User Guide

Overview

The SPARC Dashboard is part of the SPARC Phase 2 Consortium, developed under the SPARC REVA award project. It provides interactive access to datasets containing various types of images, videos, and scans along the length of the vagus nerve.

Currently, the dashboard includes data from a single human subject, with additional subjects to be added as more data is curated and published.

Using the dashboard's widgets, users can explore, filter, and analyze data across multiple dimensions — from anatomical locations along the nerve to subject-specific metadata and imaging modalities.

Layout and Editing

Edit Mode

When "Edit Grid" mode is enabled, users can:

Move widgets freely across the grid.
Resize widgets by dragging from their edges.
Add new widgets using the dropdown menu at the top of the page.
- The dropdown's options depend on which dashboard you are currently viewing.

Filters Panel

To the right of the Edit Grid is the Filters Panel, which shows the currently selected:

Subject
Nerve location
Image If none is selected, the value will not show.
Use "Reset Grid Layout" to restore all widgets to their original positions and clear all filters.

Widget Controls

Each widget has a header toolbar that includes:

Lock Icon: Prevents movement or editing when locked.
Full Screen Icon: Expands the widget to full-screen mode.
Widget Name: Click to rename the widget (press Enter to apply changes).
Remove Option: Available only in Edit Mode.

Widgets

1. Subject Selector

Displays all available human subjects and their metadata. Users can:

Click a subject to select it (only one subject can be active at a time).
Updates/Filters results in other widgets (e.g., Flatmap Viewer, Image Selector) based on the selected subject.

2. Flatmap Viewer

Displays a subject-specific left/right map of the vagus nerve. Users can:

Filter image results by region of the nerve.
Toggle between left and right vagus using the on-screen control.
Enable "Show Vagus Nerve Trunk Only" to hide smaller branches.
View the current selected location directly on the widget.

Note: Both a subject and a location must be selected for the Image Selector to populate.

3. Image Selector

Lists all image files that match the current subject and location filters.

Each image entry displays:

The sample name the image came from
The image ID
The modality (e.g., MicroCT, MRI, histology)
The number of files in the dataset

Users must click an image to viewer it in the Biolucida Viewer or any other active viewer. Full Screen Mode is useful here for reviewing large image sets.

4. Biolucida Viewer

Displays detailed images selected from the Image Selector with corresponding metadata.

Each image includes:

File location (view sample and region via folder)
SPARC dataset link (to view the full dataset)
Subject metadata (e.g., age, sex)

Within the viewer:

Zoom controls are located on the right.
MicroCT cross-sections are shown at the bottom, allowing users to scroll through the nerve's internal structure.
To compare across subjects or locations, LOCK one Biolucida Viewer and add another.
- The Image Selector will only update unlocked viewers, allowing side-by-side comparisons.

5. QDB Graph

Displays quantitative graphs across the entire aggregated REVA dataset, enabling visualization of diverse metrics from all published data.

To customize:

Click "Open Graph Settings" in the top-right corner.

Note: QDB Graph results are not affected by filters from the Subject Selector or Flatmap Viewer.

6. Markdown Widget

Allows users to add textual or stylized notes to the dashboard for additional context or interpretation.

Common uses:

Annotating visualizations
Adding references or comments
Creating mini documentation directly on the dashboard

Tips and Best Practices

Use Edit Mode to organize your layout, then lock widgets to prevent accidental changes.
Always select both a subject and a location in order to update the Image Selector.
To restore the default layout, use "Reset Grid Layout".
Use Full Screen Mode for detailed analysis in image or graph widgets.
You can rename widgets for custom organization by clicking the title in their headers.

SPARC Dashboard