MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope control.

Modern microscopy relies increasingly on microscope automation to improve throughput, ensure reproducibility or observe rare events. Automation requires computer control of the important elements of the microscope. Furthermore, optical elements that are usually fixed or manually movable can be placed on electronically-controllable elements. In most cases, a central electronics board is necessary to generate the control signals they require and to communicate with the computer. For such tasks, Arduino microcontrollers are widely used due to their low cost and programming entry barrier. However, they are limiting in their performance for applications that require high-speed or multiple parallel processes. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are the perfect technology for high-speed microscope control, as they are capable of processing signals in parallel and with high temporal precision. While plummeting prices made the technology available to consumers, a major hurdle remaining is the complex languages used to configure them. In this work, we used an affordable FPGA, delivered with an open-source and friendly-to-use programming language, to create a versatile microscope control platform called MicroFPGA. It is capable of synchronously triggering cameras and multiple lasers following complex patterns, as well as generating various signals used to control microscope elements such as filter wheels, servomotor stages, flip-mirrors, laser power or acousto-optic modulators. MicroFPGA is open-source and we provide online Micro-Manager, Java, Python and LabVIEW libraries, together with blueprints and tutorials.

[Dramatic changes in the age structure for medical specialists in the field of mental health]. / Dramatische Veränderungen der Altersstruktur bei Fachärzten im Bereich psychischer Gesundheit.

BACKGROUND: Over the past 20 years the importance of treatment of people with mental and neurological disorders has greatly increased. Parallel to this development it has become more difficult to attract young physicians to this field. The aim of this study was to examine the development of the number of physicians specialized in the care of patients suffering from neurological, mental and psychosomatic disorders with special consideration of the age structure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The analyses were based on the number of professionally active physicians and specialized physicians published by the German Medical Association for the years 2000-2020. Separate age groups were looked at for psychiatry and psychotherapy (PPT), psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy (PMPT), Nervenheilkunde (formerly psychiatry and neurology together, NHK) and neurology. RESULTS: In comparison to the year 2000 the number of specialized physicians working in PPT (4736 vs. 12,053), neurology (2226 vs. 8355) and PMPT (3543 vs. 4130) increased in 2020, while the number of specialists actively working in NHK decreased (5184 vs. 2301). Parallel to this the proportion of women increased. Dramatic changes occurred concerning the age structure. Currently, 77.7% of specialists working in NHK and 59.7% working in PMPT are over 60 years old. In 2020 there were 2988 specialists aged over 60 years in the discipline of PPT compared to only 1070 under 40 years, which is dramatically different from 20 years earlier when only 181 were over 60 years but 1491 were under 40 years old. CONCLUSION: The overaging of professional specialists and the shortage of junior physicians jeopardize modern and adequate provision of care for mentally ill patients. Possible solutions include a marked increase in medical school capacities as well as strategies to convince young physicians to work in the disciplines of PPT and PMPT.

[The State of Application of Clinical Ethics Consultation in German Psychiatric Hospitals]. / Zum Stand der Anwendung klinischer Ethikberatung in deutschen Kliniken für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie.

This study provides for the first time a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-practice of clinical ethics consultation in German psychiatric hospitals. Structures for ethics counselling were available in only 57 % of the hospitals. In about one third of the participating hospitals, structures of ethics counselling had not yet been considered or were actively dismissed. The remaining hospitals reported to be in the process of establishing ethical structures. With regard to team characteristics and concrete practical implementation, qualitative differences were found between the hospitals. In summary, ethical structures are already established in the more than half of the German psychiatric hospitals, but still there is a clear need both in terms of dissemination and the quality of practical implementation.

Anomalous signal from S atoms in protein crystallographic data from an X-ray free-electron laser.

X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) enable crystallographic data collection using extremely bright femtosecond pulses from microscopic crystals beyond the limitations of conventional radiation damage. This diffraction-before-destruction approach requires a new crystal for each FEL shot and, since the crystals cannot be rotated during the X-ray pulse, data collection requires averaging over many different crystals and a Monte Carlo integration of the diffraction intensities, making the accurate determination of structure factors challenging. To investigate whether sufficient accuracy can be attained for the measurement of anomalous signal, a large data set was collected from lysozyme microcrystals at the newly established `multi-purpose spectroscopy/imaging instrument' of the SPring-8 Ångstrom Compact Free-Electron Laser (SACLA) at RIKEN Harima. Anomalous difference density maps calculated from these data demonstrate that serial femtosecond crystallography using a free-electron laser is sufficiently accurate to measure even the very weak anomalous signal of naturally occurring S atoms in a protein at a photon energy of 7.3 keV.

[Do the New German OPS codes map the relevant therapeutic activities in psychiatric clinics?]. / Abbildung des psychiatrisch-psychotherapeutischen Leistungsspektrums durch die aktuellen OPS-Komplexcodes.

OBJECTIVE: Actual codes for operations and procedures (OPS) in psychiatry and psychosomatics should map cost separating therapeutic activities so far defined in Germany by the normative specifications of the psychiatry staff enactment (PsychPV). OPS codes should also allow re-estimating underlying therapy times. METHOD: Therapeutic activities of the PsychPV fulfilling the minimal criteria of the OPS definition were classified as multiples of a therapeutic 25 minute unit. RESULTS: Therapeutic activities of the PsychPV are mapped to OPS complex codes in a variable degree (psychiatrists 35 %, psychologists 42 %, nurses 43 %, special therapists 59 %). CONCLUSION: Actual OPS codes are inappropriate for identifying relevant cost-separating factors in the therapy of psychiatric in-patients. They cannot assure in their actual form the standards given by the PsychPV and need substantial revision.

[How does a general hospital psychiatric unit deal with violent patients? The border between community psychiatric services and forensic psychiatric hospitals]. / Wie geht die "Versorgungspsychiatrie" mit gewalttätigen Patienten um? Im Grenzbereich zwischen kommunaler Psychiatrie und Massregelvollzug.

ISSUE: In psychiatric and psychotherapeutic clinics that are responsible for supplying care for a region, how often are patients transferred to forensic psychiatric hospitals? Is there a tendency to "send off" aggressive or threatening patients as quickly as possible? METHOD: In the psychiatric and psychotherapeutic clinic responsible for the Berlin's Neukölln district, for one year (2000) all patients who committed a severe criminal offence immediately before or during their in-patient treatment were registered for observation in 2000. The steps of investigation and further legal consequences were recorded. RESULTS: During the period of observation, 0.1 percent of the patients were transferred from the clinic to a forensic psychiatric hospital. Weeks or months after their regular release, 0.4 percent of the patients were committed to a forensic department. The court ordered an ambulant psychiatric evaluation for 0.5 percent of the patients. CONCLUSION: Only a few patients were transferred to forensic psychiatric hospitals. A tendency to "send off" aggressive patients as soon as possible, thus abusing forensic psychiatry, was not found in this study.

[What patients think about the living together of smokers and non-smokers on psychiatric wards?]. / Zigarettenrauchen als Problem des Zusammenlebens auf psychiatrischen Stationen. Was denken die Patienten darüber?

ISSUE: The results of an inquiry about the difficulties of companionship between smokers and non-smokers in psychiatric wards are presented. METHOD: Patients stated at the end of their treatment in a routine inquiry, by now focused on the issue of smoking, how they felt about the organization of their living together within the wards. Smokers have been additionally asked whether they would have preferred to be abstinent of tobacco and whether they missed supplementary therapy offers. RESULTS: About 70 per cent of the patients were smokers. The arrangement, giving permission to smoking in just one room of the ward, was agreed more or less by smokers and non-smokers. 30 per cent of the non-smokers would apply for a non-smoking ward. About 40 per cent of the smokers would prefer to stop smoking and missed suitable therapeutical offers. CONCLUSION: Restriction to just one room for smokers in each ward is accepted by smokers and non-smokers. A therapeutical offer to withdrawing from tobacco should figure among the routine offers of each hospital.