang, Steven E. Schild, William W. Wong, Sujay A. Vora, JiaJian Shen, Wei Liu

Abstract: We propose an oAPT workflow that incorporates all these functionalities and validate its clinical implementation feasibility with prostate patients. AI-based auto-segmentation tool AccuContourTM (Manteia, Xiamen, China) was seamlessly integrated into oAPT. Initial spot arrangement tool on the vCT for re-optimization was implemented using raytracing. An LET-based biological effect evaluation tool w… ▽ More We propose an oAPT workflow that incorporates all these functionalities and validate its clinical implementation feasibility with prostate patients. AI-based auto-segmentation tool AccuContourTM (Manteia, Xiamen, China) was seamlessly integrated into oAPT. Initial spot arrangement tool on the vCT for re-optimization was implemented using raytracing. An LET-based biological effect evaluation tool was developed to assess the overlap region of high dose and high LET in selected OARs. Eleven prostate cancer patients were retrospectively selected to verify the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed oAPT workflow. The time cost of each component in the workflow was recorded for analysis. The verification plan showed significant degradation of the CTV coverage and rectum and bladder sparing due to the interfractional anatomical changes. Re-optimization on the vCT resulted in great improvement of the plan quality. No overlap regions of high dose and high LET distributions were observed in bladder or rectum in re-plans. 3D Gamma analyses in PSQA confirmed the accuracy of the re-plan doses before delivery (Gamma passing rate = 99.57%), and after delivery (98.59%). The robustness of the re-plans passed all clinical requirements. The average time for the complete execution of the workflow was 9.12minutes, excluding manual intervention time. The AI-facilitated oAPT workflow was demonstrated to be both efficient and effective by generating a re-plan that significantly improved the plan quality in prostate cancer treated with PBSPT. △ Less

Submitted 1 November, 2023; originally announced November 2023.

Beam mask and sliding window-facilitated deep learning-based accurate and efficient dose prediction for pencil beam scanning proton therapy

Authors: Lian Zhang, Jason M. Holmes, Zhengliang Liu, Sujay A. Vora, Terence T. Sio, Carlos E. Vargas, Nathan Y. Yu, Sameer R. Keole, Steven E. Schild, Martin Bues, Sheng Li, Tianming Liu, Jiajian Shen, William W. Wong, Wei Liu

Abstract: Purpose: To develop a DL-based PBSPT dose prediction workflow with high accuracy and balanced complexity to support on-line adaptive proton therapy clinical decision and subsequent replanning. Methods: PBSPT plans of 103 prostate cancer patients and 83 lung cancer patients previously treated at our institution were included in the study, each with CTs, structure sets, and plan doses calculated b… ▽ More Purpose: To develop a DL-based PBSPT dose prediction workflow with high accuracy and balanced complexity to support on-line adaptive proton therapy clinical decision and subsequent replanning. Methods: PBSPT plans of 103 prostate cancer patients and 83 lung cancer patients previously treated at our institution were included in the study, each with CTs, structure sets, and plan doses calculated by the in-house developed Monte-Carlo dose engine. For the ablation study, we designed three experiments corresponding to the following three methods: 1) Experiment 1, the conventional region of interest (ROI) method. 2) Experiment 2, the beam mask (generated by raytracing of proton beams) method to improve proton dose prediction. 3) Experiment 3, the sliding window method for the model to focus on local details to further improve proton dose prediction. A fully connected 3D-Unet was adopted as the backbone. Dose volume histogram (DVH) indices, 3D Gamma passing rates, and dice coefficients for the structures enclosed by the iso-dose lines between the predicted and the ground truth doses were used as the evaluation metrics. The calculation time for each proton dose prediction was recorded to evaluate the method's efficiency. Results: Compared to the conventional ROI method, the beam mask method improved the agreement of DVH indices for both targets and OARs and the sliding window method further improved the agreement of the DVH indices. For the 3D Gamma passing rates in the target, OARs, and BODY (outside target and OARs), the beam mask method can improve the passing rates in these regions and the sliding window method further improved them. A similar trend was also observed for the dice coefficients. In fact, this trend was especially remarkable for relatively low prescription isodose lines. The dose predictions for all the testing cases were completed within 0.25s. △ Less

Submitted 29 May, 2023; originally announced May 2023.

Deep-Learning-based Fast and Accurate 3D CT Deformable Image Registration in Lung Cancer

Authors: Yuzhen Ding, Hongying Feng, Yunze Yang, Jason Holmes, Zhengliang Liu, David Liu, William W. Wong, Nathan Y. Yu, Terence T. Sio, Steven E. Schild, Baoxin Li, Wei Liu

Abstract: Purpose: In some proton therapy facilities, patient alignment relies on two 2D orthogonal kV images, taken at fixed, oblique angles, as no 3D on-the-bed imaging is available. The visibility of the tumor in kV images is limited since the patient's 3D anatomy is projected onto a 2D plane, especially when the tumor is behind high-density structures such as bones. This can lead to large patient setup… ▽ More Purpose: In some proton therapy facilities, patient alignment relies on two 2D orthogonal kV images, taken at fixed, oblique angles, as no 3D on-the-bed imaging is available. The visibility of the tumor in kV images is limited since the patient's 3D anatomy is projected onto a 2D plane, especially when the tumor is behind high-density structures such as bones. This can lead to large patient setup errors. A solution is to reconstruct the 3D CT image from the kV images obtained at the treatment isocenter in the treatment position. Methods: An asymmetric autoencoder-like network built with vision-transformer blocks was developed. The data was collected from 1 head and neck patient: 2 orthogonal kV images (1024x1024 voxels), 1 3D CT with padding (512x512x512) acquired from the in-room CT-on-rails before kVs were taken and 2 digitally-reconstructed-radiograph (DRR) images (512x512) based on the CT. We resampled kV images every 8 voxels and DRR and CT every 4 voxels, thus formed a dataset consisting of 262,144 samples, in which the images have a dimension of 128 for each direction. In training, both kV and DRR images were utilized, and the encoder was encouraged to learn the jointed feature map from both kV and DRR images. In testing, only independent kV images were used. The full-size synthetic CT (sCT) was achieved by concatenating the sCTs generated by the model according to their spatial information. The image quality of the synthetic CT (sCT) was evaluated using mean absolute error (MAE) and per-voxel-absolute-CT-number-difference volume histogram (CDVH). Results: The model achieved a speed of 2.1s and a MAE of <40HU. The CDVH showed that <5% of the voxels had a per-voxel-absolute-CT-number-difference larger than 185 HU. Conclusion: A patient-specific vision-transformer-based network was developed and shown to be accurate and efficient to reconstruct 3D CT images from kV images. △ Less

Submitted 21 April, 2023; originally announced April 2023.

Comments: 9 figures

End-to-End Learning-Based Wireless Image Recognition Using the PyramidNet in Edge Intelligence

Authors: Kyubihn Lee, Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: In edge intelligence, deep learning~(DL) models are deployed at an edge device and an edge server for data processing with low latency in the Internet of Things~(IoT). In this letter, we propose a new end-to-end learning-based wireless image recognition scheme using the PyramidNet in edge intelligence. We split the PyramidNet carefully into two parts for an IoT device and the edge server, which is… ▽ More In edge intelligence, deep learning~(DL) models are deployed at an edge device and an edge server for data processing with low latency in the Internet of Things~(IoT). In this letter, we propose a new end-to-end learning-based wireless image recognition scheme using the PyramidNet in edge intelligence. We split the PyramidNet carefully into two parts for an IoT device and the edge server, which is to pursue low on-device computation. Also, we apply a squeeze-and-excitation block to the PyramidNet for the improvement of image recognition. In addition, we embed compression encoder and decoder at the splitting point, which reduces communication overhead by compressing the intermediate feature map. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is superior to other DL-based schemes in image recognition, while presenting less on-device computation and fewer parameters with low communication overhead. △ Less

Submitted 20 July, 2023; v1 submitted 16 March, 2023; originally announced March 2023.

Comments: Accepted by IEEE PIMRC 2023

Design of Non-Orthogonal Sequences Using a Two-Stage Genetic Algorithm for Grant-Free Massive Connectivity

Authors: Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: In massive machine-type communications (mMTC), grant-free access is a key enabler for a massive number of users to be connected to a base station with low signaling overhead and low latency. In this paper, a two-stage genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to design a new set of user-specific, non-orthogonal, unimodular sequences for uplink grant-free access. The first-stage GA is to find a subsamplin… ▽ More In massive machine-type communications (mMTC), grant-free access is a key enabler for a massive number of users to be connected to a base station with low signaling overhead and low latency. In this paper, a two-stage genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to design a new set of user-specific, non-orthogonal, unimodular sequences for uplink grant-free access. The first-stage GA is to find a subsampling index set for a partial unitary matrix that can be approximated to an equiangular tight frame. Then in the second-stage GA, we try to find a sequence to be masked to each column of the partial unitary matrix, in order to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio of the resulting columns for multicarrier transmission. Finally, the masked columns of the matrix are proposed as new non-orthogonal sequences for uplink grant-free access. Simulation results demonstrate that the non-orthogonal sequences designed by our two-stage GA exhibit excellent performance for compressed sensing based joint activity detection and channel estimation in uplink grant-free access. Compared to algebraic design, this GA-based design can present a set of good non-orthogonal sequences of arbitrary length, which provides more flexibility for uplink grant-free access in mMTC. △ Less

Submitted 1 August, 2021; originally announced August 2021.

Binary Golay Spreading Sequences and Reed-Muller Codes for Uplink Grant-Free NOMA

Authors: Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is an emerging technology for massive connectivity in machine-type communications (MTC). In code-domain NOMA, non-orthogonal spreading sequences are uniquely assigned to all devices, where active ones attempt a grant-free access to a system. In this paper, we study a set of user-specific, non-orthogonal, binary spreading sequences for uplink grant-free NOMA. B… ▽ More Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is an emerging technology for massive connectivity in machine-type communications (MTC). In code-domain NOMA, non-orthogonal spreading sequences are uniquely assigned to all devices, where active ones attempt a grant-free access to a system. In this paper, we study a set of user-specific, non-orthogonal, binary spreading sequences for uplink grant-free NOMA. Based on Golay complementary sequences, each spreading sequence provides the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of at most 3 dB for multicarrier transmission. Exploiting the theoretical connection to Reed-Muller codes, we conduct a probabilistic analysis to search for a permutation set for Golay sequences, which presents theoretically bounded low coherence for the spreading matrix. Simulation results confirm that the PAPR of transmitted multicarrier signals via the spreading sequences is significantly lower than those for random bipolar, Gaussian, and Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequences. Also, thanks to the low coherence, the performance of compressed sensing (CS) based joint channel estimation (CE) and multiuser detection (MUD) using the spreading sequences turns out to be superior or comparable to those for the other ones. Unlike ZC sequences, the binary Golay spreading sequences have only two phases regardless of the sequence length, which can be suitable for low cost MTC devices. △ Less

Submitted 14 April, 2020; v1 submitted 3 April, 2020; originally announced April 2020.

Secure and efficient compressed sensing based encryption with sparse matrices

Authors: Wonwoo Cho, Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: In this paper, we study the security of a compressed sensing (CS) based cryptosystem called a sparse one-time sensing (S-OTS) cryptosystem, which encrypts a plaintext with a sparse measurement matrix. To construct the secret matrix and renew it at each encryption, a bipolar keystream and a random permutation pattern are employed as cryptographic primitives, which can be obtained by a keystream gen… ▽ More In this paper, we study the security of a compressed sensing (CS) based cryptosystem called a sparse one-time sensing (S-OTS) cryptosystem, which encrypts a plaintext with a sparse measurement matrix. To construct the secret matrix and renew it at each encryption, a bipolar keystream and a random permutation pattern are employed as cryptographic primitives, which can be obtained by a keystream generator of stream ciphers. With a small number of nonzero elements in the measurement matrix, the S-OTS cryptosystem achieves efficient CS encryption in terms of memory and computational cost. In security analysis, we show that the S-OTS cryptosystem can be indistinguishable as long as each plaintext has constant energy, which formalizes computational security against ciphertext only attacks (COA). In addition, we consider a chosen plaintext attack (CPA) against the S-OTS cryptosystem, which consists of two sequential stages, keystream and key recovery attacks. Against keystream recovery under CPA, we demonstrate that the S-OTS cryptosystem can be secure with overwhelmingly high probability, as an adversary needs to distinguish a prohibitively large number of candidate keystreams. Finally, we conduct an information-theoretic analysis to show that the S-OTS cryptosystem can be resistant against key recovery under CPA by guaranteeing that the probability of success is extremely low. In conclusion, the S-OTS cryptosystem can be computationally secure against COA and the two-stage CPA, while providing efficiency in CS encryption. △ Less

Submitted 5 November, 2019; v1 submitted 13 March, 2019; originally announced March 2019.

Indistinguishability and Energy Sensitivity of Asymptotically Gaussian Compressed Encryption

Authors: Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: The principle of compressed sensing (CS) can be applied in a cryptosystem by providing the notion of security. In information-theoretic sense, it is known that a CS-based cryptosystem can be perfectly secure if it employs a random Gaussian sensing matrix updated at each encryption and its plaintext has constant energy. In this paper, we propose a new CS-based cryptosystem that employs a secret bip… ▽ More The principle of compressed sensing (CS) can be applied in a cryptosystem by providing the notion of security. In information-theoretic sense, it is known that a CS-based cryptosystem can be perfectly secure if it employs a random Gaussian sensing matrix updated at each encryption and its plaintext has constant energy. In this paper, we propose a new CS-based cryptosystem that employs a secret bipolar keystream and a public unitary matrix, which can be suitable for practical implementation by generating and renewing the keystream in a fast and efficient manner. We demonstrate that the sensing matrix is asymptotically Gaussian for a sufficiently large plaintext length, which guarantees a reliable CS decryption for a legitimate recipient. By means of probability metrics, we also show that the new CS-based cryptosystem can have the indistinguishability against an adversary, as long as the keystream is updated at each encryption and each plaintext has constant energy. Finally, we investigate how much the security of the new CS-based cryptosystem is sensitive to energy variation of plaintexts. △ Less

Submitted 17 September, 2017; originally announced September 2017.

Comments: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security

An Information Theoretic Study for Noisy Compressed Sensing With Joint Sparsity Model-2

Authors: Sangjun Park, Nam Yul Yu, Heung-No Lee

Abstract: In this paper, we study a support set reconstruction problem in which the signals of interest are jointly sparse with a common support set, and sampled by joint sparsity model-2 (JSM-2) in the presence of noise. Using mathematical tools, we develop upper and lower bounds on the failure probability of support set reconstruction in terms of the sparsity, the ambient dimension, the minimum signal to… ▽ More In this paper, we study a support set reconstruction problem in which the signals of interest are jointly sparse with a common support set, and sampled by joint sparsity model-2 (JSM-2) in the presence of noise. Using mathematical tools, we develop upper and lower bounds on the failure probability of support set reconstruction in terms of the sparsity, the ambient dimension, the minimum signal to noise ratio, the number of measurement vectors and the number of measurements. These bounds can be used to provide a guideline to determine the system parameters in various applications of compressed sensing with noisy JSM-2. Based on the bounds, we develop necessary and sufficient conditions for reliable support set reconstruction. We interpret these conditions to give theoretical explanations about the benefits enabled by joint sparsity structure in noisy JSM-2. We compare our sufficient condition with the existing result of noisy multiple measurement vectors model (MMV). As a result, we show that noisy JSM-2 may require less number of measurements than noisy MMV for reliable support set reconstruction. △ Less

Submitted 4 April, 2016; originally announced April 2016.

Deterministic Compressed Sensing Matrices from Multiplicative Character Sequences

Authors: Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: Compressed sensing is a novel technique where one can recover sparse signals from the undersampled measurements. In this paper, a $K \times N$ measurement matrix for compressed sensing is deterministically constructed via multiplicative character sequences. Precisely, a constant multiple of a cyclic shift of an $M$-ary power residue or Sidelnikov sequence is arranged as a column vector of the matr… ▽ More Compressed sensing is a novel technique where one can recover sparse signals from the undersampled measurements. In this paper, a $K \times N$ measurement matrix for compressed sensing is deterministically constructed via multiplicative character sequences. Precisely, a constant multiple of a cyclic shift of an $M$-ary power residue or Sidelnikov sequence is arranged as a column vector of the matrix, through modulating a primitive $M$-th root of unity. The Weil bound is then used to show that the matrix has asymptotically optimal coherence for large $K$ and $M$, and to present a sufficient condition on the sparsity level for unique sparse solution. Also, the restricted isometry property (RIP) is statistically studied for the deterministic matrix. Numerical results show that the deterministic compressed sensing matrix guarantees reliable matching pursuit recovery performance for both noiseless and noisy measurements. △ Less

Submitted 11 November, 2010; originally announced November 2010.

Reed-Muller Codes for Peak Power Control in Multicarrier CDMA

Authors: Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: Reed-Muller codes are studied for peak power control in multicarrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) communication systems. In a coded MC-CDMA system, the information data multiplexed from users is encoded by a Reed-Muller subcode and the codeword is fully-loaded to Walsh-Hadamard spreading sequences. The polynomial representation of a coded MC-CDMA signal is established for theoretical an… ▽ More Reed-Muller codes are studied for peak power control in multicarrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) communication systems. In a coded MC-CDMA system, the information data multiplexed from users is encoded by a Reed-Muller subcode and the codeword is fully-loaded to Walsh-Hadamard spreading sequences. The polynomial representation of a coded MC-CDMA signal is established for theoretical analysis of the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). The Reed-Muller subcodes are defined in a recursive way by the Boolean functions providing the transmitted MC-CDMA signals with the bounded PAPR as well as the error correction capability. A connection between the code rates and the maximum PAPR is theoretically investigated in the coded MC-CDMA. Simulation results present the statistical evidence that the PAPR of the coded MC-CDMA signal is not only theoretically bounded, but also statistically reduced. In particular, the coded MC-CDMA solves the major PAPR problem of uncoded MC-CDMA by dramatically reducing its PAPR for the small number of users. Finally, the theoretical and statistical studies show that the Reed-Muller subcodes are effective coding schemes for peak power control in MC-CDMA with small and moderate numbers of users, subcarriers, and spreading factors. △ Less

Submitted 1 October, 2010; originally announced October 2010.

Deterministic Compressed Sensing Matrices from Additive Character Sequences

Authors: Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: Compressed sensing is a novel technique where one can recover sparse signals from the undersampled measurements. In this correspondence, a $K \times N$ measurement matrix for compressed sensing is deterministically constructed via additive character sequences. The Weil bound is then used to show that the matrix has asymptotically optimal coherence for $N=K^2$, and to present a sufficient condition… ▽ More Compressed sensing is a novel technique where one can recover sparse signals from the undersampled measurements. In this correspondence, a $K \times N$ measurement matrix for compressed sensing is deterministically constructed via additive character sequences. The Weil bound is then used to show that the matrix has asymptotically optimal coherence for $N=K^2$, and to present a sufficient condition on the sparsity level for unique sparse recovery. Also, the restricted isometry property (RIP) is statistically studied for the deterministic matrix. Using additive character sequences with small alphabets, the compressed sensing matrix can be efficiently implemented by linear feedback shift registers. Numerical results show that the deterministic compressed sensing matrix guarantees reliable matching pursuit recovery performance for both noiseless and noisy measurements. △ Less

Submitted 30 September, 2010; originally announced October 2010.

Deterministic Construction of Partial Fourier Compressed Sensing Matrices Via Cyclic Difference Sets

Authors: Nam Yul Yu

Abstract: Compressed sensing is a novel technique where one can recover sparse signals from the undersampled measurements. This paper studies a $K \times N$ partial Fourier measurement matrix for compressed sensing which is deterministically constructed via cyclic difference sets (CDS). Precisely, the matrix is constructed by $K$ rows of the $N\times N$ inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) matrix, wher… ▽ More Compressed sensing is a novel technique where one can recover sparse signals from the undersampled measurements. This paper studies a $K \times N$ partial Fourier measurement matrix for compressed sensing which is deterministically constructed via cyclic difference sets (CDS). Precisely, the matrix is constructed by $K$ rows of the $N\times N$ inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) matrix, where each row index is from a $(N, K, λ)$ cyclic difference set. The restricted isometry property (RIP) is statistically studied for the deterministic matrix to guarantee the recovery of sparse signals. A computationally efficient reconstruction algorithm is then proposed from the structure of the matrix. Numerical results show that the reconstruction algorithm presents competitive recovery performance with allowable computational complexity. △ Less

Submitted 28 December, 2010; v1 submitted 4 August, 2010; originally announced August 2010.

Comments: This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to crucial errors