U.S. Department of Agriculture, ARS, LPSI, East Side Service Center, Bldg. 307, Room 129, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD 20705

66 -- IMAGING ANALYSIS SYSTEM SOL 3K45-JW-003 DUE 091898 POC John Wilkinson, Telephone (301) 504-5799, Fax (301) 504-8696 USDA intends to award the following solicitation as a sole source procurement due to the unique software requirements listed below. USDA intends to purchase an Imaging analysis system. This system will be used to generate color and black and white electronic images of histological specimens stained with either chemical dyes or fluorescent stains. The system must be capable of quantifying a variety of morphometric parameters and the software that controls the system must be user friendly and flexible. The quantities requested for all the following requirements are one each unless otherwise noted. -- Integrated system. Parts can come from a variety of vendors but they must be 100% compatible with each other; -- Field installed, training on-site, local on-site support during the entire first year warranty period -- On-site technical support on user applications during warranty period; -- No charge for software upgrades for two years; -- Movable between four microscopes (Leitz Laborlux, Zeiss Axiovert 135, Nikon Diaphot, Olympus IX70)including necessary adapters for mounting the camera/filter wheel on each scope ; -- Installation of hardware and in-depth training on each of the scopes; -- Software must be initially configured to perform currently defined tasks and free on-site assistance provided for reconfiguring for new tasks identified within the first year; -- Vendor shall be responsibly for on-site diagnosis and service support during the warranty period. Software requirements: -- Full 32-bit software running on Windows 95/98 operating system; -- Acquisition of 12-bit images or encoded 24-bit color images; -- Built-in macro capability which requires no user programming and allows user to create macros by recording the steps of manual operations. The macros must be editable without programming by simple addition or removal of steps using a simple editor dialog; -- Built-in dialogs for control of time lapse image acquisition, multi-wavelength fluorescence image acquisition, and RGB image acquisition with auto exposure; -- Software for measurement of colocalization, preparation of scatter plots and calculation of correlation coefficients from two sets of images; -- Software for overlay of at least 5 fluorescence images onto a monochrome background with user assigned Hue for each image and independent interactive contrast scaling of each image and background images; -- Software for measurement of morphometric parameters of objects in acquired 24-bit RGB images with selection of objects by color using either RGB, HSI, or HSL color models; -- Morphometric software shall allow classification, rejection, and measurement of objects based on size, shape, intensity, texture, OD, location and other such parameters. Scatter plots and histograms shall be interactive with the data filtering and allow selection of classes of objects by use of point and click mouse methods and interactive cursors on the data plots; -- Macro system shall allow branching of macros based on the results of measurements; -- DDE transfer of data to Excel and other DDE compatible applications; -- Capability for making montages of any size, including labeling individual images with text, distance calibration bars, and arrows; -- Ability to annotate images with user defined property labels and search such labels after storing, including labels related to camera acquisition parameters and image processing parameters; -- Capability for 3D reconstruction of series of related bright field or fluorescent images; -- Capability for making "movies" of images and saving them in AVI format; -- Capability of processing images from all common confocal microscope storage formats including RGB formats; -- Single object measurement and manual object counting. Detector (camera): -- 12-bit monochrome detector with at least 1300 x 1000 pixel. Detectors of lower pixel count with interpolation to this resolution are not acceptable; -- Detector shall be cooled to at least -10C in a 20C ambient environment; -- Shutter less interline transfer type detector to reduce vibration and improve acquisition speed. Line scanning linear array detectors and three chip color detectors are not acceptable; -- Digitizer speed of at least 5 MHZ; -- Same detector shall be used for both RGB color image acquisition and fluorescence image acquisition. RGB images shall be acquired with 12 bits for each color plane. Illumination: -- Narrow bandpass RGB filters shall be used to acquire RGB images; -- The RGB filters shall be mounted in a high speed filter wheel attached to the front of the camera with adapters to mount the assembly of filter wheel and detector on the four microscopes listed above; -- Filter wheel and camera shall be under control of the software such that software will integrate acquisition to acquire the complete RGB image set including auto exposure of images with correct color balance without user setting of exposure times; -- The filter wheel shall have at least 5 available positions besides the RGB filter positions and one open and one blocked filter position; -- In the open position the filter wheel shall allow the full signal from the microscope to be imaged on the detector; -- Filter wheel shall have a change time of less than 35 msec. Computer: -- Pentium II, 300 MHZ; -- 384M RAM (main memory); -- 4.3GB IDE hard drive (minimum); -- 8M video RAM; -- 32X CD ROM drive; -- 12x4 recordable CD ROM drive, with recording software; -- 10 rewriteable CD ROM disks; -- Microsoft mouse; -- Universal network card; -- Windows 95; -- 21 inch NEC MulitSync color monitor; -- 9 inch black & white monitor. -- Uninterrupted Power Supply -- Mini tower case -- 3.5 inch floppy drive -- All necessary cables A copy of the solicitation will be made by WRITTEN REQUEST ONLY. This solicitation incorporates clauses that in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-5. This acquisition will be solicited on a unrestricted basis. The Standard Industrial Classification Code is 3827. Delivery is required 60 days after award of this solicitation. Delivery Shall be F.O.B. Destination to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland. Any interested/qualified sources who can provide the items above, must respond by September 18, 1998. All responses will be evaluated in order to determine the capabilities stated in the RFQ. The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsive/responsible offerer whose quote conforms to the solicitation and will be most advantageous to the Government based on price. Posted 09/01/98 (W-SN244188). (0244)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0356 19980903\66-0007.SOL)