40-Issue 3

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https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/2633046

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Browsing 40-Issue 3 by Subject "Applied computing"

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    CommAID: Visual Analytics for Communication Analysis through Interactive Dynamics Modeling
    (The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2021) Fischer, Maximilian T.; Seebacher, Daniel; Sevastjanova, Rita; Keim, Daniel A.; El-Assady, Mennatallah; Borgo, Rita and Marai, G. Elisabeta and Landesberger, Tatiana von
    Communication consists of both meta-information as well as content. Currently, the automated analysis of such data often focuses either on the network aspects via social network analysis or on the content, utilizing methods from text-mining. However, the first category of approaches does not leverage the rich content information, while the latter ignores the conversation environment and the temporal evolution, as evident in the meta-information. In contradiction to communication research, which stresses the importance of a holistic approach, both aspects are rarely applied simultaneously, and consequently, their combination has not yet received enough attention in automated analysis systems. In this work, we aim to address this challenge by discussing the difficulties and design decisions of such a path as well as contribute CommAID, a blueprint for a holistic strategy to communication analysis. It features an integrated visual analytics design to analyze communication networks through dynamics modeling, semantic pattern retrieval, and a user-adaptable and problem-specific machine learning-based retrieval system. An interactive multi-level matrix-based visualization facilitates a focused analysis of both network and content using inline visuals supporting cross-checks and reducing context switches. We evaluate our approach in both a case study and through formative evaluation with eight law enforcement experts using a real-world communication corpus. Results show that our solution surpasses existing techniques in terms of integration level and applicability. With this contribution, we aim to pave the path for a more holistic approach to communication analysis.
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    Implicit Modeling of Patient-Specific Aortic Dissections with Elliptic Fourier Descriptors
    (The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2021) Mistelbauer, Gabriel; Rössl, Christian; Bäumler, Kathrin; Preim, Bernhard; Fleischmann, Dominik; Borgo, Rita and Marai, G. Elisabeta and Landesberger, Tatiana von
    Aortic dissection is a life-threatening vascular disease characterized by abrupt formation of a new flow channel (false lumen) within the aortic wall. Survivors of the acute phase remain at high risk for late complications, such as aneurysm formation, rupture, and death. Morphologic features of aortic dissection determine not only treatment strategies in the acute phase (surgical vs. endovascular vs. medical), but also modulate the hemodynamics in the false lumen, ultimately responsible for late complications. Accurate description of the true and false lumen, any communications across the dissection membrane separating the two lumina, and blood supply from each lumen to aortic branch vessels is critical for risk prediction. Patient-specific surface representations are also a prerequisite for hemodynamic simulations, but currently require time-consuming manual segmentation of CT data. We present an aortic dissection cross-sectional model that captures the varying aortic anatomy, allowing for reliable measurements and creation of high-quality surface representations. In contrast to the traditional spline-based cross-sectional model, we employ elliptic Fourier descriptors, which allows users to control the accuracy of the cross-sectional contour of a flow channel. We demonstrate (i) how our approach can solve the requirements for generating surface and wall representations of the flow channels, (ii) how any number of communications between flow channels can be specified in a consistent manner, and (iii) how well branches connected to the respective flow channels are handled. Finally, we discuss how our approach is a step forward to an automated generation of surface models for aortic dissections from raw 3D imaging segmentation masks.
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    Leveraging Topological Events in Tracking Graphs for Understanding Particle Diffusion
    (The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2021) McDonald, Torin; Shrestha, Rebika; Yi, Xiyu; Bhatia, Harsh; Chen, De; Goswami, Debanjan; Pascucci, Valerio; Turbyville, Thomas; Bremer, Peer-Timo; Borgo, Rita and Marai, G. Elisabeta and Landesberger, Tatiana von
    Single particle tracking (SPT) of fluorescent molecules provides significant insights into the diffusion and relative motion of tagged proteins and other structures of interest in biology. However, despite the latest advances in high-resolution microscopy, individual particles are typically not distinguished from clusters of particles. This lack of resolution obscures potential evidence for how merging and splitting of particles affect their diffusion and any implications on the biological environment. The particle tracks are typically decomposed into individual segments at observed merge and split events, and analysis is performed without knowing the true count of particles in the resulting segments. Here, we address the challenges in analyzing particle tracks in the context of cancer biology. In particular, we study the tracks of KRAS protein, which is implicated in nearly 20% of all human cancers, and whose clustering and aggregation have been linked to the signaling pathway leading to uncontrolled cell growth. We present a new analysis approach for particle tracks by representing them as tracking graphs and using topological events –- merging and splitting, to disambiguate the tracks. Using this analysis, we infer a lower bound on the count of particles as they cluster and create conditional distributions of diffusion speeds before and after merge and split events. Using thousands of time-steps of simulated and in-vitro SPT data, we demonstrate the efficacy of our method, as it offers the biologists a new, detailed look into the relationship between KRAS clustering and diffusion speeds.
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    Local Extraction of 3D Time-Dependent Vector Field Topology
    (The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2021) Hofmann, Lutz; Sadlo, Filip; Borgo, Rita and Marai, G. Elisabeta and Landesberger, Tatiana von
    We present an approach to local extraction of 3D time-dependent vector field topology. In this concept, Lagrangian coherent structures, which represent the separating manifolds in time-dependent transport, correspond to generalized streak manifolds seeded along hyperbolic path surfaces (HPSs). Instead of expensive and numerically challenging direct computation of the HPSs by intersection of ridges in the forward and backward finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) fields, our approach employs local extraction of respective candidates in the four-dimensional space-time domain. These candidates are subsequently refined toward the hyperbolic path surfaces, which provides unsteady equivalents of saddle-type critical points, periodic orbits, and bifurcation lines from steady, traditional vector field topology. In contrast to FTLE-based methods, we obtain an explicit geometric representation of the topological skeleton of the flow, which for steady flows coincides with the hyperbolic invariant manifolds of vector field topology. We evaluate our approach on analytical flows, as well as data from computational fluid dynamics, using the FTLE as a ground truth superset, i.e., we also show that FTLE ridges exhibit several types of false positives.
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    Visual Analysis of Electronic Densities and Transitions in Molecules
    (The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2021) Masood, Talha Bin; Thygesen, Signe Sidwall; Linares, Mathieu; Abrikosov, Alexei I.; Natarajan, Vijay; Hotz, Ingrid; Borgo, Rita and Marai, G. Elisabeta and Landesberger, Tatiana von
    The study of electronic transitions within a molecule connected to the absorption or emission of light is a common task in the process of the design of new materials. The transitions are complex quantum mechanical processes and a detailed analysis requires a breakdown of these processes into components that can be interpreted via characteristic chemical properties. We approach these tasks by providing a detailed analysis of the electron density field. This entails methods to quantify and visualize electron localization and transfer from molecular subgroups combining spatial and abstract representations. The core of our method uses geometric segmentation of the electronic density field coupled with a graph-theoretic formulation of charge transfer between molecular subgroups. The design of the methods has been guided by the goal of providing a generic and objective analysis following fundamental concepts. We illustrate the proposed approach using several case studies involving the study of electronic transitions in different molecular systems.
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    Visualizing Carotid Blood Flow Simulations for Stroke Prevention
    (The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2021) Eulzer, Pepe; Meuschke, Monique; Klingner, Carsten M.; Lawonn, Kai; Borgo, Rita and Marai, G. Elisabeta and Landesberger, Tatiana von
    In this work, we investigate how concepts from medical flow visualization can be applied to enhance stroke prevention diagnostics. Our focus lies on carotid stenoses, i.e., local narrowings of the major brain-supplying arteries, which are a frequent cause of stroke. Carotid surgery can reduce the stroke risk associated with stenoses, however, the procedure entails risks itself. Therefore, a thorough assessment of each case is necessary. In routine diagnostics, the morphology and hemodynamics of an afflicted vessel are separately analyzed using angiography and sonography, respectively. Blood flow simulations based on computational fluid dynamics could enable the visual integration of hemodynamic and morphological information and provide a higher resolution on relevant parameters. We identify and abstract the tasks involved in the assessment of stenoses and investigate how clinicians could derive relevant insights from carotid blood flow simulations. We adapt and refine a combination of techniques to facilitate this purpose, integrating spatiotemporal navigation, dimensional reduction, and contextual embedding. We evaluated and discussed our approach with an interdisciplinary group of medical practitioners, fluid simulation and flow visualization researchers. Our initial findings indicate that visualization techniques could promote usage of carotid blood flow simulations in practice.