A Mesh Meaningful Segmentation Algorithm Using Skeleton and Minima-Rule
In this paper, a hierarchical shape decomposition algorithm is proposed, which integrates the advantages of skeleton-based and minima-rule-based meaningful segmentation algorithms. The method makes use of new geometrical and topological functions of skeleton to define initial cutting critical points, and then employs salient contours with negative minimal principal curvature values to determine natural final boundary curves among parts. And sufficient experiments have been carried out on many meshes, and shown that our framework can provide more reasonable perceptual results than single skeleton-based [8] or minima-rule-based [15] algorithm. In addition, our algorithm not only can divide a mesh of any genus into a collection of genus zero, but also partition level-of-detail meshes into similar parts.

title: An adaptive octree textures painting algorithm
abstract: Traditional Texturing using a set of two dimensional image maps is an established and widespread practice. However, it is difficult to parameterize a model in texture space, particularly with representations such as implicit surfaces, subdivision surfaces, and very dense or detailed polygonal meshes. Based on an adaptive octree textures definition, this paper proposes a direct reverse-projecting pixel-level painting approach which has less storage requirements to general octree textures maps. In addition, it depends on texture lookup in the GPU, which particularly lookup faster than the non-GPU program.

title: Feature-aligned shape texturing
abstract: The essence of a 3D shape can often be well captured by its salient feature curves. In this paper, we explore the use of salient curves in synthesizing intuitive, shape-revealing textures on surfaces. Our texture synthesis is guided by two principles: matching the direction of the texture patterns to those of the salient curves, and aligning the prominent feature lines in the texture to the salient curves exactly. We have observed that textures synthesized by these principles not only fit naturally to the surface geometry, but also visually reveal, even reinforce, the shape's essential characteristics. We call these feature-aligned shape texturing. Our technique is fully automatic, and introduces two novel technical components in vector-field-guided texture synthesis: an algorithm that orients the salient curves on a surface for constrained vector field generation, and a feature-to-feature texture optimization.

title: 2.5D Visualisation of Overlapping Biological Networks
abstract: Biological data is often structured in the form of complex interconnected networks such as protein interaction and metabolic networks. In this paper, we investigate a new problem of visualising such overlapping biological networks. Two networks overlap if they share some nodes and edges. We present an approach for constructing visualisations of two overlapping networks, based on a restricted three dimensional representation. More specifically, we use three parallel two dimensional planes placed in three dimensions to represent overlapping networks: one for each network (the top and the bottom planes) and one for the overlapping part (in the middle plane). Our method aims to achieve both drawing aesthetics (or conventions) for each individual network, and highlighting the intersection part by them. Using three biological datasets, we evaluate our visualisation design with the aim to test whether overlapping networks can support the visual analysis of heterogeneous and yet interconnected networks.

title: Debugging object-oriented programs with behavior views
abstract: A complex software system may perform many program tasks during execution to provide the required functionalities. To detect and localize bugs related to the implementation of these tasks, the software developers must be able to monitor the progress of the tasks during execution and check whether the actions for these tasks have been performed correctly. This paper presents a debugger to facilitate this monitoring. The debugger introduces a new kind of abstraction, the behavior views, that can be used to specify how the actions for a program task are expected to occur in various scenarios. Enhanced with statements that can check properties at various steps during the progress of the task, a behavior view can be used to monitor whether the actions for the tasks have been performed at the right time, on the right set of data, and with the right effects on the program states. Our initial case study indicates that the debugger can be useful for localizing bugs.

title: GraphScape: integrated multivariate network visualization
abstract: In this paper, we introduce a new method, GraphScape, to visualize multivariate networks, i.e., graphs with multivariate data associated with their nodes. GraphScape adopts a landscape metaphor with network structure displayed on a 2D plane and the surface height in the third dimension represents node attribute. More than one attribute can be visualized simultaneously by using multiple surfaces. In addition, GraphScape can be easily combined with existing methods to further increase the total number of attributes visualized. One of the major goals of GraphScape is to reveal multivariate graph clustering, which is based on both network structure and node attributes. This is achieved by a new layout algorithm and an innovative way of constructing attribute surface, which also allows visual clustering at different scales through interaction. A simplified attribute surface model is also proposed to reduce computation requirement when visualizing large networks. GraphScape is applied to networks of three different size (20, 100, and 1500) to demonstrate its effectiveness.

title: Multiresolution Spatial Databases: Making Web-Based Spatial Applications Faster
abstract: Spatial data has now been used extensively in the Web environment, providing online customized maps and supporting map-based applications. The full potential of Web-based spatial applications, however, has yet to be achieved due to performance issues related to the large sizes and high complexity of spatial data. In this paper, we introduce a multiresolution approach to spatial data management and query processing such that the database server can choose spatial data at the right resolution level for different Web applications. One highly desirable property of the proposed approach is that the server-side processing cost and network traffic can be reduced when the level of resolution required by applications are low. Another advantage is that our approach pushes complex multiresolution structures and algorithms into the spatial database engine. That is, the developer of spatial Web applications needs not to be concerned with such complexity. This paper explains the basic idea, technical feasibility and applications of multiresolution spatial databases.

title: Seeing more than the graph: evaluation of multivariate graph visualization methods
abstract: Many real-world networks are multivariate, i.e., they have attributes associated with nodes and/or edges. Examples include social networks whose nodes represent people and edges represent relationships. There is usually information about each person (such as name, age, and gender) and the relationship (such type, duration, and strength). Besides common graph analysis tasks (such as identifying the most influential or structurally important nodes), there are more complex analyses for multivariate networks. One of these is the multivariate graph clustering, i.e., identifying clusters formed by nodes that have similar attributes and are close to each other in terms of graph distance. For instance, in social network analysis, it is interesting to sociologists whether or not people with similar characteristics (node attributes) are also connected to each other. Currently there are very few visualization methods available for such analysis.
 Graph and multivariate visualization have been well studied separately in the literature. Herman et al. summarized the recent work on graph visualization , and Wong and Bergeron covered the development in multivariate visualization . However, there is relatively less work available on multivariate network visualization. Two types of approaches are commonly used. The first one is the mapping approach, which maps attributes to visual elements of a node or edge. A simple example is to map one attribute to node size and another to node color . A more advanced mapping approach uses glyphs to represent node or edge attributes. One such example is to use the length and width of a rectangle node glyph to represent two node attributes . The second one is the 2.5D approach: it uses the third dimension to present the multivariate information, while the graph is shown on a 2D plane. Examples include the recently proposed "GraphScape" , which adopts a landscape metaphor: each attribute is represented by a two-and-a-half- dimensional surface, whose height indicates its value.
 Each approach has its strength and weakness. The mapping approach is effective of showing numerical value using visual element such as size, but it can be difficult to compare the value of attributes represented by different elements such as size and color. The problem is alleviated by a carefully designed glyph, but visual complexity increases quickly as the number of attributes that a glyph needs to represent grows. The 2.5D approach is good at showing the distribution of attribute values over the network, but the attribute surface could introduce occlusion and affect the visibility of underlying network.
 In this paper, we present a study evaluating the effectiveness of these two approaches for different analysis tasks. We compare the performance of mapping and 2.5D approach in a controlled lab environment. We included both simple tasks (such as identifying nodes with the largest attribute value) and complex tasks (such as multivariate graph clustering). The performance is measured both in terms of accuracy and completion time. The results indicate that statistically mapping approach performs better for the simple tasks, while the 2.5D approach is favored in the complex task. The outcomes from this study provide some guidelines for the design of effective multivariate graph visualization for different analysis tasks.