Morphological plasticity is common among clonal organisms, including scleractinian corals, yet the role of phenotypic plasticity in coral ecology and evolution is largely unexplored. Additionally, it is unclear how much variation in plastic responses exists among individuals, populations, and species, and thus how much potential there is for natural selection to act on coral reaction norms. In ...

PURPOSE Accurate evaluation of side branch (SB) ostium could be critical to the treatment of bifurcation lesions. We compared measured and calculated values of side branch ostial length (SBOL) in coronary bifurcation lesions with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). MATERIALS AND METHODS Pre-intervention and post-intervention IVUS was performed in 113 patients who underwent stent implantation of ...

BACKGROUND Arborizing vessels (AVs) are dermoscopically defined as telangiectasias with distinct treelike branching, and are a characteristic feature of basal cell carcinoma (BCC). However, AVs are observed in various conditions other than BCC. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate skin diseases showing AV and investigates dermoscopic differences between BCC and non-BCC. METHOD...

A 54-year-old female patient with congenital heart disease had a persistent complete left bundle branch block three months after closure by an Amplatzer ventricular septal defect occluder. Nine months later, the patient suffered from chest distress, palpitation, and sweating at daily activities, and her 6-min walk distance decreased significantly (155 m). Her echocardiography showed increased l...

OBJECTIVE to perform the anatomical study, in cadavers, of the corticoperiosteal flap of the medial femoral condyle, based on the medial genicular artery, evaluating challenges in dissection and the topographic patterns. MATERIALS AND METHODS fifteen limbs from eight cadavers were studied, ages ranging from 19 to 74 years old. They were placed at supine position, and a longitudinal incision o...

Anecdotal evidence gathered from pruning crew observations indicates that there may be enhanced branch growth at the new crown base in young pruned coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) trees compared to unpruned trees. This has the potential to reduce the quality and value of the stem above the pruned portion of the bole. An analysis of the size of branches in the remainin...

OBJECTIVES Precise radiographic assessment of the nasopalatine canal is required to prevent implant failure. The purpose of the current study was to determine the three dimensional (3D) morphology, as well as the dimensions of the nasopalatine canal using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS In this descriptive cross-sectional study, maxillary CBCT images from 300 patie...

Detailed 3D plant architectural data have numerous applications in plant science, but many existing approaches for 3D data collection are time-consuming and/or require costly equipment. Recently, there has been rapid growth in the availability of low-cost, 3D cameras and related open source software applications. 3D cameras may provide measurements of key components of plant architecture such a...

Modeling the 3D canopy structure of trees provides the structural mapping capability on which to assign distributed values of light-driven physiological processes in tree canopies. We evaluate the potential of automatically extracted skeletons from terrestrial lidar data as a basis for modeling canopy structure. The automatic and species independent evaluation method for lidar data of trees is ...

The maintenance of plane trees (Platanus acerfolia Wild) by regular curtain-like pruning during the vegetative period induced modifications in the distribution and seasonal patterns of carbohydrate reserves in the perennial parts. The unpruned trees were characterized by high and fairly constant concentrations of starch in roots > 5 cm in diameter and a decreasing gradient of starch from the ba...