scholarly journals The marine gastropod Conomurex luhuanus (Strombidae) has high-resolution spatial vision and eyes with complex retinas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison R Irwin ◽  
Suzanne T Williams ◽  
Daniel I Speiser ◽  
Nicholas W Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Angular Size ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Snail Family

All species within the conch snail family Strombidae possess large camera-type eyes that are surprisingly well-developed compared to those found in most other gastropods. Although these eyes are known to be structurally complex, very little research on their visual function has been conducted. Here, we use isoluminant expanding visual stimuli to measure the spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity of a strombid, Conomurex luhuanus. Using these stimuli, we show that this species responds to objects as small as 1.06° in its visual field. We also show that C. luhuanus responds to Michelson contrasts of 0.07, a low contrast sensitivity between object and background. The defensive withdrawal response elicited by visual stimuli of such small angular size and low contrast suggests that conch snails may use spatial vision for the early detection of potential predators. We support these findings with morphological estimations of spatial resolution of 1.04 ± 0.14°. These anatomical data therefore agree with the behavioural measures and highlight the benefits of integrating morphological and behavioural approaches in animal vision studies. Furthermore, using contemporary imaging techniques including serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM), in conjunction with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we found that C. luhuanus have more complex retinas, in terms of cell type diversity, than previous studies of the group have discovered using TEM alone. We found the C. luhuanus retina is comprised of six cell types, including a newly identified ganglion cell and accessory photoreceptor, rather than the previously described four cell types.

scholarly journals Gradiate: a radial sweep approach to measuring detailed contrast sensitivity functions from eye movements

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott William Joseph Mooney ◽  
Nazia Alam ◽  
N. Jeremy Hill ◽  
Glen T. Prusky
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Aspect Ratio ◽  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Shape Factors ◽  
High Agreement ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Sensitivity Functions ◽  
Logmar Acuity ◽  
Visual Health

The contrast sensitivity function (CSF) is an informative measure of visual health, but the practical difficulty of measuring it has impeded detailed analyses of its relationship to different visual disorders. Furthermore, most existing tasks cannot be used in populations with cognitive impairment. We analyzed detailed CSFs measured with a non-verbal procedure called “Gradiate”, which efficiently infers visibility from eye movements and manipulates stimulus appearance in real time. Sixty observers of varying age (38 with refractive error) were presented with moving stimuli. Stimulus spatial frequency and contrast advanced along fifteen radial sweeps through CSF space in response to stimulus-congruent eye movements. A point on the CSF was recorded when tracking ceased. Gradiate CSFs were reliable and in high agreement with independent low contrast acuity thresholds. Overall CSF variation was largely captured by two orthogonal factors (“radius” and “slope”), or two orthogonal shape factors when size was normalized (“aspect ratio” and “curvature”). CSF radius was highly predictive of LogMAR acuity, as were aspect ratio and curvature together, but only radius was predictive of observer age. Our findings suggest that Gradiate holds promise for assessing spatial vision in both verbal and non-verbal populations and indicate that variation between detailed CSFs can reveal useful information about visual health.

scholarly journals Multimodal x-ray and electron microscopy of the Allende meteorite

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. eaax3009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Hung Lo ◽  
Chen-Ting Liao ◽  
Jihan Zhou ◽  
Arjun Rana ◽  
Charles S. Bevis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Electron Tomography ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Atomic Scale ◽  
Chemical Mapping ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Orientation Contrast

Multimodal microscopy that combines complementary nanoscale imaging techniques is critical for extracting comprehensive chemical, structural, and functional information, particularly for heterogeneous samples. X-ray microscopy can achieve high-resolution imaging of bulk materials with chemical, magnetic, electronic, and bond orientation contrast, while electron microscopy provides atomic-scale spatial resolution with quantitative elemental composition. Here, we combine x-ray ptychography and scanning transmission x-ray spectromicroscopy with three-dimensional energy-dispersive spectroscopy and electron tomography to perform structural and chemical mapping of an Allende meteorite particle with 15-nm spatial resolution. We use textural and quantitative elemental information to infer the mineral composition and discuss potential processes that occurred before or after accretion. We anticipate that correlative x-ray and electron microscopy overcome the limitations of individual imaging modalities and open up a route to future multiscale nondestructive microscopies of complex functional materials and biological systems.

scholarly journals Panoramic spatial vision in the bay scallop Argopecten irradians

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1962) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Chappell ◽  
Tyler M. Horan ◽  
Daniel I. Speiser
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Argopecten Irradians ◽  
Visual Systems ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
Bay Scallop

We have a growing understanding of the light-sensing organs and light-influenced behaviours of animals with distributed visual systems, but we have yet to learn how these animals convert visual input into behavioural output. It has been suggested they consolidate visual information early in their sensory-motor pathways, resulting in them being able to detect visual cues (spatial resolution) without being able to locate them (spatial vision). To explore how an animal with dozens of eyes processes visual information, we analysed the responses of the bay scallop Argopecten irradians to both static and rotating visual stimuli. We found A. irradians distinguish between static visual stimuli in different locations by directing their sensory tentacles towards them and were more likely to point their extended tentacles towards larger visual stimuli. We also found that scallops track rotating stimuli with individual tentacles and with rotating waves of tentacle extension. Our results show, to our knowledge for the first time that scallops have both spatial resolution and spatial vision, indicating their sensory-motor circuits include neural representations of their visual surroundings. Exploring a wide range of animals with distributed visual systems will help us learn the different ways non-cephalized animals convert sensory input into behavioural output.

scholarly journals EM-stellar: benchmarking deep learning for electron microscopy image segmentation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afshin Khadangi ◽  
Thomas Boudier ◽  
Vijay Rajagopal
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Electron Tomography ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Benchmark Analysis ◽  
Exciting Opportunity ◽  
Microscopy Image ◽  
Block Face

AbstractThe inherent low contrast of electron microscopy (EM) datasets presents a significant challenge for rapid segmentation of cellular ultrastructures from EM data. This challenge is particularly prominent when working with high resolution big-datasets that are now acquired using electron tomography and serial block-face imaging techniques. Deep learning (DL) methods offer an exciting opportunity to automate the segmentation process by learning from manual annotations of a small sample of EM data. While many DL methods are being rapidly adopted to segment EM data no benchmark analysis has been conducted on these methods to date. We present EM-stellar, a Jupyter Notebook platform that is hosted on google Colab that can be used to benchmark the performance of a range of state-of-the-art DL methods on user-provided datasets. Using EM-Stellar we show that the performance of any DL method is dependent on the properties of the images being segmented. It also follows that no single DL method performs consistently across all performance evaluation metrics.

scholarly journals High resolution of colour vision, but low contrast sensitivity in a diurnal raptor

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1885) ◽  
pp. 20181036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Potier ◽  
Mindaugas Mitkus ◽  
Almut Kelber
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Colour Vision ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Achromatic Contrast ◽  
Parabuteo Unicinctus ◽  
Chromatic Sensitivity

Animals are thought to use achromatic signals to detect small (or distant) objects and chromatic signals for large (or nearby) objects. While the spatial resolution of the achromatic channel has been widely studied, the spatial resolution of the chromatic channel has rarely been estimated. Using an operant conditioning method, we determined (i) the achromatic contrast sensitivity function and (ii) the spatial resolution of the chromatic channel of a diurnal raptor, the Harris's hawk Parabuteo unicinctus . The maximal spatial resolution for achromatic gratings was 62.3 c deg −1 , but the contrast sensitivity was relatively low (10.8–12.7). The spatial resolution for isoluminant red-green gratings was 21.6 c deg −1 —lower than that of the achromatic channel, but the highest found in the animal kingdom to date. Our study reveals that Harris's hawks have high spatial resolving power for both achromatic and chromatic vision, suggesting the importance of colour vision for foraging. By contrast, similar to other bird species, Harris's hawks have low contrast sensitivity possibly suggesting a trade-off with chromatic sensitivity. The result is interesting in the light of the recent finding that double cones—thought to mediate high-resolution vision in birds—are absent in the central fovea of raptors.

One Million Direct Magnification Microscopy

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 166-167
Author(s):  
J. A. Hugo ◽  
V. A. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
High Resolution Electron Microscopy ◽  
Illumination Level ◽  
Level Of Detail ◽  
Photographic Emulsion ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Fluorescent Screen ◽  
Resolution Electron ◽  
Lattice Images ◽  
Electron Microscopes

A continuing problem in high resolution electron microscopy is that the level of detail visible to the microscopist while he is taking a picture is inferior to that obtainable by the microscope, readily readable on a photographic emulsion and visible in an enlargement made from the plate. Line resolutions, of 2Å or better are now achievable with top of the line 100kv microscopes. Taking the resolution of the human eye as 0.2mm, this indicates a need for a direct viewing magnification of at least one million. However, 0.2mm refers to optimum viewing conditions in daylight or the equivalent, and certainly does not apply to a (colored) image of low contrast and illumination level viewed on a fluorescent screen through a glass window by the dark-adapted eye. Experience indicates that an additional factor of 5 to 10 magnification is needed in order to view lattice images with line spacings of 2 to 4Å. Fortunately this is provided by the normal viewing telescope supplied with most electron microscopes.

Study of the Molecular Architecture of Keratin Filaments by Electron Microscopy

1982 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 118-119
Author(s):  
U. Aebi ◽  
P. Rew ◽  
T.-T. Sun
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Structural Organization ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Molecular Architecture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Keratin Filaments ◽  
Different Types ◽  
10 Nm Filaments ◽  
Different Cell Types

Various types of intermediate-sized (10-nm) filaments have been found and described in many different cell types during the past few years. Despite the differences in the chemical composition among the different types of filaments, they all yield common structural features: they are usually up to several microns long and have a diameter of 7 to 10 nm; there is evidence that they are made of several 2 to 3.5 nm wide protofilaments which are helically wound around each other; the secondary structure of the polypeptides constituting the filaments is rich in ∞-helix. However a detailed description of their structural organization is lacking to date.

“High Resolution High Voltage Electron Microscopy”

1968 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 326-327
Author(s):  
Benjamin M. Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
High Voltage ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Contrast Imaging ◽  
High Voltage Electron Microscopy ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Voltage Electron ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
High Voltage Electron

The potential advantages of high voltage electron microscopy for extending the limits of resolution and contrast in imaging low contrast objects, such as biomolecular specimens, is very great. The results of computations will be presented showing that at accelerating voltages of 500-1000 kV it should be possible to achieve spacial resolutions of 1 to 1.5 Å and using phase contrast imaging achieve adequate image contrast to observe single atoms of low atomic number.The practical problems associated with the design and utilization of the high voltage instrument are, optimistically, within the range of competence of the state of the art. However, there are some extremely important and critical areas to be systematically investigated before we have achieved this competence. The basic electron optics of the column required is well understood, but before the full potential of an instrument capable of resolutions of better than 1.5 Å are realized some very careful development work will be required. Of great importance for the actual achievement of high resolution with a high voltage electron microscope is the fundamental limitation set by the characteristics of the high voltage electron beam that can be obtained from the accelerator column.

Electron Microscopy in the diagnosis of lysosomal storage diseases

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 866-867
Author(s):  
Carole Vogler ◽  
Harvey S. Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Lysosomal Enzyme ◽  
Rectal Mucosa ◽  
Lysosomal Storage Diseases ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Lysosomal Storage ◽  
Storage Material ◽  
Ultrastructural Examination ◽  
Blood Leukocytes ◽  
Storage Diseases

Diagnostic procedures for evaluation of patients with lysosomal storage diseases (LSD) seek to identify a deficiency of a responsible lysosomal enzyme or accumulation of a substance that requires the missing enzyme for degradation. Most patients with LSD have progressive neurological degeneration and may have a variety of musculoskeletal and visceral abnormalities. In the LSD, the abnormally diminished lysosomal enzyme results in accumulation of unmetabolized catabolites in distended lysosomes. Because of the subcellular morphology and size of lysosomes, electron microscopy is an ideal tool to study tissue from patients with suspected LSD. In patients with LSD all cells lack the specific lysosomal enzyme but the distribution of storage material is dependent on the extent of catabolism of the substrate in each cell type under normal circumstances. Lysosmal storages diseases affect many cell types and tissues. Storage material though does not accumulate in all tissues and cell types and may be different biochemically and morphologically in different tissues.Conjunctiva, skin, rectal mucosa and peripheral blood leukocytes may show ultrastructural evidence of lysosomal storage even in the absence of clinical findings and thus any of these tissues can be used for ultrastructural examination in the diagnostic evaluation of patients with suspected LSD. Biopsy of skin and conjunctiva are easily obtained and provide multiple cell types including endothelium, epithelium, fibroblasts and nerves for ultrastructural study. Fibroblasts from skin and conjunctiva can also be utilized for the initiation of tissue cultures for chemical assays. Brain biopsy has been largely replaced by biopsy of more readily obtained tissue and by biochemical assays. Such assays though may give equivical or nondiagnostic results and in some lysosomal storage diseases an enzyme defect has not yet been identified and diagnoses can be made only by ultrastructural examination.

Fault Localization and Functional Testing of ICs by Lock-in Thermography

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Breitenstein ◽  
J.P. Rakotoniaina ◽  
F. Altmann ◽  
J. Schulz ◽  
G. Linse
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Electronic Device ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Heat Diffusion ◽  
Acquisition Time ◽  
Temperature Modulation ◽  
Heat Sources ◽  
Ir Camera ◽  
Free Running ◽  
Lock In

Abstract In this paper new thermographic techniques with significant improved temperature and/or spatial resolution are presented and compared with existing techniques. In infrared (IR) lock-in thermography heat sources in an electronic device are periodically activated electrically, and the surface is imaged by a free-running IR camera. By computer processing and averaging the images over a certain acquisition time, a surface temperature modulation below 100 µK can be resolved. Moreover, the effective spatial resolution is considerably improved compared to stead-state thermal imaging techniques, since the lateral heat diffusion is suppressed in this a.c. technique. However, a serious limitation is that the spatial resolution is limited to about 5 microns due to the IR wavelength range of 3 -5 µm used by the IR camera. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that lock-in thermography reliably allows the detection of defects in ICs if their power exceeds some 10 µW. The imaging can be performed also through the silicon substrate from the backside of the chip. Also the well-known fluorescent microthermal imaging (FMI) technique can be be used in lock-in mode, leading to a temperature resolution in the mK range, but a spatial resolution below 1 micron.

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