Bidimensional Patterns Research Articles

Review on de Bruijn shapes in one, two and three dimensions

Working with ever growing datasets may be a time consuming and resource exhausting task. In order to try and process the corresponding items within those datasets in an optimal way, de Bruijn sequences may be an interesting option due to their special characteristics, allowing to visit all possible combinations of data exactly once. Such sequences are unidimensional, although the same principle may be extended to involve more dimensions, such as de Bruijn tori for bidimensional patterns, or de Bruijn hypertori for tridimensional patterns, even though those might be further expanded up to infinite dimensions. In this context, the main features of all those de Bruijn shapes are going to be exposed, along with some particular instances, which may be useful in pattern location in one, two and three dimensions.

Three-Dimensional Bioprinting of Anatomically Realistic Tissue Constructs for Disease Modeling and Drug Testing.

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is an emerging tissue engineering technology, already with several remarkable accomplishments and with more promises to fulfill. Besides the enduring goal of making tissues for implantation, it could also become an essential tool in the worldwide trend to replace animal experimentation with improved in vitro models for disease mechanism studies, or with new high-throughput pharmacological and toxicology assays. All these require the speed, reproducibility, and standardization that bioprinting could easily provide. However, originating from additive manufacturing with its top-down approach of "filling" a virtual volume with a semifluid (hydrogel) material, the finer internal anatomic structure of the tissues, as well as vascularization and innervation, has remained difficult to implement. Thus, the next frontier in bioprinting is the generation of more anatomically realistic models, needed for ascending to the functionality of living tissues. In this study, I discuss the conceptual and practical barriers still hampering the attainment of this goal and suggest solutions to overcome them. In this regard, I introduce two workflows that combine existing methods in new operational sequences: (1) bioprinting guided by images of histological sections assembled in 3D constructs and (2) bioprinting of bidimensional vascular patterns implemented among stackable cellular layers. While more sophisticated methods to capture the tissue structure in 3D constructs certainly exist, I contend that extrusion bioprinting may still offer a simple, practical, and affordable option. Impact statement Paucity of anatomic structural details is one of the limitations of three-dimensional bioprinting toward fulfilling its potential for tissue engineering, drug testing, and toxicological assays. The origins of this problem can be tracked back to derivation of bioprinting from inorganic additive manufacturing, making it more adept to render the shapes of the objects than their content. As solutions, I suggest two simple workflows that can be implemented by most current bioprinters, based on the import into the construct design of anatomically realistic structural information. If more largely adopted, these and similar approaches may significantly improve the applicability of bioprinted constructs.

Strain detection in crystalline heterostructures using bidimensional blocking patterns of channelled particles

Strain is a critical parameter affecting the growth and the performance of many semiconductor systems but, at the same time, the accurate determination of strain profiles in heterostructures can be challenging, especially at the nanoscale. Ion channelling/blocking is a powerful technique for the detection of the strain state of thin films, normally carried out through angular scans with conventional particle detectors. Here we report the novel application of position sensitive detectors for the evaluation of the strain in a series of AlInN/GaN heterostructures with different compositions and thicknesses. The tetragonal strain is varied from compressive to tensile and analysed through bidimensional blocking patterns. The results demonstrate that strain can be correctly quantified when compared to Monte Carlo channelling simulations, which are essential because of the presence of ion steering effects at the interface between the layer and the substrate. Despite this physical limitation caused by ion steering, our results show that full bidimensional patterns can be applied to detect fingerprints and enhance the accuracy for most critical cases, in which the angular shift associated to the lattice distortion is below the critical angle for channelling.

Reprint of: Self-assembly of nanoparticles employing polymerization-induced phase separation

Nanoparticles (NPs) may be homogeneously dispersed in the precursors of a polymer (reactive solvent) by an adequate selection of their stabilizing ligands. However, the dispersion can become metastable or unstable in the course of polymerization. If this happens, NP-rich domains can be segregated by a process called polymerization-induced phase separation (PIPS). This occurs mainly due to the decrease in the entropic contribution of the reactive solvent to the free energy of mixing (increase in its average size) and, for a reactive solvent generating a cross-linked polymer, the additional contribution of the elastic energy in the post-gel stage. The extent of PIPS will depend on the competition between phase separation and polymerization rates. It can be completely avoided, limited to a local scale or conveyed to generate different types of NPs’ aggregates such as crystalline platelets, self-assembled structures with a hierarchical order and partitioning at the interface, and bidimensional patterns of NPs at the film surface. The use of a third component in the initial formulation such as a linear polymer or a block copolymer, provides the possibility of generating an internal template for the preferential location and self-assembly of phase-separated NPs. Some illustrative examples of morphologies generated by PIPS in solutions of NPs in reactive solvents, are analyzed in this feature article.

Preliminary Study on the 3D Digitization of Millimeter Scale Products by Means of Photogrammetry

Photogrammetry is a passive 3D digitization technique, mainly oriented to large sized objects, since its origins are in architectural and civil engineering. With the continuos development of digital imaging hardware and software, photogrammetric applications are involving smaller and smaller fields of view, with some critical aspects such as the depth of field getting narrower. In this conditions the lack of focus becomes important and affects heavily the possibility of accurately calibrate cameras. Bi-dimensional calibration patterns are affected by this problem when the camera principal axis has an angle with the pattern plane higher than a critical value. Moreover, the accuracy of the pattern, in terms of both shape and 3D positions of the targets, becomes critical decreasing the size of the pattern. In this paper the authors address these problems through a comparison of several calibration patterns included into the open source computer vision software library called OpenCV. 3D digitization of a small object is presented to test the best resulting calibration, using a consumer reflex camera equipped with macro lens and extension tube.

Morpho-elasticity of intestinal villi

Villi are ubiquitous structures in the intestine of all vertebrates, originating from the embryonic development of the epithelial mucosa. Their morphogenesis has similar stages in living organisms but different forming mechanisms. In this work, we model the emergence of the bi-dimensional undulated patterns in the intestinal mucosa from which villi start to elongate. The embryonic mucosa is modelled as a growing thick-walled cylinder, and its mechanical behaviour is described using an hyperelastic constitutive model, which also accounts for the anisotropic characteristics of the reinforcing fibres at the microstructural level. The occurrence of surface undulations is investigated using a linear stability analysis based on the theory of incremental deformations superimposed on a finite deformation. The Stroh formulation of the incremental boundary value problem is derived, and a numerical solution procedure is implemented for calculating the growth thresholds of instability. The numerical results are finally discussed with respect to different growth and materials properties. In conclusion, we demonstrate that the emergence of intestinal villi in embryos is triggered by a differential growth between the mucosa and the mesenchymal tissues. The proposed model quantifies how both the geometrical and the mechanical properties of the mucosa drive the formation of previllous structures in embryos.

A proteomic insight into the effects of the immunomodulatory hydroxynaphthoquinone lapachol on activated macrophages

We report the effect of an immunomodulatory and anti-mycobacterial naphthoquinone, lapachol, on the bi-dimensional patterns of protein expression of toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2)-agonised and IFN-γ-treated THP-1 macrophages. This non-hypothesis driven proteomic analysis intends to shed light on the cellular functions lapachol may be affecting. Proteins of both cytosol and membrane fractions were analysed. After quantification of the protein spots, the protein levels corresponding to macrophages activated in the absence or presence of lapachol were compared. A number of proteins were identified, the levels of which were appreciably and significantly increased or decreased as a result of the action of lapachol on the activated macrophages: cofilin-1, fascin, plastin-2, glucose-6-P-dehydrogenase, adenylyl cyclase-associated protein 1, pyruvate kinase, sentrin-specific protease 6, cathepsin B, cathepsin D, cytosolic aminopeptidase, proteasome β type-4 protease, tryptophan-tRNA ligase, DnaJ homolog and protein disulphide isomerase. Altogether, the comparative analysis performed indicates that lapachol could be hypothetically causing an impairment of cell migration and/or phagocytic capacity, an increase in NADPH availability, a decrease in pyruvate concentration, protection from proteosomal protein degradation, a decrease in lysosomal protein degradation, an impairment of cytosolic peptide generation, and an interference with NOS2 activation and grp78 function. The present proteomic results suggest issues that should be experimentally addressed ex- and in-vivo, to establish more accurately the potential of lapachol as an anti-infective drug. This study also constitutes a model for the pre-in-vivo evaluation of drug actions.

Exploratory procedures of tactile images in visually impaired and blindfolded sighted children: How they relate to their consequent performance in drawing

The aim of the present study was to compare the types of exploratory procedures employed by children when exploring bidimensional tactile patterns and correlate the use of these procedures with the children's shape drawing performance. 18 early blind children, 20 children with low vision and 24 age-matched blindfolded sighted children aged approximately 7 or 11 years were included in the study. The children with a visual handicap outperformed the sighted children in terms of haptic exploration and did not produce less recognizable drawings than their sighted counterparts. Close relationships were identified between the types of exploratory procedures employed by the children and their subsequent drawing performance, regardless of visual status. This close link between action and perception in the haptic modality indicates the importance of training blind children in exploratory procedures at an early age.

Apparent slip arising from Stokes shear flow over a bidimensional patterned surface

A mathematical model is presented for the problem of apparent slip arising from Stokes shear flow over a composite surface featuring mixed boundary conditions on the microscale. The surface can be composed of a bidimensional array of solid areas placed on an otherwise no-shear surface corresponding to an envelope over the tops of posts, or no-shear areas placed on an otherwise solid surface corresponding to an envelope over the tops of holes. Posts and holes of circular or square cross section, and solid areas of no-slip or partial-slip types are studied. Following some previously proposed scaling laws, the effective slip length is expressed as a certain function of the solid fraction for some specific cases. More refined equations based on linear regression of the computed results are obtained for these cases. Amounts of slippage arising from these bidimensional patterns are compared with those from the one-dimensional patterns of grooves/grates. It is also shown that a larger slip length can result from an arrangement where the pitch is larger in the spanwise direction than in the streamwise direction.

Occipito-parietal cortex activation during visuo-spatial imagery in early blind humans

Using positron emission tomography, regional cerebral blood flow was studied in five early blind and five control volunteers during visuo-spatial imagery. Subjects were instructed to generate a mental representation of verbally provided bidimensional patterns that were placed in a grid and to assess pattern symmetry in relation to a grid axis. This condition was contrasted with a verbal memory task. Cerebral activation in both groups was similar during the visuo-spatial imagery task. It involved the precuneus (BA 7), superior parietal lobule (BA 7), and occipital gyrus (BA 19). These results are in accordance with previous studies conducted in sighted subjects that indicated that the same occipito-parietal areas are involved in visual perception as well as in mental imagery dealing with spatial components. The dorsal pathway seems to be involved in visuo-spatial imagery in early blind subjects, indicating that this pathway undergoes development in the absence of vision.

From discs to parts of visual form

Object recognition can be favoured by the development of computational models leading to reliable descriptions of the shape of bidimensional patterns. We refer to the approach regarding a pattern as made up by a number of parts, and present a partition procedure where the parts are obtained by merging elementary regions grown from feature sets found on the Distance Transform. The feature sets include most of the centres of maximal discs, and are placed in correspondence with pattern subsets that can be qualitatively described as near-convex regions, protrusions and necks. The pattern partition found appears adequate to describe the pictorial data in a natural manner that does not lack psychological reality.

Periodic solutions for differential equations of order three, with application to heat‐flux induced convection

AbstractIn this paper we show the existence of periodic solutions for a class of non‐linear regular vector fields of ℝ3 admitting the trivial solution and depending on a real parameter μ. Two main assumptions lead to this conclusion: first, the right hand‐side of each vector field anticommutes with a reflection. Then, its linear part admits the eigenvalue zero for all variations of μ, and takes the form of a three‐dimensional Jordan block at μ = 0. This result allows the description of the bidimensional stationary patterns induced by a uniform heat‐flux imposed on the boundaries of an infinite porous layer, saturated by a fluid. Indeed, when the filtration Rayleigh number comes close to its critical value, the field of seepage velocity and the field of temperature can be related to a partial differential equation, which admits a three‐dimensional centre manifold. The existence of convective patterns follows. Their length depends on the filtration Rayleigh number, and tends towards infinity when this parameter comes close to its critical value (from above).

Statistical properties of bidimensional patterns generated from delayed and extended maps.

The space-time chaotic patterns associated with a class of dynamical systems ranging from delayed to extended maps are investigated. All the systems are constructed in such a way that the corresponding two-dimensional (2D) representation is characterized by the same updating rule in the bulk. The main difference among them is the direction of the ``time'' axis in the plane. Despite the different causality relations among the various models, the resulting patterns are shown to be statistically equivalent. In particular, the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy density assumes always the same value. Therefore, it can be considered as an absolute indicator, measuring the amount of disorder of a 2D pattern. The Kaplan-Yorke dimension density is instead rule dependent: this indicator alone cannot be used to quantify the degrees of freedom of a given pattern; one must further specify the direction of propagation in the plane.

Loss of stereopsis following lesions of cortical areas 17-18 in the cat.

The effects of bilateral removal of cortical areas 17-18 were investigated in the cat; these areas represent the central portion of the visual field and the effect of their removal was evaluated with reference to the perception of Julesz random-dot stereograms. Animals were trained in a two-choice discrimination box to choose between two stereotargets made out of random dots. When appropriately viewed, one produced a vertical rectangle and the other an horizontal one, which appeared to float out in space (crossed stereopsis). The results indicated that all normal cats could solve the random-dot task. Following the cortical lesions, stereoscopic perception was abolished. We also tested for the possibility that this inability to solve the random-dot problem was due to a more general acuity loss. Vernier-type acuity comparing a continuous to a disjointed line showed this to be within the animals' discriminative ability. Offset acuity of the lines was better than that of the stereodot patterns. On the other hand, the ability to determine the preoperatively acquired brightness and pattern discriminations was preserved, although some retraining was necessary for the more difficult patterns. It is therefore suggested that the primary visual cortex, at least in the cat, is involved in the perception of global stereopsis independently of its implication in the discrimination of bidimensional patterns.

Irrelevant cues and shape discrimination learning by cats

Experimentally naive eats learned to discriminate a pair of objects (circle and triangle) that differed in external contour, with no irrelevant cues (N = 30), with irrelevant brightness cues (N = 26), and with irrelevant size and brightness cues (N = 26). In a second experiment, naive cats were trained to discriminate bidimensional patterns (circle and triangle) with no irrelevant visual cues (N = 24) or with irrelevant size and brightness cues (N = 26). Irrelevant cues did not significantly affect the rate of shape discrimination learning in either experiment. The findings disagree with the results of several similar experiments with rats.

Function of association cortex in monkeys

Four normal monkeys and six with extensive unilateral decortication plus destruction of the contralateral frontal and posterior association areas were studied in a series of twelve experiments. As compared with the normal controls, the operated animals were ( a ) neither seriously nor permanently impaired in their performance on visual search or patterned string problems, ( b ) slightly, but to a significant degree, retarded on discrimination reversal, ( c ) not permanently deficient in the discrimination of tridimensional objects, ( d ) significantly inferior in discriminating bidimensional patterns, particularly those which did not differ in colour, ( e ) impaired on delayed response tests in which the delay intervals were varied randomly, and ( f ) markedly and consistently inferior on two- and three-choice oddity problems. Performance on the double alternation problem did not differentiate the normal and operate groups. It was pointed out that all the operated monkeys were deficient in their ability to reverse response tendencies to previously rewarded stimuli. The restricted applicability of the concepts of localization, mass action, and equipotentiality is discussed in terms of the results of this study.