Olfaction is an important and primitive sense. As its importance has changed with evolution, anatomic adjustments have occurred in its structure and vasculature. Primates are a family of vertebrates that have had to develop their visual system to adapt to the arboreal environment and have evolved from a macrosmatic to a microsmatic species as the optic system has enlarged. This has resulted in anatomic changes of a small but critical area at the base of the brain. This paper describes the three-dimensional vascular anatomy of the olfactory organ of the Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata fuscata). This is best understood by dividing the organ into three parts: the olfactory tract, olfactory bulb, and olfactory nerves in the nasal mucosa. The bulb can be partitioned into an outer or cortical part and inner or medullary part. The vasculature and tissue were examined grossly and with light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy of vascular corrosion casts. The olfactory tract and bulb were supplied by an arteriole from the anterior cerebral artery on each side. The tract was supplied by capillaries running spirally with a coarse network. At the olfactory bulb, the arteriole ramified into the intracortical and medullary branches that formed capillary networks. The bulbar intracortical capillaries were divided into two layers with different densities and vascular patterns. The capillaries of the superficial layer had a ladder-like pattern. The branches that ran into the medulla of the olfactory bulb were more widely spaced. Twigs from the posterior ethmoidal artery ran along the nerve fiber and formed intra- and extrafascicular networks. Each region of the olfactory organ had characteristic three-dimensional vascular patterns that were related to their cellular architecture.

Laser capture microdissection uses a microscope to identify specific cells for microdissection and then a laser-sensitive plastic to capture and remove the cells from their substrate. This efficient capture method was originally developed to capture cells for genetic analysis. However, it has also been used to capture cells for proteonomic analysis. In this article, we extend the uses of laser-capture microdissection by reporting a method for preparing captured cells for ultrastructural analysis by transmission electron microscopy. Cells prepared by our methodology show good fine structure preservation and are easily sectioned by standard ultramicrotomy.

The study of the gaussian parameter ω—the approximate width of a peak at half height—of the intensity curves obtained by means of the Unidirectional Laser Oblique Illumination technique employed in the optical microscopy of materials permits introduction of the concept of variation of a surface pattern at different magnifications. This concept establishes how the surface pattern or topography varies among different areas when different magnifications are used. Diffraction gratings and metallic surfaces which have been subjected to different metallographic procedures are analyzed, using objectives of 8×, 16×, and 32×.

We describe a method for predicting detection limits of minority elements in electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), and its implementation as a software package that gives quantitative predictions for user-specified materials and experimental conditions. The method is based on modeling entire energy loss spectra, including shot noise as well as instrumental noise, and taking into account all the relevant experimental parameters. We describe the steps involved in modeling the entire spectrum, from the zero loss up to inner shell edges, and pay particular attention to the contributions to the pre-edge background. The predicted spectra are used to evaluate the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for inner shell edges from user-specified minority elements. The software also predicts the minimum detectable mass (MDM) and minimum mass fraction (MMF). It can be used to ascertain whether an element present at a particular concentration should be detectable for given experimental conditions, and also to quickly and quantitatively explore ways of optimizing the experimental conditions for a particular EELS analytical task. We demonstrate the usefulness of the software by confirming the recent empirical observation of single atom detection using EELS of phosphorus in thin carbon films, and show the effect on the SNR of varying the acquisition parameters. The case of delta-doped semiconductors is also considered as an important example from materials science where low detection limits and high spatial resolution are essential, and the feasibility of such characterization using EELS is assessed.

The technique of imaging time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and dual beam depth profiling has been used to study the composition of the surface of tabular silver halide microcrystals. Analysis of individual microcrystals with a size well below 1 μm from a given emulsion is possible. The method is successfully applied for the characterization of silver halide microcrystals with subpercent global iodide concentrations confined in surface layers with a thickness below 5 nm. The developed TOF-SIMS analytical procedure is explicitly demonstrated for the molecular imaging of adsorbed thiocyanate layers (SCN) at crystal surfaces of individual crystals and for the differentiation of iodide conversion layers synthesized with KI and with AgI micrates (nanocrystals with a size between 10 and 50 nm). It can be concluded that TOF-SIMS as a microanalytical, surface-sensitive technique has some unique properties over other analytical techniques for the study of complex structured surface layers of silver halide microcrystals. This offers valuable information to support the synthesis of future photographic emulsions.