Training to Improve Precision and Accuracy in the Measurement of Fiber Morphology in Micrographs

Published

January 1, 2017

Author(s)

Nathan A. Hotaling, Jun Jeon, Mary Beth Wade, Derek Luong, Kapil Bharti, Carl G. Simon Jr.

Abstract

An estimated $7.1 billion dollars a year is wasted due to irreproducibility in pre-clinical data from errors in data analysis and reporting. Therefore, developing tools to improve measurement reproducibility 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 increased reproducibility and enhance data comparability.

Citation

ACTA Biomaterialia

Volume

11

Issue

12

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

DiameterJ, Image Analysis, Reproducibility, Fiber Diameter

Citation

Hotaling, N. , Jeon, J. , , M. , Luong, D. , Bharti, K. and Simon, C. (2017), Training to Improve Precision and Accuracy in the Measurement of Fiber Morphology in Micrographs, ACTA Biomaterialia, [online], https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167664 (Accessed October 15, 2025)