Volume 16, Issue 3 (May 2002)

Spatially resolved FT-IR microspectroscopy of tissue sections in combination with digital imaging techniques show great promise for in-vivo and ex-vivo medical diagnosis. In this paper we will present examples of prostate sections which were studied by means of a focal plane array IR imaging system...

Polarised light microscopy can be used to study structural phase transitions in crystals with relative simplicity through birefringence measurements, with a sensitivity orders of magnitude greater than that obtainable by X-ray methods. The combination of a polarising microscope and a rotary compensator also allows contrast formation between different domains (twins) in ferroic materials such as ferroelectrics, ferroelastics, ferromagnetics and high critical-temperature superconductors, both in ceramic and single crystal forms...

It is generally accepted that if the content of asbestos, in bulk samples, is under the 0.1% w/w, then the material could be classified like a free asbestos material. The definition of zero level, or absence, of asbestos in bulk materials is strictly related to the sensitivity of the analytical technique used for the quantitative determinations: only microscopic analytical methods are able to quantify such low levels of asbestos contamination...

We review electron and complementary microscopical studies of nuclear tracks in solids (NTS) such as minerals, glasses, and polymers. Nuclear tracks were observed by electron (diffraction) contrast (TEM), using thickness contrast and C replica (TEM) and by light microscopy...

Cultured preparations of normal cells and cells assigned to the four complementation groups designated for immortal human cell lines were probed with antibody to the protein mortalin. The cells were labeled with secondary antibodies, tagged with Bodipy Green (low emission) or Texas Red (high emission), and then subjected to multi-section fluorescence deconvolution microscopy...