TY - JOUR A1 - Boehm, U. A1 - Nelson, G. A1 - Brown, C. M. A1 - Bagley, S. A1 - Bajcsy, P. A1 - Bischof, J. A1 - Dauphin, A. A1 - Dobbie, I. M. A1 - Eriksson, J. E. A1 - Faklaris, O. A1 - Fernandez-Rodriguez, J. A1 - Ferrand, A. A1 - Gelman, L. A1 - Gheisari, A. A1 - Hartmann, H. A1 - Kukat, C. A1 - Laude, A. A1 - Mitkovski, M. A1 - Munck, S. A1 - North, A. J. A1 - Rasse, T. M. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Schuetz, L. C. A1 - Seitz, A. A1 - Strambio-De-Castillia, C. A1 - Swedlow, J. R. A1 - Nitschke, R. T1 - QUAREP-LiMi: A community endeavor to advance quality assessment and reproducibility in light microscopy JF - Nature methods N2 - The community-driven initiative Quality Assessment and Reproducibility for Instruments & Images in Light Microscopy (QUAREP-LiMi) wants to improve reproducibility for light microscopy image data through Quality control (QC) management of instruments and images. It aims for a common set of QC guidelines for Hardware calibration and image acquisition, management and analysis. KW - Fluorescence KW - Microscopy KW - Quality assurance KW - Comparability KW - Imaging KW - Standards KW - Reference materials KW - Reliability KW - Data KW - Reference data KW - Biology KW - Medicine KW - Life science PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-021-01162-y SN - 1548-7105 VL - 18 SP - 1424 EP - 1427 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London AN - OPUS4-52722 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - High-Quality Experimental Data in Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis – What Can, and Should We Jointly Do? JF - Microscopy and Microanalysis N2 - There are different ways how to prove the quality of the analytical results obtained in a laboratory, e.g. use of validated standard operation procedures, participation in proficiency testing exercises, use of certified reference materials, etc. International standards provide requirements, specifications, Guidelines or characteristics of methods, instruments or samples with the final goal that these can be used consistently in accredited laboratories. In the field of electron microscopy and microbeam analysis standardization and metrology are terms which are encountered rather seldom at major conferences and scientific publications. Nevertheless, spectra formats like EMSA/MSA for spectral-data exchange or tagged image file format (TIFF) for SEM, guidelines for performing quality assurance procedures or for the specification of X-ray spectrometers as well as of certified reference materials (CRMs) in EPMA, or measurement of average grain size by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), or guidelines for calibrating image magnification in SEM or TEM are ISO standards already published and used successfully by a large part of the electron microscopy and microbeam analysis community. A main and continuous task of ISO/TC 202 and its subcommittees is to identify and evaluate feasible projects/proposals to be developed into new international standards, particularly with respect to recent but established technology, such the silicon drift detector (SDD) EDS. An international platform in the frame of which pre-standardization work can be organized is VAMAS (Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards). International collaborative projects involving aim at providing the technical basis for harmonized measurements, testing, specifications, and standards to be further developed at ISO level. One key point of VAMAS activities is constituted by inter-laboratory comparisons for high-quality data. In the field of microbeam analysis, the technical working area (TWA) 37 Quantitative Microstructural Analysis deals with corresponding projects. Good ideas, e.g. on analysis of low-Z materials/elements and at low energies are particularly encouraged by directly contacting the author. Support and already available guidance will be supplied. KW - Data KW - Electron probe microanalysis KW - Electron microscopy KW - VAMAS KW - Iinter-laboratory comparison PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927619009541 VL - 25 SP - 1762 EP - 1763 PB - Cambridge University Press AN - OPUS4-49246 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nelson, G. A1 - Boehm, U. A1 - Bagley, S. A1 - Bajcsy, P. A1 - Bischof, J. A1 - Brown, C. M. A1 - Dauphin, A. A1 - Dobbie, I. M. A1 - Eriksson, J. E. A1 - Faklaris, O. A1 - Fernandez-Rodriguez, J. A1 - Ferrand, A. A1 - Gelman, L, A1 - Gheisari, A. A1 - Hartmann, H. A1 - Kukat, C. A1 - Laude, A. A1 - Mitkovski, M. A1 - Munck, S. A1 - North, A. J. A1 - Rasse, T. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Schuetz, L. C. A1 - Seitz, A. A1 - Strambio-De-Castillia, C. A1 - Swedlow, J. R. A1 - Alexopoulos, I. A1 - Aumayr, K. A1 - Avilov, S. A1 - Bakker, G.-J. A1 - Bammann, R. R. A1 - Bassi, A. A1 - Beckert, H. A1 - Beer, S. A1 - Belyaev, Y. A1 - Bierwagen, J. A1 - Birngruber, K. A. A1 - Bosch, M. A1 - Breitlow, J. A1 - Cameron, L. A. A1 - Chalfoun, J. A1 - Chambers, J. J. A1 - Chen, C.-L. A1 - Conde-Sousa, E. A1 - Corbett, A. D. A1 - Cordelieres, F. P. A1 - Del Nery, E. A1 - Dietzel, R. A1 - Eismann, F. A1 - Fazeli, E. A1 - Felscher, A. A1 - Fried, H. A1 - Gaudreault, N. A1 - Goh, W. I. A1 - Guilbert, T. A1 - Hadleigh, R. A1 - Hemmerich, P. A1 - Holst, G. A. A1 - Itano, M. S. A1 - Jaffe, C. B. A1 - Jambor, H. K. A1 - Jarvis, S. C. A1 - Keppler, A. A1 - Kirchenbuechler, D. A1 - Kirchner, M. A1 - Kobayashi, N. A1 - Krens, G. A1 - Kunis, S. A1 - Lacoste, J. A1 - Marcello, M. A1 - Martins, G. G. A1 - Metcalf, D. J. A1 - Mitchell, C. A. A1 - Moore, J. A1 - Mueller, T. A1 - Nelson, M. S. A1 - Ogg, S. A1 - Onami, S. A1 - Palmer, A. L. A1 - Paul-Gilloteaux, P. A1 - Pimentel, J. A. A1 - Plantard, L. A1 - Podder, S. A1 - Rexhepaj, E. A1 - Royon, A. A1 - Saari, M. A. A1 - Schapman, D. A1 - Schoonderwoert, V. A1 - Schroth-Diez, B. A1 - Schwartz, S. A1 - Shaw, M. A1 - Spitaler, M. A1 - Stoeckl, M. T. A1 - Sudar, D. A1 - Teillon, J. A1 - Terjung, S. A1 - Thuenauer, R. A1 - Wilms, C. D. A1 - Wright, G. D. A1 - Nitschke, R. T1 - QUAREP-LiMi: A community-driven initiative to establish guidelines for quality assessment and reproducibility for instruments and images in light microscopy JF - Journal of microscopy N2 - A modern day light microscope has evolved from a tool devoted to making primarily empirical observations to what is now a sophisticated, quantitative device that is an integral part of both physical and life science research. Nowadays, microscopes are found in nearly every experimental laboratory. However, despite their prevalent use in capturing and quantifying scientific phenomena, neither a thorough understanding of the principles underlying quantitative imaging techniques nor appropriate knowledge of how to calibrate, operate and maintain microscopes can be taken for granted. This is clearly demonstrated by the well-documented and widespread difficulties that are routinely encountered in evaluating acquired data and reproducing scientific experiments. Indeed, studies have shown that more than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to repeat another scientist’s experiments, while more than half have even failed to reproduce their own experiments1. One factor behind the reproducibility crisis of experiments published in scientific journals is the frequent underreporting of imaging methods caused by a lack of awareness and/or a lack of knowledge of the applied technique2,3. Whereas quality control procedures for some methods used in biomedical research, such as genomics (e.g., DNA sequencing, RNA-seq) or cytometry, have been introduced (e.g. ENCODE4), this issue has not been tackled for optical microscopy instrumentation and images. Although many calibration standards and protocols have been published, there is a lack of awareness and agreement on common Standards and guidelines for quality assessment and reproducibility5. In April 2020, the QUality Assessment and REProducibility for instruments and images in Light Microscopy (QUAREP-LiMi) initiative6 was formed. This initiative comprises imaging scientists from academia and industry who share a common interest in achieving a better understanding of the performance and limitations of microscopes and improved quality control (QC) in light microscopy. The ultimate goal of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative is to establish a set of common QC standards, guidelines, metadata models7,8, and tools9,10, including detailed protocols, with the ultimate aim of improving reproducible advances in scientific research. This White Paper 1) summarizes the major obstacles identified in the field that motivated the launch of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative; 2) identifies the urgent need to address these obstacles in a grassroots manner, through a community of Stakeholders including, researchers, imaging scientists11, bioimage analysts, bioimage informatics developers, corporate partners, Funding agencies, standards organizations, scientific publishers, and observers of such; 3) outlines the current actions of the QUAREPLiMi initiative, and 4) proposes future steps that can be taken to improve the dissemination and acceptance of the proposed guidelines to manage QC. To summarize, the principal goal of the QUAREP-LiMi initiative is to improve the overall quality and reproducibility of light microscope image data by introducing broadly accepted standard practices and accurately captured image data metrics. KW - Fluorescence KW - Microscopy KW - Quality assurance KW - Comparability KW - Imaging KW - Standards KW - Reference materials KW - Reliability KW - Data KW - Reference data KW - Biology KW - Medicine KW - Life science PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-530629 DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/jmi.13041 SN - 1365-2818 VL - 284 IS - 1 SP - 56 EP - 73 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford AN - OPUS4-53062 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -