title: Training to Improve Precision and Accuracy in the Measurement of Fiber Morphology.
abstract: An estimated $7.1 billion dollars a year is spent due to irreproducibility in pre-clinical data from errors in data analysis and reporting. Therefore, developing tools to improve measurement comparability is paramount. Recently, an open source tool, DiameterJ, has been deployed for the automated analysis of scanning electron micrographs of fibrous scaffolds designed for tissue engineering applications. DiameterJ performs hundreds to thousands of scaffold fiber diameter measurements from a single micrograph within a few seconds, along with a variety of other scaffold morphological features, which enables a more rigorous and thorough assessment of scaffold properties. Herein, an online, publicly available training module is introduced for educating DiameterJ users on how to effectively analyze scanning electron micrographs of fibers and the large volume of data that a DiameterJ analysis yields. The end goal of this training was to improve user data analysis and reporting to enhance reproducibility of analysis of nanofiber scaffolds. User performance was assessed before and after training to evaluate the effectiveness of the training modules. Users were asked to use DiameterJ to analyze reference micrographs of fibers that had known diameters. The results showed that training improved the accuracy and precision of measurements of fiber diameter in scanning electron micrographs. Training also improved the precision of measurements of pore area, porosity, intersection density, and characteristic fiber length between fiber intersections. These results demonstrate that the DiameterJ training module improves precision and accuracy in fiber morphology measurements, which will lead to enhanced data comparability.
authors.affiliation: Biosystems & Biomaterials Division, National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland.|Unit on Ocular and Stem Cell Translational Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8423-6464
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Hotaling
authors.affiliation: Unit on Ocular and Stem Cell Translational Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Integrated Biosciences PhD Student, Department of Polymer Science, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio.
authors.forename: Mary Beth
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Wade
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio.
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Luong
authors.affiliation: Biosystems & Biomaterials Division, National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
authors.forename: Xavier-Lewis
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.affiliation: Unit on Ocular and Stem Cell Translational Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: Kapil
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bharti
authors.affiliation: Biosystems & Biomaterials Division, National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
authors.forename: Carl G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Simon
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D006801:Humans; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / Q000379:methods; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D011786:Quality Control; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials