glossary.txt

Glossary of Terms
=================

.. glossary::

  CFRI
    Child and Family Research Institute. This is the project sponsor. CFRI is situated on the campus of BC Children's Hospital and BC Women's Hospital & Health Care Centre, it is home to more than 200 researchers and over 300 trainees.
    
  bedpostx
    An existing implementation using MCMC sampling for local parameter estimation. Short for bayesian estimation of diffusion parameters obtained using sampling techniques with x-ing fibres.

  DTI/dMRI
    Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Also known as Diffusion MRI (dMRI) and Diffusion Tensor MRI (DT-MRI). See section Diffusion Tensor Imaging.
    
  FMRIB
    The Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain.
    
  FSL
    FMRIB’s Software Library. An open source collection of MRI data processing tools, including DTI.
    
  GPU
    Graphics Processing Unit. An integrated circuit optimized towards graphics.
    
  MRI
    Magnetic Resonsance Imaging.
    
  Mask
    An ascii list of binary numbers (1 or 0). A '1' means that the given area in the brain is valid. A '0' indicates that we are either outside of the brain, or in an invalid area. 
    
  OpenCL
    A universal C++ API for interacting with the GPU. 
    
  probtrackx
    An existing implementation using probabilistic streamlining for global parameter estimation. Shorthand for probabilistic tracking of x-ing fibres.
    
  Tractography
    An algorithm that models neural pathways in 3-D space using the results of DTI. It enhances standard the MRI by visualizing the actual fibers in the brain.
    
  Global Connectivity Map
    A matrix created using the probability density function at each voxel. The matrix shows the likelihood of a connection existing between every voxel, given the input data used to estimate the connectivity.
    
  Voxel
    Similar to a pixel, but in 3-D space. It is 3-D volume that builds up to create a 3-D image.
    
  VRAM
    Short hand for Graphics Random Access Memory.
    
  SIMD
    Single instruction, multiple data. A processing architecture where a single processor can perform a single operation on many parallel data elements.
    
  RNG
    Random Number Generation. When we say 'particle RNG state', we mean the particular state of that particle's independent random number generator.
    
  PRNG
    Pseudo-random number generation. Methods of generating high-variability data sets (within some distribution) in a deterministic hardware scheme that mimic nondeterministic results.