Videogaming, including violent video gaming, has become very common and lockdown measures of the COVID-19 pandemic even increased the prevalence rates. In this study we examined if violent videogaming is associated with more adverse childhood experiences and if it impairs pain processing and fear conditioning. We tested three groups of participants (violent video gamers, nonviolent video gamers, and non-gamers) and examined fear conditioning as well as pain perception during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Violent video gamers displayed significantly higher pain thresholds as well as pain tolerance for electric stimulation, pressure pain stimulation, and cold pressor pain measurements compared to nonviolent video gamers and non-gamers. This relationship was moderated by adverse childhood experiences, especially physical neglect. Brain images acquired during the fear conditioning fMRI task showed that violent video gamers display significantly less differential brain activation to stimuli signaling pain versus no pain in the anterior cingulate cortex, the juxtapositional lobule cortex, and the paracingulate gyrus compared to non-gamers. There was also a significant negative correlation between adverse childhood experiences and activation in the precuneus and the intracalcarine cortex for signals of pain versus safety. The results of this study imply that violent video gaming is related to reduced processing of pain and signals of pain in a fear learning task, dependent of adverse childhood experiences. These mechanisms need to be examined in more detail and these data could be helpful in preventing the onset and adverse consequences of violent video gaming.

Background: Cellular therapy has emerged as a promising strategy to minimize conventional immunosuppressive drugs and ultimately induce long-term graft survival. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) could be utilized for immunosuppressive treatment in solid organ transplant. Methods: In this study, granular macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and Bexarotene, a retinoid X receptor-selective retinoid, was applied for in vitro induction of MDSCs. Cell phenotypes were detected by flow cytometry and mRNA was detected by real-time PCR. A mouse skin transplantation model was used to verify its inhibitory role. Results: The combination of GM-CSF and Bexarotene could induce the differentiation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells. MDSCs were found to induce immune tolerance by inhibiting the proliferation of T cells, influencing cytokine secretion, and inducing T cell transformation to Treg cells. The combined treatment significantly up-regulated the expression of Arg-1 in MDSCs. Arg-1 inhibitor, nor-NOHA, neutralize the immunosuppressive activity of MDSCs, suggesting the involvement of the Arg-1 in MDSC mediated immunosuppression. GM-CSF and Bexarotene induced MDSCs also prolonged the graft survival in moues skin transplant, exhibiting their in vivo immunosuppressive effects. Conclusions: A new method of inducing MDSCs is presented. The combination of GM-CSF and Bexarotene could induce MDSCs with remarkable regulatory function. The adoptive transfer of the these induced MDSCs extended the survival of allografts. These results suggested that MDSCs could potentially be applied in future clinical transplantation for inhibiting rejection, reducing the adverse events and even inducing operative tolerance.

In recent years, steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) became an increasingly valuable tool to investigate neural dynamics of competitive attentional interactions and brain computer interfaces. This is due to their good signal-to-noise ratio, allowing for single trial analysis and their ongoing oscillating nature that enables to analyze temporal dynamics of facilitation and suppression. Given the popularity of SSVEPs, it is surprising that only a few studies looked at the cortical sources of these responses. This is in particular the case when searching for studies that assessed the cortical sources of attentional SSVEP amplitude modulations. To address this issue, we used a typical spatial attention task and recorded neuromagnetic fields (MEG) while presenting frequency-tagged stimuli in the left and right visual field, respectively. Importantly, we controlled for attentional deployment in a baseline period before the shifting cue. Subjects either attended to a central fixation cross or to two peripheral stimuli simultaneously. Results clearly showed that signal sources and attention effects were restricted to early visual cortex: V1, V2, hMT+, precuneus, occipital-parietal and inferior-temporal cortex. When subjects attended to central fixation first, shifting attention to one of the peripheral stimuli resulted in a significant activation increase for the to-be-attended stimulus with no activation decrease for the to-be-ignored stimulus in hMT+ and inferio-temporal cortex, but significant SSVEF decreases from V1 to occipito-parietal cortex. When attention was first deployed to both rings, shifting attention away from one ring basically resulted in a significant activation decrease in all areas for the then to-be-ignored stimulus.

Electronic gambling machines include a suite of design characteristics that may contribute to gambling related harms and require more careful attention of regulators and policymakers. One strategy that has contributed to these concerns is the presentation of “losses disguised as wins” (LDWs), a type of salient losing outcome in which a gambling payout is less than the amount wagered (i.e., a net loss), but is nonetheless accompanied by the celebratory audio-visual stimuli that typically accompanies a genuine win. These events could thereby be mistaken for gains, or otherwise act as a reward signal, reinforcing persistent gambling, despite being a loss. This study aimed to determine whether LDWs evoke a reward positivity component in a task modelled on slot-machine gambling. A prominent account of the reward positivity event-related potential suggests that it is evoked during the positive appraisal of task related feedback, relative to neutral or negative events, or that it is evoked by neural systems that implement the computation of a positive reward prediction error. We recruited 32 individuals from university recruitment pools and asked them to engage in a simple gambling task designed to mimic key features of a slot machine design. The reward positivity was identified using temporospatial principal components analysis. Results indicated a more positive reward positivity following LDWs relative to clear losses, consistent with the theory that LDWs contribute to positive reinforcement of continued gambling, despite being net losses.Now peer-reviewed, updated and published in psychophysiology. Cite as: Myles, D., Carter, A., Yücel, M., & Bode, S. (2024). Losses disguised as wins evoke the reward positivity event-related potential in a simulated machine gambling task. Psychophysiology, 00, e14541. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14541

This research presents a novel Deep Learning method to find the Swanepoel Envelopes from the transmission spectra of dielectric thin films. This method improves the efficiency and accuracy of the film's optical characterization.

Inaccurate models limit the performance of model-based real-time optimization (RTO) and even cause system instability. Therefore, a RTO framework that can guarantee global convergence with the presence of plant-model mismatch is desired. In this regard, the trust-region framework is simple to implement and guarantees globally convergent for unconstrained problems. However, it remains to be seen if the trust-region strategy can handle inequality constraints directly with the common model adaptation method. This paper addresses this issue and proposes a novel composite-step trust-region framework that guarantees global convergence for constrained RTO problems. The trial step is decomposed into a normal step that improves feasibility and a tangential step that reduces the cost function. In each iteration, the model optimization problem with relaxed constraints is solved. The proof of the global convergence property under structural plant-model mismatch is given.

Heiner Syndrome (HS) is a rare non-IgE mediated hypersensitivity reaction to cow’s milk resulting in chronic respiratory disease due to pulmonary hemorrhage. Heiner et al. first described this entity in 1962 after identifying cow’s milk precipitins (immunoglobulin G to milk antigens) in the sera of seven children with chronic respiratory symptoms and infiltrates on chest radiograph 2. Associated findings include gastrointestinal symptoms, anemia, recurrent fever, and growth faltering. Removal of milk protein from the diet leads to symptom resolution and reversal of chest radiograph findings. Children with HS often experience delays in diagnosis given its rarity, chest imaging that can mimic infectious pneumonia, and variable clinical and laboratory features 3. Milk precipitin testing, for example, is not positive in all cases 4. Special attention should be paid to chest radiography as a recent review of HS cases found that pulmonary infiltrates were universal in this condition (with the exception of one study that did not include radiography data) 5. The rapid evolution of the patient’s symptoms and imaging, despite negative testing, highlight the importance of expanding the differential diagnosis for patients with pulmonary infiltrates that do not respond to typical treatments to include HS.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Porcine surfactant (200 mg/kg initial dose) seems to be superior over bovine surfactants (100 mg/kg) in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). There is limited data on choice of surfactant from the developing world. Logically using higher doses of porcine surfactant comes with additional burden of cost. We decided to evaluate the clinical effect of different types of surfactants. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted from August 2019 to December 2022 in 6 tertiary centres. Neonates 24-34 weeks of gestation with RDS requiring either porcine (200 mg/kg) or bovine surfactant (100 mg/kg) were enrolled. The proportion of combined outcomes of death and or CLD, redosing and other morbidities in either group were analysed. The subgroup of preterm >28 weeks and outcomes between different surfactants were analysed. RESULTS: Out of 1149 eligible babies, 302 (26%) received surfactant after stabilisation with CPAP. 158 received porcine and 144 received bovine surfactant via INSURE technique. There was a higher combined outcome of death or CLD in porcine compared to the bovine group [48 (30%) vs 20 (13%), OR:2.7; 95% CI:1.5-4.8; p=0.001] and similar combined outcomes in >28 weeks sub-group. Redosing [27 (17%) Vs 18 (12%), OR:1.4; 95% CI:0.7-2.7; p=0.2] was similar. Other morbidities like air leak, invasive ventilation, CPAP duration were similar between both the groups and different types of surfactants. CONCLUSION: Porcine surfactant at 200mg/kg had similar combined outcomes of death/ CLD and redosing compared to bovine surfactant in preterm >28 weeks. Considering the cost burden in the developing world, the efficacy needs evaluation in randomised clinical trials.

Anju Murayama1*

A stoma forms by a series of asymmetric divisions of a stomatal lineage precursor cell and the terminal division of a guard mother cell (GMC). The symmetric division of the GMC is rigidly restricted to only once through complex genetic regulation mechanisms. Here, we show that nitric oxide (NO) is involved in the regulation of the GMC terminal division. NO donor treatment results in the formation of single guard cells (SGCs). SGCs are also produced in plants that accumulate high NO, whereas clustered guard cells (GCs) appear in plants with low NO accumulation. NO treatment promotes the formation of SGCs in the stomatal cell signaling mutants sdd1, epf1 epf2, tmm1, erl2 and yda-1, reduces the cell number per stomatal cluster in the fama-1 and flp-1 myb88, but has no effect on stomatal cells of cdkb1;1 cyca2;2 cyca2;3 cyca2;4 quadruple mutants. Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), a positive regulator of GMC division, reduces the NO-induced SGC formation. Further investigation found that NO inhibits ACC synthesis by repressing the expression of several ACC SYNTHASE ( ACS) genes, and in turn ACC represses NO accumulation by promoting the expression of HEMOGLOBIN 1 ( HB1) which encodes a NO scavenger. This work shows that NO plays a role in the regulation of the GMC terminal division by modulating ACC accumulation in the Arabidopsis cotyledon.

In conclusion, we present this case in order to complement CFTR gene mutations data of Chinese children with cystic fibrosis and improve clinicians' understanding of this disease in China. Besides, with the development of molecular biology technology, gene detection was expected to play an important role in the early diagnosis, early treatment, and prognosis improvement of the disease.

In the operation and maintenance process of the power system, factors such as power failures and supply-demand imbalances can have adverse effects on the normal power supply process. It is necessary to reduce or even solve this problem through corresponding power system risk warning. Based on this, the article proposes a self-assessment and early warning strategy for power system risks based on improved ant colony optimization algorithm (IACO) and BP neural network. Firstly, a combination of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Entropy Weighting Method (EWM) is used to comprehensively assign weights to indicators that have a significant impact on the stability and safety of power system operation, avoiding the negative impact of subjective experience or objective factors on the weight allocation results. Secondly, multiple regression analysis is used to calculate the risk assessment results of the selected indicators and weights corresponding to the power system. According to the above weight allocation process, training and testing samples for the BP neural network were calculated and obtained. Then, IACO is used to global optimization the weights and thresholds of the BP neural network, and an improved BP neural network model for power system risk independent assessment is established. Finally, the designed risk assessment and warning strategy was tested. The results indicate that the proposed power system risk assessment and early warning method can accurately predict the actual working status of the power system based on weight values, providing data reference for technical personnel, and thereby improving power supply quality. Key words：Power system; Risk assessment; Comprehensive empowerment; Improved ant colony optimization algorithm; BP neural network.

Eco-friendly and sustainable energy harvests that can alleviate concerns on the energy crisis and environmental pollution are in demand. Exploiting nature-derived biomaterials is imperative to develop these carbon-neutral energy harvesters. In this study, lignin/polycaprolactone nanofiber (NF)-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are fabricated using an electrospinning technique. Nanotextured morphology of electrospun lignin/polycaprolactone NFs and wettability modification of lignin into hydrophilicity can significantly enhance electron transfer between tribopositive and tribonegative materials, resulting in the highest energy-harvesting efficiency in their class. The output voltage of the lignin-based TENG exceeds 95 V despite relatively low tapping force of 9 N and frequency of 9 Hz. Various mechanical and physicochemical characterizations, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, and atomic force microscopy (AFM), are performed, confirming the mechanical durability, biocompatibility, and industrial viability of lignin-based TENG developed here.

Examining how plant traits respond to and affect herbivory is a common approach to exploring plant-herbivore interactions and their impact on ecosystem processes and functioning. Despite plants being potentially exposed to both vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores simultaneously, fundamental differences in the ecology and evolution of these two herbivore guilds results in them often being studied separately. A synthesis of the literature is needed to understand the types of plant traits examined and their response to, and effect on (in terms of forage selection) vertebrate and invertebrate herbivory, and to identify associated knowledge gaps. Focusing on grassland systems and species, we found 139 articles that met our criteria: 40 invertebrate, 97 vertebrate and 2 focussed on both vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores. Invertebrate focussed research, research conducted in the Southern Hemisphere and research on non-domesticated herbivores was significantly underrepresented based on our search. Differences in study focus (trait response or trait affect), along with considerable differences in the types of traits examined, led to limited capacity for comparison between the two herbivore guilds. For both invertebrates and vertebrates however, plant traits related to growth, such as leaf nitrogen and photosynthetic capacity, were often positively associated with herbivory. Future research should prioritise understanding how invertebrates, and the combined impact of both invertebrates and vertebrates’ respond to and affect plant traits. This review can be used as a guide for future research to select plant traits which are commonly measured either within one, or across both guild/s, as to help improve comparability and the broader significance of results, while also extending research breadth and knowledge.

Our limited knowledge about the ecological drivers of global arthropod decline highlights the urgent need for more effective biodiversity monitoring approaches. Monitoring of arthropods is commonly performed using passive trapping devices, which reliably recover diverse communities, but provide little ecological information on the sampled taxa. Especially the manifold interactions of arthropods with plants are barely understood. A promising strategy to overcome this shortfall is environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding of arthropods from plant material they have interacted with. However, the accuracy of this approach has not been sufficiently tested. In four experiments, we exhaustively test the comparative performance of plant-derived eDNA from surface washes of plants and homogenized plant material against traditional monitoring approaches. We show that the recovered communities of plant-derived eDNA and traditional approaches only partly overlap, with eDNA recovering various additional cryptic taxa. This suggests eDNA as a useful complementary tool to traditional monitoring. Despite the differences in recovered taxa, estimates of community α- and β-diversity between both approaches are well correlated, highlighting the utility of eDNA as a broad scale tool for community monitoring. Last, eDNA outperforms traditional approaches in the recovery of plant-specific arthropod communities. Unlike traditional monitoring, eDNA revealed fine-scaled community differentiation between individual plants and even within plant compartments. Especially specialized herbivores are better recovered with eDNA. Our results highlight the value of plant derived eDNA analysis for large-scale biodiversity assessments that include information about community level interactions.

MALDI mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI imaging) is uniquely suited to advance cancer research by measuring spatial distribution of endogenous and exogenous molecules directly from thin tissue sections. These molecular maps provide valuable insights into various aspects of basic and translational cancer research, including spatial tumor and tumor microenvironment biology, pharmacological interventions, and patient stratification. However, despite these advantages, the utilization of MALDI imaging in studying rare cancers, which comprise approximately 20% of all cancers, remains limited. Rare cancers pose unique challenges in medical research, resulting in understudied entities with suboptimal management and outcomes. In this review, we explore the value of MALDI imaging in sarcoma, as an example of a highly heterogeneous and challenging rare cancer. We summarize existing MALDI imaging studies in sarcoma and outline potential future applications. In addition, we address the specific challenges encountered when employing MALDI imaging to rare cancers, and propose solutions, including the utilization of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues, multi-site studies, implementation of multiplexed experiments, and considerations for data sharing practices. Through this review, we aim to inspire collaboration between MALDI imaging researchers and clinical colleagues, to deploy the unique capabilities of MALDI imaging in rare cancer research, particularly in the context of sarcoma.

The study of luminescence phenomena in non-conjugated systems, namely clusteroluminescence, has gained significant attention for the development of advanced luminescent materials. While conventional strategies to manipulate the luminescent performances are based on complicated chemical reactions. In contrast, nature employs complexation to modulate luminescence, inspiring researchers to adopt an engineering approach for the construction of efficient clusteroluminogens. In this work, we explore the complexation-induced clusteroluminescence of carbonyl-based polymers with nitrogen-containing organic bases, exemplified by polyamide, polyester, polycarbonate, and poly(monothiocarbonate). The results demonstrate an increase in the intrinsic 440 nm emission of carbonyl groups and the emergence of new emission peaks upon complexation. The study proposes a through-space n‧‧‧π complex mechanism, highlighting the potential of complexation as a strategy for modulating the clusteroluminescent properties of non-conjugated systems. Further research is necessary to unravel underlying mechanisms, optimize cluster structures, and explore new materials for complexation, thereby advancing optoelectronics and photonics fields and enabling practical applications of clusteroluminescent materials.

Colorectal cancer remains a leading cause of cancer related deaths and there has been a rise in the incidence of early onset colon cancer or colon cancer diagnosed before the age of 50 years old. Early onset CRC (colorectal cancer) has several differences in clinical presentation as well as histopathology, genetics alteration and molecular profiling. Demographic variance also exists in both the developing and developed countries. Increasing obesity and lifestyle disorder in younger population may influence this trend. Some studies have observed that early onset CRC may have worse outcomes than older populations. This narrative review aims to highlight the pathogenesis of early onset CRC, as well as its clinical presentation, treatment, prognosis and how it differs from late-onset CRC.

The vast majority of commercial sunflower hybrids worldwide are produced using cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) of the PET1 type, resulting from the interspecific hybridization of Helianthus petiolaris with Helianthus annuus. In this study, the open reading frame, orfH522, associated with the CMS-PET1 phenotype, was revealed for the first time in the 3’-flanking region of the mitochondrial atpA gene in wild H. annuus. An analysis of whole genome data from 1089 accessions showed that the frequency of occurrence of CMS-orfH522 in wild H. annuus populations is 3.58%, while in wild H. petiolaris populations, it is 1.26%. The presence of additional genomic data with insufficient coverage of the orfH522 sequence indicates that the potential frequency of occurrence of CMS-orfH522 in natural sunflower populations may be two times higher. Based on these results and previous studies, PET1-CMS was suggested to be a natural cytotype of H. annuus, and the appearance of the CMS phenotype in cultivated sunflowers is associated with the loss of stabilizing nuclear genes of fertility restorers, which occurred during interspecific hybridization. These data may explain the patterns of differential cytoplasmic and nuclear introgression occurring in wild sunflower and are useful for further evolutionary studies.

A 2-way combined G-band differential power amplifier (PA) designed using a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology is shown in this work. A differential PA is designed at 200GHz using cascode topology (CT) resulting in an overall gain and saturated output power of >27 dB and >16.5dBm respectively. To complete the design of the 2-way combined PA, a balun was also loaded with two differential PAs which improved the bandwidth to 80GHz. The area occupied by the chip of the manufactured PA was 0.55 mm2, which demonstrates a reduction of 59.25 % when compared to the existing approach. Simulation results showed that the 2-way combined G-band PA achieved a peak gain of 27dB, which showed of 4.24% increase in the gain obtained when compared with the 4-way combined PA, which was 25.9dB. Additionally, the 2-way combined G-band PA achieved a PAE value of 5.4%, which demonstrated a percentage increase of 54.2% in comparison to the 4-way combined PA, which had a PAE of 3.5%. As a result, a 3.3% decrease was observed in the DC power consumed by the 2-way combined G-band PA.

Objectives: Analysis of bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (BFTAF) efficacy and safety in virologically-suppressed people living with HIV (PLWH) in clinical practice. Patients and methods: Retrospective cohort study including adult treatment-experienced and virologically suppressed PLWH, switched to BFTAF from June 2019 to June 2021. Efficacy and safety were evaluated as virological failure (VF=2 consecutive HIV-RNA>50 copies/mL or a single HIV-RNA>400 copies/mL) and treatment failure (TF=VF or discontinuation for any reason) until data freezing (August 2022). Results: 1040 PLWH included, 67.8% switched from elvitegravir/cobicistat/FTAF. VF occurred in 4.2% (n=44), with incidence rate of 1.63 per 1000 person-months of follow-up (PMFU) and probability at 24-30 months of 3.8%-4.0%, respectively. Out of the 44 VF, in 75% virological re-supression was achieved while maintaining BFTAF. Discontinuation occurred in 15% after a median time of 13.5 months of follow-up, with incidence rate of 5.67 per 1000 PMFU, and probability at 24-30 months of 11.9%-15.3%, respectively. Main discontinuation reasons were simplification (51.3%) and toxicity (21.8%, involving CNS in half of cases). TF occurred in 18.6% with incidence rate of 7.01 per 1000 PMFU after a median time of 13.6 observation months; probability at 24-30 months was 14.8%-18.4%, respectively. Conclusions: BFTAF proved effective and well tolerated in clinical practice.

The isopentenol utilization pathway (IUP) is potential in terpenoids synthesis. This study aimed to construct IUP-employed E. coli chassis for stably synthesizing terpenoids. As to effectiveness, promotor engineering strategy was employed to regulate IUP expression level, while ribosome-binding site (RBS) library of the key enzyme was constructed for screening the optimal RBS, followed by optimization of concentration of inducer and substrates, the titer of reporting production, lycopene, from 0.087 to 8.67 mg/OD600. As about stability, the IUP expression cassette was integrated into the genome through transposition tool based on CRISPR-associated transposases. Results showed that the strain with 13 copies produced 1.78-fold lycopene titer that of the controlled strain with IUP-harbored plasmid, and it exhibited stable expression after ten successions while the plasmid loss was observed in the controlled strain in the 3rd succession. This strategy provides valuable information for rapid construction of highly effective and stable chassis employing IUP for terpenoids production.

Over the last centuries streams and rivers were managed with the main purpose of achieving drainage and flood control, with the reduction of hydraulic roughness and minimally obstruction of the flow, removing and impoverishing native riparian vegetation, causing flood peaks increase and flood wave travel time decrease. This study focuses on the evaluation of the hydraulic effects caused by the application of different management techniques carried out in a vegetated river; the considered scenarios regard radical or severe cut and an alternative or selective cut, with the aim of simulating the interaction between flow hydrodynamics and riparian vegetation, in particular in terms of peak discharge and flood conveyance. The proposed methodology is applied and tested along the Ombrone Pistoiese River in Tuscany. Water flow resistance caused by rigid riparian vegetation along the reach were calculated on the base of measurements collected during two field campaigns, conducted in 2018 and 2022, before and after the severe management cut. The main morphometrical vegetation features (i.e., stem diameters and overstorey density) have been measured at different cross sections of the vegetated reach. Hydraulic simulations in the 4.4 km modeled reach showed a wave celerity decrease up to 15%, due to the presence of surveyed riparian vegetation, potentially causing a delay of the flood up to 20 minutes. Hence results suggest that there is considerable advantage in managing riparian vegetation with a less impacting technique, both to alleviate downstream flooding and also preserve riparian ecosystem. We adopted three different formulations for each type of vegetation. For shrubby vegetation we used Jarvela’s (2004) equation, that requires the Leaf Area Index (LAI) as input parameter. For herbaceous vegetation we adopted the formulation in the case of fully submerged herbaceous vegetation developed by Nepf (2012). Finally, for woody, rigid vegetation we considered the formulation developed by Baptist et al. (2007), which considers the rigid stems contribution calculating the roughness coefficient as a function of stem diameters, spatial density and water depth. Roughness coefficients obtained for cross-subsections were subsequently used to calculate the equivalent Manning’s value for each cross-section. Results showed that the higher intensity management techniques worsened the flood risk after few years after the cut, where low intensity or selective thinning would have had a lower impact.

Encapsulated systems have been widely used in environmental applications to selectively retain and protect microorganisms. The permeable matrix used for encapsulation, however, limits the accessibility of existing analytical methods to study the behavior of the encapsulated microorganisms. Here, we present a novel method that overcomes these limitations and enables direct observation and enumeration of encapsulated microbial colonies over a range of spatial and temporal scales. The method involves embedding, cross-sectioning, and analyzing the system via fluorescence in situ hybridization, while retaining the structure of encapsulants and the morphology of encapsulated colonies. The major novelty of this method lies in its ability to distinguish between and subsequently analyze multiple microorganisms within a single encapsulation matrix across depth. Our results demonstrated the applicability and repeatability of this method with alginate-encapsulated pure ( Nitrosomonas europaea) and enrichment cultures (anammox enrichment). The use of this method can potentially reveal interactions between encapsulated microorganisms and their surrounding matrix, as well as quantitatively validate predictions from mathematical models, thereby advancing our understanding of microbial ecology in encapsulated, or even biofilm systems, and facilitating the optimization of these systems.