Scarlet Imaging, LLC

10/07/2024

Big congrats to my colleagues Adam Lawson, Aracely Martinez, Brandon P. Hedrick and Emma R. Schachner on our paper 'Variation in air sac morphology and postcranial skeletal
pneumatization patterns in the African grey parrot' published online today! The data mostly came from the Grey Parrot Anatomy Project. Thank you!!! fil:///C:/D/AAV%20papers/J%20Anatomy/Adam%20Lawson%20paper%202024/Journal%20of%20Anatomy%20-%202024%20-%20Lawson%20-%20Variation%20in%20air%20sac%20morphology%20and%20postcranial%20skeletal%20pneumatization%20patterns%20in.pdf

07/02/2024

Congrats to my colleagues Emily Lessner, Xing Xu, Bruce Young, Marc Jones, Ruth Elsey and Casey Holliday on our publication (official today) titled 'Predicting behavior in extinct reptiles from quantitative analysis of trigeminal osteological correlates'.

IntroductionVertebrate sensory systems are in close contact with surrounding tissues, often leaving bony signatures behind. These bony features are the keys ...

06/13/2024

With special thanks from my team led by Dr Emma Schachner, we just got an incredible publication in Nature. The following is summarized by Dr Schachner.

Extremely pleased to share our team’s latest work in Nature - hawks and other soaring birds use their respiratory system to enhance their flight muscles. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07485-y
Here is a temporary link to download the PDF if you do not have access: https://we.tl/t-UDsipZ1CHG
It has long been known that breathing is functionally linked to locomotion, and it has been demonstrated that flapping enhances ventilation. This project shows the opposite is also true in some species: a component of the respiratory system is influencing and modifying the performance of the flight apparatus. Here are the highlights:
1. The SPD: Branching off the lung is a large air-filled sac, the subpectoral diverticulum (SPD), that dives between the flight muscles in various birds, including Red-tailed hawks. Specifically, the SPD lies between the pectoralis (the downstroke muscle) and the supracoracoideus (the upstroke muscle).
2. What is it not for: We found that the SPD does not play a critical role in ventilation in the Red-tailed hawk or Swainson's hawk by looking at CT scans of live sedated birds while they breathed. They can voluntarily collapse the SPD and still breathe, and independently open and close it on one side only. These birds were imaged for clinical purposes prior to this project (for unrelated reasons).
3. Who has it: We then looked at 68 species of birds (57 via CT or microCT - including a previously collected clinical dataset) and found that the SPD independently evolved at least 7 times in different clades of soaring birds, but does not appear in non-soaring species. This strongly suggests a functional and adaptive link between having an SPD and using soaring flight.
4. What is it for: To assess its functional significance, we evaluated the impact of an inflated SPD on the pectoralis muscle using a method called MDA modeling (with a computational open-source gait modeling program: Gaitsym) and analyzed muscle fascicle length in soarers and non-soarers. We found that the SPD and muscle architecture together improve the torque generating capacity of the wing when held in the extended "soaring" position.
5. Takeaway: The respiratory system is modified in specific groups of birds to mechanically enhance the flight muscles for soaring
6. Another takeaway: This work demonstrates a previously unknown role for avian air sacs and diverticula. The respiratory system in birds is probably doing a lot more interesting non-ventilatory activities that we have not yet discovered. 🥳

1 file sent via WeTransfer, the simplest way to send your files around the world

05/06/2024

The Non-Clinical Tomography Users Research Network (NoCTURN) team headed by Dr Paul Gignac just published our second major article (the earlier group DiceCT published a study several years ago that served as a foundation paper in tissue staining) and is open access:

04/14/2024

Conor Davenport, Christ Cariello, David Beckett, Adam Garman, Alex Olden and Brion Benninger from Western University of Health Sciences presented this poster at the American Society of Anesthesiologists 2023 meeting. The authors describe how point of care ultrasound (POCUS) of the anteriolateral neck (ALN) can be taught to medical students using a combination of lecture and lab. GAX Specimens with BriteVu were used in the labs. This combined learning approach (lecture and lab) ‘works well with novice learners’.

04/14/2024

Authors Chris Cariello, Adam Garman and Brion Benninger presented the attached poster at the American Society of Anesthesiologists 2023 meeting. The study focused on identifying the brachial plexus in a GAX Specimen (cadaver) versus a formalin fixed specimen. Per the authors, here was the conclusion ‘This study revealed novel lifelike GAX specimens with innovative BV (BriteVu) contrast and full range of motion which enabled positioning to perform POCUS (point of care ultrasound) assisted ISB (interscalene nerve block) resulting in realistic image acquisition, anatomical orientation and dissection versus F-FC (formalin fixed cadaver) which essentially enabled unrealistic palpation and dissection for training healthcare professionals.’.

03/25/2024

Also, Dr Heather Smith at Midwestern University and I are working on a large scale tortoise anatomy project. This is the first poster of what will be many presentations (I gave one at ExoticsCon 2023 outlining the project) on tortoise anatomy. This particular one pertains to the very unique hinge backed tortoises. The tortoises are super cool and many are highly endangered. So we are doing everything to better understand their anatomy in efforts to provide better care. A special call out to Dr Todd Driggers for helping with this tortoise for the study.

03/25/2024

Just returning from AAA 2024 Toronto. I got to catch up with a collaborator team: Aubrey Hibbs, Jason Bourke at the NYITCOM at A State. We are working on a monitor anatomy project. Attached is a picture of our team and the poster.

03/24/2024

Currently at AAA Toronto (Anatomy Connected). I entered a photo of a duck head (Title: Inside the mind of a duck) prepared with Scarlet Tissue Stain in the art exhibition.

03/01/2024

During this past year, there were over 20 poster presentations at various human medical conferences that featured the GAX Specimens. These are the formaldehyde free human donors with or without 100% non-toxic BriteVu contrast (CT, MRI, ultrasound, etc) that I created. The GAX donors are lifelike and safe for the learners and environment.

Authors Jack Benninger, Ruben Estrada, Conor Davenport and Brion Benninger presented the attached poster at the American Society of Anesthesiologists 2023 meeting. ‘The objective of this study was to assess novel GAX-specimen preparation technique with innovative BriteVu (BV) contrast to perform lifelike palpation, allow maximum joint range-of-motion (JROM), conduct BriteVu (BV) contrast to perform lifelike palpation, allow maximum joint range-of-motion (JROM), conduct physical examinations, acquire POCUS imaging, and identify sonoanatomy structures for medical student and residency trainees.’ Rather than paraphrasing, I will directly quote the Conclusion ‘GAX-specimens with BriteVu should augment medical school anatomy and be the gold standard for residency program training.’.

Courtesy of Dr Brion Benninger, Professor of Medical Innovation, Technology & Research and Clinical Anatomy and Executive Director, from the Medical Anatomy Center at Western University of Health Sciences.

02/25/2024

The Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery just published a review of Avian Surgical Anatomy and Orthopedic Management. 2nd ed. SE Orosz, MS Echols, and PT Redig. Dr Mark Mitchell at LSU provided a thorough review of the book. Please go to the following website to see the review:

Avian Surgical Anatomy and Orthopedic Management, Second Edition by BirdDoctor - December 30, 2023 Avian Surgical Anatomy and Orthopedic Management, Second Edition Susan E Orosz, PhD, DVM, DABVP (Av), DECZM (Av) Scott Echols, DVM, DABVP (Av) Patrick T Redig, DVM, PhD Published 2023 The long awaited....

06/06/2022

A big congrats to Tushar Mollik, the team at North Carolina State University (led by Edmon Perkins) and my former resident Nick Kirk for publishing an article on the joint dynamics on the red tailed hawk foot. This is a complicated article and I will break it down in the comments below: