This paper presents a novel approach for creation of topographical function and object markers used within watershed segmentation. Typically, marker-driven watershed segmentation extracts seeds indicating the presence of objects or background at specific image locations. The marker locations are then set to be regional minima within the topological surface (typically, the gradient of the original input image), and the watershed algorithm is applied. In contrast, our approach uses two classifiers, one trained to produce markers, the other trained to produce object boundaries. As a result of using machine-learned pixel classification, the proposed algorithm is directly applicable to both single channel and multichannel image data. Additionally, rather than flooding the gradient image, we use the inverted probability map produced by the second aforementioned classifier as input to the watershed algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of the classification-driven watershed segmentation algorithm for the tasks of 1) image-based granulometry and 2) remote sensing.

Abstract. In glioblastoma (GBM), promoter methylation of the DNA repair gene MGMT is associated with benefit from chemotherapy. Because MGMT promoter methylation status can not be determined in all cases, a surrogate for the methylation status would be a useful clinical tool. Correlation between methylation status and magnetic resonance imaging features has been reported suggesting that non-invasive MGMT promoter methylation status detection is possible. In this work, a retrospective analysis of T2, FLAIR and T1-post contrast MR images in patients with newly diagnosed GBM is performed using L1-regularized neural networks. Tumor texture, assessed quantitatively was utilized for predicting the MGMT promoter methylation status of a GBM in 59 patients. The texture features were extracted using a space-frequency texture analysis based on the S-transform and utilized by a neural network to predict the methylation status of a GBM. Blinded classification of MGMT promoter methylation status reached an average accuracy of 87.7%, indicating that the proposed technique is accurate enough for clinical use.

Detecting and segmenting brain tumors in Magnetic Res

Background: The use of mass spectrometry as a proteomics tool is poised to revolutionize early disease diagnosis and biomarker identification. Unfortunately, before standard supervised classification algorithms can be employed, the "curse of dimensionality" needs to be solved. Due to the sheer amount of information contained within the mass spectra, most standard machine learning techniques cannot be directly applied. Instead, feature selection techniques are used to first reduce the dimensionality of the input space and thus enable the subsequent use of classification algorithms. This paper examines feature selection techniques for proteomic mass spectrometry.