Welcome to the Amira-Avizo Software Use Case Gallery

Serial block face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM) is a powerful method to analyze cells in 3D. Here, working at the resolution limit of the method, we describe a correlative light–SBF-SEM workflow to resolve microtubules of the mitotic spindle in human cells. We present four examples of uses for this workflow that are not practical by light microscopy and/or transmission electron microscopy. First, distinguishing closely associated microtubules within K-fibers; second, resolving brid... Read more

During cell division, spindle microtubules ensure an equal repartition of chromosomes between the two daughter cells. While the kinetochore-dependent mechanisms that drive mitotic chromosome segregation are well understood, in oocytes of most species atypical spindles assembled in absence of centrosomes entail poorly understood mechanisms of chromosome segregation. In particular, the structure(s) responsible for force generation during meiotic chromosome separation in oocytes is unclear. Usin... Read more

Each pulmonary segment is an anatomical and functional unit. However, it is fundamentally difficult to precisely distinguish every pulmonary segment using the conventional pulmonary intersegmental planes from computed tomography images. Building arteriopulmonary segments is likely to be an effective way to identify pulmonary segments.

The three-dimensional reconstructed images showed the branches of the pulmonary artery ramified up to their eighth order covering the entire lung as well... Read more

A detailed understanding of scaphoid anatomy helps anatomic fracture reduction and optimal screw position. Therefore, we analyzed the size and shape variations of the cartilage and osseous surface, the distribution of volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), and if the vBMD values differ between a peripheral and a central screw pathway?

Forty-three fresh frozen hand specimens (17 females, 26 males) were analysed with high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) ... Read more

Enamel caries is a highly prevalent worldwide disease that involves the demineralisation of the outer tooth structure. In this study, we report the analysis of artificially demineralised human enamel sections (‘slices’) etched using lactic acid (2% v/v) in comparison with healthy enamel using correlative techniques of optical and electron microscopy, as well as scanning diffraction. Demineralisation of the enamel was characterised at the micron to sub-micron scale. The structure of the he... Read more

Unprecedented combination of resolution, field of view and contrast for the analysis human enamel carious lesions was achieved. Synchrotron X-ray micro-computed tomography revealed sub-micron details of enamel rod and inter-rod regions inaccessible by laboratory tomography. Successful segmentation and labelling allowed the extraction of enamel etching patterns and statistics. Correlation was obtained between synchrotron X-ray micro-tomography and FIB-SEM cross-sec... Read more

Lithium ion battery failure occurs across multiple length scales. In this work, the properties of thermal failure and its effects on electrode materials were investigated in a commercial battery using a combination of accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC) and multi-length scale X-ray computed tomography (CT). ARC measured the heat dissipated from the cell during thermal runaway and enabled the identification of key thermal failure characteristics such as onset temperature and the rate of heat g... Read more

High market demands related to material quality and properties strongly influence redesigning of common safety loaded aluminum alloy castings. The quality of aluminum components and associated obtained mechanical properties are strongly dependent on the casting process and parameters, as well as on the chemical composition. Therefore, the redesigning of chemical composition of high-strength aluminum alloys becomes significant for safety critical structural components in automotive industry.Read more

Nowadays, industrial processes demand materials with specific properties and localized microstructures to improve material performance. To satisfy particular needs, the development of materials with changing mechanical properties and/or microstructures along a preferential direction has been developed. These are called Functional Graded Materials (FGMs). Among these materials, a variation on the porosity along the part is very useful for different industrial applications, such as microfiltrat... Read more

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the COVID19 pandemic, is a highly pathogenic β-coronavirus. As other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 is enveloped, replicates in the cytoplasm and assembles at intracellular membranes. Here, we structurally characterize the viral replication compartment and report critical insights into the budding mechanism of the virus, and the structure of extracellular virions close to their native state by in situ cryo-electr... Read more

Since its invention and commercialization in the 1950s, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been known as a high-performance polymer successfully applied in diverse engineering systems ranging from strong ropes for naval demands and wear-resistant liners in bearings, transportation belts and heavy trucks in mines and quarries, through the lining of chemical vessels and disposable bags in bioreactors, to sophisticated products such as orthopaedic implants and replacements of ... Read more

Lithium aluminum titanium phosphate (LATP) is one of the materials under consideration as an electrolyte in future all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. In ceramic processing, the presence of secondary phases and porosity play an important role. In a presence of more than one secondary phase and pores, image analysis must tackle the difficulties about distinguishing between these microstructural features. In this study, we study the phase evolution of LATP ceramics sintered at temperatures b... Read more

Inconel 718 (IN718) is the most popular precipitation-strengthened nickel-based superalloy introduced by the Huntington Alloys Division of INCO in 1959 (Ref Read more

The subtalar joint describes an articulation between talus and calcaneus, forming one of two joints of the hindfoot with the tibiotalar or ankle joint above the talus and the subtalar joint below. The talus comprises of three facets (anterior, middle and posterior) that articulate with the mating facets on the calcaneus at the subtalar joint. The bones are connected by a complex of ligamentous structures that connect the talus to the calcaneus and both structures to the adjacent navicular bon... Read more

With the growing use of X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) datasets for modelling of transport properties, comes the need to define the representative elementary volume (REV) if considering three dimensions or the representative elementary area (REA) if considering two dimensions. The resolution used for imaging must be suited to the features of interest in the sample and the region-of-interest must be sufficiently large to capture key information. Polymer electrolyte fuel cells have a hier... Read more

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an electrochemical device that converts the chemical energy of hydrogen directly into electricity. A single cell usually has a form of a flat plate in which an impervious and dense ion-conducting electrolyte is sandwiched between two porous catalytic electrodes: an anode and a cathode. Fuel is fed to the anode side, and the air is supplied to the cathode. The gasses cannot mix to avoid unproductive combustion. Instead, gasses hit catalyst material, lose their... Read more

Drop-on-demand jetting of metals offers a fully digital manufacturing approach to surpass the limitations of the current generation powder-based additive manufacturing technologies. However, research on this topic has been restricted mainly to near-net shaping of relatively low melting temperature metals. Here it is proposed a novel approach to jet molten metals at high-temperatures (>1000 °C) to enable the direct digital additive fabrication of micro- to macro-scale objects. […] ... Read more

This study explores the outer and inner crown of lower third and fourth premolars (P₃, P₄) by analyzing the morphological variation among diverse modern human groups.

We studied three‐dimensional models of the outer enamel surface and the enamel–dentine junction (EDJ) from μCT datasets of 77 recent humans using both an assessment of seven nonmetric traits and a standard geometric morphometric (GM) analysis. For the latter, the dental crown was represented by ... Read more

Deformation of the lithosphere by seismic slip along faults dissipates energy to the immediate surroundings as heat and elastic waves. Heat effects may occasionally cause frictional melting along the slip plane, leading to the formation of pseudotachylite, a characteristic fine-grained or glassy fault rock, interpreted as the quenched melt. Recently, it has been suggested that mechanical effects due to rapid loading, such as the formation of shiny “mirror” surfaces or pulverization of roc... Read more

The electrode microstructural properties significantly influence the efficiency and durability of many electrochemical devices including solid oxide fuel cells. Despite the possibility of simulating the electrochemical phenomena within real three-dimensional microstructures, the potential of such 3D microstructural information has not yet been fully exploited. We introduce here a completely new methodology for the advanced characterization of inhomogeneous current distribution base... Read more

In aqueous solutions, electro/chemically deposited metals usually grow outward into electrolyte. Here we report that the reduced Al grows inward into the sample, surprisingly, while Mg (in pure Mg and Al₂Mg₃ alloy) is galvanically replaced with Al in an ionic liquid. The galvanic replacement reaction (GRR) of Al₂Mg₃ involves a dealloying process that generates a nanoporous Al skeleton, and simultaneously the inward-growth plating of Al that thicke... Read more