1. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(author)
-
Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
-
In: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
|
|
2. |
|
|
3. |
-
- 2019
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)
|
|
4. |
- Zhao, Sen, et al.
(author)
-
Expanding the mutation and phenotype spectrum of MYH3-associated skeletal disorders
- 2022
-
In: NPJ genomic medicine. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2056-7944. ; 7:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Pathogenic variants in MYH3 cause distal arthrogryposis type 2A and type 2B3 as well as contractures, pterygia and spondylocarpotarsal fusion syndromes types 1A and 1B. These disorders are ultra-rare and their natural course and phenotypic variability are not well described. In this study, we summarize the clinical features and genetic findings of 17 patients from 10 unrelated families with vertebral malformations caused by dominant or recessive pathogenic variants in MYH3. Twelve novel pathogenic variants in MYH3 (NM_002470.4) were identified: three of them were de novo or inherited in autosomal dominant way and nine were inherited in autosomal recessive way. The patients had vertebral segmentation anomalies accompanied with variable joint contractures, short stature and dysmorphic facial features. There was a significant phenotypic overlap between dominant and recessive MYH3-associated conditions regarding the degree of short stature as well as the number of vertebral fusions. All monoallelic variants caused significantly decreased SMAD3 phosphorylation, which is consistent with the previously proposed pathogenic mechanism of impaired canonical TGF-β signaling. Most of the biallelic variants were predicted to be protein-truncating, while one missense variant c.4244T>G,p.(Leu1415Arg), which was inherited in an autosomal recessive way, was found to alter the phosphorylation level of p38, suggesting an inhibition of the non-canonical pathway of TGF-β signaling. In conclusion, the identification of 12 novel pathogenic variants and overlapping phenotypes in 17 affected individuals from 10 unrelated families expands the mutation and phenotype spectrum of MYH3-associated skeletal disorders. We show that disturbances of canonical or non-canonical TGF-β signaling pathways are involved in pathogenesis of MYH3-associated skeletal fusion (MASF) syndrome.
|
|
5. |
- Becker, Richard C., et al.
(author)
-
Chromogenic laboratory assays to measure the factor Xa-inhibiting properties of apixaban-an oral, direct and selective factor Xa inhibitor
- 2011
-
In: Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0929-5305 .- 1573-742X. ; 32:2, s. 183-187
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An ability to readily determine an anticoagulant effect with an emerging class of direct, active site, oral factor Xa inhibitors is viewed by the medical community as attractive and by some as an absolute requirement for their use in clinical practice. We performed a pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic substudy in APPRAISE-1-a study of apixaban in patients with acute coronary syndrome(ACS). A total of 1691 patients had blood sampled for apixaban plasma concentrations using mass spectrometry/high performance liquid chromatography and anti-Xa activity using a chromogenic assay employing either low molecular weight heparin or apixaban as reference standards. Anti-Xa activity, determined by either anti-Xa-LMWH (r = 0.9671; P < 0.0001) or anti-Xa-apixaban (r = 0.9669; P < 0.0001) correlated strongly and in a linear fashion with apixaban plasma concentrations. The correlations for each method were equally strong at low (< 100 ng/ml) (r = 0.86, P < 0.0001; r = 0.85, P < 0.0001), intermediate(100-200 ng/ml) (r = 0.73, P < 0.0001; r = 0.69, P < 0.0001) and high (> 200 ng/ml) (r = 0.91, P < 0.0001; r = 0.91, P < 0.0001) plasma concentrations of apixaban, respectively. Our pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic substudy suggests that an apixaban-mediated anticoagulant effect can be detected even at very low plasma concentrations using a standard laboratory chromogenic anti-Xa assay with either LMWH or apixaban calibrators. While establishing parameters for safety and efficacy will require further investigation, an ability to discern the presence of a drug effect may provide clinically useful information.
|
|
6. |
- Becker, Richard C., et al.
(author)
-
Effect of apixaban, an oral and direct factor Xa inhibitor, on coagulation activity biomarkers following acute coronary syndrome
- 2010
-
In: Thrombosis and Haemostasis. - 0340-6245 .- 2567-689X. ; 104:5, s. 976-983
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Apixaban is an oral, direct factor Xa inhibitor under development for secondary prevention in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) Apixaban's effect on D dimer and prothrombin fragment 12 (F1 2) (coagulation activity biomarkers) was determined in a randomised, double blinded, placebo controlled phase 2 study Patients (n=1,715) with either ST segment elevation or non ST segment elevation ACS received either placebo or apixaban 2 5 mg twice daily 10 mg once daily, 10 mg twice daily or 20 mg once daily for six months Samples were obtained at baseline (before study drug administration), week 3 and week 26 Apixaban plasma concentrations were measured directly by liquid chromatography/mass spectometry and anti Xa activity was determined using apixaban as a reference standard D dimer and F 1 2 were measured using ELISA based methods Most patients had elevated D dimer and Fl 2 levels at baseline Both coagulation activity biomarkers decreased by week 3 in all treatment groups but to a greater degree with apixaban than placebo (p<0 001) In a multivariable analysis, apixaban was independently associated with a change in biomarkers over time (p<0 0001) While the overall decrease did not differ significantly among the three highest apixaban doses, Fl 2 was suppressed more rapidly by the 10 mg once daily than the 2 5 mg twice daily dose (p<0 05) There was a strong and direct relationship between apixaban plasma concentrations and anti Xa apixaban levels, and an inverse relationship for both measures with coagulation activity biomarkers In conclusion the oral direct factor Xa inhibitor apixaban significantly reduced coagulation activity biomarkers among patients with ACS The 10 mg once daily dose reduced thrombin generation (F 1 2) and fibrin formation (D dimer) more rapidly and robustly than the 25 mg twice daily dose The effect on both D dimer and F 12 was apixaban concentration and factor Xa inhibition dependent durable and provided general guidance for dose selection in phase 3 investigation.
|
|
7. |
- Bournas, Iason, et al.
(author)
-
Energy efficient and moisture safe row houses in Sweden
- 2015
-
In: Proceedings of the 31st PLEA conference.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This project consists of a thorough study of an energy efficient and moisture safe row-house, located in the Nordic climate of Sweden. Climate and site analysis, building scale design decisions and finally the evaluation and optimization of its energy performance were different steps of a holistic process aiming at the architectural quality, energy efficiency, comfort and the well-being of users. The final house design is addressing the spatial requirements of the on-going population increase, that is imminent in the developing countries, but while doing so, it exerts minimum impact on environmental resources and avoids ecological damage. The passive house standards had to be reached by applying passive heating strategies to reduce the heating demand. Increasing thermal insulation thickness and thermal mass elements in the house had a significant role in reducing heat loss and keeping the house warm in winter nights. Other passive house standards, U-values of envelope elements as well as the window-to-wall area played an important role. The moisture risks had to be avoided and the wooden construction proved to function well under the climatic conditions. An innovative method of timing the shading and nighttime natural ventilation was included as a passive strategy for natural cooling. Time period, position and type of shading was optimized according to hourly data and the correlation of internal and solar gains, and their impact on the operative temperature. To ensure summer wind cooling, the interior spatial distribution and circulation areas were designed to exploit the stack effect and cross ventilation by the opening of specific windows. A water retention technique was achieved by coupling recirculated hot water with electrical water heater. The overall energy intensity would finally be assessed and further minimized by the use of an active photovoltaic system on the roof, to exploit the renewable energy of the sun.
|
|
8. |
- Cao, Qi, et al.
(author)
-
Jointly estimating the most likely driving paths and destination locations with incomplete vehicular trajectory data
- 2023
-
In: Transportation Research, Part C: Emerging Technologies. - 0968-090X. ; 155
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- With an ever-increasing deployment density of probe and fixed sensors, massive vehicular trajectory data is available and show a promising foundation to improve the observability of dynamic traffic demand pattern. However, due to technical and privacy issues, the raw trajectories are not always complete and the paths and destinations between discontinuous trajectory nodes are usually missing. This paper proposes a probabilistic method to jointly reconstruct the missing driving path and destination location of vehicles with incomplete trajectory data. One problem-specific HMM-structured model incorporating spatial and temporal analysis (ST-HMM) is constructed to define the matching probability between observed data and possible movement. Two algorithms, namely candidate set generation and best-match search algorithms, are developed to seek the most possible one as matching result. It can implement end-to-end processing from incomplete trajectory data to complete and connective paths and destinations for the target vehicle. The proposed method is tested based on field-test data and city-wide road network. Compared with two benchmark methods, the proposed method improved the matching accuracy in terms of both path identification and destination inference. Additionally, sensitivity analyses on the size of training dataset and candidate set were performed. We believe that experiment results of these sensitivity analyses can help to provide guidance on data sensing and candidate generation.
|
|
9. |
- Han, Hedong, et al.
(author)
-
Utilization of Palliative Care for Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation During Hospitalization : A Population-Based National Study
- 2019
-
In: The American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. - : Sage Publications. - 1049-9091 .- 1938-2715. ; 36:10, s. 900-906
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: Patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) have substantial physical and psychological symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the utilization of palliative care (PC) in patients undergoing HSCT during hospitalization.METHODS: The 2008-2014 National Inpatient Sample was queried for eligible participants. Demographics, hospital characteristics, comorbidities, posttransplantation complications, and inpatient procedures were compared between patients with and without PC. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify predictors associated with PC use.RESULTS: Among 21 458 patients undergoing HSCT during hospitalization, 278 (1.30%) received PC. The rate of PC use has significantly increased from 0.64% in 2008 to 1.95% in 2014. Patients receiving PC had more co-comorbidities, posttransplantation complications, inpatient procedures, and were more likely to carry a diagnosis of leukemia. In allogeneic HSCT, large bed size (odds ratio [OR] =2.80; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17-6.70), stem cell source from cord blood (OR = 1.93; 95% CI: 1.15-3.24), and graft-versus-host disease (OR = 2.04; 95% CI: 1.36-3.06) were predictors of PC use. In a subset analysis of 783 patients who died during hospitalization, 166 (21.20%) received PC. Among the decedents, Hispanic race had lower odds of PC use (OR = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.05-0.82) in allogeneic HSCT and women had higher odds of PC (OR = 2.70; 95% CI: 1.35-5.41) in autologous HSCT.CONCLUSIONS: The rate of PC use has significantly increased among patients undergoing HSCT during hospitalization from 2008 to 2014 but still remains very low. Further investigation is warranted to verify and better understand the barriers toward PC use for HSCT patients.
|
|
10. |
- Javanroodi, Kavan, 1988, et al.
(author)
-
Optimization of building form and its fenestration in response to microclimate conditions of an urban area
- 2020
-
In: E3S Web of Conferences. - : EDP Sciences. - 2555-0403 .- 2267-1242. ; 172
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Designing building form in urban areas is a complicated process that demands considering a high number of influencing parameters. On the other hand, there has been an increasing trend to design highly fenestrated building envelopes for office buildings to induce higher levels of natural lighting into the workspace. This paper presents a novel optimization framework to design high-performance building form and fenestration configuration considering the impacts of urban microclimate in typical and extreme weather conditions during a thirty-year period of climate data (2010-2039). In this regard, based on the introduced technique and algorithm, the annual energy demand and thermal comfort of over 8008 eligible form combinations with eight different fenestration configurations and seven different building orientation angels were analysed in a detailed urban area to find optimal design solutions in response to microclimate conditions. Results showed that adopting the framework, annual heating, and cooling demand can be reduced by 21% and 38% while maintaining thermal comfort by taking design-based decisions at the early stages of design.
|
|