The Application of Computer Control to Improve Fermentation Processes

Because periodicity is a major indicator of structural organisation numerous methods have been devised to demonstrate periodicity masked by background “noise” in the electron microscope image (e.g. photographic image reinforcement, Markham et al, 1964; optical diffraction techniques, Horne, 1977; McIntosh,1974). Computer correlation analysis of a densitometer tracing provides another means of minimising "noise". The correlation process uncovers periodic information by cancelling random elements. The technique is easily executed, the results are readily interpreted and the computer removes tedium, lends accuracy and assists in impartiality.A scanning densitometer was adapted to allow computer control of the scan and to give direct computer storage of the data. A photographic transparency of the image to be scanned is mounted on a stage coupled directly to an accurate screw thread driven by a stepping motor. The stage is moved so that the fixed beam of the densitometer (which is directed normal to the transparency) traces a straight line along the structure of interest in the image.

Download Full-text

Defocus ramp correction in spot-scan imaging

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100121053 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. 130-131

Author(s):

Kenneth H. Downing

Keyword(s):

Computer Control ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Sufficient Accuracy ◽

Objective Lens ◽

Electron Crystallography ◽

Contrast Transfer Function ◽

Tilt Axis ◽

Specimen Height ◽

The Difference ◽

Envelope Functions

Three-dimensional structures of a number of samples have been determined by electron crystallography. The procedures used in this work include recording images of fairly large areas of a specimen at high tilt angles. There is then a large defocus ramp across the image, and parts of the image are far out of focus. In the regions where the defocus is large, the contrast transfer function (CTF) varies rapidly across the image, especially at high resolution. Not only is the CTF then difficult to determine with sufficient accuracy to correct properly, but the image contrast is reduced by envelope functions which tend toward a low value at high defocus.We have combined computer control of the electron microscope with spot-scan imaging in order to eliminate most of the defocus ramp and its effects in the images of tilted specimens. In recording the spot-scan image, the beam is scanned along rows that are parallel to the tilt axis, so that along each row of spots the focus is constant. Between scan rows, the objective lens current is changed to correct for the difference in specimen height from one scan to the next.

Download Full-text