The instructor sometimes has a complex task in explaining the concepts of functional anatomy and embryology to health professional students. However, animations can easily illustrate functional anatomy, clinical procedures, or the developing embryo. Web animation increases the accessibility of this information and makes it much more useful for independent student learning. A modified version of the animation can also be used for patient education. This article defines animation, provides a brief history of animation, discusses the principles of animation, illustrates and evaluates some of the video-editing or movie-making computer software programs, and shows examples of two of the author's animations. These two animations are the inferior alveolar nerve block from the mandibular nerve anesthetics unit and normal temporomandibular joint (TMJ) function from the muscles of the mastication and the TMJ function unit. The software discussed are the industry leaders and have made the job of producing computer-based animations much easier. The programs are Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, Apple QuickTime and Macromedia Flash . (+info)
Going virtual with quicktime VR: new methods and standardized tools for interactive dynamic visualization of anatomical structures.
(10/504)
Continuing evolution of computer-based multimedia technologies has produced QuickTime, a multiplatform digital media standard that is supported by stand-alone commercial programs and World Wide Web browsers. While its core functions might be most commonly employed for production and delivery of conventional video programs (e.g., lecture videos), additional QuickTime VR "virtual reality" features can be used to produce photorealistic, interactive "non-linear movies" of anatomical structures ranging in size from microscopic through gross anatomic. But what is really included in QuickTime VR and how can it be easily used to produce novel and innovative visualizations for education and research? This tutorial introduces the QuickTime multimedia environment, its QuickTime VR extensions, basic linear and non-linear digital video technologies, image acquisition, and other specialized QuickTime VR production methods. Four separate practical applications are presented for light and electron microscopy, dissectable preserved specimens, and explorable functional anatomy in magnetic resonance cinegrams. (+info)
Web-delivery of anatomy video clips using a CD-ROM.
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Until recently, anatomists had no doubt that the teaching of anatomy had to include cadaver dissection. However, due to a changing academic environment as well as challenged financial institutional resources, computer-assisted instruction was introduced into medical curriculum in an attempt to reduce the cost and the time committed to cadaver dissection. Computer-assisted instruction included locally created or commercially available anatomy software, Internet sites, and databases of digital images of cadaveric structures such as the Virtual Human Project. However, until now, bandwidth limitations have not allowed effective visualization in real-time over the Internet of recorded videos or 3D animations reconstructed from a database. We describe how to successfully link and display large video clips stored on a CD-ROM in support of lectures saved in HTML format on the Internet. This process, described in its totality, allows students to access audiovisual files on a CD-ROM through the Internet, from any location, with either Macintosh or Windows computers, using the Netscape browser. This process allowed us to circumvent one of the most significant limitations of the computer-assisted instruction on the Internet by delivering full audio and visual information on demand, as it would happen in a traditional classroom. (+info)
Animated PowerPoint as a tool to teach anatomy.
(12/504)
Anatomy is a visual science. For centuries, anatomic information has been conveyed through drawings that have been presented to students through every available medium. The projection of animated images from a computer is a medium that offers great promise in effecting improved communication of anatomic information. Using Microsoft PowerPoint software, we have developed animated presentations for all of our lectures in Gross and Developmental Anatomy. As a starting point, we scan pen-and-ink drawings to create a digital image. The image may be edited and manipulated in an image processing program. Next, the image is imported into a PowerPoint slide where it is labeled and otherwise enhanced (arteries overlaid with red color, veins in blue, etc.) and the enhancements are animated, as we describe here step by step. For the lecture, the file is loaded on a server that is accessible through a network from a computer in the lecture hall. The output is directed to a video projector and the PowerPoint presentation is projected in the "Slide Show" mode. We use a wireless mouse that allows us to control the presentation from anywhere in the room. Before the lecture, students are provided with the same unlabeled drawings as handouts, and during the lecture the students are actively engaged in labeling the drawings and making related notes. After the lecture, the file is saved in HTML format and posted on our course web site where students can access the slides. Evaluation by the students at the end of the course demonstrated that this style of presentation was very favorably received. (+info)
Violence and its injury consequences in American movies: a public health perspective.
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OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the seriousness and frequency of violence and the degree of associated injury depicted in the 100 top grossing American films of 1994. METHODS: Each scene in each film was examined for the presentation of violent actions upon persons and coded by means of a systematic context sensitive analytic scheme. Specific degrees of violence and indices of injury severity were abstracted. Only actually depicted, not implied, actions were coded, although both explicit and implied consequences were examined. RESULTS: The median number of violent actions per film was 16, with a range from 1 to 110. Intentional violence outnumbered unintentional violence by a factor of 10. Almost 90% of violent actions showed no consequences to the recipient's body, although more than 80% of the violent actions were executed with lethal or moderate force. Fewer than 1% of violent actions were accompanied by injuries that were then medically attended. CONCLUSIONS: Violent force in American films of 1994 was overwhelmingly intentional and in four of five cases was executed at levels likely to cause significant bodily injury. Not only action films but movies of all genres contained scenes in which the intensity of the action was not matched by correspondingly severe injury consequences. Many American films, regardless of genre, tend to minimize the consequences of violence to human beings. (+info)
Studies of intercellular invasion in vitro using rabbit peritoneal neutrophil granulocytes (PMNS). I. Role of contact inhibition of locomotion.
(14/504)
Intercellular invasion is the active migration of cells on one type into the interiors of tissues composed of cells of dissimilar cell types. Contact paralysis of locomotion is the cessation of forward extension of the pseudopods of a cell as a result of its collision with another cell. One hypothesis to account for intercellular invasion proposes that a necessary condition for a cell type to be invasive to a given host tissue is that it lack contact paralysis of locomotion during collision with cells of that host tissue. The hypothesis has been tested using rabbit peritoneal neutrophil granulocytes (PMNs) as the invasive cell type and chick embryo fibroblasts as the host tissue. In organ culture, PMNs rapidly invade aggregates of fibroblasts. The behavior of the pseudopods of PMNs during collision with fibroblasts was analyzed for contact paralysis by a study of time-lapse films of cells in mixed monolayer culture. In monolayer culture, PMNs show little sign of paralysis of the pseudopods upon collision with fibroblasts and thus conform in their behavior to that predicted by the hypothesis. (+info)
Violence and its injury consequences in American movies: a public health perspective.
(15/504)
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the seriousness and frequency of violence and the degree of associated injury depicted in the 100 top-grossing American films of 1994. METHODS: Each scene in each film was examined for the presentation of violent actions on persons and coded by a systematic context-sensitive analytic scheme. Specific degrees of violence and indices of injury severity were abstracted. Only actually depicted, not implied, actions were coded, although both explicit and implied consequences were examined. RESULTS: The median number of violent actions per film was 16 (range, 0-110). Intentional violence outnumbered unintentional violence by a factor of 10. Almost 90% of violent actions showed no consequences to the recipient's body, although more than 80% of the violent actions were executed with lethal or moderate force. Fewer than 1% of violent actions were accompanied by injuries that were then medically attended. CONCLUSIONS: Violent force in American films of 1994 was overwhelmingly intentional and in 4 of 5 cases was executed at levels likely to cause significant bodily injury. Not only action films but movies of all genres contained scenes in which the intensity of the action was not matched by correspondingly severe injury consequences. Many American films, regardless of genre, tend to minimize the consequences of violence to human beings. (+info)
Observations on the sorting-out of embryonic cells in monolayer culture.
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Two problems are raised concerning the movement of cells during tissue-specific sorting-out of chick embryo cells in mixed aggregates. (i) A possible expectation from the hypothesis of 'contact inhibition' is that cells which are entirely surrounded by other cells in monolayer should be held stationary. Cells within solid aggregates, being totally surrounded by others, might also not be expected to move. How is it then that cell movement takes place within solid aggregates during sorting-out? (ii) Are the movements of cells within sorting aggregates 'passive', being driven by adhesive differentials or 'active', being merely guided by such differentials? In order to study these questions, sorting out experiments with chick embryonic limb bud mesenchyme and liver cells were carried out in monolayer culture, permitting direct observation of cell movements. Cell behavior was observed by time-lapse cinematography. Sorting-out of these cells in monolayer began before and continued after the cells had spread to confluency. During sorting, liver cells showed ruffing activity even when they appeared to be totally surrounded by other cells. Both cell types showed contact inhibition as judged by the criterion of monolayering, for they did not move over each other but remained attached to the substratum. Yet the cells in the confluent monolayer were not immobilized. Because of this, we suggest that the observed restraint against overlapping did not result from an inhibition of movement. Several considerations, detailed in the text, suggest that cell movement during sorting-out involve active locomotion. Previous work suggest that sorting-out configurations are determined by the relative intensities of intercellular adhesive strengths, the more cohesive of 2 cell populations tending to adopt the internal position. While limb bud cells form internal islands surrounded by liver cells in solid aggregates, the reverse was found to be the case in these monolayers. This suggests that, in the monolayer, limb bud cohesiveness is depressed relative to liver cell cohesiveness. This is consistent with the observation that the limb bud cells flattened themselves markedly against the substratum, significantly decreasing their area of mutual apposition. (+info)