Final Notice: 1st Annual Imaging in Research Course (commercial-academic announcement)

[Jerry (Gerald) Sedgewick]

There is still room for the 1st Annual Imaging in Research Course given August 16 - 19, 2010:

* Visual data in the form of images is often 50 percent of a manuscript's content.  It's content is a reflection of the lab, and so the quality and accuracy of images is as important as the written content. 

* 44 percent of cases investigated by the Office of Research Integrity in 2005-6 involved accusations of image fraud, compared with about 6 percent a decade before that (1). These cases are rising, and most involve graduate and post-doctoral students. 

* Students and staff who self-report familiarity with imaging programs like Photoshop may be using it improperly.

In response to this, the "1st Annual Imaging in Research Course: Ethics, Acquisition, Post-Processing, Output and Segmenting" is being held at the University of Minnesota Continuing Education Center in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, August 16 - 19, 2010, sponsored by the Histochemical Society and the Adobe Corporation.  Attendees can choose to attend the course for 1- to 4-days.  This workshop will educate those in science, medicine and engineering about correct techniques when acquiring, post-processing, and adjusting images for outputs; along with techniques that work for segmenting complex, biological images (for subsequent image analysis).

Other benefits of taking the course will likely result in:

Faster acceptance of submitted manuscripts
Authors better able to demonstrate outcomes to their target audience
Faster results from quantitation, with improved ability to segment desired features
Better documentation of imaging procedures
Standardization of post-processing
Learning to adjust and modify images minimally and through the objective use of numbers.

Jerry Sedgewick will present, along with invited speakers.  Jerry directed a core light microscopy and imaging facility for 15 years at the University of Minnesota, published 2 books on Photoshop and digital imaging, and his quantitative work has led to FDA approval for start up companies.

Please go to http://www.imagingandanalysis.com/seminars.html for more information.  There is a limit of 30 seats.

The cost ranges from $195 for 1-day to $840 for 4-days. It includes lunch, beverages and snacks.  Registrations for those who received information about this course via their core facility will receive discounts. Here's the summary for the days:

Day1: Ethics of digital imaging, sample preparation, calibration, best acquisition practices on light microscopes.
Day2: Post Processing I: setting up Photoshop, opening image stacks/12 bit images, rotate/crop, uneven illumination correction, color correction, histogram (tone) matching, gamma corrections, correcting noise, scale bars, extended focus, extended dynamic range, pseudocolor, tonal adjustment.  These functions also covered for the free programs GIMP and Image J (when applicable).
Day 3: Post Processing II: De-colorizing/colorizing fluorescent samples, merging images, colocalization, adjusting tones for 3D reconstructions, saving images, resetting pixel resolution (resampling), creating automated steps (macros), image stitching, making figures, better methods for sharpening, digital video, images to various outputs. These functions also covered for the free programs GIMP and Image J (when applicable).
Day 4: Segmenting in Photoshop for image analysis (quantitation): optical density and intensity measurements, creating binary files through 3 methods, setting threshold at consistent value, unbiased sampling (stereology), automating steps, measurement in Image J and Excel.

All the best,

Jerry Sedgewick