Tills döden skiljer oss at -eller?

I Sverige har vi ganska länge haft en relativt liberal syn på äktenskapet. Det är vanligt med samborelationer och skilsmässotalen är internationellt sett höga. Bland äldre ökar nu skilsmässotalet både i Sverige och i resten av Norden. I Spanien hade har situationen varit en annan, men samarbete med spanska forskare visar att skilsmässorna bland äldre ökar även i Spanien. De är till och med vanligare i Spanien än i Sverige. I Spanien gifter allt fler äldre också om sig, vilket fick den stora dagstidningen El Pais att förmoda att båda företeelserna har att göra med en"orubblig tro på den romantiska kärleken" och att människor inte vill framleva sina sista år med"skräcken för att vara olycklig"

Pruritus is a common feature in sheep infected with the BSE agent.

BACKGROUND: The variability in the clinical or pathological presentation of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in sheep, such as scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has been attributed to prion protein genotype, strain, breed, clinical duration, dose, route and type of inoculum and the age at infection. The study aimed to describe the clinical signs in sheep infected with the BSE agent throughout its clinical course to determine whether the clinical signs were as variable as described for classical scrapie in sheep. The clinical signs were compared to BSE-negative sheep to assess if disease-specific clinical markers exist. RESULTS: Forty-seven (34%) of 139 sheep, which comprised 123 challenged sheep and 16 undosed controls, were positive for BSE. Affected sheep belonged to five different breeds and three different genotypes (ARQ/ARQ, VRQ/VRQ and AHQ/AHQ). None of the controls or BSE exposed sheep with ARR alleles were positive. Pruritus was present in 41 (87%) BSE positive sheep; the remaining six were judged to be pre-clinically infected. Testing of the response to scratching along the dorsum of a sheep proved to be a good indicator of clinical disease with a test sensitivity of 85% and specificity of 98% and usually coincided with weight loss. Clinical signs that were displayed significantly earlier in BSE positive cases compared to negative cases were behavioural changes, pruritic behaviour, a positive scratch test, alopecia, skin lesions, teeth grinding, tremor, ataxia, loss of weight and loss of body condition. The frequency and severity of each specific clinical sign usually increased with the progression of disease over a period of 16-20 weeks. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that BSE in sheep presents with relatively uniform clinical signs, with pruritus of increased severity and abnormalities in behaviour or movement as the disease progressed. Based on the studied sheep, these clinical features appear to be independent of breed, affected genotype, dose, route of inoculation and whether BSE was passed into sheep from cattle or from other sheep, suggesting that the clinical phenotype of BSE is influenced by the TSE strain more than by other factors. The clinical phenotype of BSE in the genotypes and breed studied was indistinguishable from that described for classical scrapie cases

Nuevas consideraciones sobre medición y evaluación de la vellosidad de los hilados.

Mediante el presente trabajo se hace un estudio de la vellosidad de determinados tipos de hilados. Los vellosímetros utilizados corresponden al aparato "Zweigle G 565" y al "Uster Tester 3". Para complementar el estudio, también se han realizado mediciones complementarias con el aparato "Digital ITQT". Los experimentos realizados con estos dos primeros aparatos pusieron de manifiesto que para determinados tipos de hilados existe una correlación elevada y fiable entre los resultados. En otros tipos de hilados de aspecto voluminoso, en los que no existía una textura nítida a ras del cuerpo del hilado, se observó, por el contrario, la presencia de anomalías que llevaron a tener que distinguir entre una vellosidad "corta" y una vellosidad "larga". Debido a la importancia que tiene ambos tipos de vellosidad, se aconseja que los aparatos comercializados evolucionen en el sentido de expresar la vellosidad en dos índices en vez de sólo uno, siguiendo el principio utilizado para el aparato digital "ITQT".This paper studies the hairiness of some spun yarns. The hair-meters used are the "Zwigle G 565" and "Uster Tester 3". Additional measures have been also made with the "Digital ITQT" device. The experiments carried out with the former devices revealed the existence of high and reliable correlation in the results found for some types of spun yarns. On the contrary in other types of bulky-looking spun yarns, with no smooth hand on the texture, the presence of some irregularities were observed so that a distinction behiveen "short hairiness" ad "long hairiness" had to be made. Because of the importance of both types of hairiness, the commercial devices should be modernized so as to be able to distinguish them with different indexes, following the principie used in the digital "ITQT" device.Moyennant le présent travail on fait un étude de la pilosité de certains types de filés. Les appareils pour la mesure de la pilosité utilisés concernent l'appareil "Zweigle G 565" et I'"Uster Tester 3". Pour compléter l'étude, on a réalisé, aussi, des mesures complémentaires avec l'appareil "Digital ITQT". Les expériences réalisées avec les deux premiers appareils ont mis de manifeste que pour certains types de filés il existe une corrélation élevée et fiable entre les résultats. Dans d'autres types de filés à aspect volumineux, où il n'existait pas de texture nette à ras du corps du filé, on observé, pas contre, la présence d'anomalies, qui ont mené au fait d'avoir à distinguer entre une pilosité "courte" et una pilosité "longue". A cause de l'importance de ces deux types de pilosité, on conseille que les appareils commercialisés évolutionnent dans le sens d'exprimer la pilosité en deux indices au lieu d'un seul, suivant le principe utilisé pour l'appareil digital "ITQT".Peer Reviewe

Three-dimensional real-time darkfield imaging through Fourier lightfield microscopy

We report a protocol that takes advantage of the Fourier lightfield microscopy concept for providing 3D darkfield images of volumetric samples in a single-shot. This microscope takes advantage of the Fourier lightfield configuration, in which a lens array is placed at the Fourier plane of the microscope objective, providing a direct multiplexing of the spatio-angular information of the sample. Using the proper illumination beam, the system collects the light scattered by the sample while the background light is blocked out. This produces a set of orthographic perspective images with shifted spatial-frequency components that can be recombined to produce a 3D darkfield image. Applying the adequate reconstruction algorithm high-contrast darkfield optical sections are calculated in real time. The presented method is applied for fast volumetric reconstructions of unstained 3D samples

Fourier-domain lightfield microscopy: a new paradigm in 3D microscopy

Recently, integral (also known as lightfield or plenoptic) imaging concept has been applied successfully to microscopy. The main advantage of lightfield microscopy when compared with conventional 3D imaging techniques is that it offers the possibility of capturing the 3D information of the sample after a single shot. However, integral microscopy is now facing many challenges, like improving the resolution and depth of field of the reconstructed specimens or the development and optimization of specially-adapted reconstruction algorithms. This contribution is devoted to review a new paradigm in lightfield microscopy, namely, the Fourier-domain integral microscope (FiMic), that improves the capabilities of the technique, and to present recent advances and applications of this new architecture

Optical sectioning microscopy through single-shot Lightfield protocol

Optical sectioning microscopy is usually performed by means of a scanning, multi-shot procedure in combination with non-uniform illumination. In this paper, we change the paradigm and report a method that is based in the light field concept, and that provides optical sectioning for 3D microscopy images after a single-shot capture. To do this we fi rst capture multiple orthographic perspectives of the sample by means of Fourier-domain integral microscopy (FiMic). The second stage of our protocol is the application of a novel refocusing algorithm that is able to produce optical sectioning in real time, and with no resolution worsening, in the case of sparse f luorescent samples.We provide the theoretical derivation of the algorithm, and demonstrate its utility by applying it to simulations and to experimental data

Large depth-of-field integral microscopy by use of a liquid Lens

Integral microscopy is a 3D imaging technique that permits the recording of spatial and angular information of microscopic samples. From this information it is possible to calculate a collection of orthographic views with full parallax and to refocus computationally, at will, through the 3D specimen. An important drawback of integral microscopy, especially when dealing with thick samples, is the limited depth of field (DOF) of the perspective views. This imposes a significant limitation on the depth range of computationally refocused images. To overcome this problem, we propose here a new method that is based on the insertion, at the pupil plane of the microscope objective, of an electrically controlled liquid lens (LL) whose optical power can be changed by simply tuning the voltage. This new apparatus has the advantage of controlling the axial position of the objective focal plane while keeping constant the essential parameters of the integral microscope, that is, the magnification, the numerical aperture and the amount of parallax. Thus, given a 3D sample, the new microscope can provide a stack of integral images with complementary depth ranges. The fusion of the set of refocused images permits to enlarge the reconstruction range, obtaining images in focus over the whole region

What about computational super-resolution in fluorescence Fourier light field microscopy?

Recently, Fourier light field microscopy was proposed to overcome the limitations in conventional light field microscopy by placing a micro-lens array at the aperture stop of the microscope objective instead of the image plane. In this way, a collection of orthographic views from different perspectives are directly captured. When inspecting fluorescent samples, the sensitivity and noise of the sensors are a major concern and large sensor pixels are required to cope with low-light conditions, which implies under-sampling issues. In this context, we analyze the sampling patterns in Fourier light field microscopy to understand to what extent computational super-resolution can be triggered during deconvolution in order to improve the resolution of the 3D reconstruction of the imaged data

The Lightfield microscope eyepiece

Lightfield microscopy has raised growing interest in the last few years. Its ability to get three-dimensional information about the sample in a single shot makes it suitable for many applications in which time resolution is fundamental. In this paper we present a novel device, which is capable of converting any conventional microscope into a lightfield microscope. Based on the Fourier integral microscope concept, we designed the lightfield microscope eyepiece. This is coupled to the eyepiece port, to let the user exploit all the host microscope's components (objective turret, illumination systems, translation stage, etc.) and get a 3D reconstruction of the sample. After the optical design, a proof-of-concept device was built with off-the-shelf optomechanical components. Here, its optical performances are demonstrated, which show good matching with the theoretical ones. Then, the pictures of different samples taken with the lightfield eyepiece are shown, along with the corresponding reconstructions. We demonstrated the functioning of the lightfield eyepiece and lay the foundation for the development of a commercial device that works with any microscope

3D deconvolution in Fourier integral microscopy

Fourier integral microscopy (FiMic), also referred to as Fourier light field microscopy (FLFM) in the literature, was recently proposed as an alternative to conventional light field microscopy (LFM). FiMic is designed to overcome the non-uniform lateral resolution limitation specific to LFM. By inserting a micro-lens array at the aperture stop of the microscope objective, the Fourier integral microscope directly captures in a single-shot a series of orthographic views of the scene from different viewpoints. We propose an algorithm for the deconvolution of FiMic data by combining the well known Maximum Likelihood Expectation (MLEM) method with total variation (TV) regularization to cope with noise amplification in conventional Richardson-Lucy deconvolution