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Development of a stage-scanning system for high-resolution confocal STEM




A stage-scanning system is composed of a specially designed transmission electron microscopy specimen holder equipped with a piezo-driven specimen stage, power supplier and control software. This system enables the specimen to be scanned three-dimensionally, and therefore confocal scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) can be performed with a fixed electron-optics configuration. It is demonstrated that stage-scanning confocal STEM images can be obtained with the lateral atomic resolution and the specimen can be moved three-dimensionally with high precision.




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Other Articles:


Development and Application of an Internet Electron Microscopy System for the Outreach Program in Japan
Research Articles
Miyoko Tanaka, Akane Tameike, Nobuhiro Ishikawa, Kazuo Furuya,
Microscopy and Microanalysis, Volume 14 Issue 02 , pp 176-183

Abstract
The development of a remotely operated scanning electron microscopy (SEM) system and its use by high school students and the public as an outreach program are reported. The SEM and the server are located in the National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan, with client computers installed at a science museum and high schools. Using a secure virtual private network system and scheduling management groupware, observation of SEM images and energy dispersive X-ray analysis are widely and frequently performed throughout Japan.
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Personality and Colorectal Cancer: The Fukuoka Colorectal Cancer Study
Objective

Although personality factors, especially emotional suppression and loss-hopelessness, have been linked to the occurrence and progression of cancer, little is reported specifically on colorectal cancer. It has also been claimed that a ‘hysterical’ personality characterized by exaggerated emotional expressions, egocentricity and ambivalent connection may be protective from cancer. This community-based case–control study examined whether personality factors relevant to emotional suppression or loss-hopelessness are associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer, and whether factors related to the hysterical personality are associated with a decreased risk.

Methods

The stress inventory (SI), a self-administered questionnaire to assess the possible disease-prone and other relevant personalities in Japanese, was completed by 497 patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer and 809 controls randomly selected in the Fukuoka area of Japan.

Results

After controlling for age, sex and residence using a logistic regression model, none of the SI scales relevant to emotional suppression (‘unfulfilled needs for acceptance’, ‘altruism’, ‘rationalizing conflicts/frustrations’) or loss-hopelessness (‘low sense of control’, ‘object-dependence/loss’, ‘object-dependence/happiness’) was related to colorectal cancer. On the other hand, two scales representing elements of the hysterical personality, ‘object-dependence/ambivalence’ and ‘egoism’ were protectively associated with risk. Additional adjustment for body-mass index and lifestyle factors did not materially change these associations.

Conclusions

Although personalities relevant to the emotional suppression or loss-hopelessness may not be a risk factor for colorectal cancer in the Japanese population, ambivalent connection and egocentricity may be protective.

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Science 2.0 - a new way of doing research?
Web 2.0 as a platform has begun to transform the web and already divides users into first generation and second generation internet users. Certainly in the online travel arena, which I know well, for many younger people, there is increasing evidence that email and static web content is no longer being used, with dynamic content, interactive websites, chat forums and instant messaging the norm for this second generation - in particular social networking is becoming the dominant form of web traffic through the popularity of review sites for travel and purchasing like Tripadvisor, social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo and social contribution sites like wikipedia.

There is now a move online to take science research into the social networking category also, with research publications being released into the wild for instant review in the form of online commentary from the science community rather than peer review prior to publication as happens most often now. Science 2.0 could bring information on stream much more quickly, but of course does so with a caveat that the work has yet to be tested. A project that began in MIT is set to go more mainstream - OpenNetWare in the biological sciences. The approach is likely to proliferate among younger scientists in the coming years. Scientific American discusses whether this will be a good thing or a bad thing for science.

See Scientific American.
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Encyclopedia of Life is Online
The Encyclopedia of Life, intended to become an online catalog of all species on Earth, began its alpha test of 30,000 pages yesterday. There are placeholders for 1 million species. (FYI, there are estimated to be 1.8 million known species on Earth, and of course more that have yet to be identified.)

This project is notable not just on its face as a remarkable collection of information, contributed by top scientists. It is also remarkable because it opens vast new amounts of information to everyone in an easily accessed way. It also shows the power of collaboration. This is not exactly citizen science, since the contributions will come from experts. However, it will take a large community of experts to make the Encyclopedia a reality. As the site grows, it should give readers a view of the inner workings of science, since there will certainly be disagreements about what species goes where, what the implications of certain connections are, etc. E.O. Wilson, the eminent Harvard biologist who inspired the site and has led its development, observes, "This great effort promises to lay out new directions for research in every branch of biology."

By making this valuable information accessible to everyone, the EOL project should inspire many years of learning opportunities at all levels.

Link to Encyclopedia of Life
Link to Tree of Life (A related site that is also great)
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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Case-Control Study Evaluating Its Relationship with Body Mass Index and Hand and Wrist Measurements

This case–control study investigated the associations between the body mass index (BMI), hand and wrist measurements and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). The hands and wrists of 50 patients with CTS and 50 age- and sex-matched controls were measured. The right and left wrist indices (wrist depth/wrist width) were significantly greater in CTS patients (mean = 0.71. SD = 0.04) than in the controls (mean = 0.69 SD = 0.04). The hand index (hand length/palm width) and BMI were not significantly different in the two groups. The hand, but not the wrist, index was found to correlate with the BMI. These results provide some support for a causative association between wrist morphometry, as measured by the wrist index, and CTS, but this difference is too small to be of diagnostic value in clinical or epidemiological practice. The results could also suggest that the previously reported association between CTS and the hand index may be secondary to differences in the BMI.

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Journal of Electron Microscopy - recent issues
By noreply@blogger.com (Jason) - version: v1.5 build A