Search results for "SHAPE"
showing 10 items of 585 documents
Foreword to
2016
Early in his investigations, Leeuwenhoek (1670s)1 deduced that spermatozoa were alive and an integral part of semen, rather than artifacts or parasites. He eventually observed spermatozoa in the semen of men, dogs, horses, birds, fishes, amphibians, molluscs, and many insects, and concluded that they must be a universal feature of male reproduction. The huge differences in sperm form among species have been discussed in relation to evolutionary changes dictated by the egg and its investments.2 Spallanzani (1800s)1 was the first scientist to develop successful methods for artificial insemination, first with amphibians and later with dogs. With these experiments, he showed that physical conta…
Sperm kinematic, head morphometric and kinetic-morphometric subpopulations in the blue fox (Alopex lagopus)
2016
This work provides information on the blue fox ejaculated sperm quality needed for seminal dose calculations. Twenty semen samples, obtained by masturbation, were analyzed for kinematic and morphometric parameters by using CASA-Mot and CASA-Morph system and principal component (PC) analysis. For motility, eight kinematic parameters were evaluated, which were reduced to PC1, related to linear variables, and PC2, related to oscillatory movement. The whole population was divided into three independent subpopulations: SP1, fast cells with linear movement; SP2, slow cells and nonoscillatory motility; and SP3, medium speed cells and oscillatory movement. In almost all cases, the subpopulation dis…
Is Autophagy Altered in the Leukocytes of Type 2 Diabetic Patients?
2015
It is unknown whether autophagy is altered in the leukocytes of type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients and whether oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stresses regulate this mechanism. We studied anthropometric and metabolic parameters and evaluated oxidative stress, chromatin condensation, ER stress, and autophagy parameters in leukocytes of 103 T2D patients versus 109 sex- and age-matched controls. Patients showed increases in glucose, insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) compared with controls (p < 0.001). Leukocytes displayed enhanced total and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS), reduced mitochondrial mass, and increased chro…
17β-Estradiol Reduces Nitric Oxide Production in the Guinea Pig Cochlea
2013
Intense noise exposure and the application of ototoxic substances result in increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS), such as nitric oxide (NO). In order to reduce the free NO concentration in the inner ear under pathological conditions, the use of natural cytoprotective substances such as 17β-estradiol is a promising therapeutic concept. In male guinea pigs the organ of Corti and the lateral wall were isolated from the cochlea and afterwards incubated for 6 h in cell-culture medium. 17β-Estradiol was adjusted in 2 concentrations to organ cultures of the right ears (12 animals per concentration). The left ears were used as controls. The NO produc…
Puma (Puma concolor) epididymal sperm morphometry
2016
The Andean puma (Puma concolor) has not been widely studied, particularly in reference to its semen characteristics. The aim of the present study was to define the morphometry of puma sperm heads and classify their subpopulations by cluster analysis. Samples were recovered postmortem from two epididymides from one animal and prepared for morphological observation after staining with the Hemacolor kit. Morphometric data were obtained from 581 spermatozoa using a CASA-Morph system, rendering 13 morphometric parameters. The principal component (PC) analysis was performed followed by cluster analysis for the establishment of subpopulations. Two PC components were obtained, the first related to …
Impact of Model Shape Mismatch on Reconstruction Quality in Electrical Impedance Tomography
2012
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a low-cost, noninvasive and radiation free medical imaging modality for monitoring ventilation distribution in the lung. Although such information could be invaluable in preventing ventilator-induced lung injury in mechanically ventilated patients, clinical application of EIT is hindered by difficulties in interpreting the resulting images. One source of this difficulty is the frequent use of simple shapes which do not correspond to the anatomy to reconstruct EIT images. The mismatch between the true body shape and the one used for reconstruction is known to introduce errors, which to date have not been properly characterized. In the present study we…
Strictly convex variable cost does not imply U-shaped average cost
2016
Abstract We show that strictly convex variable costs do not imply U-shaped average costs and provide a sufficient condition for U-shaped average costs. As an application we study endogenous entry when firms have market power and they have decreasing average cost but increasing marginal cost.
A Short Presentation of LucSim
2017
LucSim is a cellular automata (CA) dedicated to geographical analysis and spatial simulation for researchers and advanced planning institutes, providing user-friendly software in order to analyze and simulate land use changes and dynamics. Two complementary models are integrated in the CA: (1) a Markov Chain used to calculate transition matrices from a date to another, and (2) a Decision Tree able to automatically determine a set of transition rules to be applied on land use data. LucSim includes GIS compatibility functions allowing to display ESRI shapefiles and is based on raster georeferenced images saved in TIF format. It was mostly applied on French urban case studies.
Unbaffled, Stirred Bioreactors for Animal Cell Cultivation
2017
One of the main features of animal cell bioreactors is that the cultured cells lack a strong membrane and are therefore more prone to shear damage. It is widely accepted that animal cell damage in aerated bioreactors is mainly related to burst bubbles at the air–liquid interface. A viable alternative to sparged bioreactors, aimed at minimizing cell damage, may be represented by uncovered, unbaffled, stirred tanks, which are able to provide sufficient mass transfer through the deep free surface vortex that takes place under agitation. As a consequence the need for bubble formation and subsequent bursting accompanied by cell damage is conveniently avoided. In this chapter, mass transfer perfo…
Towards a real-time 3D shape reconstruction using a structured light system
2005
This paper deals with 3D shape reconstruction using a structured light system (SLS) which projects a matrix of laser rays onto the scene to be analyzed. The intrinsic problem of such a system is the correspondence problem solving, which in this particular case amounts to matching up the imaged spots and the originating laser rays. In this paper, we propose a method for automatically obtaining configurations of the system (COS) (i.e. the relative positions of the camera, laser projector, and measuring scene) that permit to achieve a direct and unambiguous correspondence. After, we propose a splitting cell algorithm, which efficiently performs a real-time correspondence procedure. Experimenta…