This study investigated the potential forms of enset fibres and their tensile properties. Microscopic images of the fibre cross-section were collected, and image analysis was carried out in MATLAB. ...As a result, four distinct fibre shapes were identified and their likelihood of occurring as well as- their area contribution to the fibre bundle were determined. These fibres have distinct tensile strength, Young’s modulus, and strain-to-failure values, distinguishing the strongest and weakest fibres. The strength distribution of these fibre shapes does not conform to the Weibull theory. However, it follows the scenario that fibres with the biggest perimeter-to-area ratio provide the weakest values and vice versa. This shows that the tensile properties of fibres are influenced not only by their material properties but also by their geometric shape. As a result, fibres of different shapes contribute differently to the global tensile properties of the fibre-polymer composites.
Context: The foramen ovale is an obliquely placed, oval-shaped opening at the base of the skull in the greater wing of sphenoid. As the foramen transmits mandibular nerve, accessory meningeal artery, ...lesser petrosal nerve, and emissary veins, it knowledge of its variations is of supreme interest for surgeons. Aims: The aim of this study is to study the metric and nonmetric variations, of the foramen ovale of 40 dry adult human dried skulls. Settings and Design: The study was conducted in the dissection hall of Chettinad Academy of Research and Education. The study undertaken here is an observational study. Subjects and Methods: Human skulls were studied for location, patency, and various morphometric parameters bilaterally. The materials used were thin copper wire and a digital Vernier caliper of precision 0.01 mm. Statistical Analysis Used: Metric and nonmetric data were analyzed using the SPSS software. Results: The shape of foramen ovale was D shaped in most of the skulls (35%) followed by almond (21%), elongated oval (15%), and oval shape (11%). The presence of bony variations like spur was seen in 27.5% foramina, bony septa in 3.75%, and duplication in 21.25% foramina. The mean length and width of foramen ovale were 6.51 ± 1.24 mm and 3.66 ± 0.82 mm on right and 6.59 ± 1.33 mm and 3.75 ± 0.68 mm on the left, respectively. The mean area of foramen ovale was 19.08 ± 5.71 mm2 and 17.88 ± 5.85 mm2 on the right and the left, respectively. Conclusions: A sound knowledge on the morphometric variations of the foramen ovale helps the operating surgeon to avoid damage to the adjacent structures.
There is a considerable connection between indoor and outdoor environments. However, few studies have explored their intrinsic relationship until now. This study conducted morphologic observation, ...heavy metal monitoring and isotopes analysis in indoor and outdoor dust, as well as the atmospheric particulates in Hefei. Morphologic analysis demonstrated atmospheric particulates were affected by fly ash and construction, road dust mainly came from automobile exhaust and indoor dust particles were interfered by multiple sources, including the secondary reaction of fly ash. Chemical speciation analysis of heavy metals showed the exchange of heavy metals between atmospheric particulates and indoor dust was dominated by non-residual metals, while the exchange between road dust and indoor dust tended to rely on residual metals. The assessment results of heavy metals in particulates showed that indoor carcinogenic risks were greater than outdoor for children, however, for adults, outdoor carcinogenic risks were greater than indoor. Stable isotopes analysis indicated carbon in the dust outside buildings was derived from flying dust, and atmospheric particulates might derive from vehicle exhaust, or partly from natural gas. While sulfur in atmospheric particulates was derived mainly from coal combustion. The release from indoor activities, especially natural gas exhaust emitted from cooking had a certain impact on atmospheric particulates.
•Compare pollution indoor dust with outdoor dust and atmospheric particulates.•Combine morphological analysis, heavy metals and stable C/S isotope analysis.•There is exchange and mutual influence among particulates indoors and outdoors.•Indoor activities especially cooking had an impact on atmospheric particulates.
Objectives
Application of the picosecond laser in the field of dermatology has expanded from tattoo removal to skin rejuvenation on a clinical basis. Although various mechanisms of pigment removal ...have been elucidated, the molecular changes associated with skin rejuvenation have yet to be identified. The aim of this study was to explore the theoretical basis and to evaluate the efficacy of skin rejuvenation using a 1064‐nm fractional picosecond laser in a mouse model.
Methods
We conducted an in vivo study using a fractional picosecond laser on the skin of old and young female hairless mice and performed topographical, histological, micro‐, and electron microscopic assessments.
Results
The topography of the skin surface was enhanced and showed increased dermal thickness on histological examination. Electron microscopy revealed disarranged collagen bundles with microspaces and vascular leakage in the upper dermis. Levels of collagen synthesis markers and various inflammatory cytokines, such as procollagens, interleukin‐1β, tumor necrosis factor‐α, and heat shock proteins, were elevated in the laser‐treated skin.
Conclusions
This study provides a possible mechanism for the skin rejuvenation effect of fractional picosecond laser that has been reported previously in clinical observations. Based on our findings, the fractional picosecond laser could be widely applied in clinical settings where dermal regeneration and promotion of skin rejuvenation is required.
Objectives:
The objective was the development of a method for the automatic recognition of different types of atypical lymphoid cells.
Methods:
In the method development, a training set (TS) of 1,500 ...lymphoid cell images from peripheral blood was used. To segment the images, we used clustering of color components and watershed transformation. In total, 113 features were extracted for lymphocyte recognition by linear discriminant analysis (LDA) with a 10-fold cross-validation over the TS. Then, a new validation set (VS) of 150 images was used, performing two steps: (1) tuning the LDA classifier using the TS and (2) classifying the VS in the different lymphoid cell types.
Results:
The segmentation algorithm was very effective in separating the cytoplasm, nucleus, and peripheral zone around the cell. From them, descriptive features were extracted and used to recognize the different lymphoid cells. The accuracy for the classification in the TS was 98.07%. The precision, sensitivity, and specificity values were above 99.7%, 97.5%, and 98.6%, respectively. The accuracy of the classification in the VS was 85.33%.
Conclusions:
The method reaches a high precision in the recognition of five different types of lymphoid cells and could allow for the design of a diagnosis support tool in the future.
Background:
The os subfibulare is usually asymptomatic and found incidentally on radiographs. However, sometimes it may cause subfibular pain and may be associated with chronic lateral ankle ...instability (CLAI). We hypothesized that os subfibulare could interrupt the talofibular space causing impingement, resulting in chronic pain and functional instability around the lateral malleolus. The purposes of this study were to analyze morphologic characteristics of os subfibulare, and to evaluate the clinical significance of the os subfibulare in patients with CLAI.
Methods:
Between November 2011 and April 2015, 70 patients who had both computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) among 252 patients who visited our hospital with the symptom of lateral ankle instability were included in this study. The location of the ossicle was classified into 3 zones in reference to the attachment site of the lateral ankle ligaments. The impingement was classified into 2 groups according to the presence of talofibular encroachment. Digital radiographs were used to measure the ossicle width and shape determined by the length and width on an magnetic resonance (MR) image.
Results:
The most common shape of ossicles was oval, and the most common location of ossicles was at the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) attachment site. Sixty-one percent of patients showed talofibular impingement on coronal MR images. In 48 cases, the dimension of fibula plus os subfibulare was larger than that of the contralateral normal fibula. The larger size and talofibular impingement of the ossicle were associated with greater need for operative treatment in patients with ankle instability.
Conclusion:
The morphologic analysis of the os subfibulare revealed that there might be impingement of the talofibular space by the ossicle in some patients. We suggest that morphologic characteristics of the os subfibulare should be considered when selecting treatment options in patients with CLAI and os subfibulare.
Level of Evidence:
Level III, retrospective comparative series.
Purpose
In this current study, our main goal was to establish that EmbryoScope incubation environment is comparable to standard incubation.
Methods
The development of sibling human zygotes was ...compared after culture in either a benchtop incubator (SI) or an EmbryoScope time-lapse incubator (ES). Between May 2015 to April 2016, a total of 581 normally fertilized 2PN, pronuclear-stage embryos, from 47 patients were allocated to culture in either a benchtop incubator (SI) or an EmbryoScope incubator (ES).
Results
The development of embryos to cleavage (up to day 3) and blastocyst stages (day 5/6) was compared between the two different incubators. The proportion of good quality embryos was higher in the ES group compared to the SI on day 2 (66.8 vs. 50.5%,
P
= 0.014) and on day 3 (75.1 vs. 56.0%,
P
= 0.006). Those differences were statistically significant. A higher proportion of embryos developed to good quality blastocysts when cultured in the EmbryoScope compared to the benchtop (49.4 vs. 42.0%,
P
= 0.24), but this was not significant. Finally, no significant differences were noted with the proportion of blastocysts chosen for cryopreservation on day 5/6 in the two incubators.
Conclusions
The findings support the view that the EmbryoScope incubator supports at least equivalent in vitro development of human embryos compared to other standard incubation methods and may promote improved development during early cleavage stages.
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are two distinct neurological disorders associated with hippocampal atrophy. Our goal is to analyze the morphologic patterns of ...hippocampal atrophy to better understand the underlying pathological and clinical characteristics of the two conditions.
Twenty-five patients with AD and 20 healthy controls with matched age and gender were recruited into the AD group. Twenty-three MTLE patients and 28 healthy controls with matched age and gender were recruited into the MTLE group. All subjects were scanned on 3T-MRI scanner. Automated volumetric analysis was applied to measure and compare the hippocampal volume of the two respective groups. Vertex-based morphologic analysis was applied to characterize the morphologic patterns of hippocampal atrophy within and between groups, and a correlation analysis was performed.
Volumetric analysis revealed significantly decreased hippocampal volume in both AD and MTLE patients compared to the controls. In the patients with AD, the mean total hippocampal volume was 32.70% smaller than that of healthy controls, without a significant difference between the left and the right hippocampus (
< 0.05). In patients with MTLE, a significant reduction in unilateral hippocampal volume was observed, with a mean volume reduction of 28.38% as compared with healthy controls (
< 0.05). Vertex-based morphologic analysis revealed a generalized shrinkage of the hippocampi in AD patients, especially in bilateral medial and lateral regions. In MTLE group, atrophy was seen in the ipsilateral head, ipsilateral lateral body and slightly contralateral tail of the hippocampus (FWE-corrected,
< 0.05).
MTLE and AD have distinctive morphologic patterns of hippocampal atrophy, which provide new insight into the radiology-pathology correlation in these diseases.
The estimation of sex from osteological and dental records has long been an interdisciplinary field of dentistry, forensic medicine and anthropology alike, as it concerns all the above mentioned ...specialties. The aim of this article is to review the current literature regarding methods used for sex estimation based on the skull and the teeth, covering articles published between January 2015 and July 2022. New methods and new approaches to old methods are constantly emerging in this field, therefore resulting in the need to summarize the large amount of data available. Morphometric, morphologic and biochemical analysis were reviewed in living populations, autopsy cases and archaeological records. The cranial and odontological sex estimation methods are highly population-specific and there is a great need for these methods to be applied to and verified on more populations. Except for DNA analysis, which has a prediction accuracy of 100%, there is no other single method that can achieve such accuracy in predicting sex from cranial or odontological records.
Mouse retinal vasculature is a well-recognized and commonly used animal model for angiogenesis and microvascular remodeling. Morphological features of retinal vasculature reflect the vessel’s ...biological functions, and are critical in understanding the physiological and pathological process of vascular development and disease. Here we developed a comprehensive software,
Vessel Tech
, using retinal vasculature images of postnatal mice. This pipeline can automatically process retinal vascular images, reconstruct vessel network with high accuracy and assess global and local vascular characteristics based on the recent machine-learning techniques. The development of
Vessel Tech
provides a powerful tool for vascular biologists.
PDF
