TY - JOUR A1 - Hanik, Martin A1 - Steidl, Gabriele A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - Manifold GCN: Diffusion-based Convolutional Neural Network for Manifold-valued Graphs N2 - We propose two graph neural network layers for graphs with features in a Riemannian manifold. First, based on a manifold-valued graph diffusion equation, we construct a diffusion layer that can be applied to an arbitrary number of nodes and graph connectivity patterns. Second, we model a tangent multilayer perceptron by transferring ideas from the vector neuron framework to our general setting. Both layers are equivariant with respect to node permutations and isometries of the feature manifold. These properties have been shown to lead to a beneficial inductive bias in many deep learning tasks. Numerical examples on synthetic data as well as on triangle meshes of the right hippocampus to classify Alzheimer's disease demonstrate the very good performance of our layers. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mikula, Natalia A1 - Dörffel, Tom A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Hege, Hans-Christian T1 - An Interactive Approach for Identifying Structure Definitions JF - Computer Graphics Forum N2 - Our ability to grasp and understand complex phenomena is essentially based on recognizing structures and relating these to each other. For example, any meteorological description of a weather condition and explanation of its evolution recurs to meteorological structures, such as convection and circulation structures, cloud fields and rain fronts. All of these are spatiotemporal structures, defined by time-dependent patterns in the underlying fields. Typically, such a structure is defined by a verbal description that corresponds to the more or less uniform, often somewhat vague mental images of the experts. However, a precise, formal definition of the structures or, more generally, concepts is often desirable, e.g., to enable automated data analysis or the development of phenomenological models. Here, we present a systematic approach and an interactive tool to obtain formal definitions of spatiotemporal structures. The tool enables experts to evaluate and compare different structure definitions on the basis of data sets with time-dependent fields that contain the respective structure. Since structure definitions are typically parameterized, an essential part is to identify parameter ranges that lead to desired structures in all time steps. In addition, it is important to allow a quantitative assessment of the resulting structures simultaneously. We demonstrate the use of the tool by applying it to two meteorological examples: finding structure definitions for vortex cores and center lines of temporarily evolving tropical cyclones. Ideally, structure definitions should be objective and applicable to as many data sets as possible. However, finding such definitions, e.g., for the common atmospheric structures in meteorology, can only be a long-term goal. The proposed procedure, together with the presented tool, is just a first systematic approach aiming at facilitating this long and arduous way. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14543 VL - 41 IS - 3 SP - 321 EP - 332 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kostré, Margarita A1 - Sunkara, Vikram A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Djurdjevac Conrad, Natasa T1 - Understanding the Romanization Spreading on Historical Interregional Networks in Northern Tunisia JF - Applied Network Science N2 - Spreading processes are important drivers of change in social systems. To understand the mechanisms of spreading it is fundamental to have information about the underlying contact network and the dynamical parameters of the process. However, in many real-wold examples, this information is not known and needs to be inferred from data. State-of-the-art spreading inference methods have mostly been applied to modern social systems, as they rely on availability of very detailed data. In this paper we study the inference challenges for historical spreading processes, for which only very fragmented information is available. To cope with this problem, we extend existing network models by formulating a model on a mesoscale with temporal spreading rate. Furthermore, we formulate the respective parameter inference problem for the extended model. We apply our approach to the romanization process of Northern Tunisia, a scarce dataset, and study properties of the inferred time-evolving interregional networks. As a result, we show that (1) optimal solutions consist of very different network structures and spreading rate functions; and that (2) these diverse solutions produce very similar spreading patterns. Finally, we discuss how inferred dominant interregional connections are related to available archaeological traces. Historical networks resulting from our approach can help understanding complex processes of cultural change in ancient times. KW - mesoscale spreading process KW - network inference KW - time-evolving network KW - romanization spreading KW - scarce data Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-022-00492-w VL - 7 PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Caputo, Ariel A1 - Emporio, Marco A1 - Giachetti, Andrea A1 - Cristani, Marco A1 - Borghi, Guido A1 - D'Eusanio, Andrea A1 - Le, Minh-Quan A1 - Nguyen, Hai-Dang A1 - Tran, Minh-Triet A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Hanik, Martin A1 - Navayazdani, Esfandiar A1 - Tycowicz, Christoph von T1 - SHREC 2022 Track on Online Detection of Heterogeneous Gestures JF - Computers and Graphics N2 - This paper presents the outcomes of a contest organized to evaluate methods for the online recognition of heterogeneous gestures from sequences of 3D hand poses. The task is the detection of gestures belonging to a dictionary of 16 classes characterized by different pose and motion features. The dataset features continuous sequences of hand tracking data where the gestures are interleaved with non-significant motions. The data have been captured using the Hololens 2 finger tracking system in a realistic use-case of mixed reality interaction. The evaluation is based not only on the detection performances but also on the latency and the false positives, making it possible to understand the feasibility of practical interaction tools based on the algorithms proposed. The outcomes of the contest's evaluation demonstrate the necessity of further research to reduce recognition errors, while the computational cost of the algorithms proposed is sufficiently low. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2022.07.015 VL - 107 SP - 241 EP - 251 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kiewisz, Robert A1 - Fabig, Gunar A1 - Conway, William A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Needleman, Daniel A1 - Müller-Reichert, Thomas T1 - Three-dimensional structure of kinetochore-fibers in human mitotic spindles JF - eLife N2 - During cell division, kinetochore microtubules (KMTs) provide a physical linkage between the chromosomes and the rest of the spindle. KMTs in mammalian cells are organized into bundles, so-called kinetochore-fibers (k-fibers), but the ultrastructure of these fibers is currently not well characterized. Here we show by large-scale electron tomography that each k-fiber in HeLa cells in metaphase is composed of approximately nine KMTs, only half of which reach the spindle pole. Our comprehensive reconstructions allowed us to analyze the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of k-fibers and their surrounding MTs in detail. We found that k-fibers exhibit remarkable variation in circumference and KMT density along their length, with the pole-proximal side showing a broadening. Extending our structural analysis then to other MTs in the spindle, we further observed that the association of KMTs with non-KMTs predominantly occurs in the spindle pole regions. Our 3D reconstructions have implications for KMT growth and k-fiber self-organization models as covered in a parallel publication applying complementary live-cell imaging in combination with biophysical modeling (Conway et al., 2022). Finally, we also introduce a new visualization tool allowing an interactive display of our 3D spindle data that will serve as a resource for further structural studies on mitosis in human cells. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75459 VL - 11 SP - e75459 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kostré, Margarita A1 - Sunkara, Vikram A1 - Schütte, Christof A1 - Djurdjevac Conrad, Nataša T1 - Understanding the Romanization Spreading on Historical Interregional Networks in Northern Tunisia N2 - Spreading processes are important drivers of change in social systems. To understand the mechanisms of spreading it is fundamental to have information about the underlying contact network and the dynamical parameters of the process. However, in many real-wold examples, this information is not known and needs to be inferred from data. State-of-the-art spreading inference methods have mostly been applied to modern social systems, as they rely on availability of very detailed data. In this paper we study the inference challenges for historical spreading processes, for which only very fragmented information is available. To cope with this problem, we extend existing network models by formulating a model on a mesoscale with temporal spreading rate. Furthermore, we formulate the respective parameter inference problem for the extended model. We apply our approach to the romanization process of Northern Tunisia, a scarce dataset, and study properties of the inferred time-evolving interregional networks. As a result, we show that (1) optimal solutions consist of very different network structures and spreading rate functions; and that (2) these diverse solutions produce very similar spreading patterns. Finally, we discuss how inferred dominant interregional connections are related to available archaeological traces. Historical networks resulting from our approach can help understanding complex processes of cultural change in ancient times. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-10 KW - mesoscale spreading process, network inference, time-evolving network, romanization spreading, scarce data Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-86764 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Berio, Fidji A1 - Bayle, Yann A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Goudemand, Nicolas A1 - Debiais-Thibaud, Mélanie T1 - Hide and seek shark teeth in Random Forests: Machine learning applied to Scyliorhinus canicula populations JF - PeerJ - Aquatic Biology N2 - Shark populations that are distributed alongside a latitudinal gradient often display body size differences at sexual maturity and vicariance patterns related to their number of tooth files. Previous works have demonstrated that Scyliorhinus canicula exhibits distinct genetic structures, life history traits, and body size differences between populations inhabiting the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In this work, we sample more than 3,000 S. canicula teeth from 56 specimens and provide and use a dataset containing their shape coordinates. We investigate tooth shape and form differences between a Mediterranean and an Atlantic S. canicula population using two approaches. Classification results show that the classical geometric morphometric framework is outperformed by an original Random Forests-based framework. Visually, both S. canicula populations share similar ontogenetic trends and timing of gynandric heterodonty emergence but the Atlantic population has bigger, blunter teeth, and less numerous accessory cusps than the Mediterranean population. According to the models, the populations are best differentiated based on their lateral tooth edges, which bear accessory cusps, and the tooth centroid sizes significantly improve classification performances. The differences observed are discussed in light of dietary and behavioural habits of the populations considered. The method proposed in this study could be further adapted to complement DNA analyses to identify shark species or populations based on tooth morphologies. This process would be of particular interest for fisheries management and identification of shark fossils. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13575 SP - 10:e13575 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Berio, Fidji A1 - Bayle, Yann A1 - Agret, Sylvie A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Goudemand, Nicolas A1 - Debiais-Thibaud, Mélanie T1 - 3D models related to the publication: Hide and seek shark teeth in Random Forests: Machine learning applied to Scyliorhinus canicula T2 - MorphoMuseuM N2 - The present dataset contains the 3D models analyzed in Berio, F., Bayle, Y., Baum, D., Goudemand, N., and Debiais-Thibaud, M. 2022. Hide and seek shark teeth in Random Forests: Machine learning applied to Scyliorhinus canicula. It contains the head surfaces of 56 North Atlantic and Mediterranean small-spotted catsharks Scyliorhinus canicula, from which tooth surfaces were further extracted to perform geometric morphometrics and machine learning. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18563/journal.m3.164 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nava-Yazdani, Esfandiar A1 - Hege, Hans-Christian A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - A Hierarchical Geodesic Model for Longitudinal Analysis on Manifolds JF - Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision N2 - In many applications, geodesic hierarchical models are adequate for the study of temporal observations. We employ such a model derived for manifold-valued data to Kendall's shape space. In particular, instead of the Sasaki metric, we adapt a functional-based metric, which increases the computational efficiency and does not require the implementation of the curvature tensor. We propose the corresponding variational time discretization of geodesics and employ the approach for longitudinal analysis of 2D rat skulls shapes as well as 3D shapes derived from an imaging study on osteoarthritis. Particularly, we perform hypothesis test and estimate the mean trends. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10851-022-01079-x VL - 64 IS - 4 SP - 395 EP - 407 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hanik, Martin A1 - Hege, Hans-Christian A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - Bi-invariant Dissimilarity Measures for Sample Distributions in Lie Groups JF - SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science N2 - Data sets sampled in Lie groups are widespread, and as with multivariate data, it is important for many applications to assess the differences between the sets in terms of their distributions. Indices for this task are usually derived by considering the Lie group as a Riemannian manifold. Then, however, compatibility with the group operation is guaranteed only if a bi-invariant metric exists, which is not the case for most non-compact and non-commutative groups. We show here that if one considers an affine connection structure instead, one obtains bi-invariant generalizations of well-known dissimilarity measures: a Hotelling $T^2$ statistic, Bhattacharyya distance and Hellinger distance. Each of the dissimilarity measures matches its multivariate counterpart for Euclidean data and is translation-invariant, so that biases, e.g., through an arbitrary choice of reference, are avoided. We further derive non-parametric two-sample tests that are bi-invariant and consistent. We demonstrate the potential of these dissimilarity measures by performing group tests on data of knee configurations and epidemiological shape data. Significant differences are revealed in both cases. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1137/21M1410373 VL - 4 IS - 4 SP - 1223 EP - 1249 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Amiranashvili, Tamaz A1 - Lüdke, David A1 - Li, Hongwei A1 - Menze, Bjoern A1 - Zachow, Stefan T1 - Learning Shape Reconstruction from Sparse Measurements with Neural Implicit Functions T2 - Medical Imaging with Deep Learning N2 - Reconstructing anatomical shapes from sparse or partial measurements relies on prior knowledge of shape variations that occur within a given population. Such shape priors are learned from example shapes, obtained by segmenting volumetric medical images. For existing models, the resolution of a learned shape prior is limited to the resolution of the training data. However, in clinical practice, volumetric images are often acquired with highly anisotropic voxel sizes, e.g. to reduce image acquisition time in MRI or radiation exposure in CT imaging. The missing shape information between the slices prohibits existing methods to learn a high-resolution shape prior. We introduce a method for high-resolution shape reconstruction from sparse measurements without relying on high-resolution ground truth for training. Our method is based on neural implicit shape representations and learns a continuous shape prior only from highly anisotropic segmentations. Furthermore, it is able to learn from shapes with a varying field of view and can reconstruct from various sparse input configurations. We demonstrate its effectiveness on two anatomical structures: vertebra and femur, and successfully reconstruct high-resolution shapes from sparse segmentations, using as few as three orthogonal slices. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ehlers, Sarah A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Mühlethaler, Roland A1 - Hoch, Hannelore A1 - Bräunig, Peter T1 - Large abdominal mechanoreceptive sense organs in small plant-dwelling insects JF - Biology Letters N2 - The Hemiptera is the largest non-endopterygote insect order comprising approximately 98,000 recent species. All species of the suborders Cicadomorpha (leafhoppers, spittlebugs, treehoppers and cicadas) and Fulgoromorpha (planthoppers) feed by sucking sap from plant tissues and are thus often vectors for economically important phytopathogens. Except for the cicadas (Cicadomorpha: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae) which produce air-borne sounds, all species of the suborders Cicadomorpha and Fulgoromorpha communicate by vibrational (substrate-borne) signals. While the generation of these signals has been extensively investigated, the mechanisms of perception are poorly understood. This study provides a full description and 3D reconstruction of a large and complex array of six paired chordotonal organs in the first abdominal segments of the Rhododendron leafhopper Graphocephala fennahi (Cicadomorpha: Membracoidea: Cicadellidae). Further we were able to identify homologous organs in the closely related spittlebug Philaenus spumarius (Cicadomorpha: Cercopoidea: Aphrophoridae) and the planthopper Issus coleoptratus (Fulgoromorpha: Fulgoroidea: Issidae). The configuration is congruent with the abdominal chordotonal organs in cicadas, where one of them is an elaborate tympanal organ. This indicates that these organs, together with the tymbal organ constitute a synapomorphy of the Tymbalia (Hemiptera excl. Sternorrhyncha). Our results contribute to the understanding of the evolution from substrate-borne to airborne communication in insects. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0078 VL - 18 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eigen, Lennart A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Dean, Mason N. A1 - Werner, Daniel A1 - Wölfer, Jan A1 - Nyakatura, John A. T1 - Ontogeny of a tessellated surface: carapace growth of the longhorn cowfish Lactoria cornuta JF - Journal of Anatomy N2 - Biological armors derive their mechanical integrity in part from their geometric architectures, often involving tessellations: individual structural elements tiled together to form surface shells. The carapace of boxfish, for example, is comprised of mineralized polygonal plates, called scutes, arranged in a complex geometric pattern and nearly completely encasing the body. In contrast to artificial armors, the boxfish exoskeleton grows with the fish; the relationship between the tessellation and the gross structure of the armor is therefore critical to sustained protection throughout growth. To clarify whether or how the boxfish tessellation is maintained or altered with age, we quantify architectural aspects of the tessellated carapace of the longhorn cowfish Lactoria cornuta through ontogeny (across nearly an order of magnitude in standard length) and in a high-throughput fashion, using high-resolution microCT data and segmentation algorithms to characterize the hundreds of scutes that cover each individual. We show that carapace growth is canalized with little variability across individuals: rather than continually adding scutes to enlarge the carapace surface, the number of scutes is surprisingly constant, with scutes increasing in volume, thickness, and especially width with age. As cowfish and their scutes grow, scutes become comparatively thinner, with the scutes at the edges (weak points in a boxy architecture) being some of the thickest and most reinforced in younger animals and thinning most slowly across ontogeny. In contrast, smaller scutes with more variable curvature were found in the limited areas of more complex topology (e.g. around fin insertions, mouth, and anus). Measurements of Gaussian and mean curvature illustrate that cowfish are essentially tessellated boxes throughout life: predominantly zero curvature surfaces comprised of mostly flat scutes, and with scutes with sharp bends used sparingly to form box edges. Since growth of a curved, tiled surface with a fixed number of tiles would require tile restructuring to accommodate the surface’s changing radius of curvature, our results therefore illustrate a previously unappreciated advantage of the odd boxfish morphology: by having predominantly flat surfaces, it is the box-like body form that in fact permits a relatively straightforward growth system of this tessellated architecture (i.e. where material is added to scute edges). Our characterization of the ontogeny and maintenance of the carapace tessellation provides insights into the potentially conflicting mechanical, geometric and developmental constraints of this species, but also perspectives into natural strategies for constructing mutable tiled architectures. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.13692 VL - 241 IS - 3 SP - 565 EP - 580 PB - Wiley ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Paskin, Martha A1 - Dean, Mason A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - A Kendall Shape Space Approach to 3D Shape Estimation from 2D Landmarks T2 - Computer Vision -- ECCV 2022 N2 - 3D shapes provide substantially more information than 2D images. However, the acquisition of 3D shapes is sometimes very difficult or even impossible in comparison with acquiring 2D images, making it necessary to derive the 3D shape from 2D images. Although this is, in general, a mathematically ill-posed problem, it might be solved by constraining the problem formulation using prior information. Here, we present a new approach based on Kendall’s shape space to reconstruct 3D shapes from single monocular 2D images. The work is motivated by an application to study the feeding behavior of the basking shark, an endangered species whose massive size and mobility render 3D shape data nearly impossible to obtain, hampering understanding of their feeding behaviors and ecology. 2D images of these animals in feeding position, however, are readily available. We compare our approach with state-of-the-art shape-based approaches both on human stick models and on shark head skeletons. Using a small set of training shapes, we show that the Kendall shape space approach is substantially more robust than previous methods and always results in plausible shapes. This is essential for the motivating application in which specimens are rare and therefore only few training shapes are available. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20086-1_21 SP - 363 EP - 379 PB - Springer Nature Switzerland ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Obermeier, Patrick E A1 - Heim, Albert A1 - Biere, Barbara A1 - Hage, Elias A1 - Alchikh, Maren A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Schweiger, Brunhilde A1 - Rath, Barbara A T1 - Linking digital surveillance and in-depth virology to study clinical patterns of viral respiratory infections in vulnerable patient populations JF - iScience N2 - To improve the identification and management of viral respiratory infections, we established a clinical and virologic surveillance program for pediatric patients fulfilling pre-defined case criteria of influenza-like illness and viral respiratory infections. The program resulted in a cohort comprising 6,073 patients (56% male, median age 1.6 years, range 0–18.8 years), where every patient was assessed with a validated disease severity score at the point-of-care using the ViVI ScoreApp. We used machine learning and agnostic feature selection to identify characteristic clinical patterns. We tested all patients for human adenoviruses, 571 (9%) were positive. Adenovirus infections were particularly common and mild in children ≥1 month of age but rare and potentially severe in neonates: with lower airway involvement, disseminated disease, and a 50% mortality rate (n = 2/4). In one fatal case, we discovered a novel virus … Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104276 VL - 25 IS - 5 PB - Cell Press ER - TY - GEN A1 - Paskin, Martha A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Dean, Mason N. A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - A Kendall Shape Space Approach to 3D Shape Estimation from 2D Landmarks -- Source Code and Data N2 - Source code and novel dataset of basking shark head skeletons facilitating the reproduction of the results presented in 'A Kendall Shape Space Approach to 3D Shape Estimation from 2D Landmarks' - ECCV 2022. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.12752/8730 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hajarolasvadi, Noushin A1 - Sunkara, Vikram A1 - Khavnekar, Sagar A1 - Beck, Florian A1 - Brandt, Robert A1 - Baum, Daniel T1 - Volumetric macromolecule identification in cryo-electron tomograms using capsule networks JF - BMC Bioinformatics N2 - Background: Despite recent advances in cellular cryo-electron tomography (CET), developing automated tools for macromolecule identification in submolecular resolution remains challenging due to the lack of annotated data and high structural complexities. To date, the extent of the deep learning methods constructed for this problem is limited to conventional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Identifying macromolecules of different types and sizes is a tedious and time-consuming task. In this paper, we employ a capsule-based architecture to automate the task of macro- molecule identification, that we refer to as 3D-UCaps. In particular, the architecture is composed of three components: feature extractor, capsule encoder, and CNN decoder. The feature extractor converts voxel intensities of input sub-tomograms to activities of local features. The encoder is a 3D Capsule Network (CapsNet) that takes local features to generate a low-dimensional representation of the input. Then, a 3D CNN decoder reconstructs the sub-tomograms from the given representation by upsampling. Results: We performed binary and multi-class localization and identification tasks on synthetic and experimental data. We observed that the 3D-UNet and the 3D-UCaps had an F1−score mostly above 60% and 70%, respectively, on the test data. In both network architectures, we observed degradation of at least 40% in the F1-score when identifying very small particles (PDB entry 3GL1) compared to a large particle (PDB entry 4D8Q). In the multi-class identification task of experimental data, 3D-UCaps had an F1-score of 91% on the test data in contrast to 64% of the 3D-UNet. The better F1-score of 3D-UCaps compared to 3D-UNet is obtained by a higher precision score. We speculate this to be due to the capsule network employed in the encoder. To study the effect of the CapsNet-based encoder architecture further, we performed an ablation study and perceived that the F1-score is boosted as network depth is increased which is in contrast to the previously reported results for the 3D-UNet. To present a reproducible work, source code, trained models, data as well as visualization results are made publicly available. Conclusion: Quantitative and qualitative results show that 3D-UCaps successfully perform various downstream tasks including identification and localization of macro- molecules and can at least compete with CNN architectures for this task. Given that the capsule layers extract both the existence probability and the orientation of the molecules, this architecture has the potential to lead to representations of the data that are better interpretable than those of 3D-UNet. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04901-w VL - 23 IS - 360 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Harth, Philipp A1 - Vohra, Sumit A1 - Udvary, Daniel A1 - Oberlaender, Marcel A1 - Hege, Hans-Christian A1 - Baum, Daniel T1 - A Stratification Matrix Viewer for Analysis of Neural Network Data T2 - Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine (VCBM) N2 - The analysis of brain networks is central to neurobiological research. In this context the following tasks often arise: (1) understand the cellular composition of a reconstructed neural tissue volume to determine the nodes of the brain network; (2) quantify connectivity features statistically; and (3) compare these to predictions of mathematical models. We present a framework for interactive, visually supported accomplishment of these tasks. Its central component, the stratification matrix viewer, allows users to visualize the distribution of cellular and/or connectional properties of neurons at different levels of aggregation. We demonstrate its use in four case studies analyzing neural network data from the rat barrel cortex and human temporal cortex. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2312/vcbm.20221194 CY - Vienna, Austria ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Prodanov, Dimiter A1 - Vohra, Sumit Kumar T1 - Active Segmentation: Differential Geometry meets Machine Learning T2 - Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies N2 - Image segmentation is an active area of research for more than 30 years. Traditional image segmentation algorithms are problem-specific and limited in scope. On the other hand, machine learning offers an alternative paradigm where predefined features are combined into different classifiers, providing pixel-level classification and segmentation. However, machine learning only can not address the question as to which features are appropriate for a certain classification problem. This paper presents a project supported in part by the International Neuroinformatics Coordination Facility through the Google Summer of code. The project resulted in an automated image segmentation and classification platform, called Active Segmentation for ImageJ (AS/IJ). The platform integrates a set of filters computing differential geometrical invariants and combines them with machine learning approaches. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1145/3546118.3546154 SP - 1 EP - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmitt, Kira A1 - Titschack, Jürgen A1 - Baum, Daniel T1 - Polyp-Cavity Segmentation of Cold-Water Corals guided by Ambient Occlusion and Ambient Curvature JF - Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine (VCBM) N2 - The segmentation of cavities in three-dimensional images of arbitrary objects is a difficult problem since the cavities are usually connected to the outside of the object without any difference in image intensity. Hence, the information whether a voxel belongs to a cavity or the outside needs to be derived from the ambient space. If a voxel is enclosed by object material, it is very likely that this voxel belongs to a cavity. However, there are dense structures where a voxel might still belong to the outside even though it is surrounded to a large degree by the object. This is, for example, the case for coral colonies. Therefore, additional information needs to be considered to distinguish between those cases. In this paper, we introduce the notion of ambient curvature, present an efficient way to compute it, and use it to segment coral polyp cavities by integrating it into the ambient occlusion framework. Moreover, we combine the ambient curvature with other ambient information in a Gaussian mixture model, trained from a few user scribbles, resulting in a significantly improved cavity segmentation. We showcase the superiority of our approach using four coral colonies of very different morphological types. While in this paper we restrict ourselves to coral data, we believe that the concept of ambient curvature is also useful for other data. Furthermore, our approach is not restricted to curvature but can be easily extended to exploit any properties given on an object's surface, thereby adjusting it to specific applications. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2312/vcbm.20221189 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Udvary, Daniel A1 - Harth, Philipp A1 - Macke, Jakob H. A1 - Hege, Hans-Christian A1 - de Kock, Christiaan P. J. A1 - Sakmann, Bert A1 - Oberlaender, Marcel T1 - The Impact of Neuron Morphology on Cortical Network Architecture JF - Cell Reports N2 - The neurons in the cerebral cortex are not randomly interconnected. This specificity in wiring can result from synapse formation mechanisms that connect neurons depending on their electrical activity and genetically defined identity. Here, we report that the morphological properties of the neurons provide an additional prominent source by which wiring specificity emerges in cortical networks. This morphologically determined wiring specificity reflects similarities between the neurons’ axo-dendritic projections patterns, the packing density and cellular diversity of the neuropil. The higher these three factors are the more recurrent is the topology of the network. Conversely, the lower these factors are the more feedforward is the network’s topology. These principles predict the empirically observed occurrences of clusters of synapses, cell type-specific connectivity patterns, and nonrandom network motifs. Thus, we demonstrate that wiring specificity emerges in the cerebral cortex at subcellular, cellular and network scales from the specific morphological properties of its neuronal constituents. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110677 VL - 39 IS - 2 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Nava-Yazdani, Esfandiar A1 - Hanik, Martin A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph T1 - On Gradient Formulas in an Algorithm for the Logarithm of the Sasaki Metric N2 - The Sasaki metric is the canonical metric on the tangent bundle TM of a Riemannian manifold M. It is highly useful for data analysis in TM (e.g., when one is interested in the statistics of a set of geodesics in M). To this end, computing the Riemannian logarithm is often necessary, and an iterative algorithm was proposed by Muralidharan and Fletcher. In this note, we derive approximation formulas of the energy gradients in their algorithm that we use with success. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-12 Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-87174 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Myers, Adele A1 - Utpala, Saiteja A1 - Talbar, Shubham A1 - Sanborn, Sophia A1 - Shewmake, Christian A1 - Donnat, Claire A1 - Mathe, Johan A1 - Lupo, Umberto A1 - Sonthalia, Rishi A1 - Cui, Xinyue A1 - Szwagier, Tom A1 - Pignet, Arthur A1 - Bergsson, Andri A1 - Hauberg, Søren A1 - Nielsen, Dmitriy A1 - Sommer, Stefan A1 - Klindt, David A1 - Hermansen, Erik A1 - Vaupel, Melvin A1 - Dunn, Benjamin A1 - Xiong, Jeffrey A1 - Aharony, Noga A1 - Pe’er, Itsik A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Hanik, Martin A1 - Navayazdani, Esfandiar A1 - Tycowicz, Christoph von A1 - Miolane, Nina T1 - ICLR 2022 Challenge for Computational Geomerty & Topology: Design and Results T2 - Proceedings of Topology, Algebra, and Geometry in Learning Y1 - 2022 VL - 196 SP - 269 EP - 276 PB - PMLR ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Lüdke, David A1 - Amiranashvili, Tamaz A1 - Ambellan, Felix A1 - Ezhov, Ivan A1 - Menze, Bjoern A1 - Zachow, Stefan T1 - Landmark-free Statistical Shape Modeling via Neural Flow Deformations T2 - Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention - MICCAI 2022 N2 - Statistical shape modeling aims at capturing shape variations of an anatomical structure that occur within a given population. Shape models are employed in many tasks, such as shape reconstruction and image segmentation, but also shape generation and classification. Existing shape priors either require dense correspondence between training examples or lack robustness and topological guarantees. We present FlowSSM, a novel shape modeling approach that learns shape variability without requiring dense correspondence between training instances. It relies on a hierarchy of continuous deformation flows, which are parametrized by a neural network. Our model outperforms state-of-the-art methods in providing an expressive and robust shape prior for distal femur and liver. We show that the emerging latent representation is discriminative by separating healthy from pathological shapes. Ultimately, we demonstrate its effectiveness on two shape reconstruction tasks from partial data. Our source code is publicly available (https://github.com/davecasp/flowssm). Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16434-7_44 VL - 13432 PB - Springer, Cham ER - TY - GEN A1 - Sagnol, Guillaume A1 - Hege, Hans-Christian A1 - Weiser, Martin T1 - Using sparse kernels to design computer experiments with tunable precision N2 - Statistical methods to design computer experiments usually rely on a Gaussian process (GP) surrogate model, and typically aim at selecting design points (combinations of algorithmic and model parameters) that minimize the average prediction variance, or maximize the prediction accuracy for the hyperparameters of the GP surrogate. In many applications, experiments have a tunable precision, in the sense that one software parameter controls the tradeoff between accuracy and computing time (e.g., mesh size in FEM simulations or number of Monte-Carlo samples). We formulate the problem of allocating a budget of computing time over a finite set of candidate points for the goals mentioned above. This is a continuous optimization problem, which is moreover convex whenever the tradeoff function accuracy vs. computing time is concave. On the other hand, using non-concave weight functions can help to identify sparse designs. In addition, using sparse kernel approximations drastically reduce the cost per iteration of the multiplicative weights updates that can be used to solve this problem. T3 - ZIB-Report - 16-33 KW - Optimal design of computer experiments KW - Sparse kernels KW - Gaussian Process Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-59605 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schade, Johannes A1 - von Tycowicz, Christoph A1 - Hanik, Martin T1 - Bi-invariant Geodesic Regression with Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative T2 - Information Processing in Medical Imaging N2 - Many phenomena are naturally characterized by measuring continuous transformations such as shape changes in medicine or articulated systems in robotics. Modeling the variability in such datasets requires performing statistics on Lie groups, that is, manifolds carrying an additional group structure. As the Lie group captures the symmetries in the data, it is essential from a theoretical and practical perspective to ask for statistical methods that respect these symmetries; this way they are insensitive to confounding effects, e.g., due to the choice of reference coordinate systems. In this work, we investigate geodesic regression---a generalization of linear regression originally derived for Riemannian manifolds. While Lie groups can be endowed with Riemannian metrics, these are generally incompatible with the group structure. We develop a non-metric estimator using an affine connection setting. It captures geodesic relationships respecting the symmetries given by left and right translations. For its computation, we propose an efficient fixed point algorithm requiring simple differential expressions that can be calculated through automatic differentiation. We perform experiments on a synthetic example and evaluate our method on an open-access, clinical dataset studying knee joint configurations under the progression of osteoarthritis. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-96628-6_4 SP - 49 EP - 63 PB - Springer CY - Lecture Notes in Computer Science ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brence, Blaž A1 - Brummer, Josephine A1 - Dercksen, Vincent J. A1 - Özel, Mehmet Neset A1 - Kulkarni, Abhishkek A1 - Wolterhoff, Neele A1 - Prohaska, Steffen A1 - Hiesinger, Peter Robin A1 - Baum, Daniel T1 - Semi-automatic Geometrical Reconstruction and Analysis of Filopodia Dynamics in 4D Two-Photon Microscopy Images JF - bioRxiv N2 - Background: Filopodia are thin and dynamic membrane protrusions that play a crucial role in cell migration, axon guidance, and other processes where cells explore and interact with their surroundings. Historically, filopodial dynamics have been studied in great detail in 2D in cultured cells, and more recently in 3D culture as well as living brains. However, there is a lack of efficient tools to trace and track filopodia in 4D images of complex brain cells. Results: To address this issue, we have developed a semi-automatic workflow for tracing filopodia in 3D images and tracking the traced filopodia over time. The workflow was developed based on high-resolution data of photoreceptor axon terminals in the in vivo context of normal Drosophila brain development, but devised to be applicable to filopodia in any system, including at different temporal and spatial scales. In contrast to the pre-existing methods, our workflow relies solely on the original intensity images without the requirement for segmentation or complex preprocessing. The workflow was realized in C++ within the Amira software system and consists of two main parts, dataset pre-processing, and geometrical filopodia reconstruction, where each of the two parts comprises multiple steps. In this paper, we provide an extensive workflow description and demonstrate its versatility for two different axo-dendritic morphologies, R7 and Dm8 cells. Finally, we provide an analysis of the time requirements for user input and data processing. Conclusion: To facilitate simple application within Amira or other frameworks, we share the source code, which is available athttps://github.com/zibamira/filopodia-tool. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.20.654789 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brence, Blaž A1 - Wandelt, Laura R. A1 - Walter, Sophie A1 - Sigrist, Stephan J. A1 - Petzoldt, Astrid G. A1 - Baum, Daniel T1 - Semi-automatic 3D-quantification of in-vivo synapse formation JF - ResearchSquare N2 - Background: Synapses, as specialised cell-cell contacts, allow for a faithful and controlled signal transmission between a neuron and a target cell. Presynapses, the sites of neurotransmitter release, form de novo throughout the development of an organism. Although this process is fundamental to the development and function of synaptic circuits, how developing neurons control number and distribution of individual synapses remains poorly understood. In-vivo imaging analysis of synapse formation at the neuromuscular junction of anaesthetised Drosophila third instar larvae allows for spatial and temporal resolution of the underlying molecular processes. However, high-throughput, comprehensive analysis are hampered by the manual and time-consuming imaging analysis methods applied hitherto. Here, we focus on the early presynaptic formation steps, that is, the presynaptic seeding, initiated by the formation of transient Liprin-a/SYD1 seeding sites, either stabilised or disintegrated over a time span of 30-90 min. Results: To investigate the dynamics of the Liprin-a/SYD1 seeding sites, we developed an automated analysis pipeline for 3D confocal images from in-vivo imaging at distinct time points to analyse fluorescently labelled presynaptic protein dynamics during early synapse formation. The workflow is realised in the data analysis software Amira, utilising the hierarchical watershed algorithm, and was designed for automatic processing with an option for manual proofreading. Compared to the previous 2D manual quantification, this automated approach provides a higher sensitivity in single Liprin-a seeding site detection in low-intensity areas and in regions of dense seeding sites.In addition, it substantially reduces the work time. To account for possible errors occurring in the automated processing, we implemented an additional proofreading step allowing for a manual correction of Liprin-a seeding site segmentation and assignment, thus greatly improving the analysis while only marginally increasing work time by 10% to a total work time reduction of 80% compared to the 2D manual analysis paradigm. Conclusion: The process of synaptogenesis underlies the general principles of locomotion, learning and memory formation. The developed fast and accurate semi-automated 3D workflow provides a substantial progress in the analysis of this molecular process and its application can be easily extended to other dynamic in-vivo research approaches across species. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6073150/v1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brence, Blaž A1 - Brummer, Josephine A1 - Dercksen, Vincent J. A1 - Özel, Mehmet Neset A1 - Kulkarni, Abhishek A1 - Wolterhoff, Neele A1 - Prohaska, Steffen A1 - Hiesinger, Peter Robin A1 - Baum, Daniel T1 - Semi-automatic geometrical reconstruction and analysis of filopodia dynamics in 4D two-photon microscopy images JF - BMC Bioinformatics N2 - Background: Filopodia are thin and dynamic membrane protrusions that play a crucial role in cell migration, axon guidance, and other processes where cells explore and interact with their surroundings. Historically, filopodial dynamics have been studied in great detail in 2D in cultured cells, and more recently in 3D culture as well as living brains. However, there is a lack of efficient tools to trace and track filopodia in 4D images of complex brain cells. Results: To address this issue, we have developed a semi-automatic workflow for tracing filopodia in 3D images and tracking the traced filopodia over time. The workflow was developed based on high-resolution data of photoreceptor axon terminals in the in vivo context of normal Drosophila brain development, but devised to be applicable to filopodia in any system, including at different temporal and spatial scales. In contrast to the pre-existing methods, our workflow relies solely on the original intensity images without the requirement for segmentation or complex preprocessing. The workflow was realized in C++ within the Amira software system and consists of two main parts, dataset pre-processing, and geometrical filopodia reconstruction, where each of the two parts comprises multiple steps. In this paper, we provide an extensive workflow description and demonstrate its versatility for two different axo-dendritic morphologies, R7 and Dm8 cells. Finally, we provide an analysis of the time requirements for user input and data processing. Conclusion: To facilitate simple application within Amira or other frameworks, we share the source code, which is available at https://github.com/zibamira/filopodia-tool. Y1 - 2026 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-026-06385-4 VL - 27 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lelièvre, Tony A1 - Zhang, Wei T1 - Pathwise estimates for effective dynamics: the case of nonlinear vectorial reaction coordinates JF - Multiscale Modeling and Simulation N2 - Effective dynamics using conditional expectation was proposed in [F. Legoll and T. Lelièvre, Nonlinearity, 2010] to approximate the essential dynamics of high-dimensional diffusion processes along a given reaction coordinate. The approximation error of the effective dynamics when it is used to approximate the behavior of the original dynamics has been considered in recent years. As a continuation of the previous work [F. Legoll, T. Lelièvre, and S. Olla, Stoch. Process. Appl, 2017], in this paper we obtain pathwise estimates for effective dynamics when the reaction coordinate function is either nonlinear or vector-valued. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1137/18M1186034 IS - 17 SP - 1019 EP - 1051 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Wei T1 - Some new results on relative entropy production, time reversal, and optimal control of time-inhomogeneous diffusion processes JF - Journal of Mathematical Physics N2 - This paper studies time-inhomogeneous nonequilibrium diffusion processes, including both Brownian dynamics and Langevin dynamics. We derive upper bounds of the relative entropy production of the time-inhomogeneous process with respect to the transient invariant probability measures. We also study the time reversal of the reverse process in Crooks' fluctuation theorem. We show that the time reversal of the reverse process coincides with the optimally controlled forward process that leads to zero variance importance sampling estimator based on Jarzynski's equality. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0038740 VL - 62 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Wei A1 - Klus, Stefan A1 - Conrad, Tim A1 - Schütte, Christof T1 - Learning chemical reaction networks from trajectory data JF - SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems (SIADS) N2 - We develop a data-driven method to learn chemical reaction networks from trajectory data. Modeling the reaction system as a continuous-time Markov chain and assuming the system is fully observed,our method learns the propensity functions of the system with predetermined basis functions by maximizing the likelihood function of the trajectory data under l^1 sparse regularization. We demonstrate our method with numerical examples using synthetic data and carry out an asymptotic analysis of the proposed learning procedure in the infinite-data limit. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1137/19M1265880 VL - 18 IS - 4 SP - 2000 EP - 2046 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Iravani, Sahar A1 - Conrad, Tim ED - Holzinger, A. ED - Kieseberg, P. ED - Tjoa, A. ED - Weippl, E. T1 - Deep Learning for Proteomics Data for Feature Selection and Classification T2 - Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction. CD-MAKE 2019 Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29726-8_19 VL - 11713 PB - Springer, Cham ER - TY - THES A1 - Iravani, Sahar T1 - Interpretable Deep Learning Approaches for Biomarker Detection from High-Dimensional Biomedical Data Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eigen, Lennart A1 - Ladenburger, Pius A1 - Brence, Blaž A1 - Shubitidze, Ani A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Hildebrandt, Thomas A1 - Brecht, Michael T1 - Elephant trunk tip musculature reflects species differences in grasping behavior JF - Communications Biology N2 - Elephants use their trunks, muscular hydrostats, to perform a plethora of tasks. Trunk tip morphology as well as grasping behavior differ between elephant species. While African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) use their dorsal and ventral finger for pinching movements, Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) prefer to wrap around objects with their one dorsal finger and ventral bulb trunk tip lip. Moreover, E. maximus can flip their ventral bulb backwards to clamp objects behind the trunk tip. Whether trunk tip musculature differs between elephant species and muscle architecture is reflected by preferred grasping behavior is, however, not clear. In this study, we performed dense muscle fascicle reconstruction of three L. africana and three E. maximus hemi-trunk tips using a combination of manual and automated segmentation of high-resolution microfocus tomography (microCT) scans. We distinguish three types of muscle fascicles: longitudinal (bending and shortening), radial (elongating) and transversal muscle fascicles (elongating). We found that trunk tips of L. africana consist to one third of longitudinal and two thirds radial/transversal muscle fascicles, likely aiding in their grasping behavior, while E. maximus trunk tips consist to two thirds of longitudinal and one third radial/transversal muscle fascicles, which is advantageous for their wrapping and backward clamping behavior. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08998-6 VL - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Wei A1 - Hartmann, Carsten A1 - von Kleist, Max T1 - Optimal control of Markov jump processes: Asymptotic analysis, algorithms and applications to the modeling of chemical reaction systems JF - Communications in Mathematical Sciences N2 - Markov jump processes are widely used to model natural and engineered processes. In the context of biological or chemical applications one typically refers to the chemical master equation (CME), which models the evolution of the probability mass of any copy-number combination of the interacting particles. When many interacting particles (“species”) are considered, the complexity of the CME quickly increases, making direct numerical simulations impossible. This is even more problematic when one aims at controlling the Markov jump processes defined by the CME. In this work, we study both open loop and feedback optimal control problems of the Markov jump processes in the case that the controls can only be switched at fixed control stages. Based on Kurtz’s limit theorems, we prove the convergence of the respective control value functions of the underlying Markov decision problem as the copy numbers of the species go to infinity. In the case of the optimal control problem on a finite time-horizon, we propose a hybrid control policy algorithm to overcome the difficulties due to the curse of dimensionality when the copy number of the involved species is large. Two numerical examples demonstrate the suitability of both the analysis and the proposed algorithms. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4310/CMS.2018.v16.n2.a1 SP - 293 EP - 331 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sharma, Upanshu A1 - Zhang, Wei T1 - Non-reversible sampling schemes on submanifolds JF - SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis N2 - Calculating averages with respect to probability measures on submanifolds is often necessary in various application areas such as molecular dynamics, computational statistical mechanics and Bayesian statistics. In recent years, various numerical schemes have been proposed in the literature to study this problem based on appropriate reversible constrained stochastic dynamics. In this paper we present and analyse a non-reversible generalisation of the projection-based scheme developed by one of the authors [ESAIM: M2AN, 54 (2020), pp. 391-430]. This scheme consists of two steps - starting from a state on the submanifold, we first update the state using a non-reversible stochastic differential equation which takes the state away from the submanifold, and in the second step we project the state back onto the manifold using the long-time limit of a ordinary differential equation. We prove the consistency of this numerical scheme and provide quantitative error estimates for estimators based on finite-time running averages. Furthermore, we present theoretical analysis which shows that this scheme outperforms its reversible counterpart in terms of asymptotic variance. We demonstrate our findings on an illustrative test example. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1137/20M1378752 VL - 59 IS - 6 SP - 2989 EP - 3031 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhang, Wei T1 - Ergodic SDEs on submanifolds and related numerical sampling schemes JF - ESAIM: Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis N2 - In many applications, it is often necessary to sample the mean value of certain quantity with respect to a probability measure $\mu$ on the level set of a smooth function ξ:R^d→R^k, 1≤k