A series of articles?

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mrsonchus
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A series of articles?

#1 Post by mrsonchus » Mon May 11, 2015 10:02 am

To administartors

Hi, I'm thinking about posting a series of 'do it at home' articles concerning the preparation of (botanical) sections and permanently mounted & stained slides. I've posted quite a lot of material as 'mrsonchus' but would like to construct & present a 'proper' series of detailed but not overwhelmingly-long articles in the manner of those by the late Walter Dioni - it was he who inspired me and started me off on my adventures to begin with! I've a large amount of material and info etc and wondered if this would be possible, and how to go about it.

regards

John (mrsonchus)
John B

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gekko
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Re: A series of articles?

#2 Post by gekko » Mon May 11, 2015 11:03 am

I think that this is an excellent idea. It would make a super series of articles, nice and detailed, as well as beautifully illustrated, in the Microbe Hunter Magazine:
http://www.microbehunter.com/submissions/
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=44

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mrsonchus
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Re: A series of articles?

#3 Post by mrsonchus » Mon May 11, 2015 1:30 pm

gekko wrote:I think that this is an excellent idea. It would make a super series of articles, nice and detailed, as well as beautifully illustrated, in the Microbe Hunter Magazine:
http://www.microbehunter.com/submissions/
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=44
Thanks gekko - how do I go about it, format, size etc? Who do I need to ask about it from the magazine? :)

Urk - sorry :oops: - you've given me the exact link to the exact information I need - many thanks! :D
John B

billbillt
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Re: A series of articles?

#4 Post by billbillt » Mon May 11, 2015 3:45 pm

I think this is an excellent idea, and look forward to enjoying them...

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mrsonchus
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Re: A series of articles?

#5 Post by mrsonchus » Mon May 11, 2015 7:40 pm

Hi again, I know this is a rather stupid question, but what format or software would be best to start writing an article in/with? I understand that it will be converted into PDF, but what should I use at home to write it up with, I would like to include obviously text, but also pictures and video-clips.... I would like the 'backbone' of the series to be a series of straightforward, easy-to-follow 'instructions' for each stage, whilst at every stage having the ability to 'branch off' to a more detailed and parallel stream of features that would contain full accounts of problems encountered and how they were eventually overcome, with the ability to simply 'return to the main backbone series' at any time. Hopefully this layout will enable readers to select a level of detail and technicality that they prefer, i.e. a 'step-by-step' how-to stream, or a more detailed account of my experiences including problems and their solutions...
How to do this - anyone have any advice please?
Would a simple series of forum post be more able to give me this 2-dimensional branching and multimedia structure?
John B

billbillt
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Re: A series of articles?

#6 Post by billbillt » Mon May 11, 2015 8:47 pm

I think maybe Microscoft Word would be able to do what you want... You can get a "generic" Word in the Open Office programs that are free to download..

The QCC
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Re: A series of articles?

#7 Post by The QCC » Tue May 12, 2015 7:07 pm

Use Microsoft Word 97 , the .DOC format for compatibility and not the newer .DOCX format.
It is probably better to insert place holder images in the document and attach the full size photos.
The Editor asks that your photos be in JPEG format and full size. Not overly sharpened (my advice).

The above means you will have to submit your publications directly to the Editor and not post them in this thread. This forum has limitations on image and document size.

If you have Adobe Acrobat distiller or equivalent you could also submit in .PDF format with TIFF images.

Naphthalene
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Re: A series of articles?

#8 Post by Naphthalene » Thu May 21, 2015 4:54 pm

I also think that it would be great to publish your materials in microbehunter, mrsonchus!
I see a great inspiration in your work and you make a lot of illustrative material, that, would it be published it can insipire more people around the world in making their own sections and at large, studying the nature and life sciences.
I'll be happy to participate to add some material, if you want to collaborate in some case!
I have contacted Oliver Kim some time before and he said that there is not too much material for publication lately. I believe that it is our primary objective to support our beloved journal.

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mrsonchus
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Re: A series of articles?

#9 Post by mrsonchus » Thu May 21, 2015 10:19 pm

Naphthalene wrote:I also think that it would be great to publish your materials in microbehunter, mrsonchus!
I see a great inspiration in your work and you make a lot of illustrative material, that, would it be published it can insipire more people around the world in making their own sections and at large, studying the nature and life sciences.
I'll be happy to participate to add some material, if you want to collaborate in some case!
I have contacted Oliver Kim some time before and he said that there is not too much material for publication lately. I believe that it is our primary objective to support our beloved journal.
I think you're right, I'll get onto making a start on the structure over this weekend. I'm still having some awful trouble with holes in my sections and I suspect my processing may be at fault - I've just completed a batch and so far the 4 blocks I've started to section have all had these troublesome holes and tearing, the parts of the sections that are intact are showing very good cellular definition - cell walls etc well defined. Is it possible that I've introduced some 'air pockets' into the wax during embedding perhaps - or maybe I'm not achieving complete dehydration - although my protocol has a 5-stage (95%) Isopropanol routine.... The block-face appears to show tiny white-looking areas that look very similar to the air-pockets sometimes seen at the back of the wax-block where it meets the wooden mounting-block....

I'm going to try several more blocks tomorrow and will try re-embedding some with the holes and tearing problem to see if an improved embedding procedure is the answer.... :( It may be that the wax has slightly set on, within or around my tissues during their relocation to the liquid-wax of the molds from the liquid wax of their final wax-bath? The more I think of this the more it makes sense - I'll re-embed several blocks tomorrow and see if I can find out..

I really need to be able to achieve consistent results before I can publish for others to be guided by though - and at this time I have not achieved this level of reliability with my sections. :cry:

I've had some super results and have also made a lot of progress with staining, but I must perfect the processing before sharing my techniques and adventures with others wishing to achieve tissue processing and sectioning etc at home. I'm nearly there but still have this fundamental stumbling-block (i.e. lack of consistency) to overcome, without the ability to be reproduced my results are pretty much a hindrance to others, rather than an aid.

Soon - I'll get there soon! :D
John B

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Re: A series of articles?

#10 Post by The QCC » Thu May 21, 2015 11:50 pm

I am in the process of writing and photographing a "How I make thin sections" of domestic rocks.
Not exactly in your topic category, but they are sections. Some thin, some not and some will have to be recovered from the dust bin.

The text must first pass the local editor.

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mrsonchus
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Re: A series of articles?

#11 Post by mrsonchus » Fri May 22, 2015 2:36 am

The QCC wrote:I am in the process of writing and photographing a "How I make thin sections" of domestic rocks.
Not exactly in your topic category, but they are sections. Some thin, some not and some will have to be recovered from the dust bin.

The text must first pass the local editor.
Hi, I'm not quite with you - can you elucidate a little please?
John B

The QCC
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Re: A series of articles?

#12 Post by The QCC » Fri May 22, 2015 2:49 am

Elucidation:

The editor is HM my wife.
I am making some thin section mineral slides and documenting the process. Thin section mineral slides consist of very thin 30-50 micron slices of rock mounted on a glass slide.
I described an earlier process making a thin section by hand.
The latest adventure now involves two machines to facilitate the making of thin sections.
IMG_0223.jpg
IMG_0223.jpg (48.35 KiB) Viewed 18785 times
IMG_0220.jpg
IMG_0220.jpg (74.97 KiB) Viewed 18785 times
The thin section currently under construction.
Rubble1_5NLX_2x-210515_02_32i.jpg
Rubble1_5NLX_2x-210515_02_32i.jpg (289.77 KiB) Viewed 18785 times

Naphthalene
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Re: A series of articles?

#13 Post by Naphthalene » Fri May 22, 2015 11:38 am

Hello QCC!
Though I lack knowledge in the mineralogy, I always enjoy your presentations and the amazing appearance of rock sections visualized with different illumination methods. I especially love when polarized illumination methods make an achromatic rock to blossom in all colours.
As for the mineral section preparation itself, I have seen your image of cutting a rock with a saw/grinder, don't recall where exactly it was, but that time I saw it I remember myself thinking " that's a Man's way to make a section!" (meaning that looks tough and brutal :).
I highly value the great diversity of microscopical objects and I get a lot of motivation by reading how people work hard to to make a precious microscopical sample apart the nature of the sample.
I would be really happy to see your detailed procedures for mineral sections published in the Microbehunter!

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Re: A series of articles?

#14 Post by mrsonchus » Sat May 23, 2015 11:31 pm

Hi all, had some very good results from my latest batch - not before some awful problems (again). I've been having all sorts of trouble with tearing and basically 'shredded' sections - one of the major symptoms of poor processing, blunt microtome-knife, dirty microtome-knife, over-processing, under-processing - take your pick. Anyway, I've been cleaning the microtome-knife periodically with Histoclear - as this dissolves wax and presumably therefore gives the knife a nice clean edge - the back of the knife being of particular importance as any wax-deposits here will almost certainly result in the very frustrating situation where each upstroke of the moving-specimen causes the previous section to stick to it and be lifted up with it - chaos then ensues!
Anyway, I read 'somewhere' yesterday that this is a known problem and the very simple (and with hindsight obvious :oops: ) solution is to clean the knife with alcohol (I use 95% IPA) after cleaning it with Histoclear or another wax-solvent, to remove the oily solvent and leave a very clean knife-edge.... I did this tonight and guess what - no more tearing, apart from the odd bit from some rather obviously 'nicked' areas of my microtome-knife's edge! Smooth sections followed and I was able to get some very good ones starting at 12µ and working down to just 6µ - the practical limit to the thinnest sections that seem to be useful with plant-tissue sections in my experience.
I'm hoping to get these mounted and stained over the next couple of days and post some pictures, with more information regarding my adventures with stains and staining techniques - I started with single stains including Methylene Blue and Safranin, tried the 2-stain Gram's technique using Crystal Violet with Safranin (and 'Lugol's Iodine' as a mordant) and am just beginning to use the excellently-differentiating 'Toluidine Blue' (TBO) that I've finally been able to find a supplier of.

Pictures and an account coming very soon. If this is a step towards some consistently-reasonable results I should be able to start publishing a series of articles pretty soon :). Sorry it's taking such an awfully long time to produce some good results, it's a long and steep learning-curve for me but I think I'm getting pretty close to by basic goal of producing processed, sectioned, stained and mounted (permanently) botanical slides with only a basic knowledge and a minimum of specialist equipment and expertise... I'm looking forward to starting a few articles off that detail reliable and reasonably achievable methods that will give at least some useful and sound results to a beginner working at home such as myself. :D

Back with some pictures etc very soon! :)
John B

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