Neuroimaging study designs, computational analyses and data provenance using the LONI pipeline.

Modern computational neuroscience employs diverse software tools and multidisciplinary expertise to analyze heterogeneous brain data. The classical problems of gathering meaningful data, fitting specific models, and discovering appropriate analysis and visualization tools give way to a new class of computational challenges--management of large and incongruous data, integration and interoperability of computational resources, and data provenance. We designed, implemented and validated a new paradigm for addressing these challenges in the neuroimaging field. Our solution is based on the LONI Pipeline environment [3], [4], a graphical workflow environment for constructing and executing complex data processing protocols. We developed study-design, database and visual language programming functionalities within the LONI Pipeline that enable the construction of complete, elaborate and robust graphical workflows for analyzing neuroimaging and other data. These workflows facilitate open sharing and communication of data and metadata, concrete processing protocols, result validation, and study replication among different investigators and research groups. The LONI Pipeline features include distributed grid-enabled infrastructure, virtualized execution environment, efficient integration, data provenance, validation and distribution of new computational tools, automated data format conversion, and an intuitive graphical user interface. We demonstrate the new LONI Pipeline features using large scale neuroimaging studies based on data from the International Consortium for Brain Mapping [5] and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative [6]. User guides, forums, instructions and downloads of the LONI Pipeline environment are available at http://pipeline.loni.ucla.edu

High-Performance Cloud Computing: A View of Scientific Applications

Scientific computing often requires the availability of a massive number of computers for performing large scale experiments. Traditionally, these needs have been addressed by using high-performance computing solutions and installed facilities such as clusters and super computers, which are difficult to setup, maintain, and operate. Cloud computing provides scientists with a completely new model of utilizing the computing infrastructure. Compute resources, storage resources, as well as applications, can be dynamically provisioned (and integrated within the existing infrastructure) on a pay per use basis. These resources can be released when they are no more needed. Such services are often offered within the context of a Service Level Agreement (SLA), which ensure the desired Quality of Service (QoS). Aneka, an enterprise Cloud computing solution, harnesses the power of compute resources by relying on private and public Clouds and delivers to users the desired QoS. Its flexible and service based infrastructure supports multiple programming paradigms that make Aneka address a variety of different scenarios: from finance applications to computational science. As examples of scientific computing in the Cloud, we present a preliminary case study on using Aneka for the classification of gene expression data and the execution of fMRI brain imaging workflow.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, conference pape

NASA Thesaurus Supplement: A three part cumulative supplement to the 1982 edition of the NASA Thesaurus (supplement 3)

The three part cumulative NASA Thesaurus Supplement to the 1982 edition of the NASA Thesaurus includes Part 1, Hierarchical Listing, Part 2, Access Vocabulary, and Part 3, Deletions. The semiannual supplement gives complete hierarchies for new terms and includes new term indications for entries new to this supplement

Image analysis and statistical inference in neuroimaging with R

R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It can be considered an alternative implementation of the S language developed in the 1970s and 1980s for data analysis and graphics (Becker and Chambers, 1984; Becker et al., 1988). The R language is part of the GNU project and offers versions that compile and run on almost every major operating system currently available. We highlight several R packages built specifically for the analysis of neuroimaging data in the context of functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. We review their methodology and give an overview of their capabilities for neuroimaging. In addition we summarize some of the current activities in the area of neuroimaging software development in R