WG 14 – Room Environment

After organizational matters, we have been working on our protocol draft. In particular, we discussed how to find optimal positions of the sensors to measure room temperature fluctuations. The discussion clearly demonstrated that an accurate protocol would be rather time (and budget) demanding. Thus, we are currently trying to develop a protocol aimed for usage by imaging laboratories and light microscope facilities.

After organizational matters, reports from SC meeting, and a brief update on the ELMI 2025 community rooms, we continued to work on our protocol draft. (You can find the draft here on our WG14 protocols.io workspace). In particular, we discussed and finalized the equation to analyze temperature recordings in our protocol (can be found in the third note of step 5). We also worked on the section describing the number of temperature sensors for monitoring the room temperature (step 6). The main discussion point in step 6 was which minimum number of sensor we can recommend that will still deliver reliable results. Rainer offered to do some measurements which will hep us to clarify this. In the next meeting on January 15th 2025, we will continue working on step 6. We also discussed briefly that there are ISO standards relevant for our protocol but we do not have access to them yet.

After the short organisational matters and news part, we discussed temperature-related focus shifts. During the discussion we focussed on temperature-related changes in refractive indexes and looked at the effect on different immersion media. We talked about causes of these temperature changes and how to avoid them. These considerations need to be taken into account especially for room characterisation measurements. This discussion led to our main topic for the meeting, our continued work on our first protocol draft for “Monitoring room temperature”. We discussed about frequency of the measurements, need for equipment calibration, and needed to provide recommendation for temperature sensors. We will continue working on our protocol in the next meeting.

At our fourth meeting, an experiment showing the importance of maintaining room temperature very precisely was discussed and a brief introduction to the publication by Kukat C. et al. (DOI: 10.1002/cyto.a.24795) was given. In the experiment, time-lapse recordings of GATTA Quant beads on a slide and temperature trends on the slide were measured with a slow and a fast reacting thermal sensor from Thorlabs (by Roland Nitschke). When he very gently blew warm air onto the slide, he was able to record an increase in temperature along with a shift in focus. As these are preliminary results, further testing and discussion is required to understand the implications of the results. Hans Fried presented the results of Kukat et al. The room temperature measurement strategy used in this publication will serve as a starting point for the development of a room temperature measurement protocol.

At our third meeting, we unanimously elected WG14 co-chairs and representatives. The co-chairs selected are Britta Schroth-Diez and Hans Fried. Hans Fried will also serve as the representative for the steering committee, while Roland Nitschke will be our representative for the Editorial Review Board, and Nathalie Aulner will our Ombuds Board representative. Additionally, we outlined the next steps on our agenda. We agreed to start with temperature measurements and to adopt the method outlined in Kukat C. et al (DOI: 10.1002/cyto.a.24795) as a foundation for discussing and crafting a protocol. This protocol will include details regarding the type of thermos sensors to be utilised, the optimal quantity of sensors, and their placement. Furthermore, we discussed about and agreed on the name for our working group to be WG 14 Room Environment.

After talking about basic organisational matters, we discussed WG14 Co-chairs and representatives : We need at least two co-chairs who will serve initially for a two-years term. In addition, we need representatives for the SC, the ERB, and the OB. Please think about your potential candidacy. We confirmed to vote for our co-chairs and WG14 representatives during the 3rd meeting in May. The main topic on the agenda of our 2nd meeting was to discuss and finalise the WG14 Mission statement: The discussion was based on the draft prepared beforehand by a small group. We agreed to publish the final statement as soon as possible on the QUAREP-LiMi website. The possibility of adjusting the name of WG14 was shifted to the May meeting.

We agreed on some general operation topics and had a great brainstorming session: Meetings: We agreed to meet monthly for one hour every 3rd Wednesday of a month at 5PM CE(S)T. If necessary, there will be exceptions to the rule, which will already be the case for our 2nd meeting: We agreed on shifting our April meeting to April 10th. The May meeting will take place on the regular date, May 15th. Co-chairs: We need at least 2 co-chairs who will serve initially for a two-years term. We will vote for our co-chairs during the 3rd meeting in May. Main Aims: We discussed important topics to focus on: temperature, dust, humidity, vibrations, electrical distortions/noise. We plan to set up protocols, guidelines, and standards for measurements for these parameters. We decided to start working on protocols for temperature first. Mission statement and WG14 name: A small group prepares a draft as basis for our discussion in the next meeting. Based on the mission statement we will think about adjusting the name of WG 14.