Welcome to the Amira-Avizo Software Use Case Gallery

3D loess microstructure of loess, including skeleton particles as well as inter-particle bonding structures, was characterized through a correlative approach using μXCT and FIB-SEM

Loess, a Quaternary wind-blown deposit, is a problem soil that gives rise to frequent geohazards such as landslides and water-induced subsidence. The behavior of loess is controlled by its microstructure, consisting of silt sized
skeleton particles and complex bonding structures formed by clay-sized p... Read more

Comparative experimental observations of cement with a flow channel subject to CO2-saturated brine flow by micro-CT scanning and CT image post processing.

Understanding CO2-induced micro-structural changes at the imperfections in wellbore cement is vital for assessing the risk of CO2 leakage through wellbore cement under geologic CO2 storage (GCS) conditions. To investigate the evolution of a flow channel width in cement under GCS conditions and the influence of effective stress and fl... Read more

Li metal is considered as the most important negative electrode active material for Li-based batteries because of its high theoretical specific capacity of 3860mAh g-1, which is an order of magnitude higher than the currently used graphite, and by being the most electropositive metal. When coupled with high-capacity cathodes, either Li insertion materials or conversion chemistries, or applied in a solid-sate configuration, a leap in energy density can be obtained. The main challenge in the di... Read more

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) extends throughout a cell and plays a critical role in maintaining cellular homeostasis.
Changes in ER shape could provide a clue to explore the mechanisms that underlie the fate determination of neurons after
axon injury because the ER drastically changes its morphology under neuronal stress to maintain cellular homeostasis and
recover from damage. Because of their tiny structures and richness in the soma, the detailed morphology of the ER and... Read more

In this study, the researchers investigated the compressive failure mechanisms in flax fiber composites, a promising eco-friendly alternative to synthetic composite materials, through both numerical simulations and experimental analysis. They examined the reasons behind the low compressive strength in comparison to tensile strength, focusing on the compressive-to-tensile strength ratio. A novel thermodynamically consistent continuum damage micromechanics model was introduced to capture the ev... Read more

This study provides a comprehensive review of tortuosity and its impact on the transport properties of porous media. It discusses the classical theories and equations related to tortuosity for flow, conduction, and diffusion. The study also highlights the evolution of these theories and their connection to methodologies such as tomography and 3D image analysis. In order to clarify the topic, a new classification scheme and nomenclature for different types of tortuosity are proposed. The study... Read more

The research focuses on the fiber behavior following injection molding on a spiral-flow mold, particularly its fiber orientation behavior. The behavior of the glass fiber will be examined by altering key experiment settings, the screw speed and the back pressure, and employing different melt paths. The results show that the application of high back pressure and high screw speed decreased the fiber length but successfully increased the fiber orientation average to the flow direction. The desig... Read more

Focused-ion beam-scanning electron microscopic (FIB-SEM) tomography enables easier acquisition of a series of ultrastructural, sectional images directly from resin-embedded biological samples. In this study, to clarify the three-dimensional (3D) architecture of glomerular endothelial cells (GEnCs) in adult rats, we manually extracted GEnCs from serial FIB-SEM images and reconstructed them on an Amira reconstruction software. The luminal and basal surface structures were clearly visualized in ... Read more

The liver contains a variety of vessels and participates in miscellaneous physiological functions. While past studies generally focused on certain hepatic vessels, we simultaneously obtained all the vessels and cytoarchitectural information of the intact mouse liver lobe at single-cell resolution. […] providing a technology roadmap for studying the fine hepatic vascular structures and their spatial relationship, which will help research into liver diseases and evaluation of medical effi... Read more

Our study placed emphasis on solving problems in processing high-throughput bright field images and made attempt in developing a method for the extraction and reconstruction of multiple structures. This will facilitate a better understanding of the cerebral anatomical features under the pathological state of AD and shows extensive application prospect in drug efficacy assessment from brain-wide level.

Simultaneously visualizing Amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque with its surrounding brain structu... Read more

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a powerful and versatile technique for materials characterization and present in many laboratories. The integration of an X-ray target holder and detector allows expanding the modalities of SEM by X-ray imaging. These little hardware adaptations enable radiography ... Read more

Ebola viruses (EBOVs) assemble into filamentous virions, whose shape and stability are determined by the matrix viral protein 40 (VP40). Virus entry into host cells occurs via membrane fusion in late endosomes; however, the mechanism of how the remarkably long virions undergo uncoating, including virion disassembly and nucleocapsid release into the cytosol, remains unknown. Here, we investigate the structural architecture of EBOVs entering host cells and discover that the VP40 matrix disassem... Read more

In recent years new methodologies and workflow pipelines for acquiring correlated fluorescence microscopy and volume electron microscopy datasets have been extensively described and made accessible to users of different levels. Post-acquisition image processing, and particularly correlation of the optical and electron data in a single integrated three-dimensional framework can be key for extracting valuable information, especially when imaging large sample volumes such as whole cells or tissu... Read more

During the last decades, X-ray (micro-)computed tomography has gained increasing attention for the description of porous skeletal and shell structures of various organism groups. However, their quantitative analysis is often hampered by the difficulty to discriminate cavities and pores within the object from the surrounding region. Herein, we test the ambient occlusion (AO) algorithm and newly implemented optimisations for the segmentation of cavities (implemented in the software Amira). (... Read more

Our team is developing a modern, cross-disciplinary approach to documentation and preservation of astromaterials, specifically lunar and meteorite samples stored at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility.

Apollo Lunar Sample 60639, collected as part of rake sample 60610 during the 3rd Extra-Vehicular Activity of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972, served as the first NASA preserved lunar sample to be examined by our team in the development of a novel approach to int... Read more

The prevailing electrode fabrication method for lithium-ion battery electrodes includes calendering at high pressures to densify the electrode and promote adhesion to the metal current collector.

However, this process increases the tortuosity of the pore network in the primary transport direction and imposes severe tradeoffs between electrode thickness and rate capability. With the aim of understanding the impact of pore tortuosity on electrode kinetics, and enabling cell designs with ... Read more

Fossil fruits formerly described as cashews from the Oligocene of Peru are reinvestigated based on the original specimens and newly collected materials. The recovery of an outer spiny layer, preserved in the sedimentary molds surrounding the locule casts, indicates that these disseminules do not represent Anacardium. Imagery from nano-CT scans of the specimens documents a distinctive morphology which does not resemble any fruits or seeds of Anacardiaceae. We describe the morphology in more de... Read more

The majority of research into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) focuses on their crystalline nature. However, in recent research the vitrification of a number of MOFs has been revealed. We propose that the solid-liquid phase transitions involved in MOF-glass formation can provide unique opportunities for the creation of a new class of functional, stable and porous composite materials. Described herein is the design, synthesis, and characterisation of novel metal-organic framework (MOF) crystal-... Read more

Classification and delineation of the motor-related nuclei in the human thalamus have been the focus of numerous discussions for a long time. Difficulties in finding consensus have for the most part been caused by paucity of direct experimental data on connections of individual nuclear entities. Kultas-Ilinsky et al. (2011, J Comp Neurol, 519:2811-2837) showed that distribution of the isoform 65 of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), the enzyme that synthesizes inhibitory neurotransmitt... Read more

Cortical bone is permeated by a system of pores, occupied by the blood supply and osteocytes. With ageing, bone mass reduction and disruption of the microstructure are associated with reduced vascular supply. Insight into the regulation of the blood supply to the bone could enhance the understanding of bone strength determinants and fracture healing. Using synchrotron radiation-based computed tomography, the distribution of vascular canals and osteocyte lacunae was assessed in murine cortica... Read more

Evidence for macroscopic life in the Paleoproterozoic Era comes from 1.8 billion-year-old (Ga) compression fossils [Han TM, Runnegar B (1992) Science 257:232–235; Knoll et al. (2006) Philos Trans R Soc Lond B 361:1023–1038],  Stirling biota [Bengtson S et al. (2007) Paleobiology 33:351–381], and large colonial organisms exhibiting signs of coordinated growth from the 2.1-Ga Francevillian series, Gabon. Here we report on pyritized string-shaped structures from... Read more