To A.C.K. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all people who have helped and inspired me during my doctoral study. First, I sincerely thank my advisor Dr. Lars Linsen, for his continu-ous support, encouragement and inspiration. His perpetual energy and enthusiasm in research motivated all his advisees, including me. In addi-tion, he was always accessible and willing to help his students with their research. As a result, research life became smooth and rewarding for me. I am also immensely indebted to my second advisor, Dr. Horst K. Hahn. He opened the exciting and challenging world of medical image process-ing for me, and taught me how to approach a research problem and express my ideas. I wish to thank Dr. Jos B.T.M. Roerdink who kindly agreed upon re-viewing my work. I am grateful to Andrea Schenk and Andre ́ Homeyer from Fraunhofer MEVIS for our numerous and fruitful discussions, for sharing ideas, fo