Environmental and metabolic processes shape the profile of glycoprotein glycans expressed by cells, whether in culture, developing tissues, or mature organisms. Quantitative characterization of ...glycomic changes associated with these conditions has been achieved historically by reductive coupling of oligosaccharides to various fluorophores following release from glycoprotein and subsequent HPLC or capillary electrophoretic separation. Such labeling-based approaches provide a robust means of quantifying glycan amount based on fluorescence yield. Mass spectrometry, on the other hand, has generally been limited to relative quantification in which the contribution of the signal intensity for an individual glycan is expressed as a percent of the signal intensity summed over the total profile. Relative quantification has been valuable for highlighting changes in glycan expression between samples; sensitivity is high, and structural information can be derived by fragmentation. We have investigated whether MS-based glycomics is amenable to absolute quantification by referencing signal intensities to well-characterized oligosaccharide standards. We report the qualification of a set of N-linked oligosaccharide standards by NMR, HPLC, and MS. We also demonstrate the dynamic range, sensitivity, and recovery from complex biological matrices for these standards in their permethylated form. Our results indicate that absolute quantification for MS-based glycomic analysis is reproducible and robust utilizing currently available glycan standards.
CE equipment detects and deconvolutes mixtures containing up to six fluorescently labeled DNA fragments. This deconvolution is done by the collection software that requires a spectral calibration ...file. The calibration file is used to adjust for the overlap that occurs between the emission spectra of fluorescence dyes. All commercial genotyping and sequencing kits require the installation of a corresponding matrix standard to generate a calibration file. Due to the differences in emission spectrum overlap between fluorescent dyes, the application of existing commercial matrix standards to the electrophoretic separation of DNA labeled with other fluorescent dyes can yield undesirable results. Currently, the number of fluorescent dyes available for oligonucleotide labeling surpasses the availability of commercial matrix standards. Therefore, in this study we developed and evaluated a customized matrix standard using ATTO 633, ATTO 565, ATTO 550, ATTO Rho6G, and 6‐FAM dyes for which no commercial matrix standard is available. We highlighted the potential genotyping errors of using an incorrect matrix standard by evaluating the relative performance of our custom dye set using six matrix standards. The specific performance of two genotyping kits (UniQTyper™ Y‐10 version 1.0 and PowerPlex® Y23 System) was also evaluated using their specific matrix standards. The procedure we followed for the construction of our custom dye matrix standard can be extended to other fluorescent dyes.
In this survey a new application paradigm life and safety for critical operations and missions using wearable Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) technology is introduced. This paradigm has a vast ...scope of applications, including disaster management, worker safety in harsh environments such as roadside and building workers, mobile health monitoring, ambient assisted living and many more. It is often the case that during the critical operations and the target conditions, the existing infrastructure is either absent, damaged or overcrowded. In this context, it is envisioned that WBANs will enable the quick deployment of ad-hoc/on-the-fly communication networks to help save many lives and ensuring people's safety. However, to understand the applications more deeply and their specific characteristics and requirements, this survey presents a comprehensive study on the applications scenarios, their context and specific requirements. It explores details of the key enabling standards, existing state-of-the-art research studies, and projects to understand their limitations before realizing aforementioned applications. Application-specific challenges and issues are discussed comprehensively from various perspectives and future research and development directions are highlighted as an inspiration for new innovative solutions. To conclude, this survey opens up a good opportunity for companies and research centers to investigate old but still new problems, in the realm of wearable technologies, which are increasingly evolving and getting more and more attention recently.
Objective
Four sets of eight audible alarms matching the functions specified in IEC 60601-1-8 were designed using known principles from auditory cognition with the intention that they would be more ...recognizable and localizable than those currently specified in the standard.
Background
The audible alarms associated with IEC 60601-1-8, a global medical device standard, are known to be difficult to learn and retain, and there have been many calls to update them. There are known principles of design and cognition that might form the basis of more readily recognizable alarms. There is also scope for improvement in the localizability of the existing alarms.
Method
Four alternative sets of alarms matched to the functions specified in IEC 60601-1-8 were tested for recognizability and localizability and compared with the alarms currently specified in the standard.
Results
With a single exception, all prototype sets of alarms outperformed the current IEC set on both recognizability and localizability. Within the prototype sets, auditory icons were the most easily recognized, but the other sets, using word rhythms and simple acoustic metaphors, were also more easily recognized than the current alarms. With the exception of one set, all prototype sets were also easier to localize.
Conclusion
Known auditory cognition and perception principles were successfully applied to an existing audible alarm problem.
Application
This work constitutes the first (benchmarking) phase of replacing the alarms currently specified in the standard. The design principles used for each set demonstrate the relative ease with which different alarm types can be recognized and localized.
Implementation of novel genetic diagnostic tests is generally driven by technological advances because they promise shorter turnaround times and/or higher diagnostic yields. Other aspects, including ...impact on clinical management or cost-effectiveness, are often not assessed in detail prior to implementation.
We studied the clinical utility of whole-exome sequencing (WES) in complex pediatric neurology in terms of diagnostic yield and costs. We analyzed 150 patients (and their parents) presenting with complex neurological disorders of suspected genetic origin. In a parallel study, all patients received both the standard diagnostic workup (e.g., cerebral imaging, muscle biopsies or lumbar punctures, and sequential gene-by-gene-based testing) and WES simultaneously.
Our unique study design allowed direct comparison of diagnostic yield of both trajectories and provided insight into the economic implications of implementing WES in this diagnostic trajectory. We showed that WES identified significantly more conclusive diagnoses (29.3%) than the standard care pathway (7.3%) without incurring higher costs. Exploratory analysis of WES as a first-tier diagnostic test indicates that WES may even be cost-saving, depending on the extent of other tests being omitted.
Our data support such a use of WES in pediatric neurology for disorders of presumed genetic origin.Genet Med advance online publication 23 March 2017.
This paper describes a new database of declared standard‐essential patents (SEPs), discusses methods for matching declared SEPs to specific standard documents, and presents empirical evidence on ...technology standards subject to declared SEPs. Although there is a growing body of empirical research using data on declared SEPs, this research has so far focused on the declared patents, and neglected the implications of SEP declarations for specific standards. Furthermore, we present a new methodology for matching standards with technology classes, using the classification of declared SEPs. This method allows identifying other standard‐related patents, and provides information on technological relationships between standards and standard‐related patenting. The paper discusses opportunities for new empirical research using databases of declared SEPs and data on patenting in standard‐related technology classes.
If a gold standard is lacking in a diagnostic test accuracy study, expert diagnosis is frequently used as reference standard. However, interobserver and intraobserver agreements are imperfect. The ...aim of this study was to quantify the reproducibility of a panel diagnosis for pediatric infectious diseases.
Pediatricians from six countries adjudicated a diagnosis (i.e., bacterial infection, viral infection, or indeterminate) for febrile children. Diagnosis was reached when the majority of panel members came to the same diagnosis, leaving others inconclusive. We evaluated intraobserver and intrapanel agreement with 6 weeks and 3 years’ time intervals. We calculated the proportion of inconclusive diagnosis for a three-, five-, and seven-expert panel.
For both time intervals (i.e., 6 weeks and 3 years), intrapanel agreement was higher (kappa 0.88, 95%CI: 0.81-0.94 and 0.80, 95%CI: NA) compared to intraobserver agreement (kappa 0.77, 95%CI: 0.71-0.83 and 0.65, 95%CI: 0.52-0.78). After expanding the three-expert panel to five or seven experts, the proportion of inconclusive diagnoses (11%) remained the same.
A panel consisting of three experts provides more reproducible diagnoses than an individual expert in children with lower respiratory tract infection or fever without source. Increasing the size of a panel beyond three experts has no major advantage for diagnosis reproducibility.
Strategies such as explicit goal setting with patients (504); identifying and addressing language, numeracy, or cultural barriers to care (505-508); integrating evidence-based guidelines and clinical ...information tools into the process of care (509-5 11); and incorporating care management teams including nurses, pharmacists, and other providers (512-515) have each been shown to optimize provider and team behavior and thereby catalyze reduction in A1C, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol. Support patient behavior change Successful diabetes care requires a systematic approach to supporting patients' behavior change efforts, including a) healthy lifestyle changes (physical activity, healthy eating, nonuse of tobacco, weight management, effective coping), b) disease self-management (medication taking and management; self-monitoring of glucose and blood pressure when clinically appropriate), and c) prevention of diabetes complications (self-monitoring of foot health; active participation in screening for eye, foot, and renal complications; immunizations).
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