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The Centre of Pressure (COP) is the single point summarising all forces transferred to the hoof during the stance phase of a stride. COP path (COPp) is the trajectory that COP follows from footstrike to lift-off. Aim of the present study was to characterize the COP and COPp in horses affected by osteoarthritis and chronic lameness. Seventeen adult horses with a diagnosis of osteoarthritis and single limb chronic lameness were recruited. The COP was recorded using a wireless pressure measuring system (TekScan®) with sensors taped to the hooves (either fore- or hind limb, depending on lameness location). The COPp coordinates were further processed. Procrustes analysis was performed to assess the variability of single strides COPp and average COPp among strides, gaits, and limbs by calculating Procrustes distances (D-values). A linear mixed-effects model was run to analyse D-values differences for lame and sound limbs. Additionally, average COPp D-values and COPp hoofprint shape indices were compared for lame and sound limbs with the Signed Rank Test. At walk and trot the single-stride COPp D-values were significantly lower in lame than in sound limbs (marginal effects p<0.001). Analysis of the average COPp D-values confirmed that each hoof COPp is highly consistent with itself over subsequent trials but is different from the contralateral. COPp and hoofprint shape indices did not differ between sound and lame limbs. Footstrike and lift-off within the hoofprint showed that most horses had lateral footstrike and lift-off, independently of the lameness location. Our findings are in line with previous observations that COPp are highly repetitive and characteristic for each horse and limb. There seems to be a further decrease in COPp variability in the presence of a painful limb pathology.

Ptychography is a powerful computational imaging technique that reconstructs both the complex object function and the illumination probe from overlapping diffraction patterns. While it provides high-resolution, aberration-corrected imaging, its reliance on stepwise mechanical scanning limits acquisition speed. In this work, we propose a fly-scan ptychographic approach that enables continuous sample translation along arbitrary trajectories, significantly reducing measurement time. To account for motion-induced decoherence, we incorporate an object mode decomposition model combined with automatic differentiation for accurate trajectory correction. This method enables diffraction-limited reconstructions without the need for high-speed tracking, allowing fast and precise measurements using standard ptychographic setups.

Flexible and fast control of the phase and amplitude of coherent light, enabled by digital micromirror devices (DMDs) and spatial light modulators, has been a driving force for recent advances in optical tweezers, nonlinear microscopy, and wavefront shaping. In contrast, engineering spatially partially coherent light remains widely elusive due to the lack of tools enabling a joint analysis and control sequence. Here, we report an approach to coherence engineering that combines a quasi-monochromatic, thermal source and a DMD together with a ptychographic scanning microscope. The reported method opens up new routes to low-cost coherence control, with applications in micromanipulation, nanophotonics, and quantitative phase contrast imaging.

Visual evaluation of hindlimb lameness in the horse is challenging. Objective measurements, simultaneous to visual assessment, are used increasingly to aid clinical decision making. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of pelvic movement asymmetry with lameness scores (UK scale 0–10) of one experienced veterinarian. Absolute values of pelvic asymmetry measures, quantifying differences between vertical minima (AbPDMin), maxima (AbPDMax) and upward movement amplitudes (AbPDUp), were recorded during straight-line trot with a smartphone attached to the sacrum (n = 301 horses). Overall, there was a significant difference between lameness grades for all three asymmetry measures (p < 0.001). Five pair-wise differences (out of 10) were significant for AbPDMin (p ≤ 0.02) and seven for AbPDMax (p ≤ 0.03) and AbPDUp (p ≤ 0.02). Receiver operating curves assessed sensitivity and specificity of asymmetry measures against lameness scores. AbPDUp had the highest discriminative power (area under curve (AUC) = 0.801–0.852) followed by AbPDMax (AUC = 0.728–0.813) and AbPDMin (AUC = 0.688–0.785). Cut-off points between non-lame (grade 0) and lame horses (grades 1–4) with a minimum sensitivity of 75% were identified as AbPDUp ≥ 7.5 mm (67.6% specificity), AbPDMax ≥ 4.5 mm (51.9% specificity) and AbPDMin ≥ 2.5 mm (33.3% specificity). In conclusion, pelvic upward movement amplitude difference (AbPDUp) was the asymmetry parameter with the highest discriminative power in this study.

The ability to visualize neurons inside living brain tissue is a fundamental requirement in neuroscience and neurosurgery. Especially the development of a noninvasive probe of brain morphology with micrometer-scale resolution is highly desirable, as it would provide a noninvasive approach to optical biopsies in diagnostic medicine. Two-photon laser-scanning microscopy (2PLSM) is a powerful tool in this regard, and has become the standard for minimally invasive high-resolution imaging of living biological samples. However, while 2PLSM-based optical methods provide sufficient resolution, they have been hampered by the requirement for fluorescent dyes to provide image contrast. Here we demonstrate high-contrast imaging of live brain tissue at cellular resolution, without the need for fluorescent probes, using optical third-harmonic generation (THG). We exploit the specific geometry and lipid content of brain tissue at the cellular level to achieve partial phase matching of THG, providing an alternative contrast mechanism to fluorescence. We find that THG brain imaging allows rapid, noninvasive labelfree imaging of neurons, white-matter structures, and blood vessels simultaneously. Furthermore, we exploit THG-based imaging to guide micropipettes towards designated neurons inside live tissue. This work is a major step towards label-free microscopic live brain imaging, and opens up possibilities for the development of laser-guided microsurgery techniques in the living brain.

Microscopy with table-top high-harmonic generation (HHG) sources enable high-resolution imaging with excellent material contrast, due to the short wavelength and numerous element-specific absorption edges available in this spectral range. However, accurate characterization of dispersive samples in terms of composition and thickness remains challenging due to the limitations of lens-based optics in this spectral range. Here, we performed spectrally resolved lensless imaging using multiple high harmonics. The diffractive shearing interferometry reconstruction serves as a foundational step for element-sensitive metrology, while ptychographic reconstruction enabled the retrieval of high-precision spectral imaging and quantitative thickness mapping. Our non-destructive method offers a powerful tool to extract both the material composition and layer thicknesses of complex nanostructured samples.

We present a maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) framework tailored to event-driven detectors to perform computational image reconstruction and phase retrieval. Using Poissonian photon statistics, we built an event-based loss function that maximizes the probability of having the set of events and non-events given the initial parameters. Our loss function can be utilized in both optical and electron ptychography. We demonstrate experimental reconstructions using data acquired with a Timepix3 detector.

The use of pesticides is associated with the decline of several avian species. In this study, we monitored the organochlorine contaminants in common swifts (Apus apus) in the years 2016 to 2018. These long-distance migrants breed in Europe and winter in Africa. Their only feeding source is aerial plankton. Pooled organ samples of 42 adult and 40 juvenile swifts were tested with the multi-residue method by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-TOF/MS). Predominantly, 4,4′-DDE, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), lindane and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found in most of these common swifts. Only 4,4′-DDE (adult: 83 ± 70 μg/kg, juvenile: 17 ± 39 μg/kg) and dieldrin (adult: 2 ± 3 μg/kg, juvenile: 0.3 ± 1 μg/kg) concentrations were significantly different between adult and juvenile birds. All detected concentrations in our study were far lower than the previously recorded pesticide concentrations of common swifts in Italy and those which are known to cause toxicity and death in birds.

Developing AI systems for automatic train operation (ATO) requires developers to have a deep understanding of the human tasks they are trying to replace. This paper fills this gap and translates the regulatory requirements from the context of German railways for the AI developer community. As a result, tasks such as train’s path monitoring for collision prediction, signal detection, door operation, etc. are identified. Based on this analysis, a functionally justified sensor setup with detailed configuration requirements is presented. This setup was also evaluated by a survey within the railway industry. The evaluated sensors include RGB/IR cameras, LIDARs, radars and ultrasonic sensors. Calculations and estimates for the evaluated sensors are presented graphically and included in this paper. However, the ultimate sensor setup is still a subject of research. The results of this paper also address the lack of training and test datasets for railway AI systems. It is proposed to acquire research datasets that will allow the training of domain adaptation algorithms to transform other datasets, thus increasing the number of available datasets. The sensor setup is also recommended for such research datasets.

Using a pair of phase-locked high-harmonic generation sources, we demonstrate Fourier transform interferometry at extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths between 17 and 55 nm. This is made possible by the adaptation of a birefringence-based ultrastable interferometer for infrared femtosecond pulses. Since we measure the interference with an EUV-sensitive CCD camera, this enables a wide range of spatially and spectrally resolved measurements at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. We demonstrate the capabilities of this technique by performing wavelength-resolved high-resolution coherent diffractive imaging and by measuring the spatially resolved spectral absorption of a thin structured titanium film.