Two-Photon Imaging of Calcium in Virally Transfected Striate Cortical Neurons of Behaving Monkey

Two-photon scanning microscopy has advanced our understanding of neural signaling in non-mammalian species and mammals. Various developments are needed to perform two-photon scanning microscopy over prolonged periods in non-human primates performing a behavioral task. In striate cortex in two macaque monkeys, cortical neurons were transfected with a genetically encoded fluorescent calcium sensor, memTNXL, using AAV1 as a viral vector. By constructing an extremely rigid and stable apparatus holding both the two-photon scanning microscope and the monkey's head, single neurons were imaged at high magnification for prolonged periods with minimal motion artifacts for up to ten months. Structural images of single neurons were obtained at high magnification. Changes in calcium during visual stimulation were measured as the monkeys performed a fixation task. Overall, functional responses and orientation tuning curves were obtained in 18.8% of the 234 labeled and imaged neurons. This demonstrated that the two-photon scanning microscopy can be successfully obtained in behaving primates

ICT Innovations and Smart Farming

Agriculture plays a vital role in the global economy with the majority of the rural population in developing countries depending on it. The depletion of natural resources makes the improvement of the agricultural production more important but also more difficult than ever. This is the reason that although the demand is constantly growing, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) offers to producers the adoption of sustainability and improvement of their daily living conditions. ICT offers timely and updated relevant information such as weather forecast, market prices, the occurrence of new diseases and varieties, etc. The new knowledge offers a unique opportunity to bring the production enhancing technologies to the farmers and empower themselves with modern agricultural technology and act accordingly for increasing the agricultural production in a cost effective and profitable manner. The use of ICT itself or combined with other ICT systems results in productivity improvement and better resource use and reduces the time needed for farm management, marketing, logistics and quality assurance