-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Meeting report: 1st UK one-day meeting on morphometrics and
statistical shape analysis
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:38:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Chris Klingenberg <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Organization: University of Manchester
To: [email protected]
Dear morphometricians
Below is a brief report about the recent meeting of morphometricians and
statisticians working in the field of shape analysis.
Best wishes,
Chris
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First UK One-Day Meeting on Morphometrics and Statistical Shape Analysis
Manchester, 26 January 2009
The United Kingdom is unique for its community of researchers interested
in the analysis of shape variation. Some of these researchers are in
life sciences departments or medical schools, whereas others are
statistics or mathematics departments. Accordingly, these two groups
tend to be isolated from each other to some degree. A recent meeting in
Manchester was an attempt to break through the disciplinary barriers and
to bring together the whole community at an informal meeting with ample
time for discussion.
The meeting started with a brief introduction by Chris Klingenberg
(University of Manchester) who outlined a century of pioneering research
in the UK that laid the foundations for the area of shape analysis at
the interface of statistics and biology.
Leandro Monteiro (University of Hull) presented approaches for
investigating adaptive radiations of shape, illustrated by his current
research on phyllostomid bats. His account of how information on
phylogeny, adaptation to different diets and the biomechanics of the
mandible and skull illustrated both the challenges and the fascination
of studying the evolution of shape.
The presentation by Huiling Le (University of Nottingham) was an outline
of the mathematical basis of shape analysis. She outlined the theory for
characterising shape differences, constructing shape spaces and
computing the mean of a distribution of shapes. For those of us who are
applying shape analysis in our daily research work, it may have been a
surprise that even such apparently simple things as a mean shape are
actually quite complicated concepts. Finally, she reviewed a new
development in shape theory, Radon shape.
The second block of talks, after the lunch break, focussed on shape
variation in the human face from the points of view of a statistician
(Adrian Bowman, University of Glasgow) and of a clinical researcher
(Peter Hammond, University College London). Adrian Bowman introduced
methods for characterising facial shapes by curves such as the profile
of the mid-face using functional data analysis and explained
improvements that can be made by aligning corresponding facial features.
He illustrated these methods with examples from facial surface scans in
children with cleft lip and palate. He further showed studies of facial
asymmetry and longitudinal follow-up studies after surgery. Peter
Hammond reported from his large-scale project to identify different
syndromes from facial surfaces. Information on a dense network of points
is summarised by principal components, and the resulting scores are used
for distinguishing affected children and controls. Three syndromes
served as examples that illustrated specific strengths and difficulties
of the method and the application.
After the afternoon break, John Kent (University of Leeds) provided an
overview of statistical shape analysis and a number of examples from his
research in this area. He summarised the visualisation of shape
variation by principal component analysis and with the thin-plate
spline, reported on the analysis of left-right asymmetry. He applied
these methods to an example on shape differences between the skulls of
different monkeys.
Paul O’Higgins (Hull-York Medical School) took up the theme of primate
skulls in his talk on linking shape analysis with information on the
development, function and evolution of skulls. He particularly
emphasised new work on functional influences on cranial form that
combines biomechanical measurements and models with detailed studies of
cranial shape. This combination even allows him to make inferences about
the mechanical properties of the skulls in fossils.
The talks were complemented by numerous posters that covered a wide
range of subjects linking statistical and biological aspects of shape.
Participants used the breaks in the programme for discussing these
posters, making new acquaintances, or demonstrating new software. After
the official end of the meeting, some of this continued in a nearby pub.
I have the impression that the meeting was successful in bringing
together the community across disciplines. Several of the participants
have expressed the hope that there will be a similar meeting next year.
The meeting was made possible by generous sponsorships from the Royal
Statistical Society and from the Symington Bequest of the Anatomical
Society of Great Britain and Ireland and by the hospitality of the
Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester.
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***************************************************************
Christian Peter Klingenberg
Faculty of Life Sciences
The University of Manchester
Michael Smith Building
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PT
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 161 275 3899
Fax: +44 161 275 5082
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.flywings.org.uk
Skype: chris_klingenberg
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