TY - JOUR A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Bruckner, Sharon A1 - Kayser, Bastian T1 - Finding Modules in Networks with Non-modular Regions JF - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Proceedings of SEA 2013) N2 - Most network clustering methods share the assumption that the network can be completely decomposed into modules, that is, every node belongs to (usually exactly one) module. Forcing this constraint can lead to misidentification of modules where none exist, while the true modules are drowned out in the noise, as has been observed e.g. for protein interaction networks. We thus propose a clustering model where networks contain both a modular region consisting of nodes that can be partitioned into modules, and a transition region containing nodes that lie between or outside modules. We propose two scores based on spectral properties to determine how well a network fits this model. We then evaluate three (partially adapted) clustering algorithms from the literature on random networks that fit our model, based on the scores and comparison to the ground truth. This allows to pinpoint the types of networks for which the different algorithms perform well. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38527-8_18 VL - 7933 SP - 188 EP - 199 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Rath, Barbara A1 - Tief, Franziska A1 - Karsch, K. A1 - Muehlhans, S. A1 - Obermeier, Patrick A1 - Adamou, E. A1 - Chen, X. A1 - Seeber, L. A1 - Peiser, Ch. A1 - Hoppe, Christian A1 - von Kleist, Max A1 - Schweiger, Brunhilde T1 - Towards a personalized approach to managing of influenza infections in infants and children - food for thought and a note on oseltamivir JF - Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets Y1 - 2013 VL - 13 IS - 1 SP - 25 EP - 33 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Leichtle, Alexander Benedikt A1 - Nuoffer, Jean-Marc A1 - Ceglarek, Uta A1 - Kase, Julia A1 - Witzigmann, Helmut A1 - Thiery, Joachim A1 - Fiedler, Georg Martin T1 - Serum amino acid profiles and their alterations in colorectal cancer JF - Metabolomics N2 - Mass spectrometry-based serum metabolic profiling is a promising tool to analyse complex cancer associated metabolic alterations, which may broaden our pathophysiological understanding of the disease and may function as a source of new cancer-associated biomarkers. Highly standardized serum samples of patients suffering from colon cancer (n = 59) and controls (n = 58) were collected at the University Hospital Leipzig. We based our investigations on amino acid screening profiles using electrospray tandem-mass spectrometry. Metabolic profiles were evaluated using the Analyst 1.4.2 software. General, comparative and equivalence statistics were performed by R 2.12.2. 11 out of 26 serum amino acid concentrations were significantly different between colorectal cancer patients and healthy controls. We found a model including CEA, glycine, and tyrosine as best discriminating and superior to CEA alone with an AUROC of 0.878 (95\% CI 0.815?0.941). Our serum metabolic profiling in colon cancer revealed multiple significant disease-associated alterations in the amino acid profile with promising diagnostic power. Further large-scale studies are necessary to elucidate the potential of our model also to discriminate between cancer and potential differential diagnoses. In conclusion, serum glycine and tyrosine in combination with CEA are superior to CEA for the discrimination between colorectal cancer patients and controls. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-011-0357-5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gupta, Pooja A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Spötter, Andreas A1 - Reinsch, Norbert A1 - Bienefeld, Kaspar T1 - Simulating a base population in honey bee for molecular genetic studies JF - Genetics Selection Evolution N2 - Over the past years, reports have indicated that honey bee populations are declining and that infestation by an ecto-parasitic mite (Varroa destructor) is one of the main causes. Selective breeding of resistant bees can help to prevent losses due to the parasite, but it requires that a robust breeding program and genetic evaluation are implemented. Genomic selection has emerged as an important tool in animal breeding programs and simulation studies have shown that it yields more accurate breeding values estimates, higher genetic gain and low rates of inbreeding. Since genomic selection relies on marker data, simulations conducted on a genomic dataset are a pre-requisite before selection can be implemented. Although genomic datasets have been simulated in other species undergoing genetic evaluation, simulation of a genomic dataset specific to the honey bee is required since this species has distinct genetic and reproductive biology characteristics. Our software program was aimed at constructing a base population by simulating a random mating honey bee population. A forward-time population simulation approach was applied since it allows modeling of genetic characteristics and reproductive behavior specific to the honey bee.  Results: Our software program yielded a genomic dataset for a base population in linkage disequilibrium. In addition, information was obtained on (1) the position of markers on each chromosome, (2) allele frequency, (3) ?2 statistics for Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium, (4) a sorted list of markers with a minor allele frequency less than or equal to the input value, (5) average r2 values of linkage disequilibrium between all simulated marker loci pair for all generations and (6) average r2 value of linkage disequilibrium in the last generation for selected markers with the highest minor allele frequency. Conclusion: We developed a software program that takes into account the genetic and reproductive biology characteristics specific to the honey bee and that can be used to constitute a genomic dataset compatible with the simulation studies necessary to optimize breeding programs. The source code together with an instruction file is freely accessible at http://msproteomics.org/Research/Misc/honeybeepopulationsimulator.html Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1297-9686-44-14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - New Appraches for Visualizing and Analyzing Metabolic Pathways JF - Proceedings of the Second Australian Undergraduate Students? Computing Conference N2 - Visualizing of metabolic pathways (or networks) has been done by many differentapproaches. In this work, we implemented and tested existing graph layout algorithms, and present a new approach to lay-out medium size metabolic pathways (500-20,000 vertices) by implementing and combining three well known graph lay-out algorithms (high dimension embedding, spring-embedder preprocessing, spring-embedder), through 3D space density analysis facilitated by the Octree technique. For the analysis of the results of metabolic pathways simulations we present two new techniques: rstly, a powerful technique to visualize pathways simulation data was created to unveil and understand concentration ows through metabolic pathways. This was achieved by mapping the color encoded concentration value of every substance from each time step of the simulation to its graphical representation in the layout. By combining all resulting images (from each time step) and displaying them as a movie, many characteristics such as subnetworks, alternative routes through the network, and differences between a modied pathway and its unmodied version can be revealed. Secondly, a new method to detect co-regulated substances in metabolic pathways and to recognize differences between two versions of a pathway, was established. To do this, we transformed the simulation data into a row-based representation, color-coded these rows, and reordered them with respect to similarity by using a Genetic Algorithm variant. From the arising discrete 2-dimensional matrix consisting of concentration values, a continuous 2-dimensional fourier row function was computed. This function can be used to measure properties, such as similarities in a pathway between time steps, or substances, or to detect and evaluate differences between modied versions of the same pathway. Y1 - 2004 ER - TY - THES A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Metabolic Pathways Y1 - 2004 UR - http://publications.imp.fu-berlin.de/10/ ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vega, Iliusi A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Finding metastable states in real-world time series with recurrence networks JF - Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications N2 - In the framework of time series analysis with recurrence networks, we introduce a self-adaptive method that determines the elusive recurrence threshold and identifies metastable states in complex real-world time series. As initial step, we introduce a way to set the embedding parameters used to reconstruct the state space from the time series. We set them as the ones giving the maximum Shannon entropy of the diagonal line length distribution for the first simultaneous minima of recurrence rate and Shannon entropy. To identify metastable states, as well as the transitions between them, we use a soft partitioning algorithm for module finding which is specifically developed for the case in which a system shows metastability. We illustrate our method with a complex time series example. Finally, we show the robustness of our method for identifying metastable states. Our results suggest that our method is robust for identifying metastable states in complex time series, even when introducing considerable levels of noise and missing data points. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2015.10.041 VL - 445 SP - 1 EP - 17 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Genzel, Martin A1 - Cvetkovic, Nada A1 - Wulkow, Niklas A1 - Leichtle, Alexander Benedikt A1 - Vybiral, Jan A1 - Kytyniok, Gitta A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - Sparse Proteomics Analysis – a compressed sensing-based approach for feature selection and classification of high-dimensional proteomics mass spectrometry data JF - BMC Bioinfomatics N2 - Background: High-throughput proteomics techniques, such as mass spectrometry (MS)-based approaches, produce very high-dimensional data-sets. In a clinical setting one is often interested in how mass spectra differ between patients of different classes, for example spectra from healthy patients vs. spectra from patients having a particular disease. Machine learning algorithms are needed to (a) identify these discriminating features and (b) classify unknown spectra based on this feature set. Since the acquired data is usually noisy, the algorithms should be robust against noise and outliers, while the identified feature set should be as small as possible. Results: We present a new algorithm, Sparse Proteomics Analysis (SPA),based on thet heory of compressed sensing that allows us to identify a minimal discriminating set of features from mass spectrometry data-sets. We show (1) how our method performs on artificial and real-world data-sets, (2) that its performance is competitive with standard (and widely used) algorithms for analyzing proteomics data, and (3) that it is robust against random and systematic noise. We further demonstrate the applicability of our algorithm to two previously published clinical data-sets. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-017-1565-4 VL - 18 IS - 160 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Vega, Iliusi A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - SAIMeR: Self-adapted method for the identification of metastable states in real-world time series N2 - In the framework of time series analysis with recurrence networks, we introduce SAIMeR, a heuristic self-adapted method that determines the elusive recurrence threshold and identifies metastable states in complex time series. To identify metastable states as well as the transitions between them, we use graph theory concepts and a fuzzy partitioning clustering algorithm. We illustrate SAIMeR by applying it to three real-world time series and show that it is able to identify metastable states in real-world data with noise and missing data points. Finally, we suggest a way to choose the embedding parameters used to construct the state space in which this method is performed, based on the analysis of how the values of these parameters affect two recurrence quantitative measurements: recurrence rate and entropy. T3 - ZIB-Report - 14-16 KW - time series analysis KW - application in statistical physics KW - recurrence quantification analysis KW - threshold KW - metastability KW - non-linear dynamics Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-50130 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Conrad, Tim ED - Deuflhard, Peter ED - Grötschel, Martin ED - Hömberg, Dietmar ED - Horst, Ulrich ED - Kramer, Jürg ED - Mehrmann, Volker ED - Polthier, Konrad ED - Schmidt, Frank ED - Skutella, Martin ED - Sprekels, Jürgen T1 - Showcase 3: Information-based medicine T2 - MATHEON-Mathematics for Key Technologies Y1 - 2014 VL - 1 SP - 66 EP - 67 PB - European Mathematical Society ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Müller, Sebastian A1 - Paltra, Sydney A1 - Rehmann, Jakob A1 - Nagel, Kai A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Explicit modeling of antibody levels for infectious disease simulations in the context of SARS-CoV-2 JF - iScience N2 - Measurable levels of immunoglobulin G antibodies develop after infections with and vaccinations against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). These antibody levels are dynamic: due to waning, antibody levels will drop over time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple models predicting infection dynamics were used by policymakers to support the planning of public health policies. Explicitly integrating antibody and waning effects into the models is crucial for reliable calculations of individual infection risk. However, only few approaches have been suggested that explicitly treat these effects. This paper presents a methodology that explicitly models antibody levels and the resulting protection against infection for individuals within an agent-based model. The model was developed in response to the complexity of different immunization sequences and types and is based on neutralization titer studies. This approach allows complex population studies with explicit antibody and waning effects. We demonstrate the usefulness of our model in two use cases. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.107554 VL - 26 IS - 9 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Weimann, Kuba A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Predicting Coma Recovery After Cardiac Arrest With Residual Neural Networks T2 - Computing in Cardiology (CinC) 2023 N2 - Aims: Interpretation of continuous EEG is a demanding task that requires the expertise of trained neurologists. However, these experts are not always available in many medical centers. As part of the 2023 George B. Moody PhysioNet Challenge, we developed a deep learning based method for analyzing EEG data of comatose patients and predicting prognosis following cardiac arrest. Methods: Our approach is a two-step pipeline that consists of a prediction model and a decision-making strategy. The prediction model is a residual neural network (ResNet-18) that extracts features and makes a prediction based on a short 5-minute EEG recording. In the second step, a majority vote over multiple predictions made for several EEG recordings of a patient determines the final prognosis. Results: Based on 10-fold cross-validation on the training set, we achieved a true positive rate (TPR) of 0.41 for predicting poor outcome while keeping the false positive rate below 0.05 at 72 hours after recovery of spontaneous circulation. On the official challenge leaderboard, our team ZIB_Visual scored 0.426 TPR. Conclusion: Our approach, while simple to implement and execute, faced overfitting challenges during the official competition phase. In this paper, we discuss our implementation and potential improvements to address these issues. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.22489/CinC.2023.093 VL - 50 PB - IEEE ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bleich, Amnon A1 - Linnemann, Antje A1 - Jaidi, Benjamin A1 - Diem, Bjoern H A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Enhancing ECG Analysis of Implantable Cardiac Monitor Data: An Efficient Pipeline for Multi-Label Classification JF - Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction N2 - Implantable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) devices are demonstrating as of today, the fastest-growing market for implantable cardiac devices. As such, they are becoming increasingly common in patients for measuring heart electrical activity. ICMs constantly monitor and record a patient's heart rhythm and when triggered - send it to a secure server where health care professionals (denote HCPs from here on) can review it. These devices employ a relatively simplistic rule-based algorithm (due to energy consumption constraints) to alert for abnormal heart rhythms. This algorithm is usually parameterized to an over-sensitive mode in order to not miss a case (resulting in a relatively high false-positive rate) and this, combined with the device's nature of constantly monitoring the heart rhythm and its growing popularity, results in HCPs having to analyze and diagnose an increasingly growing amount of data. In order to reduce the load on the latter, automated methods for ECG analysis are nowadays becoming a great tool to assist HCPs in their analysis. While state-of-the-art algorithms are data-driven rather than rule-based, training data for ICMs often consist of specific characteristics that make its analysis unique and particularly challenging. This study presents the challenges and solutions in automatically analyzing ICM data and introduces a method for its classification that outperforms existing methods on such data. It does so by combining high-frequency noise detection (which often occurs in ICM data) with a semi-supervised learning pipeline that allows for re-labeling of training episodes, and by using segmentation and dimension reduction techniques that are robust to morphology variations of the sECG signal (which are typical to ICM data). As a result, it performs better than state-of-the-art techniques on such data with e.g. F1 score of 0.51 vs. 0.38 of our baseline state-of-the-art technique in correctly calling Atrial Fibrilation in ICM data. As such, it could be used in numerous ways such as aiding HCPs in the analysis of ECGs originating from ICMs by, e.g., suggesting a rhythm type. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/make5040077 VL - 5 IS - 4 PB - MDPI ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schubotz, Moritz A1 - Ferrer, Eloi A1 - Stegmüller, Johannes A1 - Mietchen, Daniel A1 - Teschke, Olaf A1 - Pusch, Larissa A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Bravo MaRDI: A Wikibase Knowledge Graph on Mathematics T2 - Proceedings of the 4th Wikidata Workshop 2022 co-located with the 22st International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2023) N2 - Mathematical world knowledge is a fundamental component of Wikidata. However, to date, no expertly curated knowledge graph has focused specifically on contemporary mathematics. Addressing this gap, the Mathematical Research Data Initiative (MaRDI) has developed a comprehensive knowledge graph that links multimodal research data in mathematics. This encompasses traditional research data items like datasets, software, and publications and includes semantically advanced objects such as mathematical formulae and hypotheses. This paper details the abilities of the MaRDI knowledge graph, which is based on Wikibase, leading up to its inaugural public release, codenamed Bravo, available on https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pusch, Larissa A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Combining LLMs and Knowledge Graphs to Reduce Hallucinations in Biomedical Question Answering JF - BioMedInformatics N2 - Advancements in natural language processing (NLP), particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), have greatly improved how we access knowledge. However, in critical domains like biomedicine, challenges like hallucinations—where language models generate infor- mation not grounded in data—can lead to dangerous misinformation. This paper presents a hybrid approach that combines LLMs with Knowledge Graphs (KGs) to improve the accuracy and reliability of question-answering systems in the biomedical field. Our method, implemented using the LangChain framework, includes a query-checking algorithm that checks and, where possible, corrects LLM-generated Cypher queries, which are then exe- cuted on the Knowledge Graph, grounding answers in the KG and reducing hallucinations in the evaluated cases. We evaluated several LLMs, including several GPT models and Llama 3.3:70b, on a custom benchmark dataset of 50 biomedical questions. GPT-4 Turbo achieved 90% query accuracy, outperforming most other models. We also evaluated prompt engineering, but found little statistically significant improvement compared to the standard prompt, except for Llama 3:70b, which improved with few-shot prompting. To enhance usability, we developed a web-based interface that allows users to input natural language queries, view generated and corrected Cypher queries, and inspect results for accuracy. This framework improves reliability and accessibility by accepting natural language questions and returning verifiable answers directly from the knowledge graph, enabling inspection and reproducibility. The source code for generating the results of this paper and for the user- interface can be found in our Git repository: https://git.zib.de/lpusch/cyphergenkg-gui, accessed on 1 November 2025. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedinformatics5040070 VL - 5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Ferrer, Eloi A1 - Mietchen, Daniel A1 - Pusch, Larissa A1 - Stegmuller, Johannes A1 - Schubotz, Moritz T1 - Making Mathematical Research Data FAIR: Pathways to Improved Data Sharing JF - Scientific Data Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03480-0 VL - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fürst, Steffen A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Jaeger, Carlo A1 - Wolf, Sarah T1 - Vahana.jl - A framework (not only) for large-scale agent-based models JF - Proceedings of Social Simulation Conference 2024 (SSC24) Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weimann, Kuba A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Federated Learning with Deep Neural Networks: A Privacy-Preserving Approach to Enhanced ECG Classification JF - IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/JBHI.2024.3427787 VL - 28 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maier, Kristina A1 - Weiser, Martin A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Hybrid PDE-ODE Models for Efficient Simulation of Infection Spread in Epidemiology JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society A N2 - This paper introduces a novel hybrid model combining Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) and Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) to simulate infectious disease dynamics across geographic regions. By leveraging the spatial detail of PDEs and the computational efficiency of ODEs, the model enables rapid evaluation of public health interventions. Applied to synthetic environments and real-world scenarios in Lombardy, Italy, and Berlin, Germany, the model highlights how interactions between PDE and ODE regions affect infection dynamics, especially in high-density areas. Key findings reveal that the placement of model boundaries in densely populated regions can lead to inaccuracies in infection spread, suggesting that boundaries should be positioned in areas of lower population density to better reflect transmission dynamics. Additionally, regions with low population density hinder infection flow, indicating a need for incorporating, e.g., jumps in the model to enhance its predictive capabilities. Results indicate that the hybrid model achieves a balance between computational speed and accuracy, making it a valuable tool for policymakers in real-time decision-making and scenario analysis in epidemiology and potentially in other fields requiring similar modeling approaches. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2024.0421 VL - 481 IS - 2306 PB - Royal Society ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weimann, Kuba A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - FELRec: Efficient Handling of Item Cold-Start With Dynamic Representation Learning in Recommender Systems JF - International Journal of Data Science and Analytics Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s41060-024-00635-5 IS - 2024 PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bostanci, Inan A1 - Conrad, Tim T1 - Integrating Agent-Based and Compartmental Models for Infectious Disease Modeling: A Novel Hybrid Approach JF - Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation N2 - This study investigates the spatial integration of agent-based models (ABMs) and compartmental models for infectious disease modeling, presenting a novel hybrid approach and examining its implications. ABMs offer detailed insights by simulating interactions and decisions among individuals but are computationally expensive for large populations. Compartmental models capture population-level dynamics more efficiently but lack granular detail. We developed a hybrid model that aims to balance the granularity of ABMs with the computational efficiency of compartmental models, offering a more nuanced understanding of disease spread in diverse scenarios, including large populations. This model spatially couples discrete and continuous populations by integrating an ordinary differential equation model with a spatially explicit ABM. Our key objectives were to systematically assess the consistency of disease dynamics and the computational efficiency across various configurations. For this, we evaluated two experimental scenarios and varied the influence of each sub-model via spatial distribution. In the first, the ABM component modeled a homogeneous population; in the second, it simulated a heterogeneous population with landscape-driven movement. Results show that the hybrid model can significantly reduce computational costs but is sensitive to between-model differences, highlighting the importance of model equivalence in hybrid approaches. The code is available at: git.zib.de/ibostanc/hybrid_abm_ode. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.5567 VL - 28 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Blaskovic, Filip A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Klus, Stefan A1 - Djurdjevac Conrad, Natasa T1 - Random walk based snapshot clustering for detecting community dynamics in temporal networks JF - Scientific Reports N2 - The evolution of many dynamical systems that describe relationships or interactions between objects can be effectively modeled by temporal networks, which are typically represented as a sequence of static network snapshots. In this paper, we introduce a novel random walk based approach that can identify clusters of time-snapshots in which network community structures are stable. This allows to detect significant structural shifts over time, such as the splitting, merging, birth, or death of communities. We also provide a low-dimensional representation of entire snapshots, placing those with similar community structure close to each other in the feature space. To validate our approach, we develop an agent-based algorithm that generates synthetic datasets with the desired characteristic properties, enabling thorough testing and benchmarking. We further demonstrate the effectiveness and broad applicability of our technique by testing it on various social dynamics models and real-world datasets and comparing its performance to several state-of-the-art algorithms. Our findings highlight the strength of our approach to correctly capture and analyze the dynamics of complex systems. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-09340-0 VL - 15 SP - 24414 ER -