Evaluation of Proficiency Testing Program for Laboratories Conducting HIV-1 DNA Detection for Early Infant Diagnosis from Dried Blood Spot Specimens in Resource-Limited Settings

Early diagnosis of HIV in infants is critical because it can remarkably impact an infant’s survival. DNA PCR is the standard test for diagnosis of HIV-1 in infants and young children less than 18 months of age. For settings that lack the adequate infrastructure for processing whole blood and cold-chain transportation, the collection of dried blood spots (DBS) has facilitated the detection of HIV-1 in infants as early as 4-6 weeks after birth. Molecular testing using DBS provides an accurate method for the identification of HIV-1 but quality testing depends greatly on adequate quality assurance. A voluntary, cost-free external quality assurance program established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Global AIDS Program was implemented to monitor the performance of laboratories conducting HIV EID from DBS in an effort to provide the critically needed external quality assurance measures in resource-constrained settings. Known HIV- positive and negative DBS specimens to be used as internal controls and ten blinded DBS specimens are shipped internationally tri-annually with a 30 day testing result turnaround. Peer comparison is provided after each testing time point. Advances by resource-constrained countries to conduct EID have resulted in more children being tested, which resulted in enrollment and participation expanding significantly to include greater than 104 laboratories from 36 countries. Mean test scores have improved with each testing but false negative results are twice as likely as false positive discordant outcomes

Optical fibers to measure temperature vertical profile at sea

The paper is focus in the use the optical fiber to measure the temperature in various heigh at the same time to get a temperature vertical variation. The temperature measurements are puntual while the Bragg gratings located in the fiber.Peer Reviewe

<i>Holiday</i> or <i>vacation</i>? The processing of variation in vocabulary across dialects

Published online: 20 Oct 2015Native speakers with different linguistic backgrounds differ in their usage of language, and particularly in their vocabulary. For instance, British natives would use the word "holiday" when American natives would prefer the word "vacation". This study investigates how cross-dialectal lexical variation impacts lexical processing. Electrophysiological responses were recorded, while British natives listened to British or American speech in which lexical frequency dominance across dialects was manipulated (British versus American vocabulary). Words inconsistent with the dialect of the speaker (British words uttered by American speakers and vice versa) elicited larger negative electrophysiological deflections than consistent words, 700 ms after stimulus onset. Thus, processing of British words was easier when listening to British speakers and processing of American words was easier when listening to American speakers. These results show that listeners integrate their knowledge about cross-dialectal lexical variations in vocabulary as speech unfolds, as it was previously shown for social lexical variations.This research was funded by grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2011-23033, PSI2014-54500, and Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00048), from the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521) and from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007– 2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME). CM was supported by the Basque Foundation for Science (IKERBASQUE) and the BCBL institution

Genetic mapping of legume orthologs reveals high conservation of synteny between lentil species and the sequenced genomes of Medicago and chickpea.

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a global food crop with increasing importance for food security in south Asia and other regions. Lens ervoides, a wild relative of cultivated lentil, is an important source of agronomic trait variation. Lens is a member of the galegoid clade of the Papilionoideae family, which includes other important dietary legumes such as chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and pea (Pisum sativum), and the sequenced model legume Medicago truncatula. Understanding the genetic structure of Lens spp. in relation to more fully sequenced legumes would allow leveraging of genomic resources. A set of 1107 TOG-based amplicons were identified in L. ervoides and a subset thereof used to design SNP markers for mapping. A map of L. ervoides consisting of 377 SNP markers spread across seven linkage groups was developed using a GoldenGate genotyping array and single SNP marker assays. Comparison with maps of M. truncatula and L. culinaris documented considerable shared synteny and led to the identification of a few major translocations and a major inversion that distinguish Lens from M. truncatula, as well as a translocation that distinguishes L. culinaris from L. ervoides. The identification of chromosome-level differences among Lens spp. will aid in the understanding of introgression of genes from L. ervoides into cultivated L. culinaris, furthering genetic research and breeding applications in lentil

World knowledge and novel information integration during L2speech comprehension.

Published online: 22 January 2016In this study we explore whether world knowledge (WK) processing differs between individuals listening to their native (L1) or their non-native (L2) language. We recorded event-related brain potentials in L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish while they listened to sentences uttered by native speakers of Spanish. Sentences were either congruent or incongruent with participants’ WK. In addition, participants also listened to sentences in which upcoming words could not be anticipated on the basis of WK. WK violations elicited a late negativity of greater magnitude and duration in the L2 than the L1 group. However, sentences in which WK was not helpful regarding word anticipation elicited similar N400 modulations in both groups. These results suggest that WK processing requires a deeper lexical search in L2 comprehension than in L1 comprehensionThis research was approved by the ethics committee of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance, which funded this study.We thank Silvia Blanch and Xavier Mayoral for their technical support, and Meritxell Ayguasanosa for assistance in testing participants. This research was funded by an FPI grant (BES-2012-056668) and two project grants (PSI2011-23033 and Consolider INGENIO CSD2007- 00012) awarded by the Spanish Government; by one grant from the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521); and by one grant from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME). C.D.M. is supported by the IKERBASQUE institution and the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language. A.C. is supported by the ICREA institution and the Center for Brain and Cognition

X-ray/Optical/Radio Observations of a Resolved Supernova Remnant in NGC 6822

The supernova remnant (SNR), Ho 12, in the center of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822 was previously observed at X-ray, optical, and radio wavelengths. By using archival Chandra and ground-based optical data, we found that the SNR is spatially resolved in X-rays and optical. In addition, we obtained a ~5" resolution radio image of the SNR. These observations provide the highest spatial resolution imaging of an X-ray/optical/radio SNR in that galaxy to date. The multi-wavelength morphology, X-ray spectrum and variability, and narrow-band optical imagings are consistent with a SNR. The SNR is a shell-shaped object with a diameter of about 10" (24 pc). The morphology of the SNR is consistent across the wavelengths while the Chandra spectrum can be well fitted with a nonequilibrium ionization model with an electron temperature of 2.8 keV and a 0.3-7 keV luminosity of 1.6e37 erg/s. The age of the SNR is estimated to be 1700-5800 years.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Knowledge is at the Edge! How to Search in Distributed Machine Learning Models

With the advent of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 an enormous amount of data is produced at the edge of the network. Due to a lack of computing power, this data is currently send to the cloud where centralized machine learning models are trained to derive higher level knowledge. With the recent development of specialized machine learning hardware for mobile devices, a new era of distributed learning is about to begin that raises a new research question: How can we search in distributed machine learning models? Machine learning at the edge of the network has many benefits, such as low-latency inference and increased privacy. Such distributed machine learning models can also learn personalized for a human user, a specific context, or application scenario. As training data stays on the devices, control over possibly sensitive data is preserved as it is not shared with a third party. This new form of distributed learning leads to the partitioning of knowledge between many devices which makes access difficult. In this paper we tackle the problem of finding specific knowledge by forwarding a search request (query) to a device that can answer it best. To that end, we use a entropy based quality metric that takes the context of a query and the learning quality of a device into account. We show that our forwarding strategy can achieve over 95% accuracy in a urban mobility scenario where we use data from 30 000 people commuting in the city of Trento, Italy.Comment: Published in CoopIS 201

Dissecting T Cell Contraction In Vivo Using a Genetically Encoded Reporter of Apoptosis

SummaryContraction is a critical phase of immunity whereby the vast majority of effector T cells die by apoptosis, sparing a population of long-lived memory cells. Where, when, and why contraction occurs has been difficult to address directly due in large part to the rapid clearance of apoptotic T cells in vivo. To circumvent this issue, we introduced a genetically encoded reporter for caspase-3 activity into naive T cells to identify cells entering the contraction phase. Using two-photon imaging, we found that caspase-3 activity in T cells was maximal at the peak of the response and was associated with loss of motility followed minutes later by cell death. We demonstrated that contraction is a widespread process occurring uniformly in all organs tested and targeting phenotypically diverse T cells. Importantly, we identified a critical window of time during which antigen encounters act to antagonize T cell apoptosis, supporting a causal link between antigen clearance and T cell contraction. Our results offer insight into a poorly explored phase of immunity and provide a versatile methodology to study apoptosis during the development or function of a variety of immune cells in vivo

Familial Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Retrospective Analysis

Background. Whether or not the familial form of papillary thyroid carcinoma is more aggressive than the sporadic form of the disease remains controversial. Methods. To explore this question and whether or not increased aggressiveness is more apparent in families with multiple affected members, we performed a chi square by trend analysis on our patients clinical and pathologic data comparing: first degree families with three or more affected members versus first degree families with two affected members versus sporadic cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Results. No statistically significant trends were seen for any presenting surgical pathology parameter, age at presentation, length of follow-up or gender distribution. The familial groups exhibited significant trends for higher rates of reoperation (P = 0.05) and/or requiring additional radioactive iodine therapy (P = 0.03), distant metastases (P = 0.003) and deaths (P = 0.01). These aggressive features were most apparent in certain families with three or more affected members. Conclusions. Using the chi square by trend analysis, a significant trend was seen for the familial form of papillary thyroid cancer to possess more aggressive features than the sporadic disease. Prompt recognition of the familial nature of the disease may provide earlier diagnosis and treatment in similarly affected family members