Modern Approaches To Quality Control

Rapid advance have been made in the last decade in the quality control procedures and techniques, most of the existing books try to cover specific techniques with all of their details. The aim of this book is to demonstrate quality control processes in a variety of areas, ranging from pharmaceutical and medical fields to construction engineering and data quality. A wide range of techniques and procedures have been covered

A Cross-disciplinary Study of the Work and Collections by Roberto de Visiani (1800-1878)

Botanists need access to historical collections of dried plants (herbaria) in order to precisely clarify the identity of taxa described by authors of the past. These studies involve the formal process of typifcation, prescribed by the Code of nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, which requires the actual specimens originally used for the descriptions to be identified and designated as types, so to permanently atach them to their scientifc name, and serve as absolute reference. With over 600 newly described taxa and almost 1,000 newly established names, Roberto de Visiani (Šibenik 1800 - Padova 1878), was one of the most important scholars to direct the Botanical Garden of Padova, a position he held from 1837 to his death. During this time, he transformed it from a mere tool for the teaching of medicine to a modern institution open to the community. He was the author of numerous important works of taxonomy, mostly focussed on the vascular flora of his homeland, Dalmatia. After his death, he left in Padova not only a large collection of about 12,000 specimens, but also thousands of leters he received, manuscripts, and other unpublished material, which have remained almost entirely unstudied, despite his having lived, worked, and left a mark during one of the most defining times for the Garden itself, the University, and the scientific community at large. In the study of the work of 19th century botanists, scientific, historical, and geographical issues are intimately intertwined, but have rarely been considered together, with the widely cross-disciplinary, author- and collection-centric approach that we argue is the best means to solve questions of historical botany. To verify and showcase its efficacy, we set the following goals: 1) to correctly identify and formally designate type material in Visiani's collections, reconstructing the history of botanical explorations in the western Balkans, and his network of relationships and exchanges; 2) to analyse Visiani's work and to reconstruct his scientific standing at the national and international level; 3) to add value to Visiani's collections and archive by making them more accessible to the public. A large amount of diverse materials has been used. One very important source of in formation has been Visiani's Herbarium Dalmaticum, conserved in Padova and we catalogued in 2011-2013. All of Visiani's published works on foristics have been collected and studied, and are analysed in great detail, with special attention dedicated to his masterpiece Flora Dalmatica, and to the four smaller publications he co-authored with Serbian professor Josif Pančić. A more general overview is given for his contributions to other fields. All of Visiani's unpublished material available at the Ancient Library of the Botanical Garden has been digitised and organised. Over a third of the more than 2,000 letters that are conserved in his correspondence have been transcribed. We have also retrieved and transcribed the letters he sent to his best friend, famous lichenologist and palaeobotanist Abramo Massalongo, conserved at the Civic Library of Verona, and those sent to botanist Josif Pančić, conserved at the Botanical Institute of Belgrade. Beyond letters, other unpublished documents, particularly lists of plants, manuscripts for both published and unpublished works, and the rare travel diaries have been analysed. The study of these materials has led to the publication of seven scientifc papers, with forty-one type designations in total, plus detailed notes for seventeen other names. A draf treatment of the 275 names newly published in Flora Dalmatica is presented. Publication will require the input of a Croatian taxonomist. Two other papers in preparation are presented. The data from the herbarium and Visiani's published works have been integrated in a geodatabase managed through QGIS, which allows to investigate them through powerful querying. This instrument is used to produce maps to accompany the detailed chronology of the botanical exploration of Dalmatia and neighbouring regions during Visiani's lifetime that has been put together from all the different sources, as well as to check the correspondence between the herbarium and the published records. Visiani's network of relations and exchanges is clarified, with a discussion on his assistants, gardeners, colleagues, friends, co-authors, and the many plant collectors that provided him with specimens, many of whom were minor figures about whom little to nothing was known from literature. Particularly interesting are the role played by Antonio Bertoloni at the start of Visiani's career, the contribution by Muzio Tommasini to the publication of Flora Dalmatica, Visiani's troubled relationship with its editor Friedrich Hofmeister, and his the very close friendship with Massalongo. Visiani's scientific ideas are discussed in detail. Visiani had a positivistic view of science, and considered experimentation the main road to knowledge; he was not influenced by romantic ideas as many other botanists were at the time. His approach to systematic botany was typical of the first half of the 19th century: he focussed on the careful description of species and the exploration of a regional flora, and was always a strenuous defender of Linnaean practice, for which he was sometimes criticised late in his life. His methods and ideas arguably influenced the school of botany in Padova up to the mid 20th century. While we confirm Visiani's opposition to the unripe pre-Darwinian evolutionary hypotheses, we argue he was not a dogmatic fixist, and pose he may even have converted to evolutionism late in his life. His concepts, methods, and choices in taxonomy and nomenclature, whose understanding is crucial for the typifcation of his names, are clarified and described in detail. A detailed personal biography of Visiani is presented, dealing with topics such as his origins, studies, professional life, travels, character, religion, political ideas, material legacy. As for his stance towards the process of unification of Italy, his position is discovered to have been cautiously anti-Austrian. We argue this may be explained partly with his own ambiguous national identity, and partly with his prioritising the safety of his academic position. Visiani's work as director of the Botanical Garden is reconstructed largely thanks to the analysis of unpublished materials. We detail expenses, works, the growth of living and non-living collections, and his efforts to engage the public. Botanical results are being made available to the community through specialist publications. Unpublished material by Visiani is being made freely available online on the PHAIDRA platform by the University's Library Centre. Publishing of the correspondence between Visiani and Pančić, and Visiani and Massalongo is being discussed. The GIS system will be made available to the Herbarium of Padova; the collected data could be made available to the public with the development of a web application. We conclude that a cross-disciplinary, author- and collection-centric approach in questions of historical botany is highly effective

Identifizierung von Biomarkersignaturen zur Diskriminierung der Pneumokokken-Pneumonie von der Staphylokokken-Pneumonie

Bacterial pneumonia is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. One of the reasons for this may be the lack of accurate diagnostic tests that results in delayed identification of the causative agent and subsequent delay in initiating appropriate therapy. In this regard, the objective of this thesis was the identification of host biomarkers which could discriminate between pneumococcal pneumonia and staphylococcal pneumonia in experimental murine infection models using transcriptomics, metabolomics and lipidomics. A genome-wide gene expression profile was determined in the lungs and blood of mice intranasally infected with S. pneumoniae or with S. aureus using RNA-Sequencing. PCA identified the transcriptional signature for staphylococcal infection including the expression of Arg1, Defb3, Cxcl3, Ccr3, Cycs and Ear6 in lung tissue and various small nucleolar RNAs and mitochondrially encoded RNA genes as well as Nrxn3 in peripheral blood. S. pneumonia-specific transcriptional signature in the lungs and in peripheral blood comprises the expression of IFN-induced genes. Metabolic profiling was performed in lung tissue and plasma of infected mice using a targeted metabolomics approach. ROC curve analysis identified 18 metabolites with an AUC of 1 in lung tissue. Predictive models were built to identify optimal combinations of lung and blood metabolites for classifying samples as belonging to either S. pneumoniae or S. aureus infection. In plasma samples a optimal combination of 25 metabolites including 3 acetylcarnitines (C3, C8, C3-DC C4-OH), 1 phosphatidylcholine (PC), 4 lysoPCs, 5 amino acids (Ile, Leu, Met, Tyr, Val), 1 biogenic amine and 1 sphingolipid with the highest average importances was predicted to discriminate S. pneumoniae from S. aureus infection. ROC curve analysis of single plasma lipids that could discriminate between S. pneumoniae and S. aureus lung infection provided a list of 14 lipids. On the other hand, a combination of 25 lipids including 5 lysoPCs, 4 lysophosphatidylethanolamine, 3 phosphatidylinositols, 1 TAG, 1 PCs and 1 cholesterol ester with the highest average importances was predicted as optimal to discriminate S. pneumoniae from S. aureus infection. Overall, this study shows the utility of multi-omics data to identify signatures that can be used to differentiate between S. pneumoniae and S. aureus. Further studies with human samples will be needed to validate the identified pathogen-specific signatures.Bakterielle Pneumonie ist eine der Hauptursachen für Morbidität und Mortalität weltweit. Einer der Gründe liegt im Fehlen genauer diagnostischer Tests, die zu einer verzögerten Identifizierung des verursachenden Erregers und Initiierung einer nicht-geeigneten Therapie führen. Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Identifizierung von Wirts-Biomarkern, die Pneumokokken-Pneumonie von Staphylokokken-Pneumonie in einem experimentellen Maus-Infektionsmodell unter Verwendung von Transkriptomik, Metabolomik und Lipidomik unterscheiden können. Zu diesem Zweck wurde das transkriptionale Profil im Lungengewebe und peripheren Blut von S. pneumoniae und S. aureus infizierten Mäusen mittels RNA-Sequenzierung bestimmt. Mittels Hauptkomponentenanalyse identifizierte die Faktorladung der ersten Hauptkomponente die transkriptionale Staphylokokken Signatur mit der Expression von Arg1, Defb3, CXCL3, CCR3, Cycs und Ear6 in Lungengewebe und verschiedene kleine nukleoläre RNAs und mitochondrial kodierte RNA-Gene sowie Nrxn3 im peripheren Blut. Im Gegensatz dazu umfasst die S. pneumoniae-spezifische transkriptionale Signatur in der Lunge und im peripheren Blut Interferon induzierte Gene. Die Grenzwertoptimierungskurvenanalyse (ROC) identifizierte 18 Lungenmetabolite mit einer Fläche unter der ROC-Kurve (AUC) von 1. Mit Hilfe multivariater statistischer Methoden wurden verschiedene Vorhersagemodelle generiert, um die optimale Kombination von Metaboliten für die Klassifizierung nach Infektionserregern (S. pneumoniae oder S. aureus) zu identifizieren. Das beste Vorhersagemodell für Lungengewebe mit 5 Metaboliten und einer AUC von 1 setzte sich zusammen aus 3 Carnitinen (C2, C3, C4), Histamin und die Summe von Hexosen (H1). Für Plasmaproben bestand das optimale Vorhersagemodell aus 25 Metaboliten, darunter 3 Acylcarnitine (C3, C8, C3-DC C4-OH), 4 lysoPCs, 5 Aminosäuren (Ile, Leu, Met, Tyr und Val), 1 PC, 1 biogenes Amine und 1 Sphingolipid mit der höchsten Gewichtigkeit für das Modell. Die ROC-Kurvenanalyse zwischen S. pneumoniae und S. aureus infizierten Plasmaproben identifizierte 14 Lipide. Das optimale Vorhersagemodell bestand aus 25 Metaboliten, darunter 5 lysoPCs, 4 lysoPE, 3 Phosphatidylinositols, 1 TAG, 1 PCs und 1 Cholesterinester mit der höchsten Gewichtigkeit für das Modell. Die aktuelle Studie liefert zusätzliche Hinweise darauf, dass die transkriptionale und metabolische Signatur bei einer Infektion zur Differenzierung zwischen S. pneumoniae und S. aureus verwendet werden kann