Department of Mathematics
The Florida State University

This Week in Mathematics

16 - 21 March 1998

Monday: 16 March 1998

Dissertation Defense, 2:00 p.m., SCRI conference room (499 DSL)

Ivo D. Dinov, Florida State University
Mathematical & Statistical Techniques for Modeling & Analysis of Medical Data
Analysis and interpretation of medical data is oftentimes challenging due to intrinsic and extrinsic reasons. Two of these are presence of noise (random or deterministic) in the data, and the infinite anatomical, functional and physiological variability of the data obtained from seemingly identical sources. In particular, the study of the human brain, its structure and metabolism is cluttered by vast differences between any two brains and the unavoidable existence of noise, with (usually) unknown characteristics, mixed with the real signal.

In this manuscript we exploit two main problems; Identifying the regions of activation in single or multi-subject human brain functional studies, and quantifying the performance of various image-registration (warping) methods based of functional or structural single or group data. To address the first problem we develop a Sub-Volume Thresholding (SVT) technique that determines the statistically significant regions of perfusion in functional volumetric data (PET, SPECT, fMRI). The second problem is approached from a "transform-analytic" point of view; We convert the image-space warp-characterization problem into a wavelet or fractal (transform) space question. The reasons behind quantifying warp performance in transform space is that we can view various discrete transformations as good compression and denoising tools. For example, we propose a frequency-adaptive wavelet thresholding nonlinearity which exhibits some optimality properties in terms of stripping off the noise components of the signals and at the same time extracting the essence of the data in a robust and concise manner. We show a number of examples illustrating the methodology and the results of applying our models for analyzing image-alignment of anatomical MRI data and determining the activation sites, under different stimulation paradigms, in functional PET and SPECT images.

Graduate Seminar, 2:30 p.m., 204B Love Building

[no Seminar this week]

Knot Theory Seminar, 3:35 p.m., 104 Love Building

Javier Arsuaga, Florida State University
Modeling Viral DNA Packaging in Capsids
The talk will start at 3:35pm, or after Ivo Dinov's dissertation defense, whichever is later.

Tuesday: 17 March 1998

Wednesday: 18 March 1998

(Real) Analysis Seminar, 2:30 p.m., 102 Love Building

Working through Carlos Kenig's lecture notes on oscillatory integrals and nonlinear pde.

Complex/Symbolic Coffee, 3:15 p.m., 105 Love Building
Complex/Symbolic, 3:35 p.m., 102 Love Building

Gordon Erlebacher, Florida State University
Scientific Visualization

Thursday: 19 March 1998

2nd National SIAM Student Conference & SIAM-SEAS Meeting, CPD

Algebra Seminar, 2:00 p.m., 104 Love Building

Warren Nichols, Florida State University
Algorithms in Invariant Theory

Topology Tea Time, 3:00 p.m., 204 Love Building
Topology Seminar, 3:35 p.m., 104 Love Building

[to be announced]

Florida State Student Actuarial Society, 5:00 p.m., 204 Love Building

Joyce Bohl, A.S.A., Florida Department of Insurance
A Career as a Health Actuary
Plus Elections for Fall 1998 & Announcements

Friday: 20 March 1998

2nd National SIAM Student Conference & SIAM-SEAS Meeting, CPD

Colloquium Coffee, 3:00 p.m., 204 Love Building
Colloquium, 3:30 p.m., 101 Love Building

[SIAM Meeting, no Colloquium]

Scientific Computing Seminar, 4:30 p.m., 200 Love Building

[SIAM Meeting, no Colloquium]

Saturday: 21 March 1998

2nd National SIAM Student Conference & SIAM-SEAS Meeting, CPD

Seminars and colloquia at "that other" university [a.k.a. the University of Florida]

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