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1. Understanding the ecomorphology effects of lumbar vertebrae in Soricidae

   https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf004  

   Morgan, Tyler; Smith, Stephanie M (March 2025, Integrative And Comparative Biology)

   Shrews are a morphologically and ecologically diverse group of small-bodied mammals, ranging in body mass from under 2 grams to around 100 grams. Their diversity and size makes them an excellent model for investigating the effects of small body size on the ecomorphology of the skeleton. We want to investigate if there is ecologically informative variation in skeletal morphoogy of these tiny mammals, and if so, does the relationship between shape and ecology vary across body size? Using μCT scans of skeletons from the Field Museum of Natural History, we quantified morphology of the middle lumbar vertebra in 25 species of shrews via 3D geometric morphometrics. Because the lumbar spine is heavily involved in mammalian locomotion, we analyzed the correlation between locomotor mode and vertebral shape, as well as between centroid size and vertebral shape. We found no statistically significant association between centroid size and locomotor group,or between size and shape. However, we found variation in vertebral morphology across locomotor groups, with notable shape differences in centrum aspect ratio, height of the neural arch, and location of the transverse processes. Fossorial and scansorial species diverge the most from the overall mean shape. We also recovered phylogenetic signals associated with shape. Future work will refine the relationship between shape and bone performance under various loading scenarios and enable us to better separate functional from phylogenetic effects. 

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2. Wearable Mechatronic Ultrasound-Integrated AR Navigation System for Lumbar Puncture Guidance

   https://doi.org/10.1109/tmrb.2023.3319963  

   Jiang, Baichuan; Wang, Liam; Xu, Keshuai; Hossbach, Martin; Demir, Alican; Rajan, Purnima; Taylor, Russell H; Moghekar, Abhay; Foroughi, Pezhman; Kazanzides, Peter; et al (November 2023, IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics)
3. Spatial models of cell distribution in human lumbar dorsal root ganglia

   https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24848  

   Sperry, Zachariah J.; Graham, Robert D.; Peck‐Dimit, Nicholas; Lempka, Scott F.; Bruns, Tim M. (January 2020, Journal of Comparative Neurology)

   Abstract Dorsal root ganglia (DRG), which contain the somata of primary sensory neurons, have increasingly been considered as novel targets for clinical neural interfaces, both for neuroprosthetic and pain applications. Effective use of either neural recording or stimulation technologies requires an appropriate spatial position relative to the target neural element, whether axon or cell body. However, the internal three‐dimensional spatial organization of human DRG neural fibers and somata has not been quantitatively described. In this study, we analyzed 202 cross‐sectional images across the length of 31 human L4 and L5 DRG from 10 donors. We used a custom semi‐automated graphical user interface to identify the locations of neural elements in the images and normalize the output to a consistent spatial reference for direct comparison by spinal level. By applying a recursive partitioning algorithm, we found that the highest density of cell bodies at both spinal levels could be found in the inner 85% of DRG length, the outer‐most 25–30% radially, and the dorsal‐most 69–76%. While axonal density was fairly homogeneous across the DRG length, there was a distinct low density region in the outer 7–11% radially. These findings are consistent with previous qualitative reports of neural distribution in DRG. The quantitative measurements we provide will enable improved targeting of future neural interface technologies and DRG‐focused pharmaceutical therapies, and provide a rigorous anatomical description of the bridge between the central and peripheral nervous systems. 

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4. Toward dynamic lumbar puncture guidance using needle-based single-element ultrasound imaging

   https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMI.5.2.021224  

   Zhang, Haichong K.; Kim, Younsu; Lin, Melissa; Paredes, Mateo; Kannan, Karun; Moghekar, Abhay; Durr, Nicholas J.; Boctor, Emad M. (April 2018, Journal of Medical Imaging)
5. Functional morphology of trabecular bone in the lumbar spine of shrews (Mammalia: Soricidae)

   Smith, S.M.; Angielczyk, K.D.; Heaney, L.R.; Kerbis Peterhans, J.C.; Luo, Z-X. (June 2019, Journal of morphology)