Fuzzy inferring mathematical morphology and optical implementation

Fuzzification is introduced into gray-scale mathematical morphology by using two-input one-output fuzzy rule-based inference systems. The fuzzy inferring dilation or erosion is defined from the approximate reasoning of the two consequences of a dilation or an erosion and an extended rank-order operation. The fuzzy inference systems with numbers of rules and fuzzy membership functions are further reduced to a simple fuzzy system formulated by only an exponential two-input one-output function. Such a one-function fuzzy inference system is able to approach complex fuzzy inference systems by using two specified parameters within it-a proportion to characterize the fuzzy degree and an exponent to depict the nonlinearity in the inferring. The proposed fuzzy inferring morphological operators tend to keep the object details comparable to the structuring element and to smooth the conventional morphological operations. Based on digital area coding of a gray-scale image, incoherently optical correlation for neighboring connection, and optical thresholding for rank-order operations, a fuzzy inference system can be realized optically in parallel. (C) 1996 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Bead-probe complex capture a couple of SINE and LINE family from genomes of two closely related species of East Asian cyprinid directly using magnetic separation

Background: Short and long interspersed elements (SINEs and LINEs, respectively), two types of retroposons, are active in shaping the architecture of genomes and powerful tools for studies of phylogeny and population biology. Here we developed special protocol to apply biotin-streptavidin bead system into isolation of interspersed repeated sequences rapidly and efficiently, in which SINEs and LINEs were captured directly from digested genomic DNA by hybridization to bead-probe complex in solution instead of traditional strategy including genomic library construction and screening. Results: A new couple of SINEs and LINEs that shared an almost identical 3'tail was isolated and characterized in silver carp and bighead carp of two closely related species. These SINEs (34 members), designated HAmo SINE family, were little divergent in sequence and flanked by obvious TSD indicated that HAmo SINE was very young family. The copy numbers of this family was estimated to 2 x 10(5) and 1.7 x 10(5) per haploid genome by Real-Time qPCR, respectively. The LINEs, identified as the homologs of LINE2 in other fishes, had a conserved primary sequence and secondary structures of the 3'tail region that was almost identical to that of HAmo SINE. These evidences suggest that HAmo SINEs are active and amplified recently utilizing the enzymatic machinery for retroposition of HAmoL2 through the recognition of higher-order structures of the conserved 42-tail region. We analyzed the possible structures of HAmo SINE that lead to successful amplification in genome and then deduced that HAmo SINE, SmaI SINE and FokI SINE that were similar in sequence each other, were probably generated independently and created by LINE family within the same lineage of a LINE phylogeny in the genomes of different hosts. Conclusion: The presented results show the advantage of the novel method for retroposons isolation and a pair of young SINE family and its partner LINE family in two carp fishes, which strengthened the hypotheses containing the slippage model for initiation of reverse transcription, retropositional parasitism of SINEs on LINEs, the formation of the stem loop structure in 3'tail region of some SINEs and LINEs and the mechanism of template switching in generating new SINE family.

Raman scattering of non-planar graphite: arched edges, polyhedral crystals, whiskers and cones

Planar graphite has been extensively studied by Raman scattering for years. A comparative Raman study of several different and less common non-planar graphitic materials is given here. New kinds of graphite whiskers and tubular graphite cones (synthetic and natural) have been introduced. Raman spectroscopy has been applied to the characterization of natural graphite crystal edge planes, an individual graphite whisker graphite polyhedral crystals and tubular graphite cones. Almost all of the observed Raman modes were assigned according to the selection rules and the double-resonance Raman mechanism. The polarization properties related to the structural features, the line shape of the first-order dispersive mode and its combination modes, the frequency variation of some modes in different carbon materials and other unique Raman spectral features are discussed here in detail.

Exciton states and optical spectra in CdSe nanocrystallite quantum dots

By using the hole effective-mass Hamiltonian for semiconductors with the wurtzite structure, we have studied the exciton states and optical spectra in CdSe nanocrystallite quantum dots. The intrinsic asymmetry of the hexagonal lattice structure and the effect of spin-orbital coupling (SOC) on the hole states are investigated. It is found that the strong SOC limit is a good approximation for hole states. The selection rules and oscillator strengths for optical transitions between the conduction- and valence-band states are obtained. The Coulomb interaction of exciton states is also taken into account. In order to identify the exciton states, we use the approximation of eliminating the coupling of Gamma(6)(X, Y) with Gamma(1)(Z) states. The results are found to account for most of the important features of the experimental photoluminescence excitation spectra of Norris ct nl. However, if the interaction between Gamma(6)(X, Y) and Gamma(1)(Z) states is ignored, the optically passive P-x state cannot become the ground hole state for small CdSe quantum dots of radius less than 30 Angstrom. It is suggested that the intrinsic asymmetry of the hexagonal lattice structure and the coupling of Gamma(6)(X,Y) with Gamma(1)(Z) states are important for understanding the "dark exciton" effect.

Spatio-temporal patterns and driving forces of urban land expansion in china during the economic reform era

Along with its economic reform, China has experienced a rapid urbanization. This study mapped urban land expansion in China using high-resolution Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper data of 1989/1990, 1995/1996 and 1999/2000 and analyzed its expansion modes and the driving forces underlying this process during 1990-2000. Our results show that China's urban land increased by 817 thousand hectares, of which 80.8% occurred during 1990-1995 and 19.2% during 1995-2000. It was also found that China's urban expansion had high spatial and temporal differences, such as four expansion modes, concentric, leapfrog, linear and multi-nuclei, and their combinations coexisted and expanded urban land area in the second 5 y was much less than that of the first 5 y. Case studies of the 13 mega cities showed that urban expansion had been largely driven by demographic change, economic growth, and changes in land use policies and regulations.

Persistent organic pollutant residues in the sediments and mollusks from the Bohai Sea coastal areas, North China: An overview

The Bohai Sea costal area is one of the most developed zones of China and the sewage water from populous and developed cities, including Beijing, Tianjin. Qinhuangdao and Dalian is discharged into the Bohai Sea. Additionally, its semi-enclosed characteristic restricts water exchange, which leads to high accumulation of pollutants in the environment. This overview presents the residues of 6 classes of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). including PAHs, DDTs. HCHs, PCBs and PCDD/Fs. in the sediments and mollusks of the Bohai Sea through analyzing previous literatures. In the sediments. the highest PAH concentrations were detected in the vicinities of Qinhuangdao, while the northeast corner of the Bohai Bay possessed the highest levels of DDTs and PCBs. The investigations on HCHs and PCDD/Fs distributions on the whole sea scale have not been reported. In mollusks, PAH concentrations were in the same order of magnitude in the whole Bohai Sea, so were DDTs. HCHs and PCBs, while the outlier maximum values of PCDDs and PCDFs occurred in Yingkou. In general, the POPs residues in mollusks collected from Shandong Province were higher than the other areas. The compositions of DDTs, HCHs and PCBs in sediments indicated their recent usage. By comparing POP concentrations in sediments with the recommended criterions, it was shown that some individual PAH compounds occasionally associated with adverse biological effects in the vicinities of the Liaodong Bay and Qinhuangdao, and the Liaohe River Estuary were heavily contaminated with DDTs, but PCBs were all below the thresholds. In order to reveal the transference and transformation of POPs in the environment, further studies concerning with their behavior, fate and bioaccumulation in the different trophic levels should be programmed. Moreover, laws and regulations should be enforced to ban the illegal usage of POPs-containing pesticides to guarantee health of the environment and human. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.