Equipment for electron microscope image capture

来自三个学科（生物学、化学和心理学）的八名达尔豪西电子显微镜学家代表一个更大的用户群体寻找先进的透射电子显微镜持续运行的设备。 显微镜是科学学院的科学成像套件在达尔豪西的核心设施。 该设备包括两个项目：一个新的高分辨率数码相机，一个新的计算机和软件运行显微镜和相机。 这台计算机对于取代老化和不可靠的嵌入式计算机至关重要，没有它显微镜和相机就无法工作。 相机是需要取代过时的相机与低分辨率和低灵敏度，不能捕捉足够的图像质量为我们的许多应用程序。 显微镜本身作为电子光学仪器功能完美，具有较长的预期寿命，但不能可靠或有效地捕获图像。 两个附加系统的设备，即摄像机、计算机和相关软件，都需要执行这些功能。 通过计算机和数字图像采集技术的重大改进，预计更换物品的使用寿命将比计划更换的部件长得多。 升级将支持的科学计划是在不同的领域。 这些申请人包括：果蝇的神经生物学，卤虫的细胞生物学，自由生活的原生动物中生物超微结构的进化方面，植物叶片中的程序性细胞死亡，视网膜神经元中的突触发生，蛋白质泛素化在植物发育中的调节作用，抗阿尔茨海默病的药物设计和纳米颗粒材料科学。 我们的共同申请人和用户代表了成熟的工人和年轻的同事，他们的计划将维持显微镜的未来操作。 我们案例的优势取决于庞大的用户群、他们的项目的卓越性、这些项目为HQP提供的培训的广度和深度、我们需求的紧迫性、缺乏替代方案以及投资于一个已经运行良好的系统的价值。

A group of eight Dalhousie electron microscopists from three disciplines (Biology, Chemistry and Psychology) seeks equipment for the continued operation of an advanced transmission electron microscope, on behalf of a larger group of users. The microscope is the core facility of the Science Faculty's Scientific Imaging Suite at Dalhousie. The equipment comprises two items: a new high-resolution digital camera, and a new computer and software to run both the microscope and camera. The computer is essential to replace an aging and unreliable embedded computer, without which the microscope and camera cannot function. The camera is needed to replace an outdated camera with inferior resolution and poor sensitivity that cannot capture images of sufficient quality for many of our applications. The microscope itself functions perfectly as an electron optical instrument, has a long life expectancy, but does not operate reliably or effectively to capture images. The equipment for both additional systems, i.e. the camera, computer and associated software, is needed to perform these functions. Through major improvements in both computer and digital image capture technologies, the useful life of the replacement items is predicted to be much longer than those of the components they are scheduled to replace. The scientific programs that would be supported by the upgrade are in diverse areas. Those of the applicants include: the neurobiology of Drosophila, the cell biology of Artemia, evolutionary aspects of biological ultrastructure in free-living protozoa, programmed cell death in plant leaves, synaptogenesis in retinal neurons, the regulatory role of protein ubiquitination in plant development, drug design against Alzheimer's disease, and nanoparticle materials science. Our co-applicants and users represent established workers and younger colleagues whose programs will sustain the future operation of the microscope. The strength of our case relies on the large group of users, the excellence of their programs, the breadth and depth of training these offer HQP, the urgency of our need, the lack of alternatives, and the value of investing in a system that is already working well.