Morphological Template Research Articles

Continuous Detection of Cerebral Vasodilatation and Vasoconstriction Using Intracranial Pulse Morphological Template Matching

Although accurate and continuous assessment of cerebral vasculature status is highly desirable for managing cerebral vascular diseases, no such method exists for current clinical practice. The present work introduces a novel method for real-time detection of cerebral vasodilatation and vasoconstriction using pulse morphological template matching. Templates consisting of morphological metrics of cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) pulse, measured at middle cerebral artery using Transcranial Doppler, are obtained by applying a morphological clustering and analysis of intracranial pulse algorithm to the data collected during induced vasodilatation and vasoconstriction in a controlled setting. These templates were then employed to define a vasodilatation index (VDI) and a vasoconstriction index (VCI) for any inquiry data segment as the percentage of the metrics demonstrating a trend consistent with those obtained from the training dataset. The validation of the proposed method on a dataset of CBFV signals of 27 healthy subjects, collected with a similar protocol as that of training dataset, during hyperventilation (and CO2 rebreathing tests) shows a sensitivity of 92% (and 82%) for detection of vasodilatation (and vasoconstriction) and the specificity of 90% (and 92%), respectively. Moreover, the proposed method of detection of vasodilatation (vasoconstriction) is capable of rejecting all the cases associated with vasoconstriction (vasodilatation) and outperforms other two conventional techniques by at least 7% for vasodilatation and 19% for vasoconstriction.

Spatial and spectral morphological template matching

Template matching is a very topical issue in a wide range of imaging applications. Mathematical morphology offers the hit-or-miss transform, an operator which has been successfully applied for template matching in binary images. More recently, it has been extended to grayscale images and even to multivariate images. Nevertheless, these extensions, despite being relevant from a theoretical point-of-view, might lack practical interest due to the inherent difficulty to set up correctly the transform and its parameters (e.g. the structuring functions). In this paper, we propose a new and more intuitive operator which allows for morphological template matching in multivariate images from both a spatial and spectral point of view. We illustrate the potential of this operator in the context of remote sensing.

Metal silicate nanotubes with nanostructured walls as superb adsorbents for uranyl ions and lead ions in water

Silica nanotubes with mesoporous walls of 30 nm thickness were used as morphology templates, as well as the silicon source, to produce various metal silicate nanotubes with nanostructured walls, including magnesium silicate, copper silicate, nickel silicate, cobalt silicate and manganese silicate. These silicate materials retained the tubular structure of the templates, which resulted in large surface areas as high as 649 m2 g−1, large total volumes as high as 1.433 cm3 g−1 and facile mass transportation on their surfaces. These features enabled them to be superb adsorbents for adsorption in water; in particular, magnesium silicates showed maximum adsorption capabilities of 929 mg g−1 for uranyl ions and 424 mg g−1 for lead ions, respectively. In practical usage, magnesium silicates could effectively adsorb uranium directly from the salt lake water, with a practical adsorption capacity of 0.23 mg g−1, and was able to enrich the uranium concentration by 8 times.

Microfluidic synthesis of atto-liter scale double emulsions toward ultrafine hollow silica spheres with hierarchical pore networks

A facile PDMS-glass hybrid microfluidic device is developed for generating uniform submicrometer-scale double emulsion droplets with unprecedented simplicity and controllability. Compared with planar flow-focusing geometries, our three-dimensional flow-focusing geometry is advantageous for stably producing femto- to atto-liter droplets without the retraction problem of the dispersed phase fluid. In addition, this microfluidic platform can withstand the use of strong organic solvents (e.g. tetrahydrofuran (THF) and toluene) as a dispersed phase without deforming PDMS devices because the dispersed phase containing organic solvents does not directly contact the PDMS wall. In particular, monodisperse double emulsions are generated spontaneously via the internal phase separation of single emulsions driven by the diffusion of a co-solvent (tetrahydrofuran) in microfluidic devices. Finally, we demonstrated that the double emulsions can be used as morphological templates of ultrafine spherical silica capsules with controlled hierarchical pore networks via the evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) method. During EISA, triblock copolymers (Pluronic F127) act as a surfactant barrier separating the internal droplet from the continuous oil phase, resulting in the 'inverse' morphology (i.e. hydrophobic polymer-in-water-in-oil emulsions). Depending on the precursor composition and kinetic condition, various structural and morphological features, such as mesoporous hollow silica spheres with a single central core, multi-cores, or a combination of these with robust controllability can be seen. Electron microscopy (SEM, STEM, HR-TEM), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and N(2) adsorption-desorption confirm the well-controlled hierarchical pore structure of the resulting particles.

Complejidad morfológica, recursividad y plantillas en la formación de nombres en inglés antiguo

The aim of this article is to contribute to the study of the formation of Old English nouns by analysing the morphological complexity and recursiveness that arise in affixal processes of noun formation. On the theoretical side, this article discusses the implications of the description of noun complexity for the morphological template of Old English. The analysis shows that the formation of nouns by means of affixation in Old English is relatively opaque, as well as considerably recursive. It also identifies more separable and less separable prefixes and allows for the assignment of template positions to affixes involved in noun formation. The conclusion is reached that in order to enrich the morphological template of the Layered Structure of the Word with information on pre-derivational inflection, ablaut and phonological conditioning, it is necessary either to list formal conditions in the lexicon or to state them in a productive way.

Phases and templates in Georgian agreement

Abstract. This paper proposes a new analysis of person and number agreement in Georgian, which combines the locality-based syntactic account of Béjar (2000) with the discontinuous bleeding mechanism proposed by Noyer (1997). Following Béjar (2000, 2003); Béjar and Rezac (2003), we argue that phi-feature checking and realization is sensitive both to locality and to markedness of features. Contra these previous approaches, however, we propose that the morphological realization of these checking relations is constrained by a morphological template which restricts the number of positions-of-exponence available in the Georgian verb, in the spirit of analyses proposed in Noyer (1997); Carmack (1997); and Hale (2001), and, in a way, by Harris (1981). Our central claim is that the cyclic, phase-dependent nature of Spell-Out interacts with the positions available in the template to produce the complex patterns of blocking observed, without recourse to extrinsic rule-ordering or a presyntactic level of paradigmatic structure (see, e.g. Stewart 2001). This approach easily accounts for the number sensitivity of the first person prefixes, and naturally extends to predict the forms of the inverse paradigm, given certain syntactic assumptions about the location of arguments in the tree structure in the relevant constructions. We also treat the agreement patterns of complex verbs, containing both the verb stem and a dummy auxiliary. We claim that these forms are distinct from the simplex forms in lacking a phase boundary which is present in the simplex forms.

Study on Electronic Absorption and Surface Morphology of Double Layer Thin Films of Phthalocyanines

The electronic absorption and surface morphology evolution of two types of molecular double layer thin films, copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) layer deposited on chloro[subphthalocyaninato]boron(III) (SubPc) layer, denoted as SubPc/CuPc, and vice versa, with various thicknesses were investigated using ultraviolet (UV)-visible spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Both types of double layer structures showed similar broadened absorption patterns in the UV-visible region that were consistent with the fitted spectra following simple linear combination of the single layer absorption spectra of the two materials. In contrast, the surface morphology of double layer structures was dependent on the order of deposition. For the CuPc/SubPc structures, surface morphology was characterized by elongated grains, which are characteristic of SubPc thin films, indicating that the morphological influence of the underlying CuPc layer on the subsequent SubPc layer was not large. For the SubPc/CuPc structures, however, the underlying SubPc layer acted as a morphological template for the subsequently deposited CuPc layer. It was also observed that the grain size of the CuPc layer varied according to the thickness of the underlying SubPc layer.

Syntheses of zirconium-containing titania particles with spherical morphology and uniform size by microfluidic reactions

Monodispersed spherical particles of zirconium-containing titania-octadecylamine with the size of 300–400 nm and CV value of around 5% were synthesized by a sol–gel reaction in the microreactor. Octadecylamine played a roll as a porogen as well as morphological template of spherical particles. The incorporation of zirconium was confirmed by SEM, TG-DTA, XRD and XRF. The hybrids were converted to nanoporous particles without morphological alteration which had the specific surface area of 300 m2·g−1 after removing the porogen (octadecylamine) and that of 60 m2·g−1 after subsequent heat treatment at 600°C, while non-porous products formed by calcination at 600°C without washing with hydrochloric acid/ethanol mixture to remove octadecylamine.

Template Match Object Detection for Inertial Navigation Systems

This paper devoted to propose template match object detection for inertial navigation systems (INS). The proposed method is an image processing technique to improve the precision of the INS for detecting and tracking the ground objects from flying vehicles. Template matching is one of the methods used for ground object detection and tracking. Robust and reliable object detection is a critical step of object recognition. This paper presents a proposed mathematical morphological template matching method for detection and tracking of ground objects. Our focus is on flying systems equipped with camera to capture photos for the ground and recognize it. The proposed method is independent on the altitude or the orientation of the object. The algorithm is simulated using Matlab program and the numerical experiments are shown which verify the object detection for a wide range altitude and orientation. The results show superiority of this method for identifying and recognizing the ground objects.

A Realization Optimality-Theoretic approach to affix order

The interplay of the main factors affecting affix order in inflection (semantic scope, phonology, and morphological templates) can be accounted for in an inferential-realizational Optimality-Theoretic model of morphology, which we present here. Within this model, phonological form is spelled out by means of individual-language-particular realization constraints that associate abstract morphosyntactic feature values with phonological forms and that are ordered among more general constraints governing factors like scope and feature splitting. The data used to exemplify the application of our theory to affix order are drawn from Haspelmath’s (A grammar of Lezgian, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 1993) grammar of Lezgian, a language of the Northeast Caucasian family spoken largely in Dagestan (Russia) and Azerbaijan.

SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SPHERE-LIKE ZnS NANOCRYSTALS BY THERMOLYSIS OF A NEW COMPLEX PRECURSOR

In this paper, the preparation and optical properties of sphere-like ZnS nanocrystals are reported. Pure and uniform cubic-phase sphere-like ZnS nanocrystals with grain sizes of 30–40 nm were synthesized by thermolysis of a new precursor complex ( enH 2)0.5[ Zn ( en )3]( SCN )3 (en = ethylenediamine) in nitrogen stream at 800°C. The as-synthesized products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. The XRD analysis reveals the phase of ZnS with cubic zinc blende. UV-Vis and photoluminescence spectra (PL) were utilized to investigate the optical properties of sphere-like ZnS nanocrystals. By testing on UV-Vis spectra, it is concluded that the limiting wavelength of the ZnS nanocrystals is 320 nm and the band gap is 3.88 eV. In room temperature PL spectra, one strong emission peak centered at 322 nm is discovered, which could be attributed to the band to band transitions. The above-mentioned results showed that the thermolysis method is preferable for synthesizing high-quality sphere-like ZnS nanocrystals. The synthesized precursor could be used as morphological templates to prepare nanostructure inorganic compounds.

Improved Synthesis of Superconducting Carbon-Doped MgB2 Using a Biopolymer for Simultaneous Crystallite Size Control and Chemical Reduction

This study represents a key evolution in the synthesis of the superconductor MgB2, as it is the first to demonstrate that templated synthesis can be carried out successfully without a sealed reaction vessel. This is possible owing to the strong chelating ability of the biopolymer dextran, whose morphological complexity effectively cocoons the reaction, preventing oxygen ingress. This synthetic protocol demonstrates that not only can this important material be synthesized as nanoparticles but that, as the morphological template is calcined, it effectively carbon-dopes the superconducting phase, thereby improving the critical current density by a factor of five.

The role of citrate precursors on the morphology of lanthanide oxides obtained by thermal decomposition

Two series of lanthanide oxides with different morphologies were synthesized through calcinations of two types of citrate polymeric precursors. These oxides were characterized by XRD patterns, SEM electronic microscopy, and N2 adsorption isotherms. SEM microscopy analysis showed that the calcination of crystalline fibrous precursors [Ln2(LH)3·2H2O] (L = citrate) originated fibrous shaped particles. On the other hand, the calcination of irregular shaped particles of precursors [LnL·xH2O] originated irregular shaped particles of oxide, pointing out a morphological template effect of precursors on the formation of the respective oxides.

Towards quantitative PET/MRI: a review of MR-based attenuation correction techniques

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a fully quantitative technology for imaging metabolic pathways and dynamic processes in vivo. Attenuation correction of raw PET data is a prerequisite for quantification and is typically based on separate transmission measurements. In PET/CT attenuation correction, however, is performed routinely based on the available CT transmission data. Recently, combined PET/magnetic resonance (MR) has been proposed as a viable alternative to PET/CT. Current concepts of PET/MRI do not include CT-like transmission sources and, therefore, alternative methods of PET attenuation correction must be found. This article reviews existing approaches to MR-based attenuation correction (MR-AC). Most groups have proposed MR-AC algorithms for brain PET studies and more recently also for torso PET/MR imaging. Most MR-AC strategies require the use of complementary MR and transmission images, or morphology templates generated from transmission images. We review and discuss these algorithms and point out challenges for using MR-AC in clinical routine. MR-AC is work-in-progress with potentially promising results from a template-based approach applicable to both brain and torso imaging. While efforts are ongoing in making clinically viable MR-AC fully automatic, further studies are required to realize the potential benefits of MR-based motion compensation and partial volume correction of the PET data.

Force Augmentation, Polysemy, and the Semantics of Form Il Verbs in Arabic

This study investigates the conceptual interrelatedness between grammatical forms and their associated meanings in human language. In contrast to traditional accounts, we provide evidence for the non-arbitrary relation between the Form II verb morphology pattern in modern standard Arabic (MSA) and the varied meanings evoked by this form (including causativity, intensitivity, frequentivity, and estimativity), which we argue are related to each other via coherent, demonstrable patterns of semantic extension from a prototypical causative sense. We also show that these particular senses comprising the family resemblance polysemy category evoked by Form II morphology are all instantiations of a conceptual schema that represents the abstract cognitive unity of the semantic pole of this morphology, a finding which poses interesting ramifications for semantic theory in general. The basic Form II morphological template in MSA is C1aC2C2aC3a, with each C a consonant of the corresponding triliteral root (C1-C2-C3) and /a/ the associated vowels. Traditionally, the meaning associated with this pattern has been classified as causative. E.g., Form II kattaba 'he made someone write' corresponds to the root k-t-b and evokes a prototypical causative reading in comparison to Form I kataba 'he wrote'. Other representative Form II causative examples (and their corresponding Form I forms) include jallasa 'he made someone sit' (jalasa 'he sat'), sarraba 'he made someone drink' (sariba 'he drank something'), and fahhama 'he made someone understand something' (fahima 'he understood'), which evokes causativity in a more abstract mental domain. The Form II causative senses evoke the notion of an extra force/energy (force augmentation) imposed upon a core event from outside that event. Examples of more obscure causative senses which still evoke aspects of force augmentation in Form II (vs. Form I) forms will also be discussed and semantically motivated. Intensives and frequentives evoked by Form II morphology include such forms as kassara 'he smashed' (kasara 'he broke something') and qattala 'he massacred' (qatala 'he killed'), respectively. We argue that such meanings are related to prototypical Form II causatives via the imposition of additional force/energy onto the core event evoked by the corresponding parenthesized Form I forms, but that they are semantic extensions from prototypical causativity, because this additional force emanates from the instigator of the original core action rather than from a source external to that core event. Specifically, addition of extra force onto a breaking event by the agent of that event results in the notion of smashing something; analogously, the addition of extra force onto a killing event results in multiple (frequentive) iterations of killing, hence a massacre. Finally, the notion of estimativity associated with some Form II verbs evokes an evaluative meaning, as illustrated in sarraqa 'he called someone a thief' (saraqa 'he stole') and kaððaba 'he called someone a liar' (kaðaba 'he lied'). We argue that estimatives represent a different semantic extension from causativity, whereby the additional force augmentation onto the core event is now construed as a kind of evaluative mental energy directed toward the core event from outside that event. This mental evaluation directed toward the core event is distinct from the more concrete notion of a causative force, but shares with it the abstract idea of being augmented onto the original event. We conclude that the semantics of MSA Form II morphology supports the claim of a non-arbitrary relationship between the Form II pattern and the meaning(s) evoked by that form, and that the Arabic data provide evidence for the conceptual relationship between the semantic notions of causativity, intensitivity, frequentivity, and estimativity.

Synthesis of ZnO nanostructures with controlled morphology and size in ionic liquids

Nanostructured ZnO has been synthesized by a hydrothermal route, using different ionic liquids (ILs) as the morphology templates. The morphology of ZnO changes from rod-like to star-like and flower-like in different ILs. A 3D nano/micro structure ZnO with unique flower-like morphology has been synthesized via the assembly of dicationic IL and [Zn(OH)4]2−. The flower-like pattern was obtained in the presence of IL 1. The flower-like ZnO structure has a hexagonal prism, with a hexagonal pyramid on the tip, and diameter of ~444 nm. While the ZnO prepared in IL 2, shows uniform rod-like shape with a diameter of 91 nm, star-like morphology consisting of nanorods with diameter of ~109 nm was formed in IL 3. The XRD, SEM, and PL spectra have been employed for characterization of the synthesized ZnO nano structures.

On the suppression of superconducting phase formation in YBCO materials by templated synthesis in the presence of a sulfated biopolymer

The use of biopolymers as templates to control superconductor crystallization is a recent phenomenon and is generating a lot of interest both from the superconductor community and in materials chemistry circles. This work represents a critical finding in the use of such biopolymers, in particular the contraindicatory nature of sulfur when attempting to affect a morphologically controlled synthesis. Synthesis of superconducting nanoparticles was attempted using carrageenan as a morphological template. Reactive sulfate groups on the biopolymer prevent this, producing instead significant quantities of barium sulfate nanotapes. By substituting the biopolymer for structurally analogous, non-sulfated agar, we show that superconducting nanoparticles could be successfully synthesized.

Preparation of hexagonal platy particles of nanoporous silica using hydrotalcite as morphology template

Hexagonal platy composite particles with a hydrotalcite core and a nanoporous silica shell with a thickness of ca. 100 nm were synthesized by the reaction of a Mg–Al hydrotalcite with a homogeneous aqueous solution containing tetraethoxysilane, hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride, ammonia and methanol at 3 °C. The calcination of the products at 500 °C in air led to the composite particle with a Mg/Al mixed oxide core and a nanoporous silica shell. Hexagonal platy particles of nanoporous silica with a pore diameter of 2.3 nm and BET surface area of 700 m 2 (g of silica) −1 were obtained by removing the Mg/Al mixed oxide core.

Bespoke Human Hypertrophic Chondrocytic Cell Lines Provide the Osteoinductive Signals Required for Vascularized Bone Formation

Hypertrophic cartilage provides the morphological and biochemical template for orchestrating bone growth. To produce a bone-inductive material such as hypertrophic cartilage for clinical use, we have conditionally immortalized hypertrophic chondrocytic cells from human femur and expanded them in vitro through more than 145 divisions. The clonal cell lines generated by this process consistently express signals that induce both rat and human marrow cells to differentiate in vitro into osteoblastic cells. Further, implantation of the cell-free extracellular matrix from the immortalized chondrocytic cells causes vascularized bone to form in vivo in bony defects, but not in ectopic sites such as skeletal muscle. This study shows that molecular techniques can be used to generate bespoke human cell lines for bone tissue engineering. It also demonstrates that matrix material generated from human immortalized hypertrophic chondrocytic cells may provide an abundant, efficacious, and safer alternative to bone autograft--the currently preferred material for fracture repair.

Genetic, physiologic and ecogeographic factors contributing to variation in Homo sapiens: Homo floresiensis reconsidered.

A new species, Homo floresiensis, was recently named for Pleistocene hominid remains on Flores, Indonesia. Significant controversy has arisen regarding this species. To address controversial issues and refocus investigations, I examine the affinities of these remains with Homo sapiens. Clarification of problematic issues is sought through an integration of genetic and physiological data on brain ontogeny and evolution. Clarification of the taxonomic value of various 'primitive' traits is possible given these data. Based on this evidence and using a H. sapiens morphological template, models are developed to account for the combination of features displayed in the Flores fossils. Given this overview, I find substantial support for the hypothesis that the remains represent a variant of H. sapiens possessing a combined growth hormone-insulin-like growth factor I axis modification and mutation of the MCPH gene family. Further work will be required to determine the extent to which this variant characterized the population.