Category Archives: Technology

(NewsNation Now) There is growing fear that sensitive biometric information the United States collected on allies in Afghanistan may be used to track them down in the wake of the U.S. departure.

Since 2007, U.S. forces have been collecting biometric data including fingerprints, retinal scans and other identifiers of every Afghan working with the U.S. and allied nations. Every member of the Afghan military, every member of the Afghan police and civilian workers handed over the same information.

While the U.S. military had time to disable helicopters and the airplanes they left behind, those biometric devices may still be working and so may the databases that house the information.

Connor Powell, a reporter who spent time in Afghanistan, says he saw the information being collected first-hand when he was there and was enrolled in one of the collections.

Afghanistan is a country that we often describe as being war-torn or primitive, backward, developing. But this was actually probably the most state-of-the-art system in the world, he told NewsNations Banfield. And it was doing a lot to actually reduce corruption and fraud and a lot of the other problems that had really plagued the country.

Powell said its a terrifying prospect that this information could fall into the Talibans hands.

This is one of the many concerns of any Afghan who worked with the coalition who lean toward the Western world as opposed to lean towards that the Taliban. This is one of many ways in which the Taliban can essentially track you down.

Watch Banfieldweeknights at10/9con NewsNation.

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Is the Taliban using US technology to track Afghan allies? - NewsNation Now

Gene Editing technology Market

Quality treatment can be characterized as the expansion of totally new qualities inside the human cells. Late innovative and examination improvements in the field of quality treatment and quality altering have permitted the advancement of new example in which the succession inside a human genome can be precisely controlled to get the ideal impact. Quality altering innovation includes redresses of undesirable changes inside a quality that can cause malignancy. It likewise includes expansion of remedial and treatment giving qualities at explicit site that will help in fast recuperation of patient. The quality altering innovation is relied upon to impressively affect the worldwide medical services area similarly as with its progressions, humankind will inch a bit nearer in battling ongoing sicknesses like malignancy.

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Quite possibly the most striking patterns in the worldwide market has been the developing pervasiveness of ongoing problems like cardiovascular infections, malignant growth, hereditary illnesses, and neural issues among others. This has provoked utilization of quality altering innovation to come in and give further developed and supporting answer for these sicknesses. This has subsequently helped in the general improvement of the worldwide quality altering innovation market. Furthermore there has been a developing mindfulness among patients about the accessibility of new procedures and innovations that will help in better treatment offices.

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Global Gene Editing Technology Market Snapshot

Gene therapy can be defined as the addition of completely new genes inside the human cells. Recent technological and research developments in the field of gene therapy and gene editing has allowed the development of new pattern in which the sequence inside a human genome can be accurately manipulated to get the desired effect. Gene editing technology involves corrections of unwanted mutations inside a gene that can cause cancer. It also involves addition of therapeutic and treatment giving genes at specific site that will help in quick recovery of patient. The gene editing technology is expected to have a considerable impact on the global healthcare sector as with its advancements, humanity will inch a step closer in fighting chronic diseases such as cancer.

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Global Gene Editing Technology Market Key Trends

There are several factors that are helping to drive the development of the global gene editing technology market. One of the most notable trends in the global market has been the growing prevalence of chronic disorders such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, genetic diseases, and neural disorders among others. This has prompted use of gene editing technology to come in and provide a more advanced and sustaining solutions for these diseases. This has thus helped in the overall development of the global gene editing technology market. In addition to this, in recent years, there has been a growing awareness among patients about the availability of new techniques and technologies that will help in better treatment facilities. Moreover, with more spending on research and development activities, the accuracy of these new techniques has also improved significantly. All these factors are thus playing an important role in the overall development of the global gene editing technology market.

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Global Gene Editing Technology Market Geographical Segmentation

In terms of regional segments, there are five major regions of the global gene editing technology market viz. Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World. Of these, currently, the global market is being dominated by the region of North America. This growth of the regional segment is because of the growth in funding and investments to facilitate more activities of research and development in the field of healthcare and related infrastructure. Moreover, increasing prevalence of cancer and growing demand for early phase cancer identification and treatment of other prolonged or chronic disorders are some of the other key factors that are pushing the development of the North America market.

Europe region is also one of the most prominent regions of the global gene editing technology market and is expected to show a great promise in the next few years. With favorable government policies, availability of strong healthcare infrastructure and medical technology, the gene editing technology market is expected to thrive in coming years of the forecast period.

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Global Gene Editing Technology Market Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape of the global gene editing technology market shows high levels of fragmentation. The fragmentation of the global markets vendor landscape is because of the presence of several notable players operating in market space. These companies are concentrating on developing new and more advanced techniques and methods for gene editing. Moreover, these companies are also investing heavily in the activities of research and development so as to stay ahead of their competition. Some established players are expected to adopt aggressive strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures with an objective to enhance their market position and brand value in the global gene editing technology market.

Some of the most notable names in the global gene editing technology market are Thermo Fisher Scientific, SIGMA ALDRICH, Dharmacon, Cellectics, CRISPR Therapeutics, AstraZeneca, Bio Rad, Allele Biotech, Recombinetics, Lonza, GE Healthcare, Editas Medicine, Agilent Technologies, and QIAGEN among others.

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Patient Monitoring and Ultrasound Devices Display Market With the evolution of digital imaging and diagnosis technology, medical monitors have evolved from the old traditional monitors to digital multi-functional monitors that can track many different vital signs at once, with the added advantages of miniaturization and portability. These monitors are widely used for a diversified functions in hospitals, diagnostics labs, clinics and others.

Hysteroscopes Market The main USP of hysteroscopes gynecological procedures are their minimally invasive nature. As a result they require smaller incisions, inflict less pain and scars, bring down post-operation complications, bring about swifter recoveries, and hence reduce the duration of hospital stays. They also serve to lessen the cost of treatment. Rising knowledge of such benefits are at the forefront of driving the market for hysteroscopy worldwide.

Bovine Blood Plasma Derivatives Market Bovine blood plasma derivatives are exclusive in a way when it comes to delivering palatability, something that cannot be achieved via other alternatives such as plant extracted proteins and other synthetic nutrient elements. Bovine immunoglobulin G (IgG) is one the most common commercially available bovine derived protein fractions, while some of the others are thrombin and fibrinogen.

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Gene Editing Technology Market: Growing prevalence of chronic disorders to drive the market - BioSpace

CLEVELAND & DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Align Capital Partners (ACP) has sold Richardson, Texas-based Electronic Transaction Consultants, LLC ("ETC" or the Company) to Quarterhill Inc. ("Quarterhill") (TSX: QTRH) (OTCQX: QTRHF) for total cash consideration of $120 million USD plus transaction related expenses.

For more than 20 years, ETC has been a leading provider of tolling and mobility software solutions to some of the largest U.S. tolling authorities, including in the states of Texas, Georgia, California and Illinois. ETC's flexible riteSuite software platform enables authorities to customize operations to their specific needs for roadside operations and back-office customer engagement. The Company's platform processes more than two billion transactions annually representing more than $3.0 billion USD in toll billings across more than 1,500 toll lanes in the U.S.

Acquired as a corporate carveout in July 2020, ETC was the first investment within ACPs targeted state and local government (SLG) technology investment theme. Our investment in ETC was predicated on the massive need for SLGs to replace antiquated technology systems. ETC is at the forefront of software innovation within the tolling industry. Its cloud-based, modular software platform helps tolling agencies collect more revenue to fund required infrastructure investments, while also better serving its citizens, said ACP Managing Partner Rob Langley.

ETC management, alongside ACP, executed upon several strategic objectives far earlier than originally planned, which resulted in strong momentum early in ACPs hold. During our partnership, ACP helped the Company add key management talent including a strong COO and CTO, streamlined ETCs technology roadmap and improved the Companys operating leverage and scalability. Accomplishing these objectives early on led to a number of key customer wins, said Langley. ACPs investment came at a time of increased focus on U.S. infrastructure requirements, and we believe ETC is well positioned to build upon its strong historical growth with Quarterhill given the combined companies offer increased scale and synergistic technology solutions.

The investment from ACP last year was a critical next step in the growth journey for ETC, said ETC CEO Bret Kidd. We are grateful that ACP moved quickly post-closing to invest in our business and deliver on their promise to bring high-quality industry resources to bear. They were a great partner to management and the business.

This transaction marks ACPs second exit of 2021, following the sale of Alliance Technical Group in July, and first exit from Align Capital Partners Fund II. Operating Partner Dave Perotti, Principal Matt Iodice and Associate Vijay Senthilkumar worked alongside Mr. Langley on the ETC investment.

About Electronic Transaction Consultants, LLCETC is a leading U.S. software and technology provider to SLG tolling agencies, developing and delivering best in class solutions for tolling, congestion management, urban mobility and multimodal transportation needs. ETC's passionate and innovative team has been driving the future of mobility since 1999, with a number of industry firsts, including all electronic tolling, dynamic pricing, agency interoperability, hosted mobility solutions and machine learning.

For over two decades, ETC has delivered sophisticated solutions to many of the U.S.'s largest toll authorities, including state-wide programs, county networks and tolling-specific authorities. ETC's solutions process over two billion transactions annually totaling over $3 billion in revenues for our customers, incorporating the latest in evergreen open-source and SaaS technologies and Big Data architecture through our innovative riteSuite products. For more information, visit etcc.com.

About Align Capital PartnersAlign Capital Partners is a growth-oriented private equity firm that partners with business owners and management teams to create shared success. ACP manages $775 million in committed capital with investment teams in Cleveland and Dallas. ACP brings experience and resources to help lower-middle market companies accelerate their growth, to the benefit of management, employees and the firms investors. ACP makes control investments in differentiated companies within the business services, technology, specialty manufacturing and distribution sectors. For more information, visit aligncp.com.

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Align Capital Partners Exits Tolling Technology Company ETC - Business Wire

DUBLIN, September 02, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Technologies and Global Markets 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global market for PCR technology should grow from $10.5 billion in 2021 to $13.7 billion by 2026, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4% for the period of 2021-2026.

The reagents and consumables market for PCR technology should grow from $6.3 billion in 2021 to $8.4 million by 2026, at a CAGR of 6.0% for the period of 2021-2026.

The software market for PCR technology should grow from $590.8 million in 2021 to $776.1 million by 2026, at a CAGR of 5.6% for the period of 2021-2026.

This report examines the market potential of PCR technology. It offers a detailed analysis of the competitive environment, regulatory scenario, technological advances, drivers and restraints, and opportunity and trends in market growth. The report also covers market projections to 2026 and market rankings for key players. The report discusses the market share of PCR technologies based on type of product, technology and application.

This report segments the global market by four geographical regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Rest of the World (RoW). For the purpose of this report, North America includes the U.S., Canada and Mexico; the European region includes Germany, U.K., France and Rest of Europe; the Asia-Pacific region includes China, India, Japan, and the Rest of Asia-Pacific; and RoW includes the Middle East, Africa and South America. For market estimates, data is provided for the year 2020 as the base year, 2019 as the historical year and forecasts are through year-end 2026.

Companies Mentioned

Abbott Laboratories

Agilent Technologies Inc.

Becton, Dickinson And Co.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc.

Biofire Diagnostics Llc

Bioneer Corp.

Eppendorf Ag

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Qiagen Nv

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Report Includes

70 data tables and 15 additional tables

An updated review of the global market for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technologies

Analyses of the global market trends, with data from 2019-2020, estimates for 2021 and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2026

Discussion of major factors driving the growth of the PCR market, industry structure, regulatory scenario, and penetration of technologies in molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases

Estimation of market size and revenue sales forecast for PCR products, and corresponding market share analysis by product, technology type, application, and geographic region

Impact of the COVID-19 on the market for PCR technology, R&D efforts and the need to reinvent medical ventilators, current status and impact on Medtech

Highlights of emerging technology trends, opportunities and gaps estimating current and future demand for PCR technology in clinical diagnostics

Identification of the companies that are best positioned to meet this demand because of their proprietary technologies, strategic alliances or other advantages

Competitive landscape of the major players operating in the global market, their competitive environment and product portfolio analysis

Key Topics Covered:

Story continues

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights

Chapter 3 Background and Technology Overview

Evolution of PCR

Principles of PCR

Instruments and Components of PCR

Instruments

Target DNA

Primers

Enzyme and Enzyme Concentration

Buffers

Magnesium Concentration

Deoxyribonucleoside Triphosphates

Types of PCR

Reverse Transcription PCR

Nested PCR

Hot Start and Touchdown PCR

Inverse PCR

Multiplex PCR

Quantitative PCR

Traditional vs. Real-Time PCR

Design of Primer for PCR

Primer Selection

Primer Length

Melting Temperature

Specificity

G/C Content

3' End Sequence

PCR Quantification Methods

Absolute Quantification

Relative Quantification

Components of Quantitative PCR

DNA Binding Dyes

Probes in qPCR

Controls for qPCR Experiments

Chapter 4 COVID-19 and R&D

Potential Targets for COVID-19 Drug Development

Basigin (CD147)

C-C Chemokine Receptor Type 5 (CCR5)

Envelope Protein (E) (SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19)

Epithelial Sodium Channel (ENaC)

Histamine N-Methyltransferase (HMT)

Interleukin-6 Receptor Subunit ? (IL-6RA)

Membrane Glycoprotein (M) (SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19)

Nucleocapsid (N) (SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19)

R&D on COVID-19

COVID-19 Clinical Trial Landscape

Chapter 5 Regulatory Structure of the COVID-19 Diagnostics Industry

Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP)

Clinical Trials being Conducted during COVID-19 Pandemic

Response to Drug Shortages

National Regulatory Agencies for Ongoing Clinical Trials

U.S. FDA

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (U.K.)

European Medicines Agency

COVID-19 Testing

Chapter 6 Polymerase Chain Reaction: Market Dynamics

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Market Restraints

Market Opportunities

Chapter 7 Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

Outbreak

Progression of COVID-19

Incubation Period

Epidemiology

Collaboration Between Organizations and Governments

Spread of Disease

Current Status and Impact on Medical Technology

Elective and Noncritical Procedures

Shift in Manufacturing

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Global Polymerase Chain Reaction Technologies and (2021 to 2026) - Featuring Abbott Laboratories, Bioneer and Qiagen Among Others -...

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for innovative health technologies that can help countries improve health outcomes by providing shortcuts to solutions despite lack of infrastructure and resources. However, many of the new technologies that have come to market are unaffordable or unsuitable for low- and middle-income countries.

To ensure that all countries benefit from health innovation, WHO has compiled a compendium of 24 new technologies that can be used in low-resource settings.

Innovative technologies are accelerating access to healthcare everywhere, but we must ensure that they are readily available in all health facilities, fairly priced and quality-assured, said Dr Maringela Simo, WHO Assistant Director General for Access to Health Products. WHO will continue to work with governments, funders and manufacturers to promote sustainable supplies of these tools during and beyond the COVID emergency.

The compendiums main objective was to select and assess technologies that can have an immediate and future impact on COVID-19 preparedness and response, potentially improve health outcomes and quality of life, and/or offer a solution to an unmet medical need. 15 of these technologies are already commercially available in countries, while the rest are still at the prototype stage.

The compendium includes simple items ranging from a colourized bleach additive, which allows the naked eye to identify non-sterilized surfaces and objects, to more complex though easy-to-use equipment such as a portable respiratory monitoring system and ventilators with an extended battery that can be used where electricity is not available or unstable. The list also includes a deployable health facility for emergencies decked out in a shipping container.

Some of these technologies are already in use and have proven their value through pilot programmes. For example, the solar powered oxygen concentrator has been highly effective in treating pneumonia, which kills 900,000 children a year, in a regional childrens hospital in Somalias Galmudug state.

Studies have demonstrated that reliable access to oxygen can reduce child deaths due to pneumonia by 35%. Given the shortage of oxygen in numerous countries, the concentrator is a critical tool in the treatment of hospitalized COVID patients.

WHO has been assessing innovative technologies for the last 10 years, some of the selected products are now addressing priority health problems in low-resource settings. A critical example is a smartphone application that allows the user to instantly record accurate blood pressure measurements. According to a report released by WHO last week, the number of adults aged 3079 years with hypertension has increased from 650 million to 1.28 billion in the last thirty years and almost half these people do not know they have hypertension.

Smartphones are widely available, even in the most remote areas or low-resource settings. The software-based platform transforms existing smartphones into a medical device capable of measuring blood pressure accurately, with no need to add any other devices or accessories. The other advantage of the app is that even in the absence of a trained health worker, patients can self-test and better manage their blood pressure.

The compendium provides a full assessment of the technologies, carried out by a group of international experts working with WHO technical teams, on the basis of: compliance with WHO specifications regarding performance, quality and safety; suitability in low-resource settings; affordability; ease of use; and regulatory approval status. This information is vital to help governments, non-governmental organizations and funders decide which products to procure.

Conclusions on the suitability of each technology is communicated through a simple traffic light scoring system, indicating whether the product is recommended (for use without any known limitations); recommended with caution (limitations may have been identified related to maintenance and need for trained staff); or not recommended (inappropriate, unsafe or unaffordable).

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WHO releases new compendium of innovative health technologies for COVID-19 and other priority diseases - World Health Organization

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced that Devinder Kumar, executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, will present at the Deutsche Bank 2021 Technology Conference on a virtual basis on Friday, September 10, 2021 at 2:05pm ET/11:05am PT. A real-time video webcast of the presentation can be accessed on AMDs Investor Relations website ir.amd.com.

About AMD

For 50 years, AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies the building blocks for gaming, immersive platforms and the data center. Hundreds of millions of consumers, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research facilities around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. AMD employees around the world are focused on building great products that push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) website, blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo and the combination thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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AMD to Present at the Deutsche Bank 2021 Technology Conference - Yahoo Finance

Emerging technology, evolving threats Part II: The asymmetry effect | Security Magazine This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. This Website Uses CookiesBy closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.

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Emerging technology, evolving threats Part II: The asymmetry effect - Security Magazine

Western Digital has introduced the industry's first 20TB hard drives that integrates an iNAND UFS embedded flash drive (EFD) to improve performance, reliability, and capacity. The company's OptiNAND architecture does not use 3D NAND memory for caching, but to store various metadata to enhance key characteristics of hard drives.

Western Digital's 20TB HDDs with OptiNAND technology are based on nine 2.2TB ePMR (energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording technology) platters, triple-stage actuator technology for more precise positioning of read/write heads, an iNAND UFS drive of unknown capacity that uses 3D TLC NAND memory, and the company's custom system-on-chip (SoC) that controls the drive as well as communication between the HDD and the EFD.

Modern hard drives store gigabytes of metadata on spinning media since it cannot be cost-effectively stored in local DRAM and serial NAND. HDDs storerepeatable runout (RRO) metadata (the share of the position error signal that is repeatable for every spindle revolution) as well as write operations metadata at the track level to account for increased adjacent track interference (ATI). With OptiNAND, RRO and write operations are stored on the iNAND drive, which frees up space on the rotating media, faster metadata availability, and reduces the number of read/write metadata-related operations, which further improve performance (e.g., random read/write performance). Additionally, the EFD stores write operations at the sector level, which optimizes storage requirements and reduce the number of ATI refreshes to increase performance.

As areal density of modern HDDs increases, so does the amount of metadata that needs to be stored on the drive. Also, things like ATI are affecting performance of ePMR-based HDDs stronger than before (something that can be solved with HAMR or MAMR magnetic recording technologies that are designed to greatly improve signal quality or TDMR read heads that can read data more reliably). Therefore, moving metadata from rotating media and placing it on a flash-based drive makes a lot of sense.

In addition, the iNAND EFD can be used to store over 100MB of write cache data in case of emergency power off (EPO) event, which improves reliability of an OptiNAND-enhanced HDD. Normally, drives from Western Digital only store about 2MB of write cache data to serial flash. Furthermore, with an iNAND EFD onboard and appropriate firmware optimizations, HDDs with OptiNAND can reduce their latency.

From a host perspective, Western Digital's OptiNAND architecture-based HDDs should work just like other drives without NAND flash. To that end, at least some customers of the company will be able to install the new drives into existing machines assuming that their 3.5-inch bays can handle slightly higher power consumption of iNAND-enhanced HDDs. Keeping in mind that Western Digital's exascale customers tend to qualify their drives before deploying, expect the drives to start shipping in high volume only several months (or even quarters) down the road.

Western Digital says that its OptiNAND technology will be used across multiple generations of its upcoming HDDs, including those based on ePMR and its successors.

"With our IP and world-class development teams in HDD and flash, we are able to continuously push the boundaries of innovation to improve our customers storage infrastructure,"said Siva Sivaram, president of Global Technology and Strategy, Western Digital."We have had an extraordinary journey of HDD innovation. We changed everything with HelioSeal in 2013; were first to ship energy-assisted HDDs in volume in 2019; and now were going to lead again with OptiNAND technology. This architecture will underpin our HDD technology roadmap for multiple generations as we expect that an ePMR HDD with OptiNAND will reach 50TB in the second half of the decade."

The manufacturer does not say how significantly the addition of an iNAND EFD affects costs of its HDDs, but it is obvious that their bill-of-materials increases with an additional component and a high-performance SoC controller. Keeping in mind that Western Digital's OptiNAND architecture has a number of advantages over traditional HDD architectures, it is likely that the producer will charge a premium for these drives.

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Western Digital Unveils 20TB HDD with OptiNAND Technology - Tom's Hardware

Ibec-affiliated Technology Ireland has announced the launch of its annual industry awards with a new corporate social responsibility category.

The awards, now in their 29th year, seek to highlight successful entrepreneurship and the diversity of the Irish technology sector.

This year the awards will take place on November 25th and will be streamed online.

Among the ten categories this year are awards for women in technology, outstanding achievement in international growth, tech innovation of the year, tech 4 good initiatives and company of the year.

Last years overall winner was Fenergo, which recently became the States latest tech unicorn after reaching a valuation of more than $1 billion after it sold a majority stake in the business to Astorg and Bridgepoint. Other previous winners include Keywords Studios, the Dublin-headquartered but London-listed company that provides a raft of services to the video games industry, and elearning company LearnUpon

Irish software and digital technology companies are urged to submit entries for the awards by October 1st. Entry is free.

The ongoing pandemic made 2021 another difficult year. Yet, uniquely amongst EU countries, Irelands economy continued to grow. Much of this success was due to the resilience and innovation of our technology sector, said Technology Ireland director Una Fitzpatrick.

We are delighted to celebrate that success through these awards and highlight the technology sector as the engine driving Irelands economic and social post pandemic recovery, she added.

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Technology Ireland awards opens for submissions - The Irish Times

Some of the most fundamental processes in nature occur at the microscopic scale, far beyond the limits of what we can see by eye, which motivates the development of technology that allows us to see beyond this limit. As early as the 4th century AD, people had discovered the basic concept of an optical lens, and by the 13th century, they were already using glass lenses to improve their eyesight and to magnify objects such as plants and insects to better understand them.1 With time, these simple magnifying glasses developed into advanced optical systems, known as light microscopes, which allow us to see and understand the microscopic world beyond the limits of our perception. Today, light microscopy is a core technique in many areas of science and technology, including life sciences, biology, materials sciences, nanotechnology, industrial inspection, forensics and many more. In this article, we will first explore the basic working principle of light microscopy. Building on this, we will discuss some more advanced forms of light microscopy that are commonly used today and compare their strengths and weaknesses for different applications.

What is light microscopy?

Parts of a microscope and how a light microscope works

Early microscopes used an illumination system comprising sunlight that was collected and reflected onto the sample by a mirror. Today, most microscopes use artificial light sources such as light bulbs, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or lasers to make more reliable and controllable illumination systems, which can be tailored to a given application. In these systems, light from the source is typically collected using a condenser lens and then shaped and optically filtered before being focused onto the sample. Shaping the light is essential to achieve high resolution and contrast, and often includes controlling the sample area that is illuminated and the angles at which light impinges on it. Optical filtering of the illumination light, using optical filters that modify its spectrum and polarization, can be used to highlight certain features of a sample, to improve the visibility of weak signatures or to observe a samples fluorescence.

The imaging system collects illuminating light that has interacted with the sample and produces a magnified image that can be viewed (Figure 1). This is achieved using two main groups of optical elements: first, an objective lens that collects as much light from the sample as possible and second, an eyepiece lens which relays the collected light to the observers eye or a camera system. The imaging system may also include elements such as apertures and filters that select certain portions of light from the sample, for example to see only light that has been scattered off the sample, or only light of a certain color or wavelength. As in the case of the illumination system, this type of filtering can be extremely useful to single out certain features of interest that would remain hidden when imaging all the light from the sample.

Overall, both the illumination and the imaging system play a key role in how well a light microscope performs. To get the best out of light microscopy in your application, it is essential to have a good understanding of how a basic light microscope works, and what variations exist today.

Simple and compound microscopes

A single lens can be used as a magnifying glass which increases the apparent size of an object when it is held close to the lens. Looking through the magnifying glass at the object, we see a magnified and virtual image of the object. This effect is used in simple microscopes, which consist of a single lens that images a sample held clamped into a frame and illuminated from below, as is shown in Figure 2. This type of microscope can achieve a magnification of typically 2-6 x, which is sufficient to study relatively large samples. However, achieving higher magnification and better image quality requires the use of more optical elements, which led to the development of the compound microscope (Figure 3).

In a compound microscope, the sample is illuminated from the bottom to observe transmitted light, or from the top to observe reflected light. Light from the sample is collected by an optical system consisting of two main lens groups: the objective and the eyepiece, whose individual powers multiply to enable much higher magnifications than those achieved by a simple microscope. The objective collects light from the sample and typically has a magnification of 40-100 x. Some compound microscopes feature multiple objective lenses on a rotating turret known as a nose piece, allowing the user to choose between different magnifications. The image from the objective is picked up by the eyepiece, which magnifies the image again and relays it to the users eye, with typical eyepieces having a magnification of 10 x. Therefore, the total magnification of a compound microscope, which is the product of the objective magnification and the eyepiece magnification, typically lies in the range of 400-1000 x.

r = 0.61 (/NA)

In standard compound microscopes (Figure 4a), the sample (often on a glass slide) is held on a stage that can be moved manually or electronically for higher precision, and the illumination system is in the lower part of the microscope, while the imaging system is above the sample. However, the microscope body can usually also be adapted to particular uses. For example, stereo microscopes (Figure 4b) feature two eyepieces at a slight angle to each other, allowing the user to see a slightly three-dimensional image. In many biology applications, an inverted microscope design (Figure 4c) is used, where both the illumination system and the imaging optics are below the sample stage to facilitate placing e.g., containers of cell cultures onto it. Finally, comparison microscopes (Figure 4d) were often used in forensics, for example to compare fingerprints or bullets by eye before the advent of digital microscopy, which allowed images to be saved and compared.

Types of light microscopy

In the following, we will present a selection of different light microscopy techniques available today, discuss their main operating principles and the strengths and weaknesses of each technique.

Bright field microscopy (BFM) is the simplest form of light microscopy, where the sample is illuminated from above or below, and light transmitted through or reflected from it is collected to form an image that can be viewed. Contrast and color in the image are formed because absorption and reflection vary over the area of the sample. BFM was the first type of light microscopy developed and uses a relatively simple optical setup, which allowed early scientists to study microorganisms and cells in transmission. Today, it is still very useful for the same purposes, and is also widely used to study other partially transparent samples such as thin materials in transmission mode (Figure 5), or microelectronics and other small structures in reflection mode. However, the magnification of BFM is limited to 1300 x and it is not suitable for imaging highly transparent samples.

Figure 5: Bright field microscopy. Left: Transmission mode - flakes of graphite (dark grey) and graphene (lightest grey) as seen in a bright field microscope. Here, the difference in brightness seen on the image is proportional to the thickness of the graphite layer. Right: Reflection mode - flakes of graphene and graphite on a SiO2 surface. Small surface contaminants are also visible. Credit: Author.

Figure 7: Phase contrast microscopy of a human embryonic stem cell colony. Credit Sabrina Lin, Prue Talbot, Stem Cell Center University of California, Riverside.

Figure 8: Differential interference contrast microscopy. Left: Schematic setup for DICM. Right: Live adult Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) nematode imaged by DICM. Credit: Bob Goldstein, Cell Image Library. Reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0).

Figure 9: Polarization microscopy. Photomicrograph of olivine adcumulate, formed by the accumulation of crystals with different birefringence. Variations of thickness and refractive index across the sample result in different colors. Credit: R. Hill, CSIRO.

Figure 10: Fluorescence microscopy. Left: Working principle - illumination light is filtered by a short-pass excitation filter and reflected towards the sample by a dichroic mirror. Fluorescence from the sample passes the dichroic mirror and is additionally filtered by an emission filter to remove residual excitation light in the image. Right: Fluorescence image of molecules hosted in an organic crystal (crystal outline shown dashed yellow). The background is not completely dark due to fluorescence from other molecules and the crystal material. Credit: Author.

Figure 11: Immunofluorescence microscopy. Two interphase cells with immunofluorescence labeling of actin filaments (purple), microtubules (yellow), and nuclei (green). Credit: Torsten Wittmann, NIGMS Image Gallery.

A disadvantage of TPM is that the probability of two-photon absorption is much lower than single-photon absorption and thus requires high-intensity illumination such as pulsed lasers to achieve a practical fluorescence signal intensity.

Figure 13: Two-photon microscopy. Thin optical section of pollen, showing fluorescence mostly form the outer layers. Credit: Michael Cammer, Cell Image Library.

Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) is a fluorescence microscopy technique that allows 2D fluorescence images to be made of an extremely thin (approximately 100 nm thick) sample slice.10 This is achieved by exciting the fluorescence of the sample by evanescent fields of the illuminating light, which occur when it undergoes total internal reflection at a boundary between two materials of different refractive index (n). Evanescent fields have the same wavelength as the illuminating light but are tightly bound to the interface. In TIRF microscopy, the excitation light typically undergoes total internal reflection at the interface between a glass slide (n = 1.52) and the aqueous medium (n = 1.35) the sample is dispersed in. The intensity of the evanescent field falls off exponentially with distance from the interface, such that only fluorophores close the interface are observed in the final image. This also leads to a strong suppression of fluorescence background from areas outside the slice, which allows weak fluorescence signals to be picked up, for example when localizing single molecules. This makes TIRF extremely useful to observe the weak signal of fluorescent proteins (Figure 15) involved in intercellular interactions, but also requires the sample to be dispersed in an aqueous medium, which may limit the types of samples that can be measured.

Figure 16: Sample preparation for expansion microscopy. A cell is first stained and then linked to a polymer gel matrix. The cell structure itself is then dissolved (digested), allowing the stained parts to expand isotropically with the gel, allowing the stained structure to be imaged with more detail.

Deconvolution in light microscopy

Figure 17: Image deconvolution. Left: Original fluorescence image. Right: Image after deconvolution, showing increased detail. Credit: Author.

Light microscopy vs electron microscopy

Summary and conclusion

Light microscopy techniques comparison table

Technique

Advantages

Limitations

Typical applications

Bright field microscopy

Relatively simple setup with few optical elements

Low contrast, fully transparent objects cannot be imaged directly and may require staining

Imaging colored or stained samples15 and partially transparent materials16

Dark field microscopy

Reveals small structures and surface roughness, allows imaging of unstained samples

High illumination power required can damage the sample, only scattering image features seen

Imaging particles in cells,17 surface inspection18

Phase contrast microscopy

Enables imaging of transparent samples

Complex optical setup, high illumination power required can damage the sample, generally darker images

Tracking cell motion,19 imaging larvae20

Differential interference contrast microscopy

Higher resolution than PCM

Complex optical setup, high illumination power required can damage the sample, generally darker images

High resolution imaging of live, unstained cells21 and nanoparticles22

Polarized light microscopy

Strong background suppression from non-birefringent areas of a sample, allows measurement of sample thickness and birefringence

Requires a birefringent sample

Imaging collagen,23 revealing grain boundaries in crystals24

Fluorescence microscopy

Allows individual fluorophores and particular areas of interest in a sample to be singled out, can overcome the resolution limit

Requires a fluorescent sample and a sensitive detector, photobleaching can diminish signal

Imaging cell components, single molecules, proteins25

Immunofluorescence microscopy

Visualize specific biomolecules using antibody targeting

Extensive sample preparation, requires a fluorescent sample, photobleaching

Identifying and tracking cells26 and proteins27

Confocal microscopy

Low background signal, possible to create 3D images

Slow imaging speed, requires a complicated optical system

3D cell imaging, imaging samples with weak fluorescence signals, surface profiling28.

Two-photon microscopy

Deep sample penetration, low background signal, less photobleaching

Slow imaging speed, requires a complicated optical system and high-power illumination

Neuroscience,29 deep tissue imaging30

Light sheet microscopy

Images only an extremely thin slice of the sample, can create 3D images by rotating the sample

Slow imaging speed, requires a complicated optical system

3D imaging of cells and organisms8

Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy

Strong background suppression, extremely fine vertical sectioning

Imaging limited to thin area of sample, requires a complicated optical system, sample needs to be in aqueous medium

Single molecule imaging,31 imaging molecular trafficking32

Expansion microscopy

Increases effective resolution of standard fluorescence microscopy

Requires chemical processing of the sample, not suitable for live samples

High resolution imaging of biological samples11

B

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An Introduction to the Light Microscope, Light Microscopy Techniques and Applications - Technology Networks