Digital History: From Design to Construction to Management to Maintenance

I have been the principal investigator for an ongoing digital history project entitled “Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861.” As a trained historian I have had a steep learning curve in turning my historical vision into digital reality. This learning curve has involved many more steps and levels than I ever imagined. Indeed, now that the foundational website for this project is nearing stability, the maintenance phase is immediately presenting new technical challenges. This presentation is meant to walk through this learning curve from the perspective of a faculty scholar initiating and then overseeing a long-term digital history project. I shall start, necessarily, with the historical vision, digital ignorance, and management naivete I initially brought to the project. I shall then scrutinize each subsequent phase of the project: what had to be learned, what help was needed, what resources had to be marshaled, et cetera. We might ask “how was everything actually done each step of the way?” but the important unavoidable fact is that I can only answer this question from a limited perspective. I thus can represent one portion of a digital history project: the faculty scholar with heavy research and teaching responsibilities who contributes their mite to a collaboration where all participants have heavy responsibilities of their own. For my part, I had to learn how to translate historical research into a digital format; I had to learn arcane technical vocabularies; and I had to learn how to manage a network of necessarily part-time work

Fast X-ray detection using a CCD for application in a scanning transmission X-ray microscope

This paper presents a setup for the fast detection of soft x-rays using a high speed camera as multimodal detector for application in the AnImaX scanning transmission x-ray microscope (STXM). AnImaX is a flexible endstation for combining scanning and full field microscopy for the XUV beamline P04 at PETRA III. While using the scanning mode there is the additional option to gather fluorescence spectra for each scanned pixel. Because of the brilliance of the P04 beamline, fast image acquisition is possible and in consequence demands a fast and efficient data management

Scanning X-ray microscopy with large solid angle X-ray fluorescence detection at the XUV beamline P04, DESY

The presented scanning transmission X-ray microscope (STXM), built on top of a modular platform, combines soft X-ray transmission and fluorescence microscopy with high detection efficiency and high spatial resolution. The setups user concept as well as the large solid angle (> 1 sr) of the integrated Silicon-drift-detector are unique characteristics of this endstation. In combination with the soft X-ray beamline P04 at PETRA III (DESY), it delivers a new type of nanoscope, providing a high flexibility and very low acquisition times

Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy with efficient X-ray fluorescence detection (STXM-XRF) for biomedical applications in the soft and tender energy range

Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, especially in combination with X-ray fluorescence detection (STXM-XRF) in the soft X-ray energy range, is becoming an increasingly important tool for life sciences. Using X-ray fluorescence detection, the study of biochemical mechanisms becomes accessible. As biological matrices generally have a low fluorescence yield and thus a low fluorescence signal, high detector efficiency (e.g. large solid angle) is indispensable for avoiding long measurement times and radiation damage. Here, the new AnImaX STXM-XRF microscope equipped with a large solid angle of detection enabling fast scans and the first proof-of-principle measurements on biomedical samples are described. In addition, characterization measurements for future quantitative elemental imaging are presented