Three-dimensional fluorescent microscopy via simultaneous illumination and detection at multiple planes.

The conventional optical microscope is an inherently two-dimensional (2D) imaging tool. The objective lens, eyepiece and image sensor are all designed to capture light emitted from a 2D 'object plane'. Existing technologies, such as confocal or light sheet fluorescence microscopy have to utilize mechanical scanning, a time-multiplexing process, to capture a 3D image. In this paper, we present a 3D optical microscopy method based upon simultaneously illuminating and detecting multiple focal planes. This is implemented by adding two diffractive optical elements to modify the illumination and detection optics. We demonstrate that the image quality of this technique is comparable to conventional light sheet fluorescent microscopy with the advantage of the simultaneous imaging of multiple axial planes and reduced number of scans required to image the whole sample volume

Automatic Histograms: Leveraging Language Models for Text Dataset Exploration

Making sense of unstructured text datasets is perennially difficult, yet increasingly relevant with Large Language Models. Data workers often rely on dataset summaries, especially distributions of various derived features. Some features, like toxicity or topics, are relevant to many datasets, but many interesting features are domain specific: instruments and genres for a music dataset, or diseases and symptoms for a medical dataset. Accordingly, data workers often run custom analyses for each dataset, which is cumbersome and difficult. We present AutoHistograms, a visualization tool leveragingLLMs. AutoHistograms automatically identifies relevant features, visualizes them with histograms, and allows the user to interactively query the dataset for categories of entities and create new histograms. In a user study with 10 data workers (n=10), we observe that participants can quickly identify insights and explore the data using AutoHistograms, and conceptualize a broad range of applicable use cases. Together, this tool and user study contributeto the growing field of LLM-assisted sensemaking tools

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants - Towards a Model of Digital Fluency

The article looks at the differences between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants.” Digital natives are the new generation of young people born into the digital age, while “digital immigrants” are those who learnt to use computers at some stage during their adult life. Whereas digital natives are assumed to be inherently technologysavvy, digital immigrants are usually assumed to have some difficulty with information technology. The paper suggests that there is a continuum rather than a rigid dichotomy between digital natives and digital immigrants, and this continuum is best conceptualized as digital fluency. Digital fluency is the ability to reformulate knowledge and produce information to express oneself creatively and appropriately in a digital environment. The authors propose a tentative conceptual model of digital fluency that outlines factors that have a direct and indirect impact on digital fluency namely, demographic characteristics, organizational factors, psychological factors, social influence, opportunity, behavioral intention and actual use of digital technologies

Applying a simplified economic evaluation approach to evaluate infertility treatments in clinical practice

Peer reviewe

Acute and chronic lung inflammation drives changes in epithelial glycans

IntroductionAsthma is the most common chronic inflammatory disease and it is characterized by leukocyte infiltration and tissue remodeling, with the latter generally referring to collagen deposition and epithelial hyperplasia. Changes in hyaluronin production have also been demonstrated, while mutations in fucosyltransferases reportedly limit asthmatic inflammation.MethodsGiven the importance of glycans in cellular communication and to better characterize tissue glycosylation changes associated with asthma, we performed a comparative glycan analysis of normal and inflamed lungs from a selection of murine asthma models.ResultsWe found that among other changes, the most consistent was an increase in fucose-α1,3-N-acetylglucosamine (Fuc-α1,3-GlcNAc) and fucose-α1,2-galactose (Fuc-α1,2-Gal) motifs. Increases in terminal galactose and N-glycan branching were also seen in some cases, whereas no overall change in O-GalNAc glycans was observed. Increased Muc5AC was found in acute but not chronic models, and only the more human-like triple antigen model yielded increased sulfated galactose motifs. We also found that human A549 airway epithelial cells stimulated in culture showed similar increases in Fuc-α1,2-Gal, terminal galactose (Gal), and sulfated Gal, and this matched transcriptional upregulation of the α1,2-fucosyltransferase Fut2 and the α1,3-fucosyltransferases Fut4 and Fut7.ConclusionsThese data suggest that airway epithelial cells directly respond to allergens by increasing glycan fucosylation, a known modification important for the recruitment of eosinophils and neutrophils

Potassium and zeolitic structure modified ultra-microporous adsorbent materials from a renewable feedstock with favourable surface chemistry for CO2 capture

Novel hierarchically structured microporous bio-carbons with exceptionally high capacities for CO2 capture have been synthesized from the abundant agricultural waste of rice husk (RH), using a facile methodology that effectively integrated carbonisation, activation and potassium intercalation into a one-step process. Textural characterisation demonstrates that the synthesized bio-carbons exhibit exceedingly high ultra-microporosity accounting for up to 95% of total porosity mainly as a result of the naturally occurring silicon compounds within the RH molecular framework structures. With a modest surface area of up to 1035 m2/g and a total pore volume of 0.43 cm3/g, the best performing RH carbon has showed exceptionally high and fully reversible CO2 uptake capacity of 2.0 mmol/g at 25 oC and a CO2 partial pressure of 0.15 bar, which represents one of the highest uptakes ever reported for both carbon and MOF materials usually prepared from using cost-prohibitive precursor materials with cumbersome methodologies. It has been found that up to 50% of the total CO2 uptake is attributable to the unique surface chemistry of the RH carbons, which appears to be dominated by the enhanced formation of extra-framework potassium cations owing to the exceedingly high levels of ultra-microporosity and the presence of zeolitic structures incorporated within the carbon matrices. Characterisations by EDX element mapping, XPS and the heat of adsorption measurements confirm the existence of a range of zeolitic structures, which essentially transforms the RH carbons into a kind of zeolite-carbon nanocomposite materials with strong surface affinity to CO2

Scintillation efficiency measurement of Na recoils in NaI(Tl) below the DAMA/LIBRA energy threshold

The dark matter interpretation of the DAMA modulation signal depends on the NaI(Tl) scintillation efficiency of nuclear recoils. Previous measurements for Na recoils have large discrepancies, especially in the DAMA/LIBRA modulation energy region. We report a quenching effect measurement of Na recoils in NaI(Tl) from 3keV$_{\text{nr}}$ to 52keV$_{\text{nr}}$, covering the whole DAMA/LIBRA energy region for light WIMP interpretations. By using a low-energy, pulsed neutron beam, a double time-of-flight technique, and pulse-shape discrimination methods, we obtained the most accurate measurement of this kind for NaI(Tl) to date. The results differ significantly from the DAMA reported values at low energies, but fall between the other previous measurements. We present the implications of the new quenching results for the dark matter interpretation of the DAMA modulation signal

ASPIRES3 Summary Report: Computing

In this report, we share evidence from the ASPIRES research project, a fourteen-year, mixed methods investigation of the factors shaping young people’s trajectories in, through and out of STEM education (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), with a particular focus on access to STEM degrees. The study collected survey data from over 47,000 young people and conducted over 760 qualitative interviews with a longitudinal sample, which tracked 50 young people (and their parents/ carers) between the ages of 10 and 22. The project also conducted secondary analyses of UK National Statistics and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data sets on England domiciled students, aged 18 to 24. This report focuses on analyses of survey data collected at age 21/22 and longitudinal interviews conducted from age 10 to 22, to shed light on the factors shaping STEM trajectories, particularly at degree level

Evolutionary conservation of ABA signaling for stomatal closure in ferns

ABA-driven stomatal regulation reportedly evolved after the divergence of ferns, during the early evolution of seed plants approximately 360 Mya. This hypothesis is based on the observation that the stomata of certain fern species are unresponsive to ABA, but exhibit passive hydraulic control. However, ABA-induced stomatal closure was detected in some mosses and lycophytes. Here, we observed that a number of ABA signaling and membrane transporter protein families diversified over the evolutionary history of land plants. The aquatic ferns Azolla filiculoides and Salvinia cucullata have representatives of 23 families of proteins orthologous to those of Arabidopsis thaliana and all other land plant species studied. Phylogenetic analysis of the key ABA signaling proteins indicates an evolutionarily conserved stomatal response to ABA. Moreover, comparative transcriptomic analysis has identified a suite of ABA responsive genes that differentially expressed in a terrestrial fern species, Polystichum proliferum. These genes encode proteins associated with ABA biosynthesis, transport, reception, transcription, signaling, and ion and sugar transport, which fit the general ABA signaling pathway constructed from Arabidopsis thaliana and Hordeum vulgare. The retention of these key ABA-responsive genes could have had a profound effect on the adaptation of ferns to dry conditions. Furthermore, stomatal assays have shown the primary evidence for ABA-induced closure of stomata in two terrestrial fern species P. proliferum and Nephrolepis exaltata. In summary, we report new molecular and physiological evidence for the presence of active stomatal control in ferns