High-Dimensional Contact Network Epidemiology.

Contact network models are recent alternatives to equation-based models in epidemiology. In this paper, the spread of disease is modeled on contact networks using bond percolation. The weight of the edges in the contact graphs is determined as a function of several variables in which case the weight is the product of the probabilities of independent events involving each of the variables. In the first experiment, the weight of the edges is computed from a single variable involving the number of passengers on flights between two cities within the United States, and in the second experiment, the weight of the edges is computed as a function of several variables using data from 2012 Kenyan household contact networks. In addition, the paper explored the dynamics and adaptive nature of contact networks. The results from the contact network model outperform the equation-based model in estimating the spread of the 1918 Influenza virus.

Steerable Wavelet Machines (SWM): Learning Moving Frames for Texture Classification.

We present texture operators encoding class-specific local organizations of image directions (LOIDs) in a rotation-invariant fashion. The LOIDs are key for visual understanding, and are at the origin of the success of the popular approaches, such as local binary patterns (LBPs) and the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT). Whereas, LBPs and SIFT yield hand-crafted image representations, we propose to learn data-specific representations of the LOIDs in a rotation-invariant fashion. The image operators are based on steerable circular harmonic wavelets (CHWs), offering a rich and yet compact initial representation for characterizing natural textures. The joint location and orientation required to encode the LOIDs is preserved by using moving frames (MFs) texture representations built from locally-steered image gradients that are invariant to rigid motions. In a second step, we use support vector machines to learn a multi-class shaping matrix for the initial CHW representation, yielding data-driven MFs called steerable wavelet machines (SWMs). The SWM forward function is composed of linear operations (i.e., convolution and weighted combinations) interleaved with non-linear steermax operations. We experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed operators for classifying natural textures. Our scheme outperforms recent approaches on several test suites of the Outex and the CUReT databases.

SpotCaliper: fast wavelet-based spot detection with accurate size estimation.

MOTIVATION: SpotCaliper is a novel wavelet-based image-analysis software providing a fast automatic detection scheme for circular patterns (spots), combined with the precise estimation of their size. It is implemented as an ImageJ plugin with a friendly user interface. The user is allowed to edit the results by modifying the measurements (in a semi-automated way), extract data for further analysis. The fine tuning of the detections includes the possibility of adjusting or removing the original detections, as well as adding further spots. RESULTS: The main advantage of the software is its ability to capture the size of spots in a fast and accurate way. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: http://bigwww.epfl.ch/algorithms/spotcaliper/ CONTACT: zsuzsanna.puspoki@epfl.ch SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Optimized Kaiser-Bessel Window Functions for Computed Tomography.

Kaiser-Bessel window functions are frequently used to discretize tomographic problems because they have two desirable properties: 1) their short support leads to a low computational cost and 2) their rotational symmetry makes their imaging transform independent of the direction. In this paper, we aim at optimizing the parameters of these basis functions. We present a formalism based on the theory of approximation and point out the importance of the partition-of-unity condition. While we prove that, for compact-support functions, this condition is incompatible with isotropy, we show that minimizing the deviation from the partition of unity condition is highly beneficial. The numerical results confirm that the proposed tuning of the Kaiser-Bessel window functions yields the best performance.

Adaptive image resizing based on continuous-domain stochastic modeling.

We introduce an adaptive continuous-domain modeling approach to texture and natural images. The continuous-domain image is assumed to be a smooth function, and we embed it in a parameterized Sobolev space. We point out a link between Sobolev spaces and stochastic auto-regressive models, and exploit it for optimally choosing Sobolev parameters from available pixel values. To this aim, we use exact continuous-to-discrete mapping of the auto-regressive model that is based on symmetric exponential splines. The mapping is computationally efficient, and we exploit it for maximizing an approximated Gaussian likelihood function.We account for non-Gaussian Lévy-type processes by deriving a more robust estimator that is based on the sample auto-correlation sequence. Both estimators use multiple initialization values for overcoming the local minima structure of the fitting criteria. Experimental image resizing results indicate that the auto-correlation criterion can cope better with non-Gaussian processes and model mismatch. Our work demonstrates the importance of the auto-correlation function in adaptive image interpolation and image modeling tasks, and we believe it is instrumental in other image processing tasks as well.

Hessian Schatten-norm regularization for linear inverse problems.

We introduce a novel family of invariant, convex, and non-quadratic functionals that we employ to derive regularized solutions of ill-posed linear inverse imaging problems. The proposed regularizers involve the Schatten norms of the Hessian matrix, which are computed at every pixel of the image. They can be viewed as second-order extensions of the popular total-variation (TV) semi-norm since they satisfy the same invariance properties. Meanwhile, by taking advantage of second-order derivatives, they avoid the staircase effect, a common artifact of TV-based reconstructions, and perform well for a wide range of applications. To solve the corresponding optimization problems, we propose an algorithm that is based on a primal-dual formulation. A fundamental ingredient of this algorithm is the projection of matrices onto Schatten norm balls of arbitrary radius. This operation is performed efficiently based on a direct link we provide between vector projections onto lq norm balls and matrix projections onto Schatten norm balls. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods through experimental results on several inverse imaging problems with real and simulated data.