Search results for "Vertebra"

Citocentrifugación como un método adicional para estudiar celomitos de equinodermos: un enfoque comparativo que combina células vivas, preparaciones …

2021

Abstract Introduction: Echinoderm coelomocytes have traditionally been investigated through a morphological approach using light microscopy, which relies on the idea of constant cell shape as a stable character. However, this can be affected by biotic or abiotic conditions. Objective: To analyze if the consistency in cell morphology offered by the cytocentrifugation method, might be used as a convenient tool to study echinoderm coelomocytes. Methods: Cells of Echinaster (Othilia) brasiliensis (Asteroidea), Holothuria (Holothuria) tubulosa (Holothuroidea), Eucidaris tribuloides, Arbacia lixula, Lytechinus variegatus, and Echinometra lucunter (Echinoidea) were spread on microscope slides by c…

The effect of automated taxa identification errors on biological indices

2017

In benthic macroinvertebrate biomonitoring systems, the target is to determine the status of ecosystems based on several biological indices. To increase cost-efficiency, computer-based taxa identification for image data has recently been developed. Taxa identification errors can, however, have strong effects on the indices and thus on the determination of the ecological status. In order to shift the biomonitoring process towards automated expert systems, we need a clear understanding on the bias caused by automation. In this paper, we examine eleven classification methods in the case of macroinvertebrate image data and show how their classification errors propagate into different biological…

MetNet: A two-level approach to reconstructing and comparing metabolic networks

2021

Metabolic pathway comparison and interaction between different species can detect important information for drug engineering and medical science. In the literature, proposals for reconstructing and comparing metabolic networks present two main problems: network reconstruction requires usually human intervention to integrate information from different sources and, in metabolic comparison, the size of the networks leads to a challenging computational problem. We propose to automatically reconstruct a metabolic network on the basis of KEGG database information. Our proposal relies on a two-level representation of the huge metabolic network: the first level is graph-based and depicts pathways a…

Machine learning techniques demonstrating individual movement patterns of the vertebral column: the fingerprint of spinal motion

2022

Surface topography systems enable the capture of spinal dynamic movement; however, it is unclear whether vertebral dynamics are unique enough to identify individuals. Therefore, in this study, we investigated whether the identification of individuals is possible based on dynamic spinal data. Three different data representations were compared (automated extracted features using contrastive loss and triplet loss functions, as well as simple descriptive statistics). High accuracies indicated the possible existence of a personal spinal 'fingerprint', therefore enabling subject recognition. The present work forms the basis for an objective comparison of subjects and the transfer of the method to…

Automatic segmentation of the spine by means of a probabilistic atlas with a special focus on ribs suppression

2017

[EN] Purpose: The development of automatic and reliable algorithms for the detection and segmentation of the vertebrae are of great importance prior to any diagnostic task. However, an important problem found to accurately segment the vertebrae is the presence of the ribs in the thoracic region. To overcome this problem, a probabilistic atlas of the spine has been developed dealing with the proximity of other structures, with a special focus on ribs suppression. Methods: The data sets used consist of Computed Tomography images corresponding to 21 patients suffering from spinal metastases. Two methods have been combined to obtain the final result: firstly, an initial segmentation is performe…

Taxonomic flux as a measure of evolutionary turnover

2021

We introduce a new metric, "taxonomic flux", to quantify evolutionary trends both within and across taxonomic boundaries. This metric is normalized, which reduces the effect of sample size disparity between biologic groups and time intervals. Furthermore, this methodology considers stratigraphic range data as a whole, and measures relative growth or decline of diversity values as they deviate from system stability. Such trends may yield key information relating to evolutionary processes and forcing functions, especially if these trends are correlative within particular taxa or niche occupancy. Thus far, scientists and researchers have been stymied by absolute values derived from unequal dat…

Anti-Hypotensive Treatment and Endothelin Blockade Synergistically Antagonize Exercise Fatigue in Rats under Simulated High Altitude

2013

Rapid ascent to high altitude causes illness and fatigue, and there is a demand for effective acute treatments to alleviate such effects. We hypothesized that increased oxygen delivery to the tissue using a combination of a hypertensive agent and an endothelin receptor A antagonist drugs would limit exercise-induced fatigue at simulated high altitude. Our data showed that the combination of 0.1 mg/kg ambrisentan with either 20 mg/kg ephedrine or 10 mg/kg methylphenidate significantly improved exercise duration in rats at simulated altitude of 4,267 m, whereas the individual compounds did not. In normoxic, anesthetized rats, ephedrine alone and in combination with ambrisentan increased heart…

3-D reconstruction of hemocyanins and other invertebrate hemolymph proteins by cryo-TEM: an overview.

2004

A comparative study of mechanical properties of fresh and frozen-thawed porcine intervertebral discs in a bioreactor environment

2016

Abstract Limited availability of fresh intervertebral discs (IVDs) necessitates the use of frozen-thawed samples in biomechanical investigations. Several authors have reported the mechanical properties of frozen-thawed IVDs, but few studies have investigated the effects of storage temperature and cooling rate. The validity and reliability of the applied freezing-thawing procedures are still relatively unknown. The study aims to compare the mechanical responses of fresh porcine IVDs and porcine IVDs, which were frozen at different freezing temperatures with a controlled-rate cooling process and then thawed. The specimens were obtained from pigs aged 6 months. A total of 18 functional spine u…

The Late Miocene and Early Pliocene micromammal faunas from the Alcoy and Cabriel basins

2015

Objetivos El objetivo principal de este trabajo ha sido el muestreo y estudio de los niveles fosilíferos encontrados en el Barranco del Gormaget, en la Cuenca de Alcoy. Una vez estuvo clara la taxonomía de los abundantes restos de micromamíferos procedentes de estos yacimientos, intentamos alcanzar objetivos más específicos, tales como: - Datación relativa de las distintas localidades en virtud de su contenido faunístico. - Propuesta de una biozonación local para los yacimientos del Barranco del Gormaget. - Interpretación de la paleoecología de los yacimientos estudiados, basada en las proporciones relativas de los taxones encontrados en cada uno de ellos. Además, en esta tesis se presentan…