Henri Temianka Correspondence; (broger)

This collection contains material pertaining to the life, career, and activities of Henri Temianka, violin virtuoso, conductor, music teacher, and author. Materials include correspondence, concert programs and flyers, music scores, photographs, and books.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/temianka_correspondence/1478/thumbnail.jp

Exploiting Fluorescent Reporter Molecules for Process Analytical Technology (PAT): FH – HES

Process Analytical Technology (PAT) launched by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aims to ensure the quality of pharmaceutical products. One important tool to obtain a deeper process understanding is the use of modern real-time process sensors and analyzers. In this context an industrially accepted optical probe for turbidity measurement (Aquasant probe) has been adapted for on-line and real-time fluorescence measurement in (bio-)reactors. By tagging product proteins with fluorescent reporter molecules (e.g. GFP) it was possible to quantify product concentrations during a fermentation process with the new probe. The on-line obtained signal showed a high correlation to the off-line signal. This new method has remarkable advantages compared to classical off-line product lab analyses and can serve as a platform-independent quantification method of products to be used in either up- or downstream processing

Möglichkeiten und Grenzen für ein Nachhaltigkeitslabel für Versicherungsprodukte

Der Klimawandel, hauptsächlich durch menschliche Aktivitäten verursacht, hat erhebliche globale Auswirkungen. Dazu zählen der Anstieg des Meeresspiegels und extreme Wetterereignisse. Die Versicherungswirtschaft spielt eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Bekämpfung des Klimawandels. Durch nachhaltige Geschäftspraktiken und innovative Produkte fördert sie die Reduzierung von CO2-Emissionen und stärkt die finanzielle Widerstands-fähigkeit gegenüber Extremereignissen. Kund:innen zeigen immer mehr Interesse an nachhaltigen Versicherungsprodukten und wünschen ausführlichere Informationen zu diesem Thema. Die vorliegende Masterarbeit fokussiert auf Nachhaltigkeitslabels in der Versicherungs-branche und insbesondere auf die Chancen und Herausforderungen bei der Entwicklung eines Labels für Hausratversicherungen. Umfangreiche Literaturrecherchen wurden durchgeführt, in denen bestehende Initiativen, Standards und Labels sowohl innerhalb als auch ausserhalb der Finanz- und Versicherungsbranche analysiert wurden. Experteninterviews, die im Rahmen der qualitativen Forschung durchgeführt wurden, lieferten wert-volle Einblicke in mögliche Handlungsfelder, Herausforderungen und Chancen im Zusammenhang mit Nachhaltigkeitslabels. Die Erkenntnisse zeigen, dass ein Nachhaltigkeitslabel nicht nur die Gefahr von Greenwashing verringern würde, sondern auch die Vergleichbarkeit der Nachhaltigkeitsbemühungen verbessern könnte. Es könnte Berater:innen entlasten und Kund:innen ein wert-volles Versprechen in Bezug auf Nachhaltigkeit bieten. Es ergeben sich jedoch auch grosse Herausforderungen, wie die Definition der Ziele des Labels, die Festlegung mess-barer Kriterien und die Sicherstellung der Glaubwürdigkeit des Labels. Eine weitere Herausforderung ist die Bereitschaft der Kund:innen, solche nachhaltigen Produkte zu akzeptieren. Die Expert:innen sehen Versicherungsunternehmen nicht als idealen Herausgeber eines Labels. Diese Rolle sollte von einer unabhängigen Organisation, einem Branchenverband oder einem Regulator übernommen werden, obwohl jede dieser Institutionen ihre eigenen Vor- und Nachteile hat. Für den Erfolg eines Labels ist es wichtig, ein angemessenes Ambitionsniveau zu definieren und sicherzustellen, dass das Label für Kund:innen verständlich und transparent ist. In diesem Zusammenhang ist es wichtig, dass ein Label die Vergleichbarkeit mit anderen Versicherungsprodukten erhöht und so den Kund:innen eine Orientierungshilfe bieten kann. Die genannte Herausforderung der Kundenbereitschaft wird auch als wichtiger Erfolgsfaktor eines Labels erkannt. Partnerschaften, vor allem im Bereich des Schadenmanagements, werden als zentral für die erfolgreiche Umsetzung eines Labels angesehen. Nicht zuletzt ist die Glaubwürdigkeit eines Labels auch eine der zentralen Erfolgsfaktoren. Durch die Einhaltung verschiedener Prinzipien kann die Glaubwürdigkeit eines Labels und somit die potenzielle Akzeptanz erhöht werden. Zusammenfassend zeigen die Erkenntnisse aus den Experteninterviews, dass es zwar einige Herausforderungen auf dem Weg zu einem Nachhaltigkeitslabel gibt, die Potenziale jedoch grösstenteils erkannt werden

Standardization of Military Rapid Response Teams

The healthcare industry is continuously challenged to improve patient outcomes while remaining focused on cost-containment and patient safety. The National Patient Safety goals (2009) provide healthcare organizations with performance standards aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality rates. Rapid response teams (RRT) are one of the initiatives intended to decrease cardiopulmonary arrests outside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), decrease unplanned admission into the ICU, and decrease mortality rates. The last twelve years at war has created a high deployment rate for military medical personal. Each year military hospitals lose an average of eight to ten providers to support the War of Terrorism. Deployment cycles and Permanent Change of Station (PCS) cycles create a military healthcare system that functions in a constant state of turmoil and transition. Implementation of standardized programs has been problematic due to these high turnover rates and individualized hospital policies based on the local command. There is a lack of continuity and standardization in RRT programs in the Military healthcare system despite evidence that a standardized program can improve patient outcomes. Each hospital creates and operates their RRT programs based on local policy and procedures. Standardization of the RRT program is essential in a healthcare system that requires medical professionals to adapt to a new healthcare organization every three to four years as they are transferred among hospital facilities. The purpose of this Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) Project is to create a standardized RRT policy based on current evidence and best practices and to present this policy to Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center (DDEAMC) for consideration for implementation

Deutsche Übersetzung und interkulturelle Adaptation des Workstyle Short Form

Das Assessment Workstyle Short Form ist ein Selbsteinschätzungsbogen von Feuerstein und Nicholas (2006) für die Erfassung des Workstyles (Arbeitsverhalten) bei Menschen mit Work-related upper extremity disorders (WRUED). WRUED ist die Bezeichnung für arbeitsbedingte Muskel-Skelett-Erkrankungen der oberen Extremitäten. Um das Assessment für die Ergotherapie in der Schweiz verwenden zu können, wird eine deutsche Übersetzung benötigt. Das Ziel ist, eine erste deutsche Übersetzung des genannten Assessments nach der Leitlinie «Guidelines for Best Practice in Cross-Cultural Surveys» (Survey Research Center, 2016) zu erstellen. Die Übersetzung wurde im Team in einem mehrstufigen Prozess gemäss den Schritten Übersetzung (Translation), Überprüfung (Review), Entscheidung für eine Übersetzungsvariante (Adjudication), Testlauf (Pretesting) und Dokumentation (Documentation) erstellt. Das Ergebnis ist eine erste deutsche Version des Workstyle Short Form. Diese Version soll in der Ergotherapie für Menschen mit WRUED zur Zielsetzung, Interventionsplanung und Evaluation genutzt werden können. Allerdings braucht es weitere Forschung, um die Qualität und die Güte der deutschen Version zu testen, bevor es als zuverlässiges Assessment in der Praxis angewendet werden kann

Sensitive electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunoassays for detecting lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and ESAT-6 in urine and serum from tuberculosis patients.

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) infection was responsible for an estimated 1.3 million deaths in 2017. Better diagnostic tools are urgently needed. We sought to determine whether accurate TB antigen detection in blood or urine has the potential to meet the WHO target product profiles for detection of active TB.Materials and methodsWe developed Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunoassays for Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and ESAT-6 detection with detection limits in the pg/ml range and used them to compare the concentrations of the two antigens in the urine and serum of 81 HIV-negative and -positive individuals with presumptive TB enrolled across diverse geographic sites.ResultsLAM and ESAT-6 overall sensitivities in urine were 93% and 65% respectively. LAM and ESAT-6 overall sensitivities in serum were 55% and 46% respectively. Overall specificity was ≥97% in all assays. Sensitivities were higher in HIV-positive compared to HIV-negative patients for both antigens and both sample types, with signals roughly 10-fold higher on average in urine than in serum. The two antigens showed similar concentration ranges within the same sample type and correlated.ConclusionsLAM and ESAT-6 can be detected in the urine and serum of TB patients, regardless of the HIV status and further gains in clinical sensitivity may be achievable through assay and reagent optimization. Accuracy in urine was higher with current methods and has the potential to meet the WHO accuracy target if the findings can be transferred to a point-of-care TB test

A Novel Sensitive Immunoassay Targeting the 5-Methylthio-d-Xylofuranose-Lipoarabinomannan Epitope Meets the WHO's Performance Target for Tuberculosis Diagnosis.

The only currently commercialized point-of-care assay for tuberculosis (TB) that measures lipoarabinomannan (LAM) in urine (Alere LF-LAM) has insufficient sensitivity. We evaluated the potential of 100 novel monoclonal antibody pairs targeting a variety of LAM epitopes on a sensitive electrochemiluminescence platform to improve the diagnostic accuracy. In the screening, many antibody pairs showed high reactivity to purified LAM but performed poorly at detecting urinary LAM in clinical samples, suggesting differences in antigen structure and immunoreactivity of the different LAM sources. The 12 best antibody pairs from the screening were tested in a retrospective case-control study with urine samples from 75 adults with presumptive TB. The best antibody pair reached femtomolar analytical sensitivity for LAM detection and an overall clinical sensitivity of 93% (confidence interval [CI], 80% to 97%) and specificity of 97% (CI, 85% to 100%). Importantly, in HIV-negative subjects positive for TB by sputum smear microscopy, the test achieved a sensitivity of 80% (CI, 55% to 93%). This compares to an overall sensitivity of 33% (CI, 20% to 48%) of the Alere LF-LAM and a sensitivity of 13% (CI, 4% to 38%) in HIV-negative subjects in the same sample set. The capture antibody targets a unique 5-methylthio-d-xylofuranose (MTX)-dependent epitope in LAM that is specific to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and shows no cross-reactivity with fast-growing mycobacteria or other bacteria. The present study provides evidence that improved assay methods and reagents lead to increased diagnostic accuracy. The results of this work have informed the development of a sensitive and specific novel LAM point-of-care assay with the aim to meet the WHO's performance target for TB diagnosis

What is a physical measure of spatial inhomogeneity comparable to the mathematical approach?

A linear transformation f(S) of configurational entropy with length scale dependent coefficients as a measure of spatial inhomogeneity is considered. When a final pattern is formed with periodically repeated initial arrangement of point objects the value of the measure is conserved. This property allows for computation of the measure at every length scale. Its remarkable sensitivity to the deviation (per cell) from a possible maximally uniform object distribution for the length scale considered is comparable to behaviour of strictly mathematical measure h introduced by Garncarek et al. in [2]. Computer generated object distributions reveal a correlation between the two measures at a given length scale for all configurations as well as at all length scales for a given configuration. Some examples of complementary behaviour of the two measures are indicated.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Entropic measure of spatial disorder for systems of finite-sized objects

We consider the relative configurational entropy per cell S_Delta as a measure of the degree of spatial disorder for systems of finite-sized objects. It is highly sensitive to deviations from the most spatially ordered reference configuration of the objects. When applied to a given binary image it provides the quantitatively correct results in comparison to its point object version. On examples of simple cluster configurations, two-dimensional Sierpinski carpets and population of interacting particles, the behaviour of S_Delta is compared with the normalized information entropy H' introduced by Van Siclen [Phys. Rev. E 56, (1997) 5211]. For the latter example, the additional middle-scale features revealed by our measure may indicate for the traces of self-similar structure of the weakly ramified clusters. In the thermodynamic limit, the formula for S_Delta is also given.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Inositol pyrophosphates promote the interaction of SPX domains with the coiled-coil motif of PHR transcription factors to regulate plant phosphate homeostasis

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient taken up by organisms in the form of inorganic phosphate (Pi). Eukaryotes have evolved sophisticated Pi sensing and signaling cascades, enabling them to stably maintain cellular Pi concentrations. Pi homeostasis is regulated by inositol pyrophosphate signaling molecules (PP-InsPs), which are sensed by SPX domain-containing proteins. In plants, PP-InsP-bound SPX receptors inactivate Myb coiled-coil (MYB-CC) Pi starvation response transcription factors (PHRs) by an unknown mechanism. Here we report that a InsP8–SPX complex targets the plant-unique CC domain of PHRs. Crystal structures of the CC domain reveal an unusual four-stranded anti-parallel arrangement. Interface mutations in the CC domain yield monomeric PHR1, which is no longer able to bind DNA with high affinity. Mutation of conserved basic residues located at the surface of the CC domain disrupt interaction with the SPX receptor in vitro and in planta, resulting in constitutive Pi starvation responses. Together, our findings suggest that InsP8 regulates plant Pi homeostasis by controlling the oligomeric state and hence the promoter binding capability of PHRs via their SPX receptors