Known and unknown requirements in healthcare

We report experience in requirements elicitation of domain knowledge from experts in clinical and cognitive neurosciences. The elicitation target was a causal model for early signs of dementia indicated by changes in user behaviour and errors apparent in logs of computer activity. A Delphi-style process consisting of workshops with experts followed by a questionnaire was adopted. The paper describes how the elicitation process had to be adapted to deal with problems encountered in terminology and limited consensus among the experts. In spite of the difficulties encountered, a partial causal model of user behavioural pathologies and errors was elicited. This informed requirements for configuring data- and text-mining tools to search for the specific data patterns. Lessons learned for elicitation from experts are presented, and the implications for requirements are discussed as “unknown unknowns”, as well as configuration requirements for directing data-/text-mining tools towards refining awareness requirements in healthcare applications

Improving the stability of 11C–labeled L-methionine with ascorbate

Background: Carbon-11 labeled L-methionine (11C–MET) is a popular tracer used in the clinic for imaging brain tumors with positron emission tomography. However, the stability of 11C–MET in its final formulation is not well documented in literature. Recently, we observed fast degradation of HPLC-purified 11C–MET over time, and systematic investigation was conducted to identify the cause. Results: In this study, we verified the degraded product as 11C–labeled methionine sulfoxide (11C–METSO). To minimize oxidation, ascorbate (100 ppm) was added to the HPLC eluant, and the resulting HPLC-purified 11C–MET was stable in the final formulation solution without noticeable degradation for up to 1 h after the end of synthesis. Conclusions: Our data suggest that to minimize degradation, ascorbate can be added to the 11C–MET formulation solution especially if it is not administered into patients soon after the end of synthesis.Medicine, Faculty ofNon UBCRadiology, Department ofReviewedFacult

Production of Autopolyploid Lowland Switchgrass Lines Through In Vitro Chromosome Doubling.

Citation: Yang, Z., Shen, Z, Tetreault, H., Johnson, L., Friebe, B., Frazier, T., Huang, L. K., Burklew, C., Zhang, X. Q., & Zhao, B. (2014). Production of Autopolyploid Lowland Switchgrass Lines Through In Vitro Chromosome Doubling. Retrieved from http://krex.ksu.eduSwitchgrass is considered one of the most promising energy crops. However, breeding of elite switchgrass cultivars is required to meet the challenges of large scale and sustainable biomass production. As a native perennial adapted to North America, switchgrass has lowland and upland ecotypes, where most lowland ecotypes are tetraploid (2n=4x=36), and most upland ecotypes are predominantly octoploid (2n=8x=72). Hybridization between lowland and upland switchgrass plants could identify new cultivars with heterosis. However, crossing between tetraploid and octoploid switchgrass is rare in nature. Therefore, in order to break down the cross incompatibility barrier between tetraploid lowland and octoploid upland switchgrass lines, we developed autoployploid switchgrass lines from an anueploid lowland cv. Alamo. In this study, colchicine was used in liquid and solid mediums to chemically induce chromosome doubling in embryogenic calli derived from cv. Alamo. Thirteen autopolyploid switchgrass lines were regenerated from seedlings and identified using flow cytometry. The autoplyploid switchgrass plants exhibited increased stomata aperture and stem size in comparison with the cv. Alamo. The most autooplyploid plants were regenerated from switchgrass calli that were treated with 0.04 % colchicine in liquid medium for 13 days. One autopolyploid switchgrass line, VT8-1, was successfully crossed to the octoploid upland cv. Blackwell. The autoployploid and the derived inter-ecotype hybrids were confirmed by in situ hybridization and molecular marker analysis. Therefore, the results of this study show that an autopolyploid, generated by chemically induced chromosome doubling of lowland cv. Alamo, is cross compatible with upland octoploid switchgrass cultivars. The outcome of this study may have significant applications in switchgrass hybrid breeding

Additive-free molecular acceptor organic solar cells processed from a biorenewable solvent approaching 15% efficiency

We report on the use of molecular acceptors (MAs) and donor polymers processed with a biomass-derived solvent (2-methyltetrahydrofuran, 2-MeTHF) to facilitate bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic photovoltaics (OPVs) with power conversion efficiency (PCE) approaching 15%. Our approach makes use of two newly designed donor polymers with an opened ring unit in their structures along with three molecular acceptors (MAs) where the backbone and sidechain were engineered to enhance the processability of BHJ OPVs using 2-MeTHF, as evaluated by an analysis of donor-acceptor (D-A) miscibility and interaction parameters. To understand the differences in the PCE values that ranged from 9-15% as a function of composition, the surface, bulk, and interfacial BHJ morphologies were characterized at different length scales using atomic force microscopy, grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, resonant soft X-ray scattering, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and 2D solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Our results indicate that the favorable D-A intermixing that occurs in the best performing BHJ film with an average domain size of ∼25 nm, high domain purity, uniform distribution and enhanced local packing interactions - facilitates charge generation and extraction while limiting the trap-assisted recombination process in the device, leading to high effective mobility and good performance.Air Force Office of Scientific Research12 month embargo; first published 05 October 2023This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]