New views of plant fossils from Antarctica: a comparison of X-ray and neutron imaging techniques

2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 702-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Dawson ◽  
Jane Francis ◽  
Rosemary Carpenter

A fossil plant of Eocene age from Antarctica was studied using X-ray and neutron tomography to reveal the three-dimensional plant structures encased within carbonate nodules. The fossil was identified as a branch and leaves of an araucarian conifer, which grew on the volcanic highlands of the Antarctic Peninsula region approximately 50 million yr ago. Both X-ray and neutron imaging techniques successfully exposed the full three-dimensional structure of the fossil without destroying the original specimen, revealing that most of the fossil was present as voids in the concretion and little organic matter was present. However, neutron tomography was found to produce images with superior quality and detail.

Author(s):  
Jerome J. Paulin

Within the past decade it has become apparent that HVEM offers the biologist a means to explore the three-dimensional structure of cells and/or organelles. Stereo-imaging of thick sections (e.g. 0.25-10 μm) not only reveals anatomical features of cellular components, but also reduces errors of interpretation associated with overlap of structures seen in thick sections. Concomitant with stereo-imaging techniques conventional serial Sectioning methods developed with thin sections have been adopted to serial thick sections (≥ 0.25 μm). Three-dimensional reconstructions of the chondriome of several species of trypanosomatid flagellates have been made from tracings of mitochondrial profiles on cellulose acetate sheets. The sheets are flooded with acetone, gluing them together, and the model sawed from the composite and redrawn.The extensive mitochondrial reticulum can be seen in consecutive thick sections of (0.25 μm thick) Crithidia fasciculata (Figs. 1-2). Profiles of the mitochondrion are distinguishable from the anterior apex of the cell (small arrow, Fig. 1) to the posterior pole (small arrow, Fig. 2).


Author(s):  
Sterling P. Newberry

The beautiful three dimensional representation of small object surfaces by the SEM leads one to search for ways to open up the sample and look inside. Could this be the answer to a better microscopy for gross biological 3-D structure? We know from X-Ray microscope images that Freeze Drying and Critical Point Drying give promise of adequately preserving gross structure. Can we slice such preparations open for SEM inspection? In general these preparations crush more readily than they slice. Russell and Dagihlian got around the problem by “deembedding” a section before imaging. This some what defeats the advantages of direct dry preparation, thus we are reluctant to accept it as the final solution to our problem. Alternatively, consider fig 1 wherein a freeze dried onion root has a window cut in its surface by a micromanipulator during observation in the SEM.


1988 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 949-953 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN P. PRIESTLE ◽  
HANS-PETER SCHÄR ◽  
MARKUS G. GRÜTTER

Summary The three-dimensional structure of human recombinant interleukin-1β has been determined at 0.24 nm resolution by X-ray crystallographic techniques. The partially refined model has a crystallographic R-factor of just under 19%. The structure is composed of 12 β-strands forming a complex network of hydrogen bonds. The core of the structure can best be described as a tetrahedron whose edges are each formed by two antiparallel β-strands. The interior of this structure is filled with hydrophobic side-chains. There is a 3-fold repeat in the folding of the polypeptide chain. Although this folding pattern suggests gene triplication, no significant internal sequence homology between topologically corresponding residues exists. The folding topology of interleukin-1β is very similar to that described by A. D. McLachlan [(1979) J. Mol. Biol. 133, 557–563] for soybean trypsin inhibitor.


Author(s):  
Cerrone Cabanos ◽  
Hiroyuki Urabe ◽  
Taro Masuda ◽  
Mary Rose Tandang-Silvas ◽  
Shigeru Utsumi ◽  
...  

Peanuts contain some of the most potent food allergens known to date. Ara h 1 is one of the three major peanut allergens. As a first step towards three-dimensional structure elucidation, recombinant Ara h 1 core region was cloned, expressed inEscherichia coliand purified to homogeneity. Crystals were obtained using 0.1 Msodium citrate pH 5.6, 0.1 MNaCl, 15% PEG 400 as precipitant. The crystals diffracted to 2.25 Å resolution using synchrotron radiation and belonged to the monoclinic space groupC2, with unit-cell parametersa= 156.521,b= 88.991,c= 158.971 Å, β = 107.144°. Data were collected at the BL-38B1 station of SPring-8 (Hyogo, Japan).


Materia Japan ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 46 (12) ◽  
pp. 823-823
Author(s):  
Seiji Kawado ◽  
Toshinori Taishi ◽  
Satoshi Iida ◽  
Yoshifumi Suzuki ◽  
Yoshinori Chikaura ◽  
...  

2004 ◽  
Vol 693 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 199-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan-Zheng Zhang ◽  
Can-Zhong Lu ◽  
Wen-Bin Yang ◽  
Shu-Mei Chen ◽  
Ya-Qin Yu

2004 ◽  
Vol 573 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Geissbühler ◽  
P. Fenter ◽  
E. DiMasi ◽  
G. Srajer ◽  
L.B. Sorensen ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 526-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Allen ◽  
Jochen Wittge ◽  
Jennifer Stopford ◽  
Andreas Danilewsky ◽  
Patrick McNally

In the semiconductor industry, wafer handling introduces micro-cracks at the wafer edge and the causal relationship of these cracks to wafer breakage is a difficult task. By way of understanding the wafer breakage process, a series of nano-indents were introduced both into 20 × 20 mm (100) wafer pieces and into whole wafers as a means of introducing controlled strain. Visualization of the three-dimensional structure of crystal defects has been demonstrated. The silicon samples were then treated by various thermal anneal processes to initiate the formation of dislocation loops around the indents. This article reports the three-dimensional X-ray diffraction imaging and visualization of the structure of these dislocations. A series of X-ray section topographs of both the indents and the dislocation loops were taken at the ANKA Synchrotron, Karlsruhe, Germany. The topographs were recorded on a CCD system combined with a high-resolution scintillator crystal and were measured by repeated cycles of exposure and sample translation along a direction perpendicular to the beam. The resulting images were then rendered into three dimensions utilizing open-source three-dimensional medical tomography algorithms that show the dislocation loops formed. Furthermore this technique allows for the production of a video (avi) file showing the rotation of the rendered topographs around any defined axis. The software also has the capability of splitting the image along a segmentation line and viewing the internal structure of the strain fields.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianke Wang ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
Bin Huang ◽  
Jin Yuan ◽  
Lili Shang ◽  
...  

Abstract Bamboo is a natural fiber composite with layered structure. Millions of years of evolution have endowed bamboo with the most effective structure in nature. The ingenious microstructure provides bamboo with excellent mechanical properties. Bamboo culm is composed of the cortex, a middle layer, and a pith ring. The cortex refers to the area starting from the periphery of the culm wall to the vascular bundles. The present study obtained the two-dimensional microstructure of bamboo cortex cells by optical microscopy and characterized the three-dimensional structure through high-resolution X-ray microtomography (µCT). Based on the analysis, the bamboo cortex cells were classified into four layers: epidermis layer, hypodermis layer, transitional layer, and parenchyma layer. The average pore volume of the bamboo cortex was about 1.54×10-6 mm3, the porosity was 36.1%, and the relative density was 0.639. The epidermis layer, hypodermis layer, transition layer, and parenchyma layer cells had a cell cavity volume of 917.81 µm3, 714.22 µm3, 1258.19 µm3, and 3117.65 µm3, respectively, an average length3d (L) of 19.38 µm, 25.84 µm, 26.46 µm, and 34.88 µm, respectively, an average breadth3d (W) of 14.11 µm, 9.44 µm, 15.22 µm, and 16.6 µm, respectively, and sphericity of 0.85, 0.76, 0.75, and 0.78, respectively. Studies on bamboo anatomical structure, especially three-dimensional digital characterization, will enrich the bamboo microstructure database. Besides, the three-dimensional structure of the bamboo cortex revealed in this study can provide a reference for optimizing composite material hierarchy and biomimetic design.


Author(s):  
David Blow

In Chapter 4 many two-dimensional examples were shown, in which a diffraction pattern represents the Fourier transform of the scattering object. When a diffracting object is three-dimensional, a new effect arises. In diffraction by a repetitive object, rays are scattered in many directions. Each unit of the lattice scatters, but a diffracted beam arises only if the scattered rays from each unit are all in phase. Otherwise the scattering from one unit is cancelled out by another. In two dimensions, there is always a direction where the scattered rays are in phase for any order of diffraction (just as shown for a one-dimensional scatterer in Fig. 4.1). In three dimensions, it is only possible for all the points of a lattice to scatter in phase if the crystal is correctly oriented in the incident beam. The amplitudes and phases of all the scattered beams from a three-dimensional crystal still provide the Fourier transform of the three-dimensional structure. But when a crystal is at a particular angular orientation to the X-ray beam, the scattering of a monochromatic beam provides only a tiny sample of the total Fourier transform of its structure. In the next section, we are going to find what is needed to allow a diffracted beam to be generated. We shall follow a treatment invented by Lawrence Bragg in 1913. Max von Laue, who discovered X-ray diffraction in 1912, used a different scheme of analysis; and Paul Ewald introduced a new way of looking at it in 1921. These three methods are referred to as the Laue equations, Bragg’s law and the Ewald construction, and they give identical results. All three are described in many crystallographic text books. Bragg’s method is straightforward, understandable, and suffices for present needs. I had heard J.J. Thomson lecture about…X-rays as very short pulses of radiation. I worked out that such pulses…should be reflected at any angle of incidence by the sheets of atoms in the crystal as if these sheets were mirrors.…It remained to explain why certain of the atomic mirrors in the zinc blende [ZnS] crystal reflected more powerfully than others.


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