Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-154).

Evaluates and assesses the probes and associated probeware of three manufacturers using a variety of criteria that are essential information for a consumer. The probes and probeware examined include Pasco Scientific's ScienceWorkshop, Venier's LabPro, and Onset's HOBO. Three experiments were used to test each of the criteria for comparison. Based on the data in the study no manufacturer proved themselves to be clearly the best, and taken collectively the benefits and drawbacks balance out.

Thesis: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 126-137). / Although seawater appears uniform at scales that humans often interact with and sample, the world that marine microbes inhabit can be highly heterogeneous, with numerous biological and physical processes giving rise to resource hotspots where nutrient concentrations exceed background levels by orders of magnitude. While the impact of this microscale heterogeneity has been investigated in the laboratory with microbial isolates and theoretical models, microbial ecologists have lacked adequate tools to interrogate microscale processes directly in the natural environment. Within this thesis I introduce three new technologies that enable interrogation of microbial processes at the microscale in natural marine communities. The IFCB-Sorter acquires images and sorts individual phytoplankton cells, directly from seawater, allowing studies exploring connections between the diversity of forms present in the plankton and genetic variability at the single-cell level. / The In Situ Chemotaxis Assay (ISCA) is a field-going microfluidic device designed to probe the distribution and role of motility behavior among microbes in aquatic environments. By creating microscale hotspots that simulate naturally occurring ones, the ISCA makes it possible to examine the role of microbial chemotaxis in resource acquisition, phytoplankton-bacteria interactions, and host-symbiont systems. Finally, the Millifluidic In Situ Enrichment (MISE) is an instrument that enables the study of rapid shifts in gene expression that permit microbial communities to exploit chemical hotspots in the ocean. The MISE subjects natural microbial communities to a chemical amendment and preserves their RNA in a minute-scale time series. / Leveraging an array of milliliter-volume wells, the MISE allows comparison of community gene expression in response to a chemical stimulus to that of a control, enabling elucidation of the strategies employed by marine microbes to survive and thrive in fluctuating environments. Together, this suite of instruments enables culture-independent examination of microbial life at the microscale and will empower microbial ecologists to develop a more holistic understanding of how interactions at the scale of individual microbes impact processes in marine ecosystems at a global scale. / by Bennett S. Lambert. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) / Thesis(Ph.D.)--JointPrograminAppliedOceanScienceandEngineering(MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology,DepartmentofCivilandEnvironmentalEngineering;andtheWoodsHoleOceanographicInstitution)

The purpose of this study is to find out what students in the first chemistry course at the undergraduate level (general chemistry for science majors) know about the affordances of instrumentation used in the general chemistry laboratory and how their knowledge develops over time. Overall, students see the PASCO™ system as a useful and accurate measuring tool for general chemistry labs. They see the probeware as easy to use, portable, and able to interact with computers. Students find that the PASCO™ probeware system is useful in their general chemistry labs, more advanced chemistry labs, and in other science classes, and can be used in a variety of labs done in general chemistry. Students learn the affordances of the probeware through the lab manual, the laboratory teaching assistant, by trial and error, and from each other. The use of probeware systems provides lab instructors the opportunity to focus on the concepts illustrated by experiments and the opportunity to spend time discussing the results. In order to teach effectively, the instructor must know the correct name of the components involved, how to assemble and disassemble it correctly, how to troubleshoot the software, and must be able to replace broken or missing components quickly. The use of podcasts or Web-based videos should increase student understanding of affordances of the probeware.