Market Potential for Northern Plains Farm Equipment in Brazil

International Relations/Trade,

Performance Factors and Management Practices Related to Earnings of East Central North Dakota Crop Farms

Agricultural Finance, Farm Management,

Quantification of Pulmonary Arterial Wall Distensibility Using Parameters Extracted from Volumetric Micro-CT Images

Stiffening, or loss of distensibility, of arterial vessel walls is among the manifestations of a number of vascular diseases including pulmonary arterial hypertension. We are attempting to quantify the mechanical properties of vessel walls of the pulmonary arterial tree using parameters derived from high-resolution volumetric x-ray CT images of rat lungs. The pulmonary arterial trees of the excised lungs are filled with a contrast agent. The lungs are imaged with arterial pressures spanning the physiological range. Vessel segment diameters are measured from the inlet to the periphery, and distensibilities calculated from diameters as a function of pressure. The method shows promise as an adjunct to other morphometric techniques such as histology and corrosion casting. It possesses the advantages of being nondestructive, characterizing the vascular structures while the lungs are imaged rapidly and in a near-physiological state, and providing the ability to associate mechanical properties with vessel location in the intact tree hierarchy

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E): Special Consideration for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Prevention programing in the area of alcohol and other drug abuse had made significant progress in the past several years. From the scare tactics and testimonials of recovering addicts we have progressed to efforts aimed at building self-esteem and teaching refusal skills. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing often continue to experience a lack of quality prevention services. Because information from the media is often inaccessible to these students and because school and community-based programs often do not take into account the special cultural and communication considerations of this population, their knowledge and skill base often lag behind that of their hearing peers. This project is an attempt to make one proactive prevention program accessible, meaningful and beneficial for students who are deaf or hard of hearing

SPECT Imaging of Pulmonary Blood Flow in a Rat

Small animal imaging is experiencing rapid development due to its importance in providing high-throughput phenotypic data for functional genomics studies. We have developed a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) system to image the pulmonary perfusion distribution in the rat. A standard gamma camera, equipped with a pinhole collimator, was used to acquire SPECT projection images at 40 sec/view of the rat thorax following injection of Tc99m labeled albumin that accumulated in the rat\u27s lungs. A voxel-driven, ordered-subset expectation maximization reconstruction was implemented. Following SPECT imaging, the rat was imaged using micro-CT with Feldkamp conebeam reconstruction. The two reconstructed image volumes were fused to provide a structure/function image of the rat thorax. Reconstruction accuracy and performance were evaluated using numerical simulations and actual imaging of an experimental phantom consisting of Tc99m filled chambers with known diameters and count rates. Full-width half-maximum diameter measurement errors decreased with increasing chamber diameter, ranging from \u3c 6% down to 0.1%. Errors in the ratio of count rate estimates between tubes were also diameter dependent but still relatively small. This preliminary study suggests that SPECT will be useful for imaging and quantifying the pulmonary blood flow distribution and the distribution of Tc99m labeled ligands in the lungs of small laboratory animals

Micro-CT Image-Derived Metrics Quantify Arterial Wall Distensibility Reduction in a Rat Model of Pulmonary Hypertension

We developed methods to quantify arterial structural and mechanical properties in excised rat lungs and applied them to investigate the distensibility decrease accompanying chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. Lungs of control and hypertensive (three weeks 11% O2) animals were excised and a contrast agent introduced before micro-CT imaging with a special purpose scanner. For each lung, four 3D image data sets were obtained, each at a different intra-arterial contrast agent pressure. Vessel segment diameters and lengths were measured at all levels in the arterial tree hierarchy, and these data used to generate features sensitive to distensibility changes. Results indicate that measurements obtained from 3D micro-CT images can be used to quantify vessel biomechanical properties in this rat model of pulmonary hypertension and that distensibility is reduced by exposure to chronic hypoxia. Mechanical properties can be assessed in a localized fashion and quantified in a spatially-resolved way or as a single parameter describing the tree as a whole. Micro-CT is a nondestructive way to rapidly assess structural and mechanical properties of arteries in small animal organs maintained in a physiological state. Quantitative features measured by this method may provide valuable insights into the mechanisms causing the elevated pressures in pulmonary hypertension of differing etiologies and should become increasingly valuable tools in the study of complex phenotypes in small-animal models of important diseases such as hypertension