Re: [External] Re: Web app to direct user to the right microscope?

Posted by Oshel, Philip Eugene on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Web-app-to-direct-user-to-the-right-microscope-tp7592166p7592170.html

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I'm not sure an app like this is the right approach, at least at first.
The user needs to state explicitly what is the question. The question drives the method. I often find users haven't really properly defined their question(s), so any attempt to answer "what kind of microscopy do I need" is at best premature.
Once the user has a clear statement of their question -- not what data or kind of data they're looking for, but the *question* -- they can then determine the proper controls (yes, plural; only needing one control is rare). Only after both the question(s) and controls are unambiguously determined can "what kind of microscopy?" be addressed. (And the answer may well be "None. Do 'method X' instead".)

An app that forced the user to do this would be very valuable.

-------------
Philip Oshel    
Imaging Facility Director
Biology Department
1304 Biosciences
1455 Calumet Ct.
Central Michigan University
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
989 774-3576 office

-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List <[hidden email]> on behalf of Benjamin Smith <[hidden email]>
Reply-To: Confocal Microscopy List <[hidden email]>
Date: Wednesday, 28April, 2021 at 13:44
To: "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [External] Re: Web app to direct user to the right microscope?

    *****
    To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
    http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
    Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
    *****

    Along the lines of what Craig said, multimodal imaging approaches are also
    best, and answers would also be dependent on the users willingness to use
    non-traditional methods regardless of how easy they may be to implement
    (suck as Rheinberg illumination).  Also, the user would need to be aware of
    how they intend to quantify their data to know therefore how they need to
    collect that data, and the resolution they need, FOV, colocalization,
    multi-spectral, how many dimensions, etc.  Many times I have run into
    people who collected months worth of data using the correct instrument,
    only to find out the data was collected incorrectly and cannot be
    quantified, resulting in needing to reacquire the entire set again
    correctly.

    For example, if you wanted to measure something as "simple" as
    colocalization, depending on the nature of the question and resources
    available you could do BiFC, fluorescence anisotropy, FRET, FCCS, super
    resolution (Airy scanning, STORM, STED, GSD, etc.), CLEM, hyperspectral
    microscopy, the list goes on and on.  On top of that, for each of these
    modalities, there are further considerations for what probes to use
    (especially for BiFC, as well as FRET and STORM) and how best to set up the
    experiment.  Then comes the whole other half which is how to quantify
    colocalization data, and the amount and type of information that can be
    gleaned by each of these methods.

    Although, I could also be grossly over complicating things, but in my
    experience users often don't even know how to phrase what it is that they
    want to do in terms of what the microscope is capable of, which is the
    whole reason why skilled microscopists are highly sought after to help
    bridge that gap.  However, if someone had the insight to condense all this
    into an app a non-microscopist could easily navigate and understand, that
    would be revolutionary to the field and definitely would be a major
    contribution to the scientific endeavor that would be greatly appreciated
    by millions!  I just hope it wouldn't encourage even more people to collect
    months of worthless data, because they did not fully understand what they
    were trying to do.



    On Wed, Apr 28, 2021 at 9:55 AM Craig Brideau <[hidden email]>
    wrote:

    > *****
    > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
    > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
    > Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
    > *****
    >
    > I feel that you would have to ask far too many questions to account for
    > even the more common variables in sample type, preparation, etc. even
    > before you consider the equipment. I would instead consider a first-pass
    > "screening questionnaire" that would be forwarded to an actual microscopy
    > professional for followup.
    >
    > Craig
    >
    > On Wed, Apr 28, 2021 at 10:29 AM VERMEREN Matthieu <
    > [hidden email]> wrote:
    >
    > > *****
    > > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
    > > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
    > > Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your
    > posting.
    > > *****
    > >
    > > Dear all,
    > >
    > > I've been repetitively asked by some users if I could build a Web app
    > that
    > > would guide them through a series of questions (like a personality test)
    > to
    > > the ideal microscope(s) for their experiment.  Does anyone have
    > experience
    > > with this?  Which app have you used?
    > >
    > > Obviously, I'd rather they come and talk but maybe I'm just scary :-)
    > >
    > > Sincerely,
    > >
    > > Matthieu
    > >
    > > The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland,
    > > with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th' ann
    > an
    > > Oilthigh Dh?n ?ideann, cl?raichte an Alba, ?ireamh cl?raidh SC005336.
    > >
    >


    --
    Benjamin E. Smith, Ph. D.
    Imaging Specialist, Vision Science
    University of California, Berkeley
    195 Weill Hall
    Berkeley, CA  94720-3200
    Tel  (510) 642-9712
    Fax (510) 643-6791
    e-mail: [hidden email]
    https://vision.berkeley.edu/faculty/core-grants-nei/core-grant-microscopic-imaging/