Performance Analysis of Non-Interferometry Based Surface Plasmon Resonance Microscopes

Surface plasmon microscopy has been of interest to the science and engineering community and has been utilized in broad aspects of applications and studies, including biochemical sensing and biomolecular binding kinetics. The benefits of surface plasmon microscopy include label-free detection, high sensitivity, and quantitative measurements. Here, a theoretical framework to analyze and compare several non-interferometric surface plasmon microscopes is proposed. The scope of the study is to (1) identify the strengths and weaknesses in each surface plasmon microscopes reported in the literature; (2) quantify their performance in terms of spatial imaging resolution, imaging contrast, sensitivity, and measurement accuracy for quantitative and non-quantitative imaging modes of the microscopes. Six types of non-interferometric microscopes were included in this study: annulus aperture scanning, half annulus aperture scanning, single-point scanning, double-point scanning, single-point scanning, at 45 degrees azimuthal angle, and double-point scanning at 45 degrees azimuthal angle. For non-quantitative imaging, there is a substantial tradeoff between the image contrast and the spatial resolution. For the quantitative imaging, the half annulus aperture provided the highest sensitivity of 127.058 rad/μm2 RIU−1, followed by the full annulus aperture of 126.318 rad/μm2 RIU−1. There is a clear tradeoff between spatial resolution and sensitivity. The annulus aperture and half annulus aperture had an optimal resolution, sensitivity, and crosstalk compared to the other non-interferometric surface plasmon resonance microscopes. The resolution depends strongly on the propagation length of the surface plasmons rather than the numerical aperture of the objective lens. For imaging and sensing purposes, the recommended microfluidic channel size and protein stamping size for surface plasmon resonance experiments is at least 25 μm for accurate plasmonic measurements.

THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD FROM THE SPANISH COMMUNIST EXILE POINT OF VIEW

This article analyzes how the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) interpreted the Republican period from a double point of view. The PCE fought against the Republic because considered a bourgeois republic that had to be destroyed by a workers' revolution that culminated in a proletariat dictatorship. The sectarianism and scarce social support began to be overcome from 1934 and, especially, from 1935 with the Popular Front tactics from the Communist International. In addition to this, the PCE was included in the electoral coalition of the Popular Front in February 1936: the PCE was presented as a popular party more than a worker party. The Civil War facilitated its social and political penetration as a popular front party. The exile times created a myth in the Republican period, focused on the years of the war. The PCE interpreted the Republican period from the interests of the foreign policy of the URSS. For this reason, it was interpreted as a national and international struggle against fascism aggression, except in the period between the German-Soviet Pact and the Nazi attack on the USSR.

Exclusion de la synagogue et construction de l’identité croyante dans les communautés johanniques

Même si son déroulement historique exact demeure une énigme, l’exclusion des communautés johanniques de la synagogue a été un accélérateur décisif dans la construction de leur identité croyante. Ce processus peut être décrit d’un double point de vue. Premièrement, il s’effectue à travers une transformation du rapport à la tradition juive. Si l’autorité de la Bible hébraïque n’est pas mise en question, en revanche, les marqueurs identitaires du judaïsme synagogal (le Temple, les prescriptions de pureté rituelle, l’observance du sabbat, la circoncision) sont l’objet d’une profonde réinterprétation, voire d’une abrogation. Deuxièmement, cette redéfinition du rapport à la tradition vétérotestamentaire-juive s’accompagne de l’apparition de nouveaux marqueurs identitaires que sont, par exemple, le baptême et l’eucharistie. À quoi il faut ajouter la naissance d’une école théologique et d’un corpus d’écrits ayant rang d’Écriture, d’une nouvelle définition de l’apostolat, de la création de nouvelles formes d’organisation ecclésiales.

Cross Double Point Discharge as Enhanced Excitation Source for Highly Sensitive Determination of Arsenic, Mercury and Lead by Optical Emission Spectrometry

A new cross double point discharge (CrossPD) microplasma was designed as an excitation source to construct a miniaturized optical emission spectrometer with hydride generation (HG) for sample introduction. The CrossPD...

Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers in the Age of I4.0

The 21st century has witnessed the development of the fourth industrial revolution that means cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence and the internet of things. The special quality of this epochal revolution lies in a rapid acceleration of the speed of change, never seen before. This is happening at the most challenging time ever faced by our species, due to existential threats. This scenario begs big questions to professionals in the field of mathematics education. Can mathematics education contribute to build a better world? The chapter reports on a participatory research conducted by a researcher in mathematics education together with 11 mathematics teachers. Therefore, the research benefits from a double point of view, coming from different cultures so gaining a double verisimilitude, which makes the results acceptable for all the professionals involved.

La tv come casa dell’arte. Sperimentazioni e utopie

The involvement of art in tv devices is examined from a double point of view: on the one hand, the use of tv as a divulgation tool that compares the history of art, entertainment and spectacularization; and on the other, the interpretation of tv as a tool for artistic experimentation. The hypothesis of a cultural use of the potential of audiovisual communication is elaborated in particular by numerous art historians, with different initiatives that reflect the variants of the very notion of art history and art criticism. The hypothesis of TV as a possible tool for making art according to unprecedented linguistic modulations starts from Lucio Fontana in the context of spatialist theories and then develops autonomously in the specific of new technological languages: the programs, the devices and the physicality of the television itself were in fact the first "material" that the artists used to elaborate what went down in history as "videoart". In the paths outlined in this short essay, television has taken on the significance of a strongly symbolic medium, in the alternation of different and often contrasting messages and models, linked to a variety of cultural and ideological positions.