scholarly journals Insights into neurodegeneration from electron microscopy studies

Author(s):  
R. Anthony Crowther

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, pose an increasingly severe burden for individuals and society in an ageing population. The causes and mechanisms of the diseases are poorly understood and as yet there are no effective treatments. Some of the molecular complexes involved in degeneration have been identified and electron microscopy has provided an essential tool in the investigations. The focus of this review is to show how electron microscopy has contributed historically to the understanding of disease and to summarize the most striking current advances. It does not seek to cover in detail the recent technical developments in microscopy, involving better microscopes, better electron detectors and more powerful image processing techniques, which have made possible the new insights. In many instances pathological filament assemblies are associated with brain cells that die in the disease, causing the observed symptoms such as dementia or movement disorders. Using electron microscopy it is now possible to go beyond morphological descriptions to produce atomic structures of many of the filaments. This information may help to understand the seeding and assembly of the filaments, with the aim of finding small molecule inhibitors that could potentially provide a form of treatment for the diseases.

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1226-1234
Author(s):  
Safa Jida ◽  
Hassan Ouallal ◽  
Brahim Aksasse ◽  
Mohammed Ouanan ◽  
Mohamed El Amraoui ◽  
...  

Abstract This work intends to apprehend and emphasize the contribution of image-processing techniques and computer vision in the treatment of clay-based material known in Meknes region. One of the various characteristics used to describe clay in a qualitative manner is porosity, as it is considered one of the properties that with “kill or cure” effectiveness. For this purpose, we use scanning electron microscopy images, as they are considered the most powerful tool for characterising the quality of the microscopic pore structure of porous materials. We present various existing methods of segmentation, as we are interested only in pore regions. The results show good matching between physical estimation and Voronoi diagram-based porosity estimation.


1997 ◽  
Vol 492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. X. Xiong ◽  
K. Z. Baba-Kishi ◽  
F. G. Shin

ABSTRACTFollowing Mandelbrot's fractal theory, the irregular characteristics of the microstructural features of ferroelectric Pb(Sc0.5 Ta0.5)O3 ceramics, including grain boundaries and dislocation networks, were investigated. The microstructural features were imaged by electron microscopy. The fractal analyses were carried out manually and by image processing techniques, which show the value of the fractal dimension, D, varies according to the regularity of the microstructure. The value of, D, close to unity is an indication of an increasing degree of microstructural regularity, which is in good agreement with the simulated results.


Author(s):  
M. Ohtsuki ◽  
A. V. Crewe

Extracellular hemoglobins of annelids consist of 12 subunits with appearance of superposed hexagons. So far, electron microscopy using negative staining techniques indicated that only the hemoglobins of Nephtys and Oenone contain an additional central subunit.


Author(s):  
B.V.V. Prasad ◽  
E. Marietta ◽  
J.W. Burns ◽  
M.K. Estes ◽  
W. Chiu

Rotaviruses are spherical, double-shelled particles. They have been identified as a major cause of infantile gastroenteritis worldwide. In our earlier studies we determined the three-dimensional structures of double-and single-shelled simian rotavirus embedded in vitreous ice using electron cryomicroscopy and image processing techniques to a resolution of 40Å. A distinctive feature of the rotavirus structure is the presence of 132 large channels spanning across both the shells at all 5- and 6-coordinated positions of a T=13ℓ icosahedral lattice. The outer shell has 60 spikes emanating from its relatively smooth surface. The inner shell, in contrast, exhibits a bristly surface made of 260 morphological units at all local and strict 3-fold axes (Fig.l).The outer shell of rotavirus is made up of two proteins, VP4 and VP7. VP7, a glycoprotein and a neutralization antigen, is the major component. VP4 has been implicated in several important functions such as cell penetration, hemagglutination, neutralization and virulence. From our earlier studies we had proposed that the spikes correspond to VP4 and the rest of the surface is composed of VP7. Our recent structural studies, using the same techniques, with monoclonal antibodies specific to VP4 have established that surface spikes are made up of VP4.


Author(s):  
V. Deepika ◽  
T. Rajasenbagam

A brain tumor is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal brain tissue that can interfere with normal brain function. Although various methods have been developed for brain tumor classification, tumor detection and multiclass classification remain challenging due to the complex characteristics of the brain tumor. Brain tumor detection and classification are one of the most challenging and time-consuming tasks in the processing of medical images. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is a visual imaging technique, which provides a information about the soft tissues of the human body, which helps identify the brain tumor. Proper diagnosis can prevent a patient's health to some extent. This paper presents a review of various detection and classification methods for brain tumor classification using image processing techniques.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 165-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prabira Kumar Sethy ◽  
Swaraj Kumar Sahu ◽  
Nalini Kanta Barpanda ◽  
Amiya Kumar Rath

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 1493-1499
Author(s):  
Shrutika.C.Rampure . ◽  
Dr. Vindhya .P. Malagi ◽  
Dr. Ramesh Babu D.R

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