MRI: Acquisition of a High Resolution Computed Tomography System for Research and Education

微型计算机断层扫描(µCT)是一种最先进的高分辨率成像技术，越来越多地应用于骨骼、化石和考古文物的研究。它允许研究人员无损地探索骨骼、化石遗骸和不可替代的考古文物的三维外部和内部结构。在重大研究仪器的支持下，德克萨斯州立大学，一家位于德克萨斯州中部的新兴研究和拉美裔服务机构，将购买一套µCT系统，该系统将安装在德克萨斯州法医人类学中心(FACTS)。该系统将通过促进科学发现以及提供教学、培训和学习机会，帮助支持大学和FACTS的使命。FACTS是人类学系内的科学研究、教育培训和服务中心。FACTS学院从事骨骼生物学方面的研究和培训学生，并通过在法医学背景下分析骨骼遗骸为执法部门提供服务。FACTS还收藏了迅速增长的有记录的人类骨骼收藏。将同一实验室中收集的大量有记录的人类骨骼与µCT系统相结合，将使教职员工和学生能够对习惯性体力活动、年龄和体重如何影响骨骼的微结构进行科学调查，并开发确定骨骼创伤是否发生在死亡时或之后的方法。这项研究将极大地促进对骨功能适应和创伤的科学认识。µCT系统还将提供一种对骨骼遗骸进行虚拟尸检的方法。FACTS教职员工将能够准确地分析和记录骨骼遗骸中的损伤，并建立用于造成锐器和钝器创伤的工具的虚拟三维重建，这将极大地有助于法律调查。微CT系统将成为校内外研究人员用于各种协作跨学科科学调查的共享仪器。考古研究中心将使用µCT系统来帮助记录、解释和保护来自古代人类居住地和沉船的文物。古植物学实验室将分析和鉴定植物化石，这些植物化石可用于重建过去的气候，有助于理解气候变化。此外，µCT图像将提供一种方法来建立虚拟博物馆，并与全球的研究人员共享有关骨骼微结构、史前文物和稀有化石的详细信息。µCT系统还将用于促进学习，学生将参与使用µCT系统的研究。这将为科学发现创造更大的兴奋，并有助于保留。教师可以通过帮助观察学生难以概念化的结构，如植物的维管系统和骨骼的微结构，来加强课堂学习。接受高级成像方法培训的学生将拥有独特的技能和研究机会，这些技能和研究机会将显著影响他们的职业选择，并可应用于各种领域的问题。对于德克萨斯州立大学的大部分女性、农村和西班牙裔学生来说，这些知识将特别有价值，他们经常在学术之外的应用领域寻找工作。总的来说，共享仪器将有助于增加教职员工和学生的奖学金，吸引外部研究人员，促进合作，帮助吸引和留住不同和杰出的教职员工和学生，并改善教学。

Micro-computed tomography (µCT) is state-of-the-art high resolution imaging technology that is increasingly employed in the study of bones, fossils, and archaeological artifacts. It allows researchers to nondestructively explore the three-dimensional external and internal structure of bone, fossilized remains, and irreplaceable archaeological artifacts. With Major Research Instrumentation support, Texas State University, an Emerging Research and Hispanic serving institution in Central Texas, will purchase a µCT system that will be housed in the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (FACTS). The system will help support the missions of the university and FACTS by promoting scientific discovery as well as providing teaching, training, and learning opportunities. FACTS is a scientific research, educational training, and service center within the Department of Anthropology. FACTS faculty conduct research and train students in skeletal biology, and provide service to law enforcement by analyzing skeletal remains in a medicolegal context. FACTS also houses a rapidly growing documented human skeletal collection. The combination of a large documented human skeletal collection in the same laboratory with a µCT system will allow faculty and students to conduct scientific investigations into how habitual physical activities, age, and body weight affect the microstructure of bones and to develop methods for determining whether trauma to a skeleton occurred at the time of or after death. This research will greatly advance scientific knowledge of bone functional adaptation and trauma. The µCT system will also provide a method of conducting virtual autopsies on skeletal remains. FACTS faculty will be able to accurately analyze and document injuries in skeletal remains and build virtual three-dimensional reconstructions of the implement used to cause sharp and blunt force trauma, which will greatly benefit legal investigations.The µCT system will be a shared instrument used by intramural and extramural researchers for a variety of collaborative interdisciplinary scientific investigations. The Center for Archaeological Studies will use the µCT system to aid in the documentation, interpretation, and conservation of artifacts from ancient human occupation sites and shipwrecks. The Paleobotany Laboratory will analyze and identify fossilized plants that can be used to reconstruct past climates instrumental in understanding climate change. In addition, the µCT images will provide a method for building virtual museums and sharing detailed information about bone microstructure, prehistoric artifacts, and rare fossils with researchers around the globe.The µCT system will also be used to promote learning, and students will be involved in research using the µCT system. This will create greater excitement for scientific discovery and help with retention. Teachers can enhance learning in the classroom by facilitating the viewing of structures such the vascular system of plants and the microstructure of bone that are difficult for students to conceptualize. Students trained in advanced imaging methods will have unique skills and research opportunities that will significantly affect their career options, and can be applied to problems in a variety of fields. This knowledge will be especially valuable for the large portion of female, rural, and Hispanic students at Texas State University that often seek employment outside of academia in applied fields. In general, the shared instrument will serve to increase faculty and student scholarship, attract outside researchers, promote collaboration, help attract and retain diverse and exceptional faculty and students, and enhance teaching and learning.