Attribute Controlled Reconstruction and Adaptive Mathematical Morphology

ISBN : 978-3-642-38293-2International audienceIn this paper we present a reconstruction method controlled by the evolution of attributes. The process begins from a marker, propagated over increasing quasi-flat zones. The evolution of several increasing and non-increasing attributes is studied in order to select the appropriate region. Additionally, the combination of attributes can be used in a straightforward way. To demonstrate the performance of our method, three applications are presented. Firstly, our method successfully segments connected objects in range images. Secondly, input-adaptive structuring elements (SE) are defined computing the controlled propagation for each pixel on a pilot image. Finally, input-adaptive SE are used to assess shape features on the image. Our approach is multi-scale and auto-dual. Compared with other methods, it is based on a given attribute but does not require a size parameter in order to determine appropriate regions. It is useful to extract objects of a given shape. Additionally, our reconstruction is a connected operator since quasi-flat zones do not create new contours on the image

Green tea catechin inhibits ephrin-A1-mediated cell migration and angiogenesis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells

Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting capillaries, is essential for tumor progression and metastasis. During tumor neovascularization, vascular endothelial growth factor and ephrin (Eph) families emerge as critical mediators of angiogenesis. The green tea catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has been demonstrated in previous studies to be an effective anti angiogenesis agent. However, the inhibitory effect of green tea catechins on ephrin-A1-mediated tumor angiogenesis has not been demonstrated yet. Thus, in this study, we investigated the molecular mechanism of ephrin-A1-mediated cell migration and angiogenesis, as well as the inhibitory effects of EGCG. Here we show that ephrin-A1 mediates endothelial cell migration and regulates vascular remodeling in tumor neovascularization in vitro. We also demonstrated that ephrin-A1-mediated cell migration required the activation of extracellular-regulated kinase (ERK-1/2) but not of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase. The green tea catechin EGCG inhibited ephrin-A1-mediated endothelial cell migration, as well as tumor angiogenesis, in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, EGCG inhibited the ephrin-A1-mediated phosphorylation of EphA2 and EPK-1/2. Taken together, these data indicated that activation of ERK-1/2 plays an essential role in ephrin-A1-mediated cell migration. EGCG inhibited ephrin-A1-mediated endothelial migration and angiogenesis. It suggests a novel antiangiogenesis application of EGCG in cancer chemoprevention. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Corner detection using morphological skeleton:an efficient and nonparametric approach

In this paper we propose an effective and robust approach for detecting corner points on a given binary image. Unlike other corner detection methods the proposed method is non-parametric in nature, that is, it does not require any input parameter. The proposed method is based on mathematical morphology. It makes use of morphological skeleton for detecting corner points. Convex corner points are obtained by intersecting the morphological boundary and the corresponding skeleton, where as the concave corner points are obtained by intersecting the boundary and the skeleton of the complement image. Experimental results show that the proposed method is more robust and efficient in detecting corner points

Thrombomodulin Gene Polymorphism (C1418T) is Associated with the Development of Coronary Allograft Vasculopathy

Thrombomodulin (TM) is the endothelial cell membrane-bound anticoagulant protein cofactor in the thrombin-mediated activation of protein C. Previous evidence has been reported regarding the association between TM polymorphisms and coronary artery disease. Allograft rejection-mediated vasculopathy is the main cause of death at more than one year after heart transplantation. However, whether TM polymorphism is associated with allograft rejection is still unclear. We analyzed the TM gene polymorphism C1418T using allele-specific primers in a PCR assay in 60 patients who underwent heart transplantation. The retrospective clinical data were collected and tested for any correlations with the TM gene polymorphism. We separated the patients into 2 groups according to their TM genotype (group 1: CC genotype; group 2: CT or TT genotype). Additionally, we generated expression constructs (TM full length-C1418 and TM full length-T1418) and performed in vitro studies to explore the correlation between the TM C1418T polymorphism and the migration of smooth muscle progenitor cells and monocytes, which may be involved in the development of vasculopathy. The results showed that the levels of CD68, C4d, PAS, and Masson staining in the CT/TT genotype group increased at year 1 and continued to increase throughout the 3 years. These levels were higher than those observed in the CC genotype group. The ISHLT-WF2004 grade of the CT/TT genotype group was significantly different from that of the CC genotype group at the same time point post-transplantation. The coronary allograft vasculopathy (CAV) score was significantly different between the CC and CT/TT genotype groups at 1 and 3 years post-transplantation. Our in vitro studies demonstrate that both smooth muscle progenitor cells and monocytic THP-1 cells with either the CT-1418 or the TT-1418 TM genotype have higher migratory abilities than cells with the CC-1418 genotype. Our results support a significant association between the TM C1418T polymorphism and the development of CAV after heart transplantation in the short- to medium-term

Quantitative Comparison of Similarity Measure and Entropy for Fuzzy Sets

Abstract. Comparison and data analysis to the similarity measures and entropy for fuzzy sets are studied. The distance proportional value between the fuzzy set and the corresponding crisp set is represented as fuzzy entropy. We also verified that the sum of the similarity measure and the entropy between fuzzy set and the corresponding crisp set constitutes the total information. Finally, we derive a similarity measure from entropy with the help of total information property, and illustrate a simple example that the maximum similarity measure can be obtained using a minimum entropy formulation