4 research outputs found

    JavaCyte, a novel open-source tool for automated quantification of key hallmarks of cardiac structural remodeling

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    Many cardiac pathologies involve changes in tissue structure. Conventional analysis of structural features is extremely time-consuming and subject to observer bias. The possibility to determine spatial interrelations between these features is often not fully exploited. We developed a staining protocol and an ImageJ-based tool (JavaCyte) for automated histological analysis of cardiac structure, including quantification of cardiomyocyte size, overall and endomysial fibrosis, spatial patterns of endomysial fibrosis, fibroblast density, capillary density and capillary size. This automated analysis was compared to manual quantification in several well-characterized goat models of atrial fibrillation (AF). In addition, we tested inter-observer variability in atrial biopsies from the CATCH-ME consortium atrial tissue bank, with patients stratified by their cardiovascular risk profile for structural remodeling. We were able to reproduce previous manually derived histological findings in goat models for AF and AV block (AVB) using JavaCyte. Furthermore, strong correlation was found between manual and automated observations for myocyte count (r = 0.94, p < 0.001), myocyte diameter (r = 0.97, p < 0.001), endomysial fibrosis (r = 0.98, p < 0.001) and capillary count (r = 0.95, p < 0.001) in human biopsies. No significant variation between observers was observed (ICC = 0.89, p < 0.001). We developed and validated an open-source tool for high-throughput, automated histological analysis of cardiac tissue properties. JavaCyte was as accurate as manual measurements, with less inter-observer variability and faster throughput

    Search for long-lived neutral particles in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV that decay into displaced hadronic jets in the ATLAS calorimeter

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    This paper describes a search for pairs of neutral, long-lived particles decaying in the ATLAS calorimeter. Long-lived particles occur in many extensions to the Standard Model and may elude searches for new promptly decaying particles. The analysis considers neutral, long-lived scalars with masses between 5 and 400 GeV, produced from decays of heavy bosons with masses between 125 and 1000 GeV, where the long-lived scalars decay into Standard Model fermions. The analysis uses either 10.8 fb−1 or 33.0 fb−1 of data (depending on the trigger) recorded in 2016 at the LHC with the ATLAS detector in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant excess is observed, and limits are reported on the production cross section times branching ratio as a function of the proper decay length of the long-lived particles

    Cluster studies in molecular beams

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    In the present work we study properties of clusters of small heteroatomic molecules with biological relevance by several experimental methods based on molecular beams. In the first experiment structure and dynamics of size-selected charged pyrrole clusters have been studied by means of molecular beam scattering experiment. Small neutral Pyn clusters were produced in Py/He expansions and larger mixed PynArm clusters in Py/Ar expansions, and the scattering experiment with a secondary beam of He atoms was used to select the neutral clusters of dierent sizes. The complete size-selected fragmentation patterns for the neutral dimer to tetramer after an electron impact ionization at 70 eV from the measurements of the angular and velocity distributions at dierent fragment masses. In second experiment photolysis of size selected pyrrole, imidazole and pyrazole clusters has been investigated. Comparison with the photolysis of an isolated molecules and between studied systems has been made. Clusters were photolyzed at 243 and 193 nm and the kinetic energy distributions of the H-photofragments have been measured and analyzed. Finally the mass spectra of the fragments after multiphoton ionization have been measured. The significant inuence of the cluster environment to the photolytic behavior was observed and discussed
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