Random Linear Network Coding for Wireless Layered Video Broadcast: General Design Methods for Adaptive Feedback-free Transmission

This paper studies the problem of broadcasting layered video streams over heterogeneous single-hop wireless networks using feedback-free random linear network coding (RLNC). We combine RLNC with unequal error protection (UEP) and our main purpose is twofold. First, to systematically investigate the benefits of UEP+RLNC layered approach in servicing users with different reception capabilities. Second, to study the effect of not using feedback, by comparing feedback-free schemes with idealistic full-feedback schemes. To these ends, we study `expected percentage of decoded frames' as a key content-independent performance metric and propose a general framework for calculation of this metric, which can highlight the effect of key system, video and channel parameters. We study the effect of number of layers and propose a scheme that selects the optimum number of layers adaptively to achieve the highest performance. Assessing the proposed schemes with real H.264 test streams, the trade-offs among the users' performances are discussed and the gain of adaptive selection of number of layers to improve the trade-offs is shown. Furthermore, it is observed that the performance gap between the proposed feedback-free scheme and the idealistic scheme is very small and the adaptive selection of number of video layers further closes the gap.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, Under 2nd round of review, IEEE Transactions on Communication

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationMany mental illnesses are thought to have their origins in early stages of development, encouraging increased research efforts related to early neurodevelopment. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has provided us with an unprecedented view of the brain in vivo. More recently, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI/DT-MRI), a magnetic resonance imaging technique, has enabled the characterization of the microstrucutral organization of tissue in vivo. As the brain develops, the water content in the brain decreases while protein and fat content increases due to processes such as myelination and axonal organization. Changes of signal intensity in structural MRI and diffusion parameters of DTI reflect these underlying biological changes. Longitudinal neuroimaging studies provide a unique opportunity for understanding brain maturation by taking repeated scans over a time course within individuals. Despite the availability of detailed images of the brain, there has been little progress in accurate modeling of brain development or creating predictive models of structure that could help identify early signs of illness. We have developed methodologies for the nonlinear parametric modeling of longitudinal structural MRI and DTI changes over the neurodevelopmental period to address this gap. This research provides a normative model of early brain growth trajectory as is represented in structural MRI and DTI data, which will be crucial to understanding the timing and potential mechanisms of atypical development. Growth trajectories are described via intuitive parameters related to delay, rate of growth, and expected asymptotic values, all descriptive measures that can answer clinical questions related to quantitative analysis of growth patterns. We demonstrate the potential of the framework on two clinical studies: healthy controls (singletons and twins) and children at risk of autism. Our framework is designed not only to provide qualitative comparisons, but also to give researchers and clinicians quantitative parameters and a statistical testing scheme. Moreover, the method includes modeling of growth trajectories of individuals, resulting in personalized profiles. The statistical framework also allows for prediction and prediction intervals for subject-specific growth trajectories, which will be crucial for efforts to improve diagnosis for individuals and personalized treatment

On Throughput and Decoding Delay Performance of Instantly Decodable Network Coding

In this paper, a comprehensive study of packet-based instantly decodable network coding (IDNC) for single-hop wireless broadcast is presented. The optimal IDNC solution in terms of throughput is proposed and its packet decoding delay performance is investigated. Lower and upper bounds on the achievable throughput and decoding delay performance of IDNC are derived and assessed through extensive simulations. Furthermore, the impact of receivers' feedback frequency on the performance of IDNC is studied and optimal IDNC solutions are proposed for scenarios where receivers' feedback is only available after and IDNC round, composed of several coded transmissions. However, since finding these IDNC optimal solutions is computational complex, we further propose simple yet efficient heuristic IDNC algorithms. The impact of system settings and parameters such as channel erasure probability, feedback frequency, and the number of receivers is also investigated and simple guidelines for practical implementations of IDNC are proposed.Comment: This is a 14-page paper submitted to IEEE/ACM Transaction on Networking. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1208.238

From Instantly Decodable to Random Linear Network Coding

Our primary goal in this paper is to traverse the performance gap between two linear network coding schemes: random linear network coding (RLNC) and instantly decodable network coding (IDNC) in terms of throughput and decoding delay. We first redefine the concept of packet generation and use it to partition a block of partially-received data packets in a novel way, based on the coding sets in an IDNC solution. By varying the generation size, we obtain a general coding framework which consists of a series of coding schemes, with RLNC and IDNC identified as two extreme cases. We then prove that the throughput and decoding delay performance of all coding schemes in this coding framework are bounded between the performance of RLNC and IDNC and hence throughput-delay tradeoff becomes possible. We also propose implementations of this coding framework to further improve its throughput and decoding delay performance, to manage feedback frequency and coding complexity, or to achieve in-block performance adaption. Extensive simulations are then provided to verify the performance of the proposed coding schemes and their implementations.Comment: 30 pages with double space, 14 color figure

Towards analysis of growth trajectory through multi-modal longitudinal MR imaging

pre-printThe human brain undergoes significant changes in the first few years after birth, but knowledge about this critical period of development is quite limited. Previous neuroimaging studies have been mostly focused on morphometric measures such as volume and shape, although tissue property measures related to the degree of myelination and axon density could also add valuable information to our understanding of brain maturation. Our goal is to complement brain growth analysis via morphometry with the study of longitudinal tissue property changes as reflected in patterns observed in multi-modal structural MRI and DTI. Our preliminary study includes eight healthy pediatric subjects with repeated scans at the age of two weeks, one year, and two years with T1, T2, PD, and DT MRI. Analysis is driven by the registration of multiple modalities and time points within and between subjects into a common coordinate frame, followed by image intensity normalization. Quantitative tractography with diffusion and structural image parameters serves for multi-variate tissue analysis. Different patterns of rapid changes were observed in the corpus callosum and the posterior and anterior internal capsule, structures known for distinctly different myelination growth. There are significant differences in central versus peripheral white matter. We demonstrate that the combined longitudinal analysis of structural and diffusion MRI proves superior to individual modalities and might provide a better understanding of the trajectory of early neurodevelopment

Analysis of diffusion tensor imaging for subjects with Down Syndrome

pre-printAuthors: Neda Sadeghi1, Clement Vachet1, Marcel Prastawa1, Julie Korenberg1, Guido Gerig1 Institutions: 1University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Introduction: Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosome abnormality in humans. It is typically associated with delayed cognitive development and physical growth. DS is also associated with Alzheimer-like dementia [1]. In this study we analyze the white matter integrity of individuals with DS compared to control as is reflected in the diffusion parameters derived from Diffusion Tensor Imaging. DTI provides relevant information about the underlying tissue, which correlates with cognitive function [2]. We present a cross-sectional analysis of white matter tracts of subjects with DS compared to control. Methods: We study a population of 25 adults composed of 12 healthy controls (age 21 +/- 3.97) and 13 subjects diagnosed with Down syndrome (age 26.2 +/- 5.12). Each subject has diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans at different ages that capture different stages of development. We construct an unbiased atlas of adult brains as a population template using the method described by Joshi et al. [3]. Diffusion tensor images of the subjects were mapped to the reference space defined by this template. White matter label maps developed and disseminated by Mori et al. [4] were also registered to this template [5][6]. The labeling of regions in the atlas space allows for automatic partitioning of each subject's scans. Fractional anisotropy (FA) were extracted from each region and compared between subjects with Down syndrome and control. False discovery rate was used to adjust for multiple comparisons. Results: We performed white matter analysis on the following brain regions: anterior limb of internal capsule (ALIC, right and left), posterior limb of internal capsule (PLIC, right and left), body of corpus callosum (BCC), genu, splenium, external capsule (ExCap, right and left), and posterior thalamic radiation (PTR), which includes the optic radiation. Cross-sectional FA trajectories differ significantly in controls and DS subjects in the intercept term for ALIC R, Genu, ExCap L, PTR R and PTR L. Opposite patterns of development between controls and DS were observed in almost all the regions except for the left ALIC (ALIC L). FA tends to increase with age for the control group, whereas FA for subjects with Down syndrome tends to decrease with age with the exception of ALIC L which showed increasing trend for both populations. However, we didn't observe any significant differences in the slopes between these two groups which could be due to the small sample size and high variability between subjects. We observed only group-by-age differences for left ExCap (ExCap L). Estimated parameters for linear regression along with p-values are shown in Table 1 and 2

Statistical growth modeling of longitudinal DT-MRI for regional characterization of early brain development

pre-printA population growth model that represents the growth trajectories of individual subjects is critical to study and understand neurodevelopment. This paper presents a framework for jointly estimating and modeling individual and population growth trajectories, and determining significant regional differences in growth pattern characteristics applied to longitudinal neuroimaging data. We use non-linear mixed effect modeling where temporal change is modeled by the Gompertz function. The Gompertz function uses intuitive parameters related to delay, rate of change, and expected asymptotic value; all descriptive measures which can answer clinical questions related to growth. Our proposed framework combines nonlinear modeling of individual trajectories, population analysis, and testing for regional differences. We apply this framework to the study of early maturation in white matter regions as measured with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Regional differences between anatomical regions of interest that are known to mature differently are analyzed and quantified. Experiments with image data from a large ongoing clinical study show that our framework provides descriptive, quantitative information on growth trajectories that can be directly interpreted by clinicians. To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal analysis of growth functions to explain the trajectory of early brain maturation as it is represented in DTI

Spatio-temporal analysis of early brain development

pre-printAnalysis of human brain development is a crucial step for improved understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders. We focus on normal brain development as is observed in the multimodal longitudinal MRI/DTI data of neonates to two years of age. We present a spatio-temporal analysis framework using Gompertz function as a population growth model with three different spatial localization strategies: voxel-based, data driven clustering and atlas driven regional analysis. Growth models from multimodal imaging channels collected at each voxel form feature vectors which are clustered using the Dirichlet Process Mixture Models (DPMM). Clustering thus combines growth information from different modalities to subdivide the image into voxel groups with similar properties. The processing generates spatial maps that highlight the dynamic progression of white matter development. These maps show progression of white matter maturation where primarily, central regions mature earlier compared to the periphery, but where more subtle regional differences in growth can be observed. Atlas based analysis allows a quantitative analysis of a specific anatomical region, whereas data driven clustering identifies regions of similar growth patterns. The combination of these two allows us to investigate growth patterns within an anatomical region. Specifically, analysis of anterior and posterior limb of internal capsule show that there are different growth trajectories within these anatomies, and that it may be useful to divide certain anatomies into subregions with distinctive growth patterns