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Vizaj—A free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks
In many fields of science and technology we are confronted with complex networks. Making sense of these networks often require the ability to visualize and explore their intermingled structure consisting of nodes and links. To facilitate the identification of significant connectivity patterns, many...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10035906/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36952514 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282181 |
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author | Rolland, Thibault De Vico Fallani, Fabrizio |
author_facet | Rolland, Thibault De Vico Fallani, Fabrizio |
author_sort | Rolland, Thibault |
collection | PubMed |
description | In many fields of science and technology we are confronted with complex networks. Making sense of these networks often require the ability to visualize and explore their intermingled structure consisting of nodes and links. To facilitate the identification of significant connectivity patterns, many methods have been developed based on the rearrangement of the nodes so as to avoid link criss-cross. However, real networks are often embedded in a geometrical space and the nodes code for an intrinsic physical feature of the system that one might want to preserve. For these spatial networks, it is therefore crucial to find alternative strategies operating on the links and not on the nodes. Here, we introduce Vizaj a javascript web application to render spatial networks based on optimized geometrical criteria that reshape the link profiles. While optimized for 3D networks, Vizaj can also be used for 2D networks and offers the possibility to interactively customize the visualization via several controlling parameters, including network filtering and the effect of internode distance on the link trajectories. Vizaj is further equipped with additional options allowing to improve the final aesthetics, such as the color/size of both nodes and links, zooming/rotating/translating, and superimposing external objects. Vizaj is an open-source software which can be freely downloaded and updated via a github repository. Here, we provide a detailed description of its main features and algorithms together with a guide on how to use it. Finally, we validate its potential on several synthetic and real spatial networks from infrastructural to biological systems. We hope that Vizaj will help scientists and practitioners to make sense of complex networks and provide aesthetic while informative visualizations. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10035906 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100359062023-03-24 Vizaj—A free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks Rolland, Thibault De Vico Fallani, Fabrizio PLoS One Research Article In many fields of science and technology we are confronted with complex networks. Making sense of these networks often require the ability to visualize and explore their intermingled structure consisting of nodes and links. To facilitate the identification of significant connectivity patterns, many methods have been developed based on the rearrangement of the nodes so as to avoid link criss-cross. However, real networks are often embedded in a geometrical space and the nodes code for an intrinsic physical feature of the system that one might want to preserve. For these spatial networks, it is therefore crucial to find alternative strategies operating on the links and not on the nodes. Here, we introduce Vizaj a javascript web application to render spatial networks based on optimized geometrical criteria that reshape the link profiles. While optimized for 3D networks, Vizaj can also be used for 2D networks and offers the possibility to interactively customize the visualization via several controlling parameters, including network filtering and the effect of internode distance on the link trajectories. Vizaj is further equipped with additional options allowing to improve the final aesthetics, such as the color/size of both nodes and links, zooming/rotating/translating, and superimposing external objects. Vizaj is an open-source software which can be freely downloaded and updated via a github repository. Here, we provide a detailed description of its main features and algorithms together with a guide on how to use it. Finally, we validate its potential on several synthetic and real spatial networks from infrastructural to biological systems. We hope that Vizaj will help scientists and practitioners to make sense of complex networks and provide aesthetic while informative visualizations. Public Library of Science 2023-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC10035906/ /pubmed/36952514 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282181 Text en © 2023 Rolland, De Vico Fallani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Rolland, Thibault De Vico Fallani, Fabrizio Vizaj—A free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks |
title | Vizaj—A free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks |
title_full | Vizaj—A free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks |
title_fullStr | Vizaj—A free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks |
title_full_unstemmed | Vizaj—A free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks |
title_short | Vizaj—A free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks |
title_sort | vizaj—a free online interactive software for visualizing spatial networks |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10035906/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36952514 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282181 |
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