Branching Characteristics Research Articles

An Analysis of Poplar Growth and Quality Traits to Facilitate Identification of Climate-Adapted Plant Material for Sweden

Poplar plantations harbor large potential as a renewable source of biomass for bioenergy and other industrial applications. The overall aim of this study is to analyze growth, phenology, stem form, and branching characteristics of 32 poplar clones grown in a trial in southern Sweden for their suitability to be grown as industrial feedstock. In a linear mixed model, performed for diameter at breast height and stem volume, the precision was improved by the use of two competition indices. The significance of phenology and quality characteristics for growth performance and ranking of poplar clones was evaluated through genotypic correlations, and multivariate hierarchical cluster analysis used to group the material. All traits showed moderate to high broad sense heritability. In general, higher stem volume was positively correlated with later leaf senescence, and uncorrelated with spring phenology. Selection efficiency for stem diameter and height was greatly improved between age 3 and 6 years allowing a better precision in selecting a subset of clones to be further tested in production plots and pilot plantations. Two commercial Populus maximowiczii Henry × trichocarpa Torr. & Gray cultivars performed best, while some intraspecific hybrids of P. trichocarpa are considered useful to genetically diversify commercial plantations in Southern Sweden (Belgian clones) or establish plantations in north-central parts of Sweden (Swedish clones). The cluster analysis emphasized growth traits and the grouping of the clones corresponded to their origin (or parentage). The results will facilitate decisions on the use of studied material in breeding, further testing and commercial deployment of poplar plantations in Sweden.

A typological portrait of Mano, Southern Mande

AbstractThis paper provides a typological survey of Mano, a Mande language of Guinea and Liberia. It sketches a linguistic portrait of Mano as a representative member of the Southern branch of the Mande family. The family features shared by Mano include S-Aux-O-V-X word order, the parallelism between nominal and verbal syntax, and the ubiquity of passive lability. The branch features include rich tonal morphology, the unstable character of nasal consonants, and rich pronominal paradigms, including auxiliaries that index the person and number of the subject. Some of the features presented here have not been sufficiently analyzed in the Mandeist literature, so it is unclear how unusual Mano is in comparison to other Mande languages in terms of the large class of inalienably possessed nouns, or the clause-level nominalization that may include another clause as its constituent. Finally, some properties are almost certainly specific to Mano, such as the dedicated tonal forms used in conditional clauses. This paper puts Mano in its typological context, elaborating on those features which are cross linguistically well attested versus those which are cross linguistically rare.

Метод препарування передньої стегнової ділянки для встановлення фетальної анатомічної мінливості судинно-нервових утворень

Determining of projection-syntopic relationships of vasculonervous structures within the femoral ring, femoral triangle, and obturator and adductor canal in human fetuses is particularly important in fetal surgery, and requires the use of an appropriate set of methods of morphological examination. Obtaining data on the topographic and anatomical features of nerves, superficial and deep blood vessels of the anterior femoral region during the fetal period of human ontogenesis is a topical urgent task of fetal anatomy. The purpose of the study was to determine the method of the most rational sequence of actions during the preparation of the vasculonervous structures of the anterior femoral region in human fetuses to obtain standard results suitable for comparison in the age aspect. Material and methods. The study was performed on 80 human fetuses 81.0-375.0 mm parietal-coccygeal length using macromicroscopic preparation. After the selected sequence of preparation of nerves and vessels of the anterior femoral region in human fetuses 4-10 months we used additional methods such as vascular injection, surface staining of dissected vessels and nerves and morphometry to determine the forms of their age and individual anatomical variability. Results and discussion. The chosen sequence of preparation of nerves and vessels of the anterior femoral region in human fetuses allowed determining the forms of their age and individual anatomical variability. In particular, features of intramuscular branching of nerves and arteries in the muscles of the anterior and medial femoral groups, anatomical variability of the femoral artery and its branches, variant anatomy of the great saphenous vein, characterized by variability in shape, topography and bilateral asymmetry of its tributaries and formation of anastomoses were found in human fetuses. The identified connections and complexes of the femur cutaneous nerves, as well as areas of overlap and displacement are compensatory mechanisms in the peripheral nervous system and are observed not only between ontogenetically related nerves, but also nerves of different segmental affiliation. Conclusion. The proposed and tested method of preparation of vasculonervous structures of the anterior femoral region in human fetuses provides a standard for obtaining data on their typical and variant anatomy. The sequence of actions used during the preparation of the vasculonervous formations of the anterior femoral region of the human fetus preserves the natural appearance and relationships between the structures of the object of study. Age-related and individual fetal anatomical variability of vasculonervous formations of the anterior femoral region was discovered during the gradual preparation of the lumbar plexus branches, superficial and deep veins of the lower extremities, superficial and deep inguinal lymph nodes, and femoral artery branches

Natural Orbital Branching Scheme for Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory Nonadiabatic Simulations.

Real time-time-dependent density functional theory (rt-TDDFT) has now been used to study a wide range of problems, from optical excitation to charge transfer, to ion collision, and to ultrafast phase transition. However, conventional rt-TDDFT Ehrenfest dynamics for nuclear movement lacks a few critical features to describe many problems: the detail balance between state transitions, decoherence for the wave function evolution, and stochastic branching of the nuclear trajectory. There are many-body formalisms to describe such nonadiabatic molecular dynamics, especially the ones based on mixed quantum/classical simulations, like the surface hopping and wave function collapsing schemes. However, there are still challenges to implement such many-body formalisms to the rt-TDDFT simulations, especially for large systems where the excited state electronic structure configuration space is large. Here we introduce two new algorithms for nonadiabatic rt-TDDFT simulations: the first is a Boltzmann factor algorithm which introduces decoherence and detailed balance in the carrier dynamics but uses mean field theory for nuclear trajectory. The second is a natural orbital branching (NOB) formalism, which uses a time-dependent density matrix for electron evolution and a natural orbital set to collapse the wave function upon. It provides the features of decoherence, detailed balance, and trajectory branching. We have tested these methods for a molecule radiolysis decay problem. We found that these methods can be used to study such radiolysis problems in which the molecule is broken into many fragments following complex electronic structure transition paths. The computational time of NOB is similar to that of the original plain rt-TDDFT simulations.

Modeling the number of the first- and second-order branches within the live tree crown of Korean larch plantations in Northeast China

Modeling the number of branches in a tree is fundamental for simulating other branch characteristics and crown structure. In this study, a total of 77 Korean larch (Larix olgensis Henry) trees were destructively sampled from plantations in Northeast China. The number of first- and second-order branches was modeled using seven count data models, namely Poisson, negative binomial (i.e., NB, including NB-1, NB-2, and NB-P), and generalized Poisson (i.e., GP, including GP-1, GP-2, and GP-P) regression models. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were then applied to those models using the sampled trees as the random effects. The results showed that (i) the Poisson regression was preferred for modeling the number of first-order branches; (ii) the GP-1 regression was considered the optimal model for the number of second-order branches; (iii) the significant predictor variables included tree height increment, branch position, relative tree size, mean dominant height, and tree age; (iv) the GLMMs significantly improved both model fit and prediction performance; (v) the prediction accuracy of the GLMMs increased gradually with increasing sample size; and (vi) a relatively small sample size with an appropriate sampling strategy would be adequate to provide a good estimation at a specific crown section.

Persistent decay of fresh xylem hydraulic conductivity varies with pressure gradient and marks plant responses to injury.

Defining plant hydraulic traits is central to the quantification of ecohydrological processes ranging from land-atmosphere interactions, to tree mortality and water-carbon budgets. A key plant trait is the xylem specific hydraulic conductivity (Kx ), that describes the plant's vascular system capacity to transport water. While xylem's vessels and tracheids are dead upon maturity, the xylem is neither inert nor deadwood, various components of the sapwood and surrounding tissue remaining alive and functional. Moreover, the established definition of Kx assumes linear relations between water flux and pressure gradient by tacitly considering the xylem as a "passive conduit". Here, we re-examine this notion of an inert xylem by systematically characterizing xylem flow in several woody plants using Kx measurements under constant and cyclic pressure gradients. Results show a temporal and pressure gradient dependence of Kx . Additionally, microscopic features in "living branches" are irreversibly modified upon drying of the xylem, thus differentiating the macroscopic definition of Kx for living and dead xylem. The findings highlight the picture of the xylem as a complex and delicate conductive system whose hydraulic behaviour transcends a passive gradient-based flow. The study sheds new light on xylem conceptualization, conductivity measurement protocols, in situ long-distance water transport and ecosystem modelling.

The geography of banking: Evidence from branch closings

AbstractIn the aftermath of the Great Recession, the number of bank branches declined in most developed countries. In this paper, we investigate how banks have downsized their branch networks in Italy, by comparing the pre‐ and post‐crisis spatial distribution of branches. By using a detailed data set that includes a wide set of controls for the characteristics of each bank branch, we estimate the probability of a branch being closed as a function of its distance from both proprietary and competitors' branches. We find that banks are more prone to close branches in those areas where other proprietary branches are closer and where competitors' branches are closer. This indicates that, since the start of the crisis, banks have closed branches especially in those areas where their proprietary network was relatively more populated and the competition was fiercer.

VLTI/PIONIER reveals the close environment of the evolved system HD 101584

Context. The observed orbital characteristics of post-asymptotic giant branch and post-red giant branch (post-RGB) binaries are not understood. We suspect that the missing ingredients needed to explain them probably lie in the continuous interaction of the central binary with its circumstellar environment. Aims. We aim at studying the circumbinary material in these complex systems by investigating the connection between the innermost structures and large-scale structures. Methods. We perform high-angular resolution observations of HD 101584 in the near-infrared continuum. HD 101584 has a complex structure as seen at millimeter wavelengths, with a disk-like morphology and a bipolar outflow due to an episode of a strong binary interaction. To account for the complexity of the target, we first perform an image reconstruction and use this result to fit a geometrical model to extract the morphological and thermal features of the environment. Results. The image reveals an unexpected double ring structure. We interpret the inner ring as having been produced by emission from dust located in the plane of the disk, and the outer ring having been produced by emission from dust that is located 1.6 [D/1kpc] au above the disk plane. The inner ring diameter (3.94 [D/1kpc] au) and temperature (T = 1540 ± 10 K) are compatible with the dust sublimation front of the disk. The origin of the out-of-plane ring (with a diameter of 7.39 [D/1kpc] au and a temperature of 1014 ± 10 K) could be episodic ejection or a dust condensation front in the outflow. Conclusions. The observed outer ring is possibly linked with the blue-shifted side of the large-scale outflow seen by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and may trace its launching location to the central star. Such observations place morphological constraints on the ejection mechanism. Additional observations are needed to constrain the origin of the out-of-plane structure.

Engineering Science and Metallurgy

Engineering science is the branch of science that serves the engineering field, and it aims to study human-made objects. Its research framework includes knowledge of engineering technology and engineering science to enhance productivity. Engineering science belongs to the comprehensive and integrated science of researching and processing artificial complex concepts and systems. Metallurgy is the category of engineering science and technical science that focuses on the study of manufacturing process of metallic materials. It forms a framework system that is constructed by integrating three levels of knowledge, namely, micro-, meso-, and macro-knowledge. The different levels of metallurgy have different physical foundations and research contents.The characteristics of discipline branches, including macro-level metallurgical process engineering, covers the entire metallurgical process and has the physical characteristics of "three streams and one state" . The metallurgical industry is a typical process manufacturing industry, and detailed research on metallurgy will directly improve the expansion of steel manufacturing process functions and has reference significance for other types of process manufacturing industries.

Simulation of the effect of carrier density fluctuations on initial streamer branching in natural ester during pulsed positive discharges

In this study, an improved streamer discharge model for natural ester is established by considering the effect of temperature on carrier mobility during discharge, the distribution of the ionization energy of the liquid molecules, and the fluctuation source of the carrier density related to the electric field gradient. Based on Poisson's equation and the continuity equation, the simulation models are improved by adding a fluctuation source term to the continuity equation. The source term consists of carrier density related to the electric field gradient during discharge. The effect of the temperature on the carrier mobility is studied experimentally and added to the simulation parameter settings. The results show that the improved model demonstrates similar branch patterns to those observed experimentally during the initiation of the streamer. The degree of fluctuation of carrier density related to the electric field quantifies the branching, pattern, and propagation characteristics of the streamer.

Instrinsic relationship among needle morphology, anatomy, gas exchanges and tree growth across 17 Picea species

The genus Picea has wide geographical range and includes species with great economic and ecological value in the northern hemisphere. Growth traits, gas exchange parameters and needle morphology and anatomy vary greatly among Picea species, but the instrinsic relationship among these traits has not been well studied for the genus Picea. We thus conducted a common garden experiment to study the relationship for these traits in 13 native and 4 exotic Picea species growing at an experimental site in Tianshui, Gansu, China. Nearly all of these traits were significantly different among the 17 species and most traits were under relatively strong genetic control. The four species introduced from abroad (P. abies, P. pungens, P. glauca and P. mariana) exhibited good growth performance in the experimental site. We found that the growth traits showed significantly positive correlation with branching characteristics. Moreover, the species with good growth performance had a relatively high photosynthetic rate. The correlation analysis based on needle morphological and anatomical traits revealed that needle traits were interrelated and needle anatomical traits might be impacted by needle size due to the increase of mesophyll area and central cylinder area with needle length. Furthermore, the relationship between needle structures and gas exchange parameters may indicate that a higher photosynthetic rate can be attributed to variations in needle structures. In addition, both the cluster analysis and principal component analysis based on needle morphology, anatomy, gas exchanges and growth traits might partially reflect the evolutionary history of the 17 Picea species. Our study represents a comprehensive survey of variation within the genus Picea to date and opens new avenues for exploring the instrinsic relationship among growth traits, needle gas exchange and needle morphology and anatomy.

P-DRGEP: a novel methodology for the reduction of kinetics mechanisms for plasma-assisted combustion applications

Detailed kinetics mechanisms for plasma-assisted combustion contain numerous species and reactions that model the interplay between non-equilibrium plasma processes and hydrocarbon oxidation. While physically accurate and comprehensive, such detailed mechanisms are impractical for simulations of unsteady multi-dimensional plasma discharges and their effect on reactive mixtures in practical devices. In this work, we develop and apply a novel methodology for the reduction of large detailed plasma-assisted combustion mechanisms to smaller skeletal ones. The methodology extends the Directed Relation Graph with Error Propagation (DRGEP) approach in order to consider the energy branching characteristics of plasma discharges during the reduction. Ensuring tight error tolerances on the relative proportions of energy lost by the electrons to the various classes of impact processes (i.e. vibrational and electronic excitation, ionization, and impact dissociation) is key to preserving the correct discharge physics in the skeletal mechanism. To this end, new targets that include energy transfers are defined and incorporated in DRGEP. The performance of the novel framework, called P-DRGEP, is assessed for the simulation of ethylene-air ignition by nanosecond repetitive pulsed discharges at conditions relevant to supersonic combustion and flame holding in scramjet cavities, i.e. from 600 K to 1000 K, 0.5 atm, and equivalence ratios between 0.75 and 1.5. P-DRGEP is found to be greatly superior to the traditional reduction approach applied to plasma-assisted ignition in that it generates a smaller skeletal mechanism with significantly lower errors. For ethylene-air ignition at the target conditions, P-DRGEP generates a skeletal mechanism with 54 species and 236 reactions, resulting in a 84% computational speed-up for ignition simulations, while guaranteeing errors below 10% on the time required for ignition following the first pulse, 1% on the mean electron energy, between 4 and 35% on electron energy losses depending on the process, and 5% on the laminar flame speed.

Colorimetric assay for the determination of molecular weight distribution and branching characteristics of starch hydrolysates

Here, we present a gold nanoparticle-based colorimetric assay for the determination of molecular weight distribution and branching characteristics of enzymatically hydrolyzed starch. The steric stabilization effect of starch hydrolysate on the colloidal stability of AuNPs was found to be proportional to the ratio of high molecular weight amylopectins, which was clearly reflected by the intensity of the characteristic surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) absorbance peak of the AuNPs. The fractional change of high molecular weight amylopectin over the course of enzymatic hydrolysis reaction could be measured based on the intensity of SPR peak, in which the results correlated well with those obtained by conventional gel permeation chromatography. With the proper calibration of a specific set of enzyme and starch type, this method would provide a fairly simple and fast means of analyzing the molecular weight distribution of starch hydrolysate on site as well as the amylose content in native starch.

Pattern Recognition in Multivariate Time Series: Towards an Automated Event Detection Method for Smart Manufacturing Systems

This paper presents a framework to utilize multivariate time series data to automatically identify reoccurring events, e.g., resembling failure patterns in real-world manufacturing data by combining selected data mining techniques. The use case revolves around the auxiliary polymer manufacturing process of drying and feeding plastic granulate to extrusion or injection molding machines. The overall framework presented in this paper includes a comparison of two different approaches towards the identification of unique patterns in the real-world industrial data set. The first approach uses a subsequent heuristic segmentation and clustering approach, the second branch features a collaborative method with a built-in time dependency structure at its core (TICC). Both alternatives have been facilitated by a standard principle component analysis PCA (feature fusion) and a hyperparameter optimization (TPE) approach. The performance of the corresponding approaches was evaluated through established and commonly accepted metrics in the field of (unsupervised) machine learning. The results suggest the existence of several common failure sources (patterns) for the machine. Insights such as these automatically detected events can be harnessed to develop an advanced monitoring method to predict upcoming failures, ultimately reducing unplanned machine downtime in the future.

Relationship between buccal branches of the facial nerve, parotid duct, buccal fat pad and Zuker’s point

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of the buccal branches of the facial nerve with the parotid duct, the buccal fat pad and the Zuker’s point, and reveal the incidence of the neural communications of buccal branch with the zygomatic and marginal mandibular branches of the facial nerve. Methods: Fifteen formalin-fixed cadaveric heads (8 females and 7 males) with a mean age of 73.93±14.42 years were dissected bilaterally to reveal the buccal, zygomatic and marginal mandibular branches of the facial nerve, the parotid duct and the buccal fat pad. Positional relationships of these structures and the anatomical features of buccal and zygomatic branches were evaluated. Results: The mean number of buccal and zygomatic branches was 2.40±0.62 and 1.90±0.60 respectively. Buccal branches crossed the parotid duct in 67%, formed a plexus along the parotid duct in 27% and coursed superior or inferior to the parotid duct without crossing in 6% of the dissected specimens. The mean number of intersection points of buccal branches on parotid duct was 4.03±1.03. Parotid duct crossed along the superior border of buccal fat pad in 66%, deep to buccal fat pad in 27% and between the superior and inferior lobes of buccal fat pad in 7%. Buccal branches crossed superficial to buccal fat pad in 80% and some branches passed superficial and through the buccal fat pad in 20%. Conclusion: It is essential to know the positional interrelations of the buccal branches of the facial nerve with the parotid duct and buccal fat pad for clinical implications. The relation of Zuker’s point with zygomatic and buccal branches and with parotid duct should not be overlooked.

Spatial-channel relation learning for brain tumor segmentation.

Recently, research on brain tumor segmentation has made great progress. However, ambiguous patterns in magnetic resonance imaging data and linear fusion omitting semantic gaps between features in different branches remain challenging. We need to design a mechanism to fully utilize the similarity within the spatial space and channel space and the correlation between these two spaces to improve the result of volumetric segmentation. We propose a revised cascade structure network. In each subnetwork, a context exploitation module is introduced between the encoder and decoder, in which the dual attention mechanism is adopted to learn the information within the spatial space and channel space, and space interaction learning is employed to model the relation between the spatial and channel spaces. Extensive experiments on the BraTS19 dataset have evaluated that our approach improves the dice coefficient (DC) by a margin of 2.1, 2.0, and 1.4 for whole tumor (WT), tumor core (TC), and enhancing tumor (ET), respectively, obtaining results competitive with the state-of-art approaches working on brain tumor segmentation. Context exploitation in the embedding feature spaces, including intraspace relations and interspace relations, can effectively model dependency in semantic features and alleviate the semantic gap in multimodel data. Our approach is also robust to variations in different modality.

Three-dimensional aspects of sidebranch formation during the growth of snow crystals

The nature of sidebranching in the facetted regions of snow crystals is investigated. It is shown that during the growth of a snow crystal, an initial sidebranch-pair forms after step bunching occurs on the leading prism planes, followed by step bunching on the adjacent flat basal face, producing a macrostep between the main branch and sidebranch feature. A Michelson interferometer–reflecting microscope setup was used to in-situ observe the three-dimensional morphology of a growing snow-crystal branch in a diffusion chamber. The macrostep on the basal plane was found to occur in the cases of simple facet growth, repetitive facet growth, and rounded tip growth, with the rounded tips forming at higher supersaturations. Thus, snow-crystal sidebranching involves a separation of the supply route of diffusing molecules on basal plane from the tip of the main-branch. Moreover, the sidebranches would fully sprout when the supersaturation increased, at which time the facetted branch tip abruptly narrowed and became rounded. These results indicate important roles of both the surface diffusion of water molecules and step migration for dendritic morphological instability on snow crystals.

Modeling the Influence of Knots on Douglas-Fir Veneer Fiber Orientation

This study presents a method for predicting the local fiber orientation of veneers made from peeled Douglas-fir logs based on the knowledge of the tree branch characteristics (location, radius, insertion angle, azimuth angle, and living branch ratio). This model is based on the Rankine oval theory approach and focuses on the local deviation of the fiber orientation in the vicinity of knots. The local fiber orientation was measured online during the peeling process with an in-house-developed scanner based on the tracheid effect. Two logs from the same tree were peeled, and their ribbons were scanned. The knot locations and fiber orientation were deduced from the scanner data. The first objective was to compare the fiber orientation model with measurements to enhance and validate the model for French Douglas-fir. The second objective was to link data measurable on logs to veneer quality.

Anatomic Feasibility of Off-the-Shelf Thoracic Single Side-Branched Endograft in Patients With Blunt Traumatic Thoracic Aortic Injury

The advent of thoracic single side-branched endograft (TSSBE) has provided a treatment option to obviate the need for open cervical debranching of the left subclavian artery (LSA), thereby enabling total endovascular incorporation of the LSA during thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). In a previous study of patients with type B aortic dissection who had required zone 2 TEVAR, the anatomic feasibility of this device was demonstrated to range from 28% to 35%, suggesting limited applicability of the currently available designs. The objectives of the present study were twofold: (1) to evaluate the anatomic feasibility of TSSBE in blunt traumatic thoracic aortic injury (BTAI) patients who would require LSA revascularization; and (2) to describe the anatomic characteristics of the supra-aortic arch branches that could be used to improve future device design. A retrospective review was performed of BTAI patients who had undergone TEVAR at a single institution from November 2013 to October 2018. Preoperative computed tomography angiograms were analyzed using three-dimensional reconstruction to quantify the aortic diameter, distance and arc length between branch vessels, and the LSA diameter and length. We calculated the proportion of patients who had metall aortic and LSA anatomic requirements for TSSBE proposed by investigational protocols. We also assessed the effect of anatomic requirement modifications on device suitability. Finally, we assessed the local anatomic relationship between the supra-aortic branches. A total of 41 patients (63% men; median age, 39years; range, 23-88years; 68% normal aortic arch pattern, 32% bovine aortic arch pattern) with BTAI who had required TEVAR involving the LSA and were, thus, considered potential candidates for TSSBE were included. Of the 41 patients, 13 (32%; 7 with a bovine aortic arch and 6 with a normal aortic arch) had metall proposed aortic and LSA anatomic requirements for TSSBE. An appropriate aortic diameter, LSA diameter, and LSA length to its first branch were observed in 100%, 95%, and 66% of the patients, respectively. An insufficient distance between the arch branch vessels, observed in 41%, was the most common exclusionary criterion. The median clock-face position of the LSA was 12:00 (interquartile range, 30minutes) in the normal arch group and 11:45 (interquartile range, 15minutes) in the bovine arch group. Despite the numerous potential advantages of TSSBE, only 32% of patients with BTAI requiring LSA revascularization had metall the aortic and LSA anatomic requirements, justifying the need for additional designs. Better characterization and mapping of the aortic arch branches will improve future device design and application.

Anatomical Characteristics of Cutaneous Branches Extending From the Second Dorsal Metacarpal Artery.

BackgroundA second dorsal metacarpal artery cutaneous branches flap is often used to repair skin defects in the hand. The location of the cutaneous branch of that artery is very critical for the removal of the flap. In this study, we quantitatively analyzed the origin of the cutaneous branches of the second dorsal metacarpalartery and the distribution characteristics of the radial and ulnar side to provide an anatomical basis for designing a flap.MethodsSixteen upper limb specimens were perfused with latex. Four specimens were infused with ethyl acetate plus plastic, and four specimens were perfused with red latex to create pellucid specimens. The origin, travel paths, and distribution of the cutaneous branches of the second dorsal metacarpal artery were anatomically observed, and we measured the length of the cutaneous branch from the midpoint of the second web space edge. We also measured the diameters and pedicle lengths of the radial and ulnar distributions of cutaneous branches of the second dorsal metacarpal artery.ResultsThe cutaneous branches of the second dorsal metacarpal artery were mainly clustered at three positions, the second cluster point was at 43.9%, the fourth cluster point was at 61.2%, and the fifth cluster point was at 72.1%. The first cluster point was at 30.8% and the sixth cluster point was at 85.6%. The diameter and pedicle length of the sixth cluster point were the largest. There was no significant difference in the distribution of the diameters and pedicle lengths of the cutaneous branch between the radial and ulnar side. The second dorsal metacarpal artery sent out 1–2 cutaneous branches before the tendon joint, and formed a blood vessel anastomosis with other cutaneous branches located further from the tendon joint. The dorsal branch of the radial nerve in the hand extended a nerve branch at the wrist joint and traveled between the cutaneous branches of the second dorsal metacarpal artery to dominate the corresponding skin.ConclusionThree clusters in the distal second dorsal metacarpal artery were selected to be the flap pedicle containing a cutaneous nerve for use in repairing a skin defect in the hand and fingers.