0000000000431533
AUTHOR
Axel Ekman
showing 12 related works from this author
Measuring intrinsic thickness of rough membranes: application to nanofibrillated cellulose films
2015
Adequate measurement of thickness of sheet-like materials or membranes is most important for quantifying their properties such as density, barrier properties and mechanical strength. Depending on the surface roughness of the membrane, the thickness measured by standard micrometre devices (apparent thickness) may considerably overestimate the actual geometrical mean thickness (intrinsic thickness) required for such purposes. In this work, we present a method for correcting the measured apparent thickness value of thin membranes for their surface roughness, thereby obtaining an improved estimate of the intrinsic thickness. The surface roughness data required for the correction can be obtained…
Compact Cell Imaging Device (CoCID) provides insights into the cellular origins of viral infections
2021
The overall CoCID concept is centred on providing virologists with a next-generation imaging device, which, through increased penetration and depth of focus, as well as through high natural contrast and sensitivity to organelle density (including virus-related organelles), will produce higher-fidelity ultrastructural images of whole intact cells. These insights will, in turn, help increase our understanding of the links between the structural reorganisation of cells and the mechanisms of viral entry, replication, assembly, and egress in cells. CoCID will provide this valuable imaging capability in the form of a compact lab-scale device that will greatly improve the accessibility of soft X-r…
A unique microstructure of the fiber networks deposited from foam-fiber suspensions
2015
Abstract Fiber networks can be formed using aqueous foam as the suspending medium. The mean bubble size of the foam affects the resulting pore-size distribution of the fiber network. The foam–fiber interactions cause in particular an increase in the proportion of large micropores of the network, in comparison with the fiber networks that result from traditional water forming at a similar material density. Experiments were carried out for two different types of cellulose fiber, and characterization of the resulting pore structure was based on X-ray microtomography of the resulting fiber networks. The unique pore structure obtained with foam forming was reflected in various macroscopic proper…
Porous structure of fibre networks formed by a foaming process: a comparative study of different characterization techniques
2016
Recent developments in making fibre materials using the foam-forming technology have raised a need to characterize the porous structure at low material density. In order to find an effective choice among all structure-characterization methods, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional techniques were used to explore the porous structure of foam-formed samples made with two different types of cellulose fibre. These techniques included X-ray microtomography, scanning electron microscopy, light microscopy, direct surface imaging using a CCD camera and mercury intrusion porosimetry. The mean pore radius for a varying type of fibre and for varying foam properties was described similarly by all …
Contact formation in random networks of elongated objects
2014
The effect of steric hindrance is an important aspect of granular packings as it gives rise to, e.g., limitations on the densities of ordered and disordered packings, both of which are essentially defined by the geometry of the constituents. Here we focus on random packing of rods via deposition and their distributions of contact number and segment length. Such statistical properties are relevant for mechanical properties of the structures, but the (quite large) steric effects on them have not been addressed in previous studies. We therefore develop a theory that describes the statistical properties of rod packings, while taking into account that the deposited rods cannot overlap and thus i…
Determining the number of fibre-fibre contacts in cardboard samples using tomographic imaging
2011
The fibrous network of cardboard samples was studied with the aid of tomographic imaging. For analysing the samples a method of determing the number of contacts between fibres in a planar fibrous network was introduced. The model is based on the fact that deposited paper-like structures tend to have predominantly planar fibre orientation. With this assumption an expression of the mean segment length was derived in terms of the average shortest path along fibres through the sample in the out-of-plane direction. The density profiles of cardboard samples were analysed by determing four quantitative features, the solids content, standard deviation of the solids content, slope and curvature. All…
The number of contacts in random fibre networks
2012
There is a wide range of materials that can be considered as nonwoven random networks of fibres. Such materials include glass-fibre mats, filters, various paper products and structural components of cells and tissues. The mechanical properties of these kinds of networks have been studied extensively for many decades. As many of such networks form more or less two-dimensional structures, they can, to a good approximation, be considered to consist of randomly distributed fibres or filaments connected at their crossings points. Recent development of the resolution of X-ray computed tomography have enabled imaging of the three dimensional structure of such materials with a resolution sufficient…
Evaluating pulp stiffness from fibre bundles by ultrasound
2012
A non-destructive ultrasonic tester was developed to measure the stiffness of pulp bundles. The mechanical properties of pulp are important when estimating the behaviour of paper under stress. Currently available pulp tests are tedious and alter the fibres structurally and mechanically. The developed tester employs (933 ± 15) kHz tweezer-like ultrasonic transducers and time-of-flight measurement through (9.0 ± 2.5) mm long and (0.8 ± 0.1) mm thick fibre bundles kept at (19.1 ± 0.4) °C and (62 ± 1)% RH. We determined the stiffness of soft wood pulps produced by three kraft pulping modifications: standard kraft pulp, (5.2 ± 0.4) GPa, prehydrolysis kraft pulp, (4.3 ± 0.4) GPa, and alkali extra…
Soft X-ray Tomography Reveals HSV-1-Induced Remodeling of Human B Cells.
2022
Upon infection, viruses hijack the cell machinery and remodel host cell structures to utilize them for viral proliferation. Since viruses are about a thousand times smaller than their host cells, imaging virus-host interactions at high spatial resolution is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Scouting gross cellular changes with fluorescent microscopy is only possible for well-established viruses, where fluorescent tagging is developed. Soft X-ray tomography (SXT) offers 3D imaging of entire cells without the need for chemical fixation or labeling. Here, we use full-rotation SXT to visualize entire human B cells infected by the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1). We have mapped the temporo…
Quantitative microscopy reveals stepwise alteration of chromatin structure during herpesvirus infection
2019
During lytic herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection, the expansion of the viral replication compartments leads to an enrichment of the host chromatin in the peripheral nucleoplasm. We have shown previously that HSV-1 infection induces the formation of channels through the compacted peripheral chromatin. Here, we used three-dimensional confocal and expansion microscopy, soft X-ray tomography, electron microscopy, and random walk simulations to analyze the kinetics of host chromatin redistribution and capsid localization relative to their egress site at the nuclear envelope. Our data demonstrated a gradual increase in chromatin marginalization, and the kinetics of chromatin smoothening arou…
Contact formation in random networks of elongated objects
2014
The effect of steric hindrance is an important aspect of granular packings as it gives rise to, e.g., limitations on the densities of ordered and disordered packings, both of which are essentially defined by the geometry of the constituents. Here we focus on the random packing of rods via deposition and their distributions of contact number and segment length. Such statistical properties are relevant for mechanical properties of the structures, but the (quite large) steric effects on them have not been addressed in previous studies. We therefore develop a theory that describes the statistical properties of rod packings, while taking into account that the deposited rods cannot overlap and th…
The effect of steric hindrance on the packing of elongated objects
2016
Fibres of various materials can be deposited to form planar mats of fibres. These kinds of structures have gained substantial attention owing to their direct relation to both large industrial fields, such as paper and nonwovens, and biological structures, such as natural networks of fibrin, actin and collagen. In addition, similar structures are important in new emerging fields such as flexible electronics and tissue engineering. The physical properties of these structures are directly related to the connectivity of the network, thus a thorough understanding of the contact formation of the system is of great importance from both a scientific viewpoint as well as for its application in the e…