Next-generation sequencing （NGS） is getting routinely used in the diagnosis of hereditary diseases, such as human cardiomyopathies. Hence. it is of utter importance to secure high quality sequencing ...data, enabling the identification of disease-relevant mutations or the conclusion of negative test results. During the process of sample preparation, each protocol for target enrichment library preparation has its own requirements for quality control （QC）; however, there is little evi- dence on the actual impact of these guidelines on resulting data quality. In this study, we analyzed the impact of QC during the diverse library preparation steps of Agilent SureSelect XT target enrichment and lllumina sequencing. We quantified the parameters for a cohort of around 600 samples, which include starting amount of DNA, amount of sheared DNA, smallest and largest fragment size of the starting DNA; amount of DNA after the pre-PCR, and smallest and largest fragment size of the resulting DNA; as well as the amount of the final library, the corresponding smallest and largest fragment size, and the number of detected variants. Intriguingly, there is a high tolerance for variations in all QC steps, meaning that within the boundaries proposed in the current study, a considerable variance at each step of QC can be well tolerated without compromising NGS quality.
Summary This paper evaluates the patient-specific seizure prediction performance of pre-ictal changes in bivariate-synchrony between pairs of intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) signals ...within 15 min of a seizure in patients with pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy. Prediction horizons under 15 min reduce the durations of warning times and should provide adequate time for a seizure control device to intervene. Long-term continuous iEEG was obtained from 6 patients. The seizure prediction performance was evaluated for all possible channel pairs and for different prediction methods to find the best performing channel pairs and methods for both pre-ictal decreases and increases in synchrony. The different prediction methods involved changes in window duration, signal filtering, thresholding approach, and prediction horizon durations. Performance for each patient, for all seizures, was first compared with an analytical-Poisson-based random predictor. The performance of the top 5% of channel pairs for each patient closely matched the top 5% of analytical-Poisson-based random predictor performance indicating that patient-specific, bivariate-synchrony-based seizure prediction could be random in general (under the assumption that channel-pair prediction times are statistically independent). Analysis of the spatial patterns of performance showed no clear relationship to the seizure onset zone. For each patient the best channel pair showed better performance than Poisson-based random prediction for a selected subset of prediction thresholds. Given the caveats of comparing with this form of random prediction, alarm time surrogates were employed to assess statistical significance of a four-fold out-of-sample cross-validation analysis applied to the best channel-pairs. The cross-validation analysis obtained reasonable testing performance for most patients when performance was compared to random prediction based on alarm time surrogates. The most significant case was a patient whose testing set sensitivity and false positive rate were 0.67 ± 0.09 and 3.04 ± 0.29 h−1 , respectively, for decreases in synchrony, an intervention time of 15 min and a seizure onset period of 5 min. For each testing set for this patient, performance was better than that obtained by random prediction at the significance level of 0.05 (average sensitivity of 0.47 ± 0.05). Moreover, there were 9 seizures in each testing set which gives greater power to this cross-validation result, although the cross-validation was performed on the best channel pair selected by within-sample optimization for all seizures of the patient. Further validation with larger datasets from individual patients is needed. Improvements in prediction performance should be achievable through investigations of multivariate synchrony combined with non-linear classification methods.
The search for a parameter representing left ventricular relaxation from non-invasive and invasive diagnostic tools has been extensive, since heart failure （HF） with preserved ejection fraction ...（HF-pEF） is a global health problem. We explore here the feasibility using patient-specific cardiac computer modeling to capture diastolic parameters in patients suffering from different degrees of systolic HF. Fifty eight patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy have undergone thorough clinical evaluation, including cardiac magnetic resonance imaging （MRI）, heart catheterization, echocardiography, and cardiac biomarker assessment. A previously-introduced framework for creating multi-scale patient-specific cardiac models has been applied on all these patients. Novel parameters, such as global stiffness factor and maximum left ventricular active stress, representing cardiac active and passive tissue properties have been computed for all patients. Invasive pressure measurements from heart catheterization were then used to evaluate ventricular relaxation using the time constant of isovolumic relaxation Tau （τ）. Parameters from heart catheterization and the multi-scale model have been evaluated and compared to patient clinical presentation. The model parameter global stiffness factor, representing diastolic passive tissue properties, is correlated significantly across the patient population with τ. This study shows that multi-modal cardiac models can successfully capture diastolic （dys） function, a prerequisite for future clinical trials on HF-pEF.
In an attempt to combine non-commutative geometry and quantum gravity, Aastrup-Grimstrup-Nest construct a semi-finite spectral triple, modeling the space of
G
-connections for
G
=
U
(1) or
SU
(2). ...AGN show that the interaction between the algebra of holonomy loops
and the Dirac type operator
quantizes the Poisson structure of General Relativity in Ashtekar’s loop variables. This article generalizes AGN’s construction to any connected compact Lie group
G
. A construction of AGN’s semi-finite spectral triple in terms of an inductive limit of spectral triples is formulated. The refined construction permits the semi-finite spectral triple to be even when
G
is even dimensional. The Dirac-type operator
in AGN’s semi-finite spectral triple is a weighted sum of a basic Dirac operator on
G
. The weight assignment is a diverging sequence that governs the “volume” associated to each copy of
G
. The JLO cocycle of AGN’s triple is examined in terms of the weight assignment. An explicit condition on the weight assignment perturbations is given, so that the associated JLO class remains invariant. Such a condition leads to a functoriality property of AGN’s construction.
Tramp shipping constitutes a prominent segment of the shipping market. As customers increasingly seek value from service providers for low price but yet high quality services, there is a pressing ...need to understand critically what construe the service quality for the tramp sector. In this respect, however, no prior research has been conducted for this market segment. This study recognises the gap in the existing maritime literature and aimed to propose and validate a service quality (SQ) model to address such a gap. The study employs a triangulation approach, utilising literature review, interviews and surveys to develop, refine and verify the SQ model proposed. Interviews were conducted with various parties in the tramp sector while a survey using a sample size of 343 tramp shippers and 254 tramp service providers was also conducted with tramp shippers and tramp service providers. It was revealed that the SQ model of six dimensions of Corporate Image, Customer Focus, Management, Outcomes, Personnel and Technical, and their 18 associated attributes could be used as a reliable tool to measure service quality in tramp shipping. This research contributes to fill the gap in the existing literature by introducing and validating a new SQ model specifically for tramp shipping. Meanwhile, the model can also be used by practitioners to receive their customers’ evaluation of their service quality as well as a benchmarking tool for continuous improvement. This study is, however, confined to a small-sized data collected in Singapore and to the bulk commodity context. Further studies on the practicality of the SQ model involving larger sample size and in other regions and for the general and specialized cargoes would be required to enhance its reliability.
In the contexts of population aging and English as a second language (ESL) proficiency decline in Hong Kong, a 12 weeks program that matched 15 retired citizens with 30 secondary school children who ...wanted to practice English outside the classroom was established. Using proficiency tests, open-ended questions, and Likert scales, this study examined the program value in terms of participants' program experiences and performances. Results indicated that intergenerational contacts through games, activities, mutual understanding, and friendships appeared to be conducive to children's ESL learning and relevant to retirees' post-retirement development. Ideas on exploring ways to increase more available linguistic practice encounters while promoting active aging, and an insight on responding to intergenerational segregation are considered.
The aim of this prospective blinded study was to evaluate an automated algorithm for spike-andwave discharge（SWD） detection applied to EEGs from genetic absence epilepsy rats from ...Strasbourg（GAERS）.Five GAERS underwent four sessions of 20-min EEG recording.Each EEG was manually analyzed for SWDs longer than one second by two investigators and automatically using an algorithm developed in MATLAB（？）.The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value（PPV）,and negative predictive value（NPV） were calculated for the manual（reference） versus the automatic（test） methods.The results showed that the algorithm had specificity,sensitivity,PPV and NPV 〉94%,comparable to published methods that are based on analyzing EEG changes in the frequency domain.This provides a good alternative as a method designed to mimic human manual marking in the time domain.
Ceria doped zirconia has been shown to exhibit enhanced shape memory properties in small volume structures such as particles and micropillars. Here those properties are translated into macroscopic ...materials through the fabrication of zirconia foams by ice templating. Directional freezing is used to produce foams with micron-sized pores and struts that can locally take advantage of the shape memory effect due to their fine scale. The foams are subjected to thermal cycling and x-ray diffraction analysis to evaluate the martensitic transformation that underlies shape memory properties, and are found to survive the transformation through multiple cycles.
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•Facade greening is beneficial for daytime urban cooling and heat island mitigation.•The degree of cooling benefit is mostly dependent on greened facade ratio (GFR).•For a high-density Hong Kong, ...∼1 °C temperature drop requires 30–50% GFR.•Same GFR ensures daytime thermal comfort improvement by at least one class.
To improve outdoor thermal environment and reduce indoor energy use, passive techniques including façade greenery have been suggested. In high-density cities like Hong Kong, buildings’ surface area is much greater than the roof and ground surface areas combined, offering a huge vertical surface platform for greening. However, scientific evidence to assert the thermal benefit from this greening option especially at neighborhood scale is still very few. Therefore, this study was designed to provide such evidence using results from validated ENVI-met model simulation. Thereafter, parametric study was conducted to investigate the quantity and location of facade greening required for potential air cooling and thermal comfort improvement of a neighborhood of varying densities. Model validation results revealed an acceptable modelling of facade surface temperature, air temperature, relative humidity and wall-emitted long-wave fluxes. From the parametric study, we found that 30–50% of facades in the high-density urban setting of Hong Kong must be greened to potentially cause ∼1 °C reduction in both daytime and nighttime air temperature while the same could help improve daytime pedestrian thermal comfort by at least one thermal class. We also established that higher greened facade ratio will be required to obtain similar thermal benefits in low and medium density urban settings. Also, realized benefits at pedestrians’ height can be enhanced when the vertical greening facilities are placed along podium than tower heights. Lastly, practicable urban planning recommendations were presented for the attention of urban planners and landscape architects.
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