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A two-stage model is proposed for investigating remodelling characteristics in bone over time and distance to the growth plate. The first stage comprises a partial differential equation (PDE) for bone density as a function of time and distance from the growth plate. This stage clarifies the contributions to changes in bone density due to remodelling and growth processes and tracks the rate at which new bone emanates from the growth plate. The second stage consists of simulating the remodelling process to determine remodelling characteristics. Implementing the second stage requires the rate at which bone moves away from the growth plate computed during the first stage. The second stage is also needed to confirm that remodelling characteristics predicted by the first stage may be explained by a realistic model for remodelling and to compute activation frequency. The model is demonstrated on microCT scans of tibia of juvenile female rats in three experimental groups: sham-operated control, oestrogen deprived, and oestrogen deprived followed by treatment. Model predictions for changes in bone density and remodelling characteristics agree with the literature. In addition, the model provides new insight into the role of treatment on the density of new bone emanating from the growth plate and provides quantitative descriptions of changes in remodelling characteristics beyond what has been possible to ascertain by experimentation alone., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Irregularities in retinal shape have been shown to correlate with axial length, a major risk factor for retinal detachment. To further investigate this association, a comparison was performed of the swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS OCT) peripheral retinal shape of eyes that had either a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) or vitrectomy for retinal detachment. The objective was to identify a biomarker that can be tested as a predictor for retinal detachment. Eyes with a PVD (N = 88), treated retinal detachment (N = 67), or retinal tear (N = 53) were recruited between July 2020 and January 2022 from hospital retinal clinics in South Australia. The mid-peripheral retina was imaged in four quadrants with SS OCT. The features explored were patient age, eye axial length, and retinal shape irregularity quantified in the frequency domain. A discriminant analysis classifier to identify retinal detachment eyes was trained with two-thirds and tested with one-third of the sample. Retinal detachment eyes had greater irregularity than PVD eyes. A classifier trained using shape features from the superior and temporal retina had a specificity of 84% and a sensitivity of 48%. Models incorporating axial length were less successful, suggesting peripheral retinal irregularity is a better biomarker for retinal detachment than axial length. Mid-peripheral retinal irregularity can identify eyes that have experienced a retinal detachment.

Introduction: Retinal detachment is a sight-threatening emergency, with more than half of those affected suffering permanent visual impairment. A diagnostic test to identify eyes at risk before vision is threatened would enable exploration of prophylactic treatment. This report presents the use of irregularities in retinal shape, quantified from optical coherence tomography (OCT) images, as a biomarker for retinal detachment., Methods: OCT images were taken from posterior and mid-peripheral retina of 264 individuals [97 after a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), 99 after vitrectomy for retinal detachment and 68 after laser for a retinal tear]. Diagnoses were taken from history, examination and OCT. Retinal irregularity was quantified in the frequency domain, and the distribution of irregularity across the regions of the eye was explored to identify features exhibiting the greatest difference between retinal detachment and PVD eyes. Two of these features plus axial length were used to train a quadratic discriminant analysis classifier. Classifier performance was assessed by its sensitivity and specificity in identifying retinal detachment eyes and visualised with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve., Results: Validation set specificity was 84% (44/52 PVD eyes correctly labelled) and sensitivity 35% (23/64 retinal detachment eyes identified, p = 0.02). Area under the ROC curve was 0.75 (95% confidence intervals 0.58-0.85). Retinal detachment eyes were significantly more irregular than PVD eyes in the superior retina (0.70 mm versus 0.49 mm, p < 0.05) and supero-temporal retina (1.12 mm versus 0.80 mm, p < 0.05). Lower sensitivity (16/68, 24%) was seen for eyes with a retinal tear without detachment, that were intermediate in size between retinal detachment and PVD eyes. Axial length on its own was a poor classifier. Neither irregularity nor classification were affected by surgery for retinal detachment or the development of PVD., Conclusions: The classifier identified 1/3 of retinal detachment eyes in this sample. In future work, these features can be evaluated as a test for retinal detachment prior to PVD., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Serial sections of Angus striploins that varied in marbling were analysed in three dimensions to assess potential differences in intramuscular fat structure. The majority of the intramuscular fat appeared to be connected along the 100 mm of muscle in both the highly marbled and less marbled striploins. Thus, rather than having dispersed individual flecks of marbling, the intramuscular fat was a single entity within the striploin. The local shape patterns of this entity varied with marbling level in that the structure had an increased diameter in the highly marbled striploins. However, the amount of branching in the intramuscular fat did not vary with the level of marbling. The results suggest that marbling may occur along an internal structure, such as the vascular system or interstitium, in the longissimus muscle. It is postulated that when beef marbling increases, additional intramuscular fat is not deposited in isolated sites but along this internal structure, widening the existing entity rather than changing the shape., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Pseudohyphal growth of the dimorphic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is analysed using two-dimensional top-down binary images. The colony morphology is characterized using clustered shape primitives (CSPs), which are learned automatically from the data and thus do not require a list of predefined features or a priori knowledge of the shape. The power of CSPs is demonstrated through the classification of pseudohyphal yeast colonies known to produce different morphologies. The classifier categorizes the yeast colonies considered with an accuracy of 0.969 and standard deviation 0.041, demonstrating that CSPs capture differences in morphology, while CSPs are found to provide greater discriminatory power than spatial indices previously used to quantify pseudohyphal growth. The analysis demonstrates that CSPs provide a promising avenue for analysing morphology in high-throughput assays., Competing Interests: We have no competing interests.

Twenty Angus steers were fed a diet low in β-carotene and vitamin A for 10months. Ten steers were supplemented with vitamin A weekly, while the other ten steers did not receive any additional vitamin A. The results demonstrated that the restriction of vitamin A intake increased intramuscular fat (IMF) by 46%. This was a function of the total number of marbling flecks increasing by 22% and the average marbling fleck size increasing by 14%. Vitamin A restriction resulted in marbling flecks that were less branched (22%) and slightly more round (4%) with an increased minor axis length (7%). However, restricting vitamin A did not affect the size of the intramuscular or subcutaneous adipocyte cells or the subcutaneous fat depth. The results suggest that vitamin A affects the amount of marbling and other attributes of the marbling flecks due to hyperplasia rather than hypertrophy. This may explain why vitamin A restriction specifically affects IMF rather than subcutaneous fat deposition., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A model is presented for characterizing the process by which cancellous bone changes in volume and structure over time. The model comprises simulations of local changes resulting from individual remodelling events, known as bone multicellular units (BMU), and an ordinary differential equation for connecting the number of remodelling events to real time. The model is validated on micro-CT scans of tibiae of normal rats, estrogen deprived rats and estrogen deprived rats treated with bisphosphonates. The model explains the asymptotic trends seen in changes of bone volume over time resulting from estrogen deprivation as well as trends seen subsequent to treatment. The model demonstrates that both bone volume and structure changes can be explained in terms of resetting remodelling parameters. The model also shows that either current understanding of the effects of bisphosphonates is not correct or that the simplest description of remodelling does not suffice to explain both the change in bone volume and structure of rats treated with bisphosphonates., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of overload in orthogonal directions on longitudinal and transverse mechanical integrity in human vertebral trabecular bone. Results suggest that the trabecular structure has properties that act to minimize the decrease of apparent toughness transverse to the primary loading direction., Introduction: The maintenance of mechanical integrity and function of trabecular structure after overload remains largely unexplored. Whereas a number of studies have focused on addressing the question by testing the principal anatomical loading direction, the mechanical anisotropy has been overlooked. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of overload in orthogonal directions on longitudinal and transverse mechanical integrity in human vertebral trabecular bone., Materials and Methods: T(12)/L(1) vertebral bodies from five cases and L(4)/L(5) vertebral bodies from seven cases were retrieved at autopsy. A cube of trabecular bone was cut from the centrum of each vertebral body and imaged by microCT. Cubes from each T(12)/L(1) and L(4)/L(5) pairs were assigned to either superoinferior (SI) or anteroposterior (AP) mechanical testing groups. All samples were mechanically tested to 10% apparent strain by uniaxial compression according to their SI or AP allocation. To elucidate the extent to which overload in orthogonal directions affects the mechanical integrity of the trabecular structure, samples were retested (after initial uniaxial compression) in their orthogonal direction. After mechanical testing in each direction, apparent ultimate failure stresses (UFS), apparent elastic moduli (E), and apparent toughness moduli (u) were computed., Results: Significant differences in mechanical properties were found between SI and AP directions in both first and second overload tests. Mechanical anisotropy far exceeded differences resulting from overloading the structure in the orthogonal direction. No significant differences were found in mean UFS and mean u for the first or second overload tests. A significant decrease of 35% was identified in mean E for cubes overloaded in the SI direction and then overloaded in the AP direction., Conclusions: Observed differences in the mechanics of trabecular structure after overload suggests that the trabecular structure has properties that act to minimize loss of apparent toughness, perhaps through energy dissipating sacrificial structures transverse to the primary loading direction.

Neural activity within the human brain produces electrical potentials that are transmitted through the various tissues of the head to the scalp. A three-dimensional finite difference model has been applied to simulate this process and used as the basis for an inverse model, wherein known potentials on the scalp are used to locate sources of neural activity within the brain. The inverse model uses linear and nonlinear response functions, together with nonlinear regression to determine the source location. The model has been applied to three different simulations, and in each case was able to locate the source using a combination of linear and nonlinear response functions.

The factor IX gene has a G + C content of approximately 40% in all mammalian species examined. In human factor IX, C----T and G----A transitions at the dinucleotide CpG are elevated at least 24-fold relative to other transitions. Can the G + C content be explained solely by this hot spot of mutation? Using our mathematical model, we show that the elevation of mutation at CpG cannot alone lower the G + C content below 45%. To search for other hot spots of mutation that might contribute to the reduction of G + C content, we assessed the relative rates of base substitution in our sample of 160 families with hemophilia B. Seventeen independent single-base substitutions are reported herein for a total of 96 independent point mutations in our sample. The following conclusions emerge from the analysis of our data and, where appropriate, the data of others: (1) Transversions at CpG are elevated an estimated 7.7-fold relative to other transversions. (2) The mutation rates at non-CpG dinucleotides are remarkably uniform; none of the observed rates are either more than twofold above the median for transitions or more than threefold above the median for transversions. (3) The pattern of recent mutation is compatible with the pattern during mammalian evolution that has maintained the G + C content of the factor IX gene at approximately 40%.

This article describes a method for clarifying and sharpening radiographs. The method uses convolution with a computed tomography reconstruction kernel and a noise elimination procedure to control the noise amplification of the convolution. The effect is to flatten global variations and to sharpen and magnify local variations. Examples from industry and medicine are included.