title: Towards the taxonomic categorization and recognition of nanoparticle shapes.
abstract: The shape of nanoparticles and nanomaterials is a fundamental characteristic that has been shown to influence a number of their properties and effects, particularly for nanomedical applications. The information related with this feature of nanoparticles and nanomaterials is, therefore, crucial to exploit and foster in existing and future research in this area. We have found that descriptions of morphological and spatial properties are consistently reported in the nanotechnology literature, and in general, these morphological properties can be observed and measured using various microscopy techniques. In this paper, we outline a taxonomy of nanoparticle shapes constructed according to nanotechnologists' descriptions and formal geometric concepts that can be used to address the problem of nanomaterial categorization. We employ an image segmentation technique, belonging to the mathematical morphology field, which is capable of identifying shapes in images that can be used to (semi-) automatically annotate nanoparticle images.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  This team of authors outlines a taxonomy of nanoparticle shapes constructed according to nanotechnologists' descriptions and formal geometric concepts enabling nanomaterial categorization. They also employ a mathematical morphology-based image segmentation system, capable of identifying shapes and can be utilized in semi-automated annotation of nanoparticle images.
authors: Biomedical Informatics Group, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, L3204, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain.
authors: Miguel
authors: M
authors: Muñoz-Mármol
authors: Biomedical Informatics Group, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, L3204, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain.
authors: José
authors: J
authors: Crespo
authors: Material Measurement Laboratory, Materials Measurement Science Division, Bldg. 223, Room A249, National Institutes of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8520, Gaithersburg, MD, USA.
authors: Martin J
authors: MJ
authors: Fritts
authors: Biomedical Informatics Group, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, L3204, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: vmaojo@infomed.dia.fi.upm.es.
authors: Víctor
authors: V
authors: Maojo
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D050997:Nanomedicine; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use
keywords: Image processing; Nanoinformatics; Nanoparticle shapes; Taxonomic categorization; Watershed segmentation