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. |
- Kristan, Matej, et al.
(author)
-
The Sixth Visual Object Tracking VOT2018 Challenge Results
- 2019
-
In: Computer Vision – ECCV 2018 Workshops. - Cham : Springer Publishing Company. - 9783030110086 - 9783030110093 ; , s. 3-53
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Visual Object Tracking challenge VOT2018 is the sixth annual tracker benchmarking activity organized by the VOT initiative. Results of over eighty trackers are presented; many are state-of-the-art trackers published at major computer vision conferences or in journals in the recent years. The evaluation included the standard VOT and other popular methodologies for short-term tracking analysis and a “real-time” experiment simulating a situation where a tracker processes images as if provided by a continuously running sensor. A long-term tracking subchallenge has been introduced to the set of standard VOT sub-challenges. The new subchallenge focuses on long-term tracking properties, namely coping with target disappearance and reappearance. A new dataset has been compiled and a performance evaluation methodology that focuses on long-term tracking capabilities has been adopted. The VOT toolkit has been updated to support both standard short-term and the new long-term tracking subchallenges. Performance of the tested trackers typically by far exceeds standard baselines. The source code for most of the trackers is publicly available from the VOT page. The dataset, the evaluation kit and the results are publicly available at the challenge website (http://votchallenge.net).
|
|
3. |
- Kanoni, Stavroula, et al.
(author)
-
Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis.
- 2022
-
In: Genome biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1474-760X .- 1465-6906 .- 1474-7596. ; 23:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery.To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N=1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3-5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism.Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk.
|
|
4. |
- Liu, Tiefeng, et al.
(author)
-
Ground-state electron transfer in all-polymer donor:acceptor blends enables aqueous processing of water-insoluble conjugated polymers
- 2023
-
In: Nature Communications. - : NATURE PORTFOLIO. - 2041-1723. ; 14:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Water-based conductive inks are vital for the sustainable manufacturing and widespread adoption of organic electronic devices. Traditional methods to produce waterborne conductive polymers involve modifying their backbone with hydrophilic side chains or using surfactants to form and stabilize aqueous nanoparticle dispersions. However, these chemical approaches are not always feasible and can lead to poor material/device performance. Here, we demonstrate that ground-state electron transfer (GSET) between donor and acceptor polymers allows the processing of water-insoluble polymers from water. This approach enables macromolecular charge-transfer salts with 10,000x higher electrical conductivities than pristine polymers, low work function, and excellent thermal/solvent stability. These waterborne conductive films have technological implications for realizing high-performance organic solar cells, with efficiency and stability superior to conventional metal oxide electron transport layers, and organic electrochemical neurons with biorealistic firing frequency. Our findings demonstrate that GSET offers a promising avenue to develop water-based conductive inks for various applications in organic electronics. Chemical approaches to improve aqueous dispersions of conjugated polymers are limited by the feasibility of modifying the backbone or lead to poor performance. Here, Liu et al. show that ground-state electron transfer in donor:acceptor blends aids aqueous dispersion, for high conductivity and solubility.
|
|
5. |
- Luo, Yifei, et al.
(author)
-
Technology Roadmap for Flexible Sensors
- 2023
-
In: ACS Nano. - : American Chemical Society. - 1936-0851 .- 1936-086X. ; 17:6, s. 5211-5295
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Humans rely increasingly on sensors to address grand challenges and to improve quality of life in the era of digitalization and big data. For ubiquitous sensing, flexible sensors are developed to overcome the limitations of conventional rigid counterparts. Despite rapid advancement in bench-side research over the last decade, the market adoption of flexible sensors remains limited. To ease and to expedite their deployment, here, we identify bottlenecks hindering the maturation of flexible sensors and propose promising solutions. We first analyze challenges in achieving satisfactory sensing performance for real-world applications and then summarize issues in compatible sensor-biology interfaces, followed by brief discussions on powering and connecting sensor networks. Issues en route to commercialization and for sustainable growth of the sector are also analyzed, highlighting environmental concerns and emphasizing nontechnical issues such as business, regulatory, and ethical considerations. Additionally, we look at future intelligent flexible sensors. In proposing a comprehensive roadmap, we hope to steer research efforts towards common goals and to guide coordinated development strategies from disparate communities. Through such collaborative efforts, scientific breakthroughs can be made sooner and capitalized for the betterment of humanity.
|
|
6. |
- Wang, Kang, et al.
(author)
-
Luminescent metal-halide perovskites: fundamentals, synthesis, and light-emitting devices
- 2024
-
In: Science in China Series B. - : SCIENCE PRESS. - 1674-7291 .- 1869-1870. ; 67:6, s. 1776-1838
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Metal-halide perovskites have garnered considerable research attention as highly efficient light emitters in recent years due to their outstanding optoelectronic properties with remarkable tunability and excellent solution processabilities. Substantial advancements have been achieved in the development of novel halide perovskites, and the exploitations of these materials in light-emitting devices. This review comprehensively outlines recent breakthroughs in metal-halide perovskites, encompassing the rational design of perovskite materials with tunable light emission properties, the controllable growth of single crystal for a deeper understanding of their structure-property relationships, as well as the fundamental insights into the photophysics and carrier dynamics in perovskite systems. Additionally, it provides an overview of recent applications of perovskite materials in high-performance light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers.
|
|
7. |
- Bettegowda, Chetan, et al.
(author)
-
Detection of circulating tumor DNA in early- and late-stage human malignancies
- 2014
-
In: Science Translational Medicine. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 1946-6234 .- 1946-6242. ; 6:224, s. 224ra24-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The development of noninvasive methods to detect and monitor tumors continues to be a major challenge in oncology. We used digital polymerase chain reaction-based technologies to evaluate the ability of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to detect tumors in 640 patients with various cancer types. We found that ctDNA was detectable in >75% of patients with advanced pancreatic, ovarian, colorectal, bladder, gastroesophageal, breast, melanoma, hepatocellular, and head and neck cancers, but in less than 50% of primary brain, renal, prostate, or thyroid cancers. In patients with localized tumors, ctDNA was detected in 73, 57, 48, and 50% of patients with colorectal cancer, gastroesophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and breast adenocarcinoma, respectively. ctDNA was often present in patients without detectable circulating tumor cells, suggesting that these two biomarkers are distinct entities. In a separate panel of 206 patients with metastatic colorectal cancers, we showed that the sensitivity of ctDNA for detection of clinically relevant KRAS gene mutations was 87.2% and its specificity was 99.2%. Finally, we assessed whether ctDNA could provide clues into the mechanisms underlying resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor blockade in 24 patients who objectively responded to therapy but subsequently relapsed. Twenty-three (96%) of these patients developed one or more mutations in genes involved in the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Together, these data suggest that ctDNA is a broadly applicable, sensitive, and specific biomarker that can be used for a variety of clinical and research purposes in patients with multiple different types of cancer.
|
|
8. |
- Hu, Chang-Kang, et al.
(author)
-
Native Conditional iSWAP Operation with Superconducting Artificial Atoms
- 2023
-
In: Physical Review Applied. - 2331-7019. ; 20:3
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Controlling the flow of quantum information is a fundamental task for quantum computers, which is unfeasible to realize on classical devices. Coherent devices, which can process quantum states are thus required to route the quantum states that encode information. In this paper we demonstrate experimentally the smallest quantum transistor with a superconducting quantum processor, which is composed of a collector qubit, an emitter qubit, and a coupler (transistor gate). The interaction strength between the collector and emitter qubits is controlled by the frequency and state of the coupler, effectively implementing a quantum switch. Through the coupler-state-dependent Heisenberg (inherent) interaction between the qubits, a single-step (native) conditional iSWAP operation can be applied. To this end, we find that it is useful to take into consideration the higher-energy level for achieving a native and high-fidelity transistor operation. By reconstructing the quantum process tomography, we obtain an operation fidelity of 92.36% when the transistor gate is open (iSWAP implementation) and 95.23% in the case of closed gate (identity gate implementation). The architecture has strong potential in quantum information processing applications with superconducting qubits.
|
|
9. |
- Hu, Chang-Kang, et al.
(author)
-
Optimal charging of a superconducting quantum battery
- 2022
-
In: Quantum Science and Technology. - : IOP Publishing. - 2058-9565. ; 7:4
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Quantum batteries are miniature energy storage devices and play a very important role in quantum thermodynamics. In recent years, quantum batteries have been extensively studied, but limited in theoretical level. Here we report the experimental realization of a quantum battery based on superconducting qutrit. Our model explores dark and bright states to achieve stable and powerful charging processes, respectively. Our scheme makes use of the quantum adiabatic brachistochrone, which allows us to speed up the battery ergotropy injection. Due to the inherent interaction of the system with its surrounding, the battery exhibits a self-discharge, which is shown to be described by a supercapacitor-like self-discharging mechanism. Our results paves the way for proposals of new superconducting circuits able to store extractable work for further usage.
|
|
10. |
- Li, Lechi, et al.
(author)
-
Deep Fusion of Multi-Object Densities Using Transformer
- 2023
-
In: ICASSP, IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing - Proceedings. - 1520-6149. ; 2023
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The fusion of multiple probability densities has important applications in many fields, including, for example, multi-sensor signal processing, robotics, and smart environments. In this paper, we demonstrate that deep learning based methods can be used to fuse multi-object densities. Given a scenario with several sensors with possibly different field-of-views, tracking is performed locally in each sensor by a tracker, which produces random finite set multi-object densities. To fuse outputs from different trackers, we adapt a recently proposed transformer-based multi-object tracker, where the fusion result is a global multi-object density, describing the set of all alive objects at the current time. We compare the performance of the transformer-based fusion method with a well-performing model-based Bayesian fusion method in several simulated scenarios with different parameter settings using synthetic data. The simulation results show that the transformer-based fusion method outperforms the model-based Bayesian method in our experimental scenarios. The code is available at https://github.com/Lechili/DeepFusion.
|
|