Design and Evaluation of a Probabilistic Music Projection Interface

We describe the design and evaluation of a probabilistic interface for music exploration and casual playlist generation. Predicted subjective features, such as mood and genre, inferred from low-level audio features create a 34- dimensional feature space. We use a nonlinear dimensionality reduction algorithm to create 2D music maps of tracks, and augment these with visualisations of probabilistic mappings of selected features and their uncertainty. We evaluated the system in a longitudinal trial in users’ homes over several weeks. Users said they had fun with the interface and liked the casual nature of the playlist generation. Users preferred to generate playlists from a local neighbourhood of the map, rather than from a trajectory, using neighbourhood selection more than three times more often than path selection. Probabilistic highlighting of subjective features led to more focused exploration in mouse activity logs, and 6 of 8 users said they preferred the probabilistic highlighting mode

A practical review on the measurement tools for cellular adhesion force

Cell cell and cell matrix adhesions are fundamental in all multicellular organisms. They play a key role in cellular growth, differentiation, pattern formation and migration. Cell-cell adhesion is substantial in the immune response, pathogen host interactions, and tumor development. The success of tissue engineering and stem cell implantations strongly depends on the fine control of live cell adhesion on the surface of natural or biomimetic scaffolds. Therefore, the quantitative and precise measurement of the adhesion strength of living cells is critical, not only in basic research but in modern technologies, too. Several techniques have been developed or are under development to quantify cell adhesion. All of them have their pros and cons, which has to be carefully considered before the experiments and interpretation of the recorded data. Current review provides a guide to choose the appropriate technique to answer a specific biological question or to complete a biomedical test by measuring cell adhesion

Der pluralistische Korporatismus als innenpolitisches Erfolgsrezept in der schweizerischen Entwicklungspolitik

Die Finanzierung der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit stand seit Jahrzehnten nie mehr so stark unter Druck wie am Jahresende 1994. Noch lässt sich nicht abschätzen, ob die aktuelle Debatte vorübergehender Natur ist oder die Entwicklungspolitik in eine ähnliche Krise geraten wird wie zuvor andere Bereiche der schweizerischen Aussenpolitik. Es dürfte sich deshalb ein Blick auf die innenpolitischen Mechanismen lohnen, die der schweizerischen Entwicklungspolitik zum Durchbruch verholten haben. Vierzig ..

Content comparison and personcenteredness of standards for quality improvement in cardiovascular health care

Background: Quality standards are important for improving health care by providing compelling evidence for best practice. High quality person-centered health care requires information on patients’ experience of disease and of functioning in daily life. Objective: To analyze and compare the content of five Swedish National Quality Registries (NQRs) and two standard sets of the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) related to cardiovascular diseases. Materials and methods: An analysis of 2588 variables (= data items) of five NQRs—the Swedish Registry of Congenital Heart Disease, Swedish Cardiac Arrest Registry, Swedish Catheter Ablation Registry, Swedish Heart Failure Registry, SWEDEHEART (including four sub-registries) and two ICHOM standard sets–the Heart Failure Standard Set and the Coronary Artery Disease Standard Set. According to the name and definition of each variable, the variables were mapped to Donabedian’s quality criteria, whereby identifying whether they capture health care processes or structures or patients’ health outcomes. Health outcomes were further analyzed whether they were clinician- or patient-reported and whether they capture patients’ physiological functions, anatomical structures or activities and participation. Results: In total, 606 variables addressed process quality criteria (31%), 58 structure quality criteria (3%) and 760 outcome quality criteria (38%). Of the outcomes reported, 85% were reported by clinicians and 15% by patients. Outcome variables addressed mainly ‘Body functions’ (n = 392, 55%) or diseases (n = 209, 29%). Two percent of all documented data captured patients’ lived experience of disease and their daily activities and participation (n = 51, 3% of all variables). Conclusions: Quality standards in the cardiovascular field focus predominately on processes (e.g. treatment) and on body functions-related outcomes. Less attention is given to patients’ lived experience of disease and their daily activities and participation. The results can serve as a starting-point for harmonizing data and developing a common person-centered quality indicator set

ÉLŐ SEJTEK ADHÉZIÓJÁNAK MONITOROZÁSA OPTIKAI BIOSZENZOROKKAL

Egy újszerű, nagy áteresztőképességű optikai bioszenzor, az Epic BenchTop (BT) segítségével azt vizsgáltuk, hogyan függ a rákos sejtek kiterülésének kinetikája a integrin-ligandum RGD-motívumok átlagos felületi sűrűségétől (νRGD) [1]. A biologiallag inaktív PLL-g-PEG kopolimer, és az RGD-funkcionalizált PLL-g-PEG-RGD vegyített oldatait használtuk a felületi bevonatok elkészítéséhez, νRGD-t négy nagységrenden keresztül hangoltuk. Modell sejtvonalként az erősen adherens HeLa rákos sejtvonalat használtuk, a kiterülés kinetikáját az Epic BT bioszenzorral egyedülálló minőségben rögzítettük. A kapott görbéket kinetikai elemzésnek vetettük alá: az adatokat a logisztikus egyenlettel illesztettük meg, hogy meghatározhassuk, hogyan függ a felületi ligandsúrúségtől a sejtkiterülés sebességi állandója (r), illetve a maximális bioszenzor jel (∆λmax). Eredményeink szerint r nem függ νRGD-től, átlagos értéke 0.062±0.004 min-1. Ezzel szemben ∆λmax, ami egyenesen arányos a kiterült sejt átlagos kontaktterületével, növekedett, ahogy νRGD-t növeltük. Ezt a viselkedést egy egyszerű monovalens kötési reakcióval leírva meghatároztuk a PLL-PEG-RGD molekula RGD-motívuma és a sejt integrinjei közötti kölcsönhatás két dimenziós disszociációs állandóját, mely 1753 μm-2-nek adódott. Ebből egyszerűen származtatható a kapcsolat 3D-s disszociációs állandója, melynek értéke ~30 μM. Mindezen eredményehez egyedülló módon teljesen noninvazív és jelölésmentes kísérleteken keresztül jutottunk

ZnO Nanostructure Templates as a Cost-Efficient Mass-Producible Route for the Development of Cellular Networks

The development of artificial surfaces which can regulate or trigger specific functions of living cells, and which are capable of inducing in vivo-like cell behaviors under in vitro conditions has been a long-sought goal over the past twenty years. In this work, an alternative, facile and cost-efficient method for mass-producible cellular templates is presented. The proposed methodology consists of a cost-efficient, two-step, all-wet technique capable of producing ZnO-based nanostructures on predefined patterns on a variety of substrates. ZnO—apart from the fact that it is a biocompatible material—was chosen because of its multifunctional nature which has rendered it a versatile material employed in a wide range of applications. Si, Si3N4, emulated microelectrode arrays and conventional glass cover slips were patterned at the micrometer scale and the patterns were filled with ZnO nanostructures. Using HeLa cells, we demonstrated that the fabricated nanotopographical features could promote guided cellular adhesion on the pre-defined micron-scale patterns only through nanomechanical cues without the need for further surface activation or modification. The basic steps of the micro/nanofabrication are presented and the results from the cell adhesion experiments are discussed, showing the potential of the suggested methodology for creating low-cost templates for engineered cellular networks

Automated single cell sorting and deposition in submicroliter drops

Automated manipulation and sorting of single cells are challenging, when intact cells are needed for further investigations, e.g., RNA or DNA sequencing. We applied a computer controlled micropipette on a microscope admitting 80 PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tubes to be filled with single cells in a cycle. Due to the Laplace pressure, fluid starts to flow out from the micropipette only above a critical pressure preventing the precise control of drop volume in the submicroliter range. We found an anomalous pressure additive to the Laplace pressure that we attribute to the evaporation of the drop. We have overcome the problem of the critical dropping pressure with sequentially operated fast fluidic valves timed with a millisecond precision. Minimum drop volume was 0.4–0.7 ll with a sorting speed of 15–20 s per cell. After picking NE- 4C neuroectodermal mouse stem cells and human primary monocytes from a standard plastic Petri dish we could gently deposit single cells inside tiny drops. 9463% and 5467% of the deposited drops contained single cells for NE-4C and monocytes, respectively. 7.564% of the drops contained multiple cells in case of monocytes. Remaining drops were empty. Number of cells deposited in a drop could be documented by imaging the Petri dish before and after sorting. We tuned the adhesion force of cells to make the manipulation successful without the application of microstructures for trapping cells on the surface. We propose that our straightforward and flexible setup opens an avenue for single cell isolation, critically needed for the rapidly growing field of single cell biology