5,299 research outputs found
Improving Fiber Alignment in HARDI by Combining Contextual PDE Flow with Constrained Spherical Deconvolution
We propose two strategies to improve the quality of tractography results
computed from diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) data. Both
methods are based on the same PDE framework, defined in the coupled space of
positions and orientations, associated with a stochastic process describing the
enhancement of elongated structures while preserving crossing structures. In
the first method we use the enhancement PDE for contextual regularization of a
fiber orientation distribution (FOD) that is obtained on individual voxels from
high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) data via constrained
spherical deconvolution (CSD). Thereby we improve the FOD as input for
subsequent tractography. Secondly, we introduce the fiber to bundle coherence
(FBC), a measure for quantification of fiber alignment. The FBC is computed
from a tractography result using the same PDE framework and provides a
criterion for removing the spurious fibers. We validate the proposed
combination of CSD and enhancement on phantom data and on human data, acquired
with different scanning protocols. On the phantom data we find that PDE
enhancements improve both local metrics and global metrics of tractography
results, compared to CSD without enhancements. On the human data we show that
the enhancements allow for a better reconstruction of crossing fiber bundles
and they reduce the variability of the tractography output with respect to the
acquisition parameters. Finally, we show that both the enhancement of the FODs
and the use of the FBC measure on the tractography improve the stability with
respect to different stochastic realizations of probabilistic tractography.
This is shown in a clinical application: the reconstruction of the optic
radiation for epilepsy surgery planning
Level Set Methods for Stochastic Discontinuity Detection in Nonlinear Problems
Stochastic physical problems governed by nonlinear conservation laws are
challenging due to solution discontinuities in stochastic and physical space.
In this paper, we present a level set method to track discontinuities in
stochastic space by solving a Hamilton-Jacobi equation. By introducing a speed
function that vanishes at discontinuities, the iso-zero of the level set
problem coincide with the discontinuities of the conservation law. The level
set problem is solved on a sequence of successively finer grids in stochastic
space. The method is adaptive in the sense that costly evaluations of the
conservation law of interest are only performed in the vicinity of the
discontinuities during the refinement stage. In regions of stochastic space
where the solution is smooth, a surrogate method replaces expensive evaluations
of the conservation law. The proposed method is tested in conjunction with
different sets of localized orthogonal basis functions on simplex elements, as
well as frames based on piecewise polynomials conforming to the level set
function. The performance of the proposed method is compared to existing
adaptive multi-element generalized polynomial chaos methods
Image Sampling with Quasicrystals
We investigate the use of quasicrystals in image sampling. Quasicrystals
produce space-filling, non-periodic point sets that are uniformly discrete and
relatively dense, thereby ensuring the sample sites are evenly spread out
throughout the sampled image. Their self-similar structure can be attractive
for creating sampling patterns endowed with a decorative symmetry. We present a
brief general overview of the algebraic theory of cut-and-project quasicrystals
based on the geometry of the golden ratio. To assess the practical utility of
quasicrystal sampling, we evaluate the visual effects of a variety of
non-adaptive image sampling strategies on photorealistic image reconstruction
and non-photorealistic image rendering used in multiresolution image
representations. For computer visualization of point sets used in image
sampling, we introduce a mosaic rendering technique.Comment: For a full resolution version of this paper, along with supplementary
materials, please visit at
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