MRtrix: enabling advanced tractography and microstructure analysis of diffusion MRI in the brain

MRtrix是一个开源软件项目，旨在为扩散磁共振成像分析领域的新颖和重要技术创新提供高质量的实施。磁共振扩散成像越来越多地用于识别和研究脑白质纤维束，并研究大脑的连通性。MRtrix是研究人员在医学图像处理和可视化、神经科学和神经技术方面使用的一种有价值的软件工具，已在全球至少60个医疗中心和几个商业产品中使用。到目前为止，MRtrix一直由一小群敬业的学者维护。然而，项目的成功和现在的广泛采用使得团队不可能由于时间限制而将项目维护和增强到预期的标准。该项目的长期可持续性将需要更广泛的开发人员和维护人员的积极参与，以及知识渊博的活跃用户社区的支持。因此，这个项目的目标有四个方面：-实施重要的功能，使软件能够在更广泛的情况下使用，改善与其他补充软件包的互操作性，并确保MRtrix为未来的应用做好准备。-鼓励研究人员和开发人员将MRtrix用作开发和/或传播他们自己的方法的基础(通过改进代码文档、提供在线课程和文章，以及提供快速和反应迅速的支持)；-维护软件，修复悬而未决的问题，并尽可能简化涉及的各种过程。-最大限度地提高用户的参与度和参与度(通过举办研讨会、提供在线教程和改进文档)；该项目将资助一名研究软件工程师3年时间来实现这些目标。

MRtrix is an open-source software project to provide high-quality implementations of novel and important technical innovations in the field of diffusion MRI analysis. Diffusion MRI is increasingly used to identify and study brain white matter fibre tracts and to investigate brain connectivity. MRtrix is a valuable software tool used by researchers in medical image processing and visualisation, neuroscience and neurotechnology and is already in use in at least 60 medical centres worldwide, and several commercial products. MRtrix has so far been maintained by a small team of dedicated academics. However, the success of the project and its widespread adoption now makes it impossible for the team to maintain and enhance the project to the expected standard due to time constraints. The long-term sustainability of the project will require the active participation of a wider range of developers and maintainers, and support from an active community of knowledgeable users. The aims of this project are therefore four-fold:- to implement important features that will enable use of the software in a greater range of situations, improve interoperation with other complementary software packages, and ensure MRtrix is ready for future applications.- to encourage researchers and developers to use MRtrix as the basis for the development and/or dissemination of their own methods (by improving the code documentation, providing online courses and articles, and providing rapid and responsive support); - to maintain the software, fix outstanding issues, and ease the various processes involved as much as possible.- to maximise user engagement and participation (by running workshops, providing online tutorials, and improving the documentation);This project will fund a Research Software Engineer for 3 years to achieve these objectives.