Parallel edge splatting for scalable dynamic graph visualization

We present a novel dynamic graph visualization technique based on node-link diagrams. The graphs are drawn side-byside from left to right as a sequence of narrow stripes that are placed perpendicular to the horizontal time line. The hierarchically organized vertices of the graphs are arranged on vertical, parallel lines that bound the stripes; directed edges connect these vertices from left to right. To address massive overplotting of edges in huge graphs, we employ a splatting approach that transforms the edges to a pixel-based scalar field. This field represents the edge densities in a scalable way and is depicted by non-linear color mapping. The visualization method is complemented by interaction techniques that support data exploration by aggregation, filtering, brushing, and selective data zooming. Furthermore, we formalize graph patterns so that they can be interactively highlighted on demand. A case study on software releases explores the evolution of call graphs extracted from the JUnit open source software project. In a second application, we demonstrate the scalability of our approach by applying it to a bibliography dataset containing more than 1.5 million paper titles from 60 years of research history producing a vast amount of relations between title words.     

behaviorism: a framework for dynamic data visualization

While a number of information visualization software frameworks exist, creating new visualizations, especially those that involve novel visualization metaphors, interaction techniques, data analysis strategies, and specialized rendering algorithms, is still often a difficult process. To facilitate the creation of novel visualizations we present a new software framework, behaviorism, which provides a wide range of flexibility when working with dynamic information on visual, temporal, and ontological levels, but at the same time providing appropriate abstractions which allow developers to create prototypes quickly which can then easily be turned into robust systems. The core of the framework is a set of three interconnected graphs, each with associated operators: a scene graph for high-performance 3D rendering, a data graph for different layers of semantically linked heterogeneous data, and a timing graph for sophisticated control of scheduling, interaction, and animation. In particular, the timing graph provides a unified system to add behaviors to both data and visual elements, as well as to the behaviors themselves. To evaluate the framework we look briefly at three different projects all of which required novel visualizations in different domains, and all of which worked with dynamic data in different ways: an interactive ecological simulation, an information art installation, and an information visualization technique.     

A novel dynamic graph evolution network for salient object detection

Applied Intelligence - The advanced deep convolution neural networks (CNNs) based salient object detection (SOD) models still suffer from the coarse object edge. The traditional graph-based SOD...     

A graph grammar‐based approach for graph layout

As a two‐dimensional formal tool, graph grammars are capable of handling the layout problems of visual programming languages. Based on an edge‐based graph grammar (EGG), this paper proposes a novel layout approach that uses the unique features of EGG and overcomes the weakness of existing layout approaches. In order to make the approach rigorous yet concise, the graph grammar mechanisms with layout constraints and quantitative analysis techniques are combined together as an integrity. First, the basic notions of EGG are briefly introduced; second, the layout approach is presented that consists of two phases, ie, bottom‐up parsing and top‐down derivation. Finally, a case study is given by taking the standard flowchart as an example to demonstrate the working process of the proposed approach.     

动态图的实时三维可视化的稳定性算法

提出动态图的实时三维可视化及其稳定性的问题。讨论在图的实时重画中兼顾动态稳定性和美观性的平衡策略。在三维静态美观布局算法的基础上，给出了动态图的若干实时三维可视化的稳定性算法，并分析了这些算法的时间性能和适用范围。算法已应用在若干可视化编程环境。     

A stable graph layout algorithm for processes

Process mining enables organizations to analyze data about their (business) processes. Visualization is key to gaining insight into these processes and the associated data. Process visualization requires a high‐quality graph layout that intuitively represents the semantics of the process. Process analysis additionally requires interactive filtering to explore the process data and process graph. The ideal process visualization therefore provides a high‐quality, intuitive layout and preserves the mental map of the user during the visual exploration. The current industry standard used for process visualization does not satisfy either of these requirements. In this paper, we propose a novel layout algorithm for processes based on the Sugiyama framework. Our approach consists of novel ranking and order constraint algorithms and a novel crossing minimization algorithm. These algorithms make use of the process data to compute stable, high‐quality layouts. In addition, we use phased animation to further improve mental map preservation. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations show that our approach computes layouts of higher quality and preserves the mental map better than the industry standard. Additionally, our approach is substantially faster, especially for graphs with more than 250 edges.     

A neural-network algorithm for a graph layout problem

We present a neural-network algorithm for minimizing edge crossings in drawings of nonplanar graphs. This is an important subproblem encountered in graph layout. The algorithm finds either the minimum number of crossings or an approximation thereof and also provides a linear embedding realizing the number of crossings found. The parallel time complexity of the algorithm is O(1) for a neural network with n(2) processing elements, where n is the number of vertices of the graph. We present results from testing a sequential simulator of the algorithm on a set of nonplanar graphs and compare its performance with the heuristic of Nicholson.     

Spatial-temporal dynamic semantic graph neural network

Neural Computing and Applications - Most existing methods based on graph neural network for traffic flow forecasting cannot effectively exploit potential semantic features, multiple features are...     

A tabu search based approach for graph layout

This paper describes an automated tabu search based method for drawing general graph layouts with straight lines. To our knowledge, this is the first time tabu methods have been applied to graph drawing. We formulated the task as a multi-criteria optimization problem with a number of metrics which are used in a weighted fitness function to measure the aesthetic quality of the graph layout. The main goal of this work is to speed up the graph layout process without sacrificing layout quality. To achieve this, we use a tabu search based method that goes through a predefined number of iterations to minimize the value of the fitness function. Tabu search always chooses the best solution in the neighbourhood. This may lead to cycling, so a tabu list is used to store moves that are not permitted, meaning that the algorithm does not choose previous solutions for a set period of time. We evaluate the method according to the time spent to draw a graph and the quality of the drawn graphs. We give experimental results applied on random graphs and we provide statistical evidence that our method outperforms a fast search-based drawing method (hill climbing) in execution time while it produces comparably good graph layouts. We also demonstrate the method on real world graph datasets to show that we can reproduce similar results in a real world setting.     

武夷山生态监测数据动态图表可视化研究

由于长期积累的生态监测数据类型繁多、指标变化各异,导致数据可视化差、时空分析困难。以武夷山生态监测数据为例,开展多源异构生态监测数据的标准化集成管理和基于高并发地图切片服务引擎技术的动态图表可视化设计研究,对标准化的监测数据进行服务封装,以动态图表的形式将监测数据进行时空分布可视化表达,实时展现各种类别生态监测数据,有效地提高了生态监测数据表现能力和时空分析水平。     

GO: A cluster algorithm for graph visualization

As we are in the big data age, graph data such as user networks in Facebook and Flickr becomes large. How to reduce the visual complexity of a graph layout is a challenging problem. Clustering graphs is regarded as one of effective ways to address this problem. Most of current graph visualization systems, however, directly use existing clustering algorithms that are not originally developed for the visualization purpose. For graph visualization, a clustering algorithm should meet specific requirements such as the sufficient size of clusters, and automatic determination of the number of clusters. After identifying the requirements of clustering graphs for visualization, in this paper we present a new clustering algorithm that is particularly designed for visualization so as to reduce the visual complexity of a layout, together with a strategy for improving the scalability of our algorithm. Experiments have demonstrated that our proposed algorithm is capable of detecting clusters in a way that is required in graph visualization.     

A framework for differentially-private knowledge graph embeddings

Knowledge graph (KG) embedding methods are at the basis of many KG-based data mining tasks, such as link prediction and node clustering. However, graphs may contain confidential information about people or organizations, which may be leaked via embeddings. Research recently studied how to apply differential privacy to a number of graphs (and KG) analyses, but embedding methods have not been considered so far. This study moves a step toward filling such a gap, by proposing the Differential Private Knowledge Graph Embedding (DPKGE) framework.DPKGE extends existing KG embedding methods (e.g., TransE, TransM, RESCAL, and DistMult) and processes KGs containing both confidential and unrestricted statements. The resulting embeddings protect the presence of any of the former statements in the embedding space using differential privacy. Our experiments identify the cases where DPKGE produces useful embeddings, by analyzing the training process and tasks executed on top of the resulting embeddings.     

A general framework for relation graph clustering

Relation graphs, in which multi-type (or single type) nodes are related to each other, frequently arise in many important applications, such as Web mining, information retrieval, bioinformatics, and epidemiology. In this study, We propose a general framework for clustering on relation graphs. Under this framework, we derive a family of clustering algorithms including both hard and soft versions, which are capable of learning cluster patterns from relation graphs with various structures and statistical properties. A number of classic approaches on special cases of relation graphs, such as traditional graphs with singly-type nodes and bi-type relation graphs with two types of nodes, can be viewed as special cases of the proposed framework. The theoretic analysis and experiments demonstrate the great potential and effectiveness of the proposed framework and algorithm.     

A model and framework for visualization exploration

Visualization exploration is the process of extracting insight from data via interaction with visual depictions of that data. Visualization exploration is more than presentation; the interaction with both the data and its depiction is as important as the data and depiction itself. Significant visualization research has focused on the generation of visualizations (the depiction); less effort has focused on the exploratory aspects of visualization (the process). However, without formal models of the process, visualization exploration sessions cannot be fully utilized to assist users and system designers. Toward this end, we introduce the P-Set model of visualization exploration for describing this process and a framework to encapsulate, share, and analyze visual explorations. In addition, systems utilizing the model and framework are more efficient as redundant exploration is avoided. Several examples drawn from visualization applications demonstrate these benefits. Taken together, the model and framework provide an effective means to exploit the information within the visual exploration process     

Program graph visualization

Although there are many algorithms to draw hierarchical structures such as directed graphs and trees none specifically treat the problem of visualizing program graphs. This paper presents an algorithm and the underlying tool — ViewGraph — designed to visualize program graphs. The algorithm is divided in two parts: (1) determine node positions, and (2) assign routes to branches. The first part has three steps: level assignment, scope and position calculation. A modified algorithm used to assign levels to nodes in a tree is used to find Y coordinates; a concept called scope is used to define X coordinates. Scope is a prediction of the space required by a node and its descendants. A search on the available positions left by the placement of nodes is performed to route branches. A set of aesthetic aspects meant to help the development of program graph visualization algorithms is also proposed. The algorithm runs in an acceptable time making it useful even for interactive applications. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

结构图正则低秩子空间聚类

针对结构稀疏子空间聚类中不能很好地保证相似度矩阵连接性的问题,给出了一个新的统一优化模型。首先,引入了表示系数矩阵的子空间结构范数,增加了低秩表示来揭示高维数据的全局结构。其次,为了使相似度矩阵具有类内统一,类间稀疏的作用,还定义了分组效应来捕获数据的内部几何结构,提出了结构图正则低秩子空间聚类模型。最后使用自适应惩罚的线性化交替法（LADMAP）来得到最优解。实验结果表明,该模型不但可以捕获数据的全局结构,而且还可以捕获数据的内在几何结构,迫使相关数据紧密结合,不相关数据松散分离,从而使得相似度矩阵与分割矩阵变得更加一致。     

Geometry-based edge clustering for graph visualization

Graphs have been widely used to model relationships among data. For large graphs, excessive edge crossings make the display visually cluttered and thus difficult to explore. In this paper, we propose a novel geometry-based edge-clustering framework that can group edges into bundles to reduce the overall edge crossings. Our method uses a control mesh to guide the edge-clustering process; edge bundles can be formed by forcing all edges to pass through some control points on the mesh. The control mesh can be generated at different levels of detail either manually or automatically based on underlying graph patterns. Users can further interact with the edge-clustering results through several advanced visualization techniques such as color and opacity enhancement. Compared with other edge-clustering methods, our approach is intuitive, flexible, and efficient. The experiments on some large graphs demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.     

Skeleton-based edge bundling for graph visualization

In this paper, we present a novel approach for constructing bundled layouts of general graphs. As layout cues for bundles, we use medial axes, or skeletons, of edges which are similar in terms of position information. We combine edge clustering, distance fields, and 2D skeletonization to construct progressively bundled layouts for general graphs by iteratively attracting edges towards the centerlines of level sets of their distance fields. Apart from clustering, our entire pipeline is image-based with an efficient implementation in graphics hardware. Besides speed and implementation simplicity, our method allows explicit control of the emphasis on structure of the bundled layout, i.e. the creation of strongly branching (organic-like) or smooth bundles. We demonstrate our method on several large real-world graphs.     

Discriminative graph regularized broad learning system for image recognition

Broad learning system (BLS) has been proposed as an alternative method of deep learning. The architecture of BLS is that the input is randomly mapped into series of feature spaces which form the feature nodes, and the output of the feature nodes are expanded broadly to form the enhancement nodes, and then the output weights of the network can be determined analytically. The most advantage of BLS is that it can be learned incrementally without a retraining process when there comes new input data or neural nodes. It has been proven that BLS can overcome the inadequacies caused by training a large number of parameters in gradient-based deep learning algorithms. In this paper, a novel variant graph regularized broad learning system (GBLS) is proposed. Taking account of the locally invariant property of data, which means the similar images may share similar properties, the manifold learning is incorporated into the objective function of the standard BLS. In GBLS, the output weights are constrained to learn more discriminative information, and the classification ability can be further enhanced. Several experiments are carried out to verify that our proposed GBLS model can outperform the standard BLS. What is more, the GBLS also performs better compared with other state-of-the-art image recognition methods in several image databases.