Development and Maintenence of IMOD Software

描述（由申请人提供）：IMOD软件包提供了用于生成、查看和分析三维（3-D）图像数据的工具，重点是用于断层扫描的工具，其涉及从用电子显微镜获得的一系列倾斜视图重建样本内部。断层摄影术在细胞和结构生物学研究中的应用迅速增长，并有可能在生物医学研究的其他领域得到更广泛的应用。这个项目的长期目标是进一步开发软件，使其继续提供一个强大的和有吸引力的包，层析重建方法的发展，并提供一个资源，可以使用和建立在其他人在显微镜社区。第一个目标是以各种方式在多个平台（Linux、Microsoft Windows、Macintosh OS X）上维护和优化软件功能，适应并利用硬件和系统软件的不断改进。第二个目标是根据用户的需要增加新的功能。这项工作包括增强IMOD中的图形建模程序，以更好地分析和可视化3-D数据，并不断修改用户界面断层重建，以提供访问改进的算法，因为它们被开发。用户界面和文档也将升级，使软件更易于使用。第三个目标是继续改进软件的管理和文档，重点是扩大自动化测试。这些改进将提高软件的可靠性，并使其更容易扩展，无论是我们还是其他谁希望建立在IMOD的能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The IMOD software package provides tools for generating, viewing, and analyzing 3-dimensional (3-D) image data, with a focus on tools for tomography, which involves the reconstruction of the interior of a specimen from a series of tilted views obtained with an electron microscope. The use of tomography has been growing rapidly in cell and structural biology research and there is potential for wider use in other areas of biomedical research. The long-term goals of this project are to develop the software further so that it continues to offers a powerful and attractive package for tomographic reconstruction as methods evolve, and to provide a resource that can be both used and built upon by others in the microscopy community. The first aim is to maintain and optimize the function of the software in various ways on multiple platforms (Linux, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh OS X), adapting to and taking advantage of continual improvements in hardware and system software. A second aim is to add new features in response to users' needs. This work includes enhancing the graphical modeling program in IMOD for better analysis and visualization of 3-D data, and continually modifying the user interface for tomographic reconstruction to provide access to improved algorithms as they are developed. User interfaces and documentation will also be upgraded to make the software easier to use. A third aim is continue improving the management and documentation of the software, with an emphasis on expanding automated testing. These improvements will enhance the software's reliability and make it more easily extensible both by us and by others who wish to build on IMOD's capabilities.