Controlled encapsulation and pairing of single cells within a confined 3D matrix can enable the replication of the highly ordered cellular structure of human tissues. Microgels with independently ...controlled compartments that can encapsulate cells within separately confined hydrogel matrices would provide precise control over the route of pairing single cells. Here, a one‐step microfluidic method is presented to generate monodisperse multicompartment microgels that can be used as a 3D matrix to pair single cells in a highly biocompatible manner. A method is presented to induce microgels formation on chip, followed by direct extraction of the microgels from oil phase, thereby avoiding prolonged exposure of the microgels to the oil. It is further demonstrated that by entrapping stem cells with niche cells within separate but adjacent compartments of the microgels, it can create complex stem cell niche microenvironments in a controlled manner, which can serve as a useful tool for the study of cell–cell interactions. This microfluidic technique represents a significant step toward high‐throughput single cells encapsulation and pairing for the study of intercellular communications at single cell level, which is of significant importance for cell biology, stem cell therapy, and tissue engineering.
A microfluidic method for high‐throughput fabrication of multi‐compartment microgels for single cell encapsulation and assembly is reported. Compartmentalized microgels are produced by rapid gelation of hydrogel emulsions containing multiple aqueous phases, and immediately transfered to the aqueous phase by destabilizing the oil‐water interface. Furthermore, stem cells and niche cells are assembled using Janus microgels to study the stem cell niche.
Accurate and low-cost analysis of biomolecules is important for many applications. This work seeks to further improve the measurement bandwidths achievable with solid-state nanopores, which have ...emerged as an important platform for this analysis. We report single-stranded DNA translocation recordings at a bandwidth of 10 MHz copolymers of 80 (C20A20C20A20), 90 (C30A30C30), and 200 (C50A50C50A50) nucleotides through Si nanopores with effective diameters of 1.4–2.1 nm and effective membrane thicknesses 0.5–8.9 nm. By optimizing glass chips with thin nanopores and by integrating them with custom-designed amplifiers based on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, this work demonstrates detection of translocation events as brief as 100 ns with a signal-to-noise ratio exceeding seven at a measurement bandwidth of 10 MHz. We also report data robustness and variability across 13 pores of similar size and thickness, yielding a current blockade between 30 and 60% with a mean ionic current blockade (ΔI) of ∼3–9 nA and a characteristic dwell time of ∼2–21 ns per nucleotide. These measurements show that characteristic translocation rates are at least 10 times faster than previously recorded. We detect transient intraevent fluctuations, multiple current levels within translocation events, and variability of DNA translocation event signatures and durations.
The gut microbiome and its metabolites are increasingly implicated in several cardiovascular diseases, but their role in human myocardial infarction (MI) injury responses have yet to be established. ...To address this, we examined stool samples from 77 ST-elevation MI (STEMI) patients using 16 S V3-V4 next-generation sequencing, metagenomics and machine learning. Our analysis identified an enriched population of butyrate-producing bacteria. These findings were then validated using a controlled ischemia/reperfusion model using eight nonhuman primates. To elucidate mechanisms, we inoculated gnotobiotic mice with these bacteria and found that they can produce beta-hydroxybutyrate, supporting cardiac function post-MI. This was further confirmed using HMGCS2-deficient mice which lack endogenous ketogenesis and have poor outcomes after MI. Inoculation increased plasma ketone levels and provided significant improvements in cardiac function post-MI. Together, this demonstrates a previously unknown role of gut butyrate-producers in the post-MI response.
In this paper, we present a brief history of silicon photonics from the early research papers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to the potentially revolutionary technology that exists today. Given ...that other papers in this special issue give detailed reviews of key aspects of the technology, this paper will concentrate on the key technological milestones that were crucial in demonstrating the capability of silicon photonics as both a successful technical platform, as well as indicating the potential for commercial success. The paper encompasses discussion of the key technology areas of passive devices, modulators, detectors, light sources, and system integration. In so doing, the paper will also serve as an introduction to the other papers within this special issue.
Hearing Loss and Depression in Older Adults Mener, David J.; Betz, Joshua; Genther, Dane J. ...
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,
September 2013, Letnik:
61, Številka:
9
Journal Article
(1) Describe current epidemiology of thyroid cancer in the United States; (2) evaluate hypothesized causes of the increased incidence of thyroid cancer; and (3) suggest next steps in research and ...clinical action.
Analysis of data from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results System and the National Center for Vital Statistics. Literature review of published English-language articles through December 31, 2013.
The incidence of thyroid cancer has tripled over the past 30 years, whereas mortality is stable. The increase is mainly comprised of smaller tumors. These facts together suggest the major reason for the increased incidence is detection of subclinical, nonlethal disease. This has likely occurred through: health care system access, incidental detection on imaging, more frequent biopsy, greater volumes of and extent of surgery, and changes in pathology practices. Because larger-size tumors have increased in incidence also, it is possible that there is a concomitant true rise in thyroid cancer incidence. The only clearly identifiable contributor is radiation exposure, which has likely resulted in a few additional cases annually. The contribution of the following causes to the increasing incidence is unclear: iodine excess or insufficiency, diabetes and obesity, and molecular disruptions. The following mechanisms do not currently have strong evidence to support a link with the development of thyroid cancer: estrogen, dietary nitrate, and autoimmune thyroid disease.
Research should focus on illuminating which thyroid cancers need treatment. Patients should be advised of the benefits as well as harms that can occur with treatment of incidentally identified, small, asymptomatic thyroid cancers.
JASPAR (http://jaspar.genereg.net) is the largest open-access database of matrix-based nucleotide profiles describing the binding preference of transcription factors from multiple species. The fifth ...major release greatly expands the heart of JASPAR-the JASPAR CORE subcollection, which contains curated, non-redundant profiles-with 135 new curated profiles (74 in vertebrates, 8 in Drosophila melanogaster, 10 in Caenorhabditis elegans and 43 in Arabidopsis thaliana; a 30% increase in total) and 43 older updated profiles (36 in vertebrates, 3 in D. melanogaster and 4 in A. thaliana; a 9% update in total). The new and updated profiles are mainly derived from published chromatin immunoprecipitation-seq experimental datasets. In addition, the web interface has been enhanced with advanced capabilities in browsing, searching and subsetting. Finally, the new JASPAR release is accompanied by a new BioPython package, a new R tool package and a new R/Bioconductor data package to facilitate access for both manual and automated methods.
We describe the automated spectral classification, redshift determination, and parameter measurement pipeline in use for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky ...Survey UI (SDSS-III) as of the survey's ninth data release (DR9), encompassing 831,000 moderate-resolution optical spectra. We give a review of the algorithms employed, and describe the changes to the pipeline that have been implemented for BOSS relative to previous SDSS-I/II versions, including new sets of stellar, galaxy, and quasar redshift templates. We test the accuracy of these statistical redshift error estimates using repeat observations, finding them underestimated by a factor of 1.19-1.34 for galaxies and by a factor of two for quasars. We assess the impact of sky-subtraction quality, signal-to-noise ratio, and other factors on galaxy redshift success. Finally, we document known issues with the BOSS DR9 spectroscopic data set and describe directions of ongoing development
Adults in intensive care units (ICUs) often suffer from a lack of sleep or frequent sleep disruptions. Non-pharmacological interventions can improve the duration and quality of sleep and decrease the ...risk of sleep disturbance, delirium, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the length of stay in the ICU. However, there is no clear evidence of the effectiveness and harms of different non-pharmacological interventions for sleep promotion in adults admitted to the ICU.
To assess the efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions for sleep promotion in critically ill adults in the ICU.To establish whether non-pharmacological interventions are safe and clinically effective in improving sleep quality and reducing length of ICU stay in critically ill adults.To establish whether non-pharmacological interventions are cost effective.
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, 2014, Issue 6), MEDLINE (OVID, 1950 to June 2014), EMBASE (1966 to June 2014), CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, 1982 to June 2014), Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science (1956 to June 2014), CAM on PubMed (1966 to June 2014), Alt HealthWatch (1997 to June 2014), PsycINFO (1967 to June 2014), the China Biological Medicine Database (CBM-disc, 1979 to June 2014), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI Database, 1999 to June 2014). We also searched the following repositories and registries to June 2014: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, the US National Institutes of Health Ongoing Trials Register (www.clinicaltrials.gov), the metaRegister of Controlled Trials (ISRCTN Register) (www.controlled-trials.com), the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (www.chictr.org.cn), the Clinical Trials Registry-India (www.ctri.nic.in), the Grey Literature Report from the New York Academy of Medicine Library (www.greylit.org), OpenGrey (www.opengrey.eu), and the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry platform (www.who.int/trialsearch). We handsearched critical care journals and reference lists and contacted relevant experts to identify relevant unpublished data.
We included all randomized controlled trials (RCT) and quasi-RCTs that evaluated the effects of non-pharmacological interventions for sleep promotion in critically ill adults (aged 18 years and older) during admission to critical care units or ICUs.
Two authors independently screened the search results and assessed the risk of bias in selected trials. One author extracted the data and a second checked the data for accuracy and completeness. Where possible, we combined results in meta-analyses using mean differences and standardized mean differences for continuous outcomes and risk ratios for dichotomous outcomes. We used post-test scores in this review.
We included 30 trials, with a total of 1569 participants, in this review. We included trials of ventilator mode or type, earplugs or eye masks or both, massage, relaxation interventions, foot baths, music interventions, nursing interventions, valerian acupressure, aromatherapy, and sound masking. Outcomes included objective sleep outcomes, subjective sleep quality and quantity, risk of delirium, participant satisfaction, length of ICU stay, and adverse events. Clinical heterogeneity (e.g., participant population, outcomes measured) and research design limited quantitative synthesis, and only a small number of studies were available for most interventions. The quality of the evidence for an effect of non-pharmacological interventions on any of the outcomes examined was generally low or very low. Only three trials, all of earplugs or eye masks or both, provided data suitable for two separate meta-analyses. These meta-analyses, each of two studies, showed a lower incidence of delirium during ICU stay (risk ratio 0.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.38 to 0.80, P value = 0.002, two studies, 177 participants) and a positive effect of earplugs or eye masks or both on total sleep time (mean difference 2.19 hours, 95% CI 0.41 to 3.96, P value = 0.02, two studies, 116 participants); we rated the quality of the evidence for both of these results as low.There was also some low quality evidence that music (350 participants; four studies) may improve subjective sleep quality and quantity, but we could not pool the data. Similarly, there was some evidence that relaxation techniques, foot massage, acupressure, nursing or social intervention, and sound masking can provide small improvements in various subjective measures of sleep quality and quantity, but the quality of the evidence was low. The effects of non-pharmacological interventions on objective sleep outcomes were inconsistent across 16 studies (we rated the quality of the evidence as very low): the majority of studies relating to the use of earplugs and eye masks found no benefit; results from six trials of ventilator modes suggested that certain ventilator settings might offer benefits over others, although the results of the individual trials did not always agree with each other. Only one study measured length of stay in the ICU and found no significant effect of earplugs plus eye masks. No studies examined the effect of any non-pharmacological intervention on mortality, risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, or cost-effectiveness; the included studies did not clearly report adverse effects, although there was very low quality evidence that ventilator mode influenced the incidence of central apnoeas and patient-ventilator asynchronies.
The quality of existing evidence relating to the use of non-pharmacological interventions for promoting sleep in adults in the ICU was low or very low. We found some evidence that the use of earplugs or eye masks or both may have beneficial effects on sleep and the incidence of delirium in this population, although the quality of the evidence was low. Further high-quality research is needed to strengthen the evidence base.
Motivation: The sequencing of tumors and their matched normals is frequently used to study the genetic composition of cancer. Despite this fact, there remains a dearth of available software tools ...designed to compare sequences in pairs of samples and identify sites that are likely to be unique to one sample.
Results: In this article, we describe the mathematical basis of our SomaticSniper software for comparing tumor and normal pairs. We estimate its sensitivity and precision, and present several common sources of error resulting in miscalls.
Availability and implementation: Binaries are freely available for download at http://gmt.genome.wustl.edu/somatic-sniper/current/, implemented in C and supported on Linux and Mac OS X.
Contact:
delarson@wustl.edu; lding@wustl.edu
Supplementary information:
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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