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Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
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    Mathematical models as research data via flexiformal theory graphs
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2017) Kohlhase, Michael; Koprucki, Thomas; Müller, Dennis; Tabelow, Karsten
    Mathematical modeling and simulation (MMS) has now been established as an essential part of the scientific work in many disciplines. It is common to categorize the involved numerical data and to some extent the corresponding scientific software as research data. But both have their origin in mathematical models, therefore any holistic approach to research data in MMS should cover all three aspects: data, software, and models. While the problems of classifying, archiving and making accessible are largely solved for data and first frameworks and systems are emerging for software, the question of how to deal with mathematical models is completely open. In this paper we propose a solution to cover all aspects of mathematical models: the underlying mathematical knowledge, the equations, boundary conditions, numeric approximations, and documents in a flexiformal framework, which has enough structure to support the various uses of models in scientific and technology workflows. Concretely we propose to use the OMDoc/MMT framework to formalize mathematical models and show the adequacy of this approach by modeling a simple, but non-trivial model: van Roosbroecks drift-diffusion model for one-dimensional devices. This formalization and future extensions allows us to support the modeler by e.g. flexibly composing models, visualizing Model Pathway Diagrams, and annotating model equations in documents as induced from the formalized documents by flattening. This directly solves some of the problems in treating MMS as research data and opens the way towards more MKM services for models.
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    Local estimation of the noise level in MRI using structural adaptation
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2014) Tabelow, Karsten; Voss, Henning U.; Polzehl, Jörg
    We present a method for local estimation of the signal-dependent noise level in magnetic resonance images. The procedure uses a multi-scale approach to adaptively infer on local neighborhoods with similar data distribution. It exploits a maximum-likelihood estimator for the local noise level. The validity of the method was evaluated on repeated diffusion data of a phantom and simulated data using T1-data corrupted with artificial noise. Simulation results are compared with a recently proposed estimate. The method was applied to a high-resolution diffusion dataset to obtain improved diffusion model estimation results and to demonstrate its usefulness in methods for enhancing diffusion data.
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    More specific signal detection in functional magnetic resonance imaging by false discovery rate control for hierarchically structured systems of hypotheses
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2015) Schildknecht, Konstantin; Tabelow, Karsten; Dickhaus, Thorsten
    Signal detection in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) inherently involves the problem of testing a large number of hypotheses. A popular strategy to address this multiplicity is the control of the false discovery rate (FDR). In this work we consider the case where prior knowledge is available to partition the set of all hypotheses into disjoint subsets or families, e. g., by a-priori knowledge on the functionality of certain regions of interest. If the proportion of true null hypotheses differs between families, this structural information can be used to increase statistical power. We propose a two-stage multiple test procedure which first excludes those families from the analysis for which there is no strong evidence for containing true alternatives. We show control of the family-wise error rate at this first stage of testing. Then, at the second stage, we proceed to test the hypotheses within each non-excluded family and obtain asymptotic control of the FDR within each family in this second stage. Our main mathematical result is that this two-stage strategy implies asymptotic control of the FDR with respect to all hypotheses. In simulations we demonstrate the increased power of this new procedure in comparison with established procedures in situations with highly unbalanced families. Finally, we apply the proposed method to simulated and to real fMRI data.
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    Adaptive smoothing of multi-shell diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance data by msPOAS
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2013) Becker, Saskia; Tabelow, Karsten; Mohammadi, Siawoosh; Weiskopf, Nikolaus; Polzehl, Jörg
    In this article we present a noise reduction method (msPOAS) for multi-shell diffusionweighted magnetic resonance data. To our knowledge, this is the first smoothing method which allows simultaneous smoothing of all q-shells. It is applied directly to the diffusion weighted data and consequently allows subsequent analysis by any model. Due to its adaptivity, the procedure avoids blurring of the inherent structures and preserves discontinuities. MsPOAS extends the recently developed positionorientation adaptive smoothing (POAS) procedure to multi-shell experiments. At the same time it considerably simplifies and accelerates the calculations. The behavior of the algorithm msPOAS is evaluated on diffusion-weighted data measured on a single shell and on multiple shells.
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    Consistency results and confidence intervals for adaptive l1-penalized estimators of the high-dimensional sparse precision matrix
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2016) Avanesov, Valeriy; Polzehl, Jörg; Tabelow, Karsten
    In this paper we consider the adaptive '1-penalized estimators for the precision matrix in a finite-sample setting. We show consistency results and construct confidence intervals for the elements of the true precision matrix. Additionally, we analyze the bias of these confidence intervals. We apply the estimator to the estimation of functional connectivity networks in functional Magnetic Resonance data and elaborate the theoretical results in extensive simulation experiments.
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    Adaptive smoothing as inference strategy: More specificity for unequally sized or neighboring regions
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2013) Welvaert, Marijke; Tabelow, Karsten; Seurinck, Ruth; Rosseel, Yves
    Although spatial smoothing of fMRI data can serve multiple purposes, increasing the sensitivity of activation detection is probably its greatest benefit. However, this increased detection power comes with a loss of specificity when non-adaptive smoothing (i.e. the standard in most software packages) is used. Simulation studies and analysis of experimental data was performed using the R packages neu-Rosim and fmri. In these studies, we systematically investigated the effect of spatial smoothing on the power and number of false positives in two particular cases that are often encountered in fMRI research: (1) Single condition activation detection for regions that differ in size, and (2) multiple condition activation detection for neighbouring regions. Our results demonstrate that adaptive smoothing is superior in both cases because less false positives are introduced by the spatial smoothing process compared to standard Gaussian smoothing or FDR inference of unsmoothed data.
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    Modeling high resolution MRI: Statistical issues with low SNR
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2015) Polzehl, Jörg; Tabelow, Karsten
    Noise is a common issue for all Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques and obviously leads to variability of the estimates in any model describing the data. A number of special MR sequences as well as increasing spatial resolution in MR experiments further diminish the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, with low SNR the expected signal deviates from its theoretical value. Common modeling approaches therefore lead to a bias in estimated model parameters. Adjustments require an analysis of the data generating process and a characterization of the resulting distribution of the imaging data. We provide an adequate quasi-likelihood approach that employs these characteristics. We elaborate on the effects of typical data preprocessing and analyze the bias effects related to low SNR for the example of the diffusion tensor model in diffusion MRI. We then demonstrate that the problem is relevant even for data from the Human Connectome Project, one of the highest quality diffusion MRI data available so far.
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    Improving accuracy and temporal resolution of learning curve estimation for within- and across-session analysis
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2015) Deliano, Matthias; Tabelow, Karsten; König, Reinhard; Polzehl, Jörg
    Estimation of learning curves is ubiquitously based on proportions of correct responses within moving trial windows. In this approach, it is tacitly assumed that learning performance is constant within the moving windows, which, however, is often not the case. In the present study we demonstrate that violations of this assumption lead to systematic errors in the analysis of learning curves, and we explored the dependency of these errors on window size, different statistical models, and learning phase. To reduce these errors for single subjects as well as on the population level, we propose adequate statistical methods for the estimation of learning curves and the construction of confidence intervals, trial by trial. Applied to data from a shuttle-box avoidance experiment with Mongolian gerbils, our approach revealed performance changes occurring at multiple temporal scales within and across training sessions which were otherwise obscured in the conventional analysis. The proper assessment of the behavioral dynamics of learning at a high temporal resolution clarified and extended current descriptions of the process of avoidance learning. It further disambiguated the interpretation of neurophysiological signal changes recorded during training in relation to learning.
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    Mathematical models: A research data category?
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2016) Koprucki, Thomas; Tabelow, Karsten
    Mathematical modeling and simulation (MMS) has now been established as an essential part of the scientific work in many disciplines and application areas. It is common to categorize the involved numerical data and to some extend the corresponding scientific software as research data. Both have their origin in mathematical models. In this contribution we propose a holistic approach to research data in MMS by including the mathematical models and discuss the initial requirements for a conceptual data model for this field.
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    hMRI - A toolbox for using quantitative MRI in neuroscience and clinical research
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2018) Balteau, Evelyne; Tabelow, Karsten; Ashburner, John; Callaghan, Martina F.; Draganski, Bogdan; Helms, Gunther; Kherif, Ferath; Leutritz, Tobias; Lutti, Antoine; Phillips, Christophe; Reimer, Enrico; Ruthotto, Lars; Seif, Maryam; Weiskopf, Nikolaus; Ziegler, Gabriel; Mohammad, Siawoosh
    Neuroscience and clinical researchers are increasingly interested in quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) due to its sensitivity to micro-structural properties of brain tissue such as axon, myelin, iron and water concentration.We introduce the hMRI-toolbox, an easy-to-use tool openly available on GitHub, for qMRI data handling and processing, presented together with a tutorial and example dataset. This toolbox allows the estimation of high-quality multi-parameter qMRI maps (longitudinal and effective transverse relaxation rates R1 and R? 2, proton density PD and magnetisation transfer MT saturation) that can be used for accurate delineation of subcortical brain structures and calculation of standard and novel MRI biomarkers of tissue microstructure. Embedded in the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) framework, it can be readily combined with existing SPM toolboxes for estimating diffusion MRI parameter maps, and it benefits from the extensive range of established SPM tools for high-accuracy spatial registration and statistical inferences. The hMRI-toolbox is an efficient, robust and simple framework for investigating qMRI data in neuroscience and clinical research.