BACKGROUND Postoperative body shape expectations (BSE) of bariatric surgery candidates remain relatively unexplored, and may have important implications for weight loss outcomes, treatment satisfaction, and education. METHODS The 'Silhouette Figure Rating Scale' was administered to 69 consecutive female candidates. Self-perceived current and goal body shape and postoperative BSE in four categ...

There is a large amount of cross-sectional evidence for a midlife low in the life cycle of human happiness and well-being (a 'U shape'). Yet no genuinely longitudinal inquiry has uncovered evidence for a U-shaped pattern. Thus, some researchers believe the U is a statistical artefact. We re-examine this fundamental cross-disciplinary question. We suggest a new test. Drawing on four data sets, a...

BACKGROUND Given the benefits of radiographic cephalometric studies in determining patterns of dental-skeletal-facial normality in orthodontics, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between mandibular dental arch shape and cross-sectional and vertical facial measurements. MATERIALS AND METHODS It was analyzed plaster casts and teleradiographs in frontal and lateral norm be...

Our motivation was to provide an automatic tool for radiologists and orthopedic surgeons for improving the quality of life of an aging population. We propose a method for generating a shape model and a fully automated segmenting scheme for the psoas major muscle in X-ray CT images by using the shape model. Our approach consists of two steps: (1) The generation of a shape model and its applicati...

The elastic interaction of membrane inclusions provides one of the simplest physical realizations of multibody forces. Here we show how the cross-sectional shape of the inclusion greatly changes the character of the interaction, and illustrates a pattern formation mechanism. The formalism provides a transparent framework for modeling bilayer-inclusion boundary effects on the multibody interaction.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a no-cure disease that has been frustrating the scientists for many years. Analyzing the disease has become an important but challenging research topic. The shape analysis of the sub-cortical structure of AD patients has been commonly used to understand this disease. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of using shape information on the hippocampal (HP) surfaces ...

Comparative studies of vertebrate morphology that link habitual locomotor activities to bone structural properties are often limited by confounding factors such as genetic variability between groups. Experimental assessment of bone's adaptive response to altered activity patterns typically involves superimposing exercise onto a normal locomotor repertoire, making a distinction between qualitati...

Landmark based statistical shape models are becoming increasingly popular in medical image analysis. These models require a set of training shapes in which corresponding landmarks are indicated. If a limited number of training shapes is available while a large number of landmarks is needed to describe a shape properly, a model based on observations in the training set alone may be too restricte...

We use an expanded variational approach based on dissipation to study the motion of the boundary of a non-circular cylindrical, and thus essentially 2-dimensional, crystalline grain of arbitrary cross-section enclosed in another grain of the same material under conditions where the normal grain boundary motion is coupled to relative tangential motion of the grains along the grain boundary. Coup...

T HE life cycle of engineering design involves innovating to introduce a product, and when that is done, looking for ways to make itwork better. Supersonic aerodynamics can be looked atwith a similar perspective. Man has always wanted to fly faster. While the basicmechanics of supersonic flightwas laid out in the 1950s, people are yet to find ways in which to make Supersonic flight more efficie...