Farmers of the Future: Market Segmentation and Buying Behavior

Dramatic structural changes are occurring in U.S. and world agriculture. These changes have important implications for the customer base and marketing strategy of input supply manufacturers, distributors and retailers. The framework and model presented can and is being used to understand structural change in production agriculture on a global basis.Structural change, Buying behavior, Marketing strategy, Farm size, Marketing,

Optimization of a novel, wide-field, high resolution optical microscopy system

Knowledge of the complex fiber structures of soft tissues can lead to greater understanding of basic structure-function relationships and potentially to improvements in tissue engineered constructs and micro-repair techniques. Imaging these structures in fresh, whole-tissue samples is difficult,mainly because current microscopes are designed for small-scale, narrow field imaging of thin, slide-mounted specimens. Several precision stage motaging systems like the CoolScopeTM whole slide scanner (Nikon, Inc.), Scanscope XT(Aperio, Inc.) are available but they are only capable of single mode imaging, are often time consuming and can be prohibitively expensive for a small research laboratory. The goal of this project was to develop a high speed, high resolution imaging system at low cost - capable of imaging thicker, fresh tissue samples as well as prepared slides using both, normal and polarized light

Rapid Assessment of Breast Tumor Margins Using Deep Ultraviolet Fluorescence Scanning Microscopy

Significance: Re-excision rates for women with invasive breast cancer undergoing breast conserving surgery (or lumpectomy) have decreased in the past decade but remain substantial. This is mainly due to the inability to assess the entire surface of an excised lumpectomy specimen efficiently and accurately during surgery. Aim: The goal of this study was to develop a deep-ultraviolet scanning fluorescence microscope (DUV-FSM) that can be used to accurately and rapidly detect cancer cells on the surface of excised breast tissue. Approach: A DUV-FSM was used to image the surfaces of 47 (31 malignant and 16 normal/benign) fresh breast tissue samples stained in propidium iodide and eosin Y solutions. A set of fluorescence images were obtained from each sample using low magnification (4  ×  ) and fully automated scanning. The images were stitched to form a color image. Three nonmedical evaluators were trained to interpret and assess the fluorescence images. Nuclear–cytoplasm ratio (N/C) was calculated and used for tissue classification. Results: DUV-FSM images a breast sample with subcellular resolution at a speed of 1.0  min  /  cm2. Fluorescence images show excellent visual contrast in color, tissue texture, cell density, and shape between invasive carcinomas and their normal counterparts. Visual interpretation of fluorescence images by nonmedical evaluators was able to distinguish invasive carcinoma from normal samples with high sensitivity (97.62%) and specificity (92.86%). Using N/C alone was able to differentiate patch-level invasive carcinoma from normal breast tissues with reasonable sensitivity (81.5%) and specificity (78.5%). Conclusions: DUV-FSM achieved a good balance between imaging speed and spatial resolution with excellent contrast, which allows either visual or quantitative detection of invasive cancer cells on the surfaces of a breast surgical specimen

MARKER-LESS MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF COLLAGEN UNCRIMPING, ORIENTATION, AND LOCAL DEFORMATION PATTERNS UNDER CONTROLLED LOADS

ABSTRACT Deformation, crimp, and alignment patterns of collagen fibers in soft tissues have been measured using a novel testing system combining controlled loading with synchronized highresolution imaging. Marker-less feature tracking was used to measure 2-D local deformations, and a radon transform was used to compute quantitative maps of crimp patterns and local tissue fiber orientation. We found highly nonuniform deformation and crimp patterns, with the highest strains near the clamps, and the lowest strains in the midsubstance region

Farmers of the Future: Market Segmentation and Buying Behavior

Dramatic structural changes are occurring in U.S. and world agriculture. These changes have important implications for the customer base and marketing strategy of input supply manufacturers, distributors and retailers. The framework and model presented can and is being used to understand structural change in production agriculture on a global basis

Elastic Response of Crimped Collagen Fibrils

A physiologic constitutive expression is presented in algorithmic format for the elastic response of wavy collagen fibrils found in soft connective tissues. The model is based on the observation that crimped fibrils have a three-dimensional structure at the micrometer scale that we approximate as a helical spring. The symmetry of this waveform allows the force/displacement relationship derived from Castigliano's theorem to be solved in closed form. Model predictions are in good agreement with experimental observations for mitral-valve chordae tendinea

Veusim: a virtual endovaginal ultrasound simulator for physician training and more…

Progress report presented at Biomedical Technology Showcase 2006, Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved 18 Aug 2006 from http://www.biomed.drexel.edu/new04/Content/Biomed_Tech_Showcase/ProgrReport_Presentations/Doehring_VEUSim.pdf