A practical guide to single-cell RNA-sequencing for biomedical research and clinical applications.

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a genomic approach for the detection and quantitative analysis of messenger RNA molecules in a biological sample and is useful for studying cellular responses. RNA-seq has fueled much discovery and innovation in medicine over recent years. For practical reasons, the technique is usually conducted on samples comprising thousands to millions of cells. However, this has hindered direct assessment of the fundamental unit of biology-the cell. Since the first single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) study was published in 2009, many more have been conducted, mostly by specialist laboratories with unique skills in wet-lab single-cell genomics, bioinformatics, and computation. However, with the increasing commercial availability of scRNA-seq platforms, and the rapid ongoing maturation of bioinformatics approaches, a point has been reached where any biomedical researcher or clinician can use scRNA-seq to make exciting discoveries. In this review, we present a practical guide to help researchers design their first scRNA-seq studies, including introductory information on experimental hardware, protocol choice, quality control, data analysis and biological interpretation

It’s Not Only Rents: Explaining the Persistence and Change of Neopatrimonialism in Indonesia

Indonesia has long been associated with neopatrimonialism, corruption, collusion, and nepotism as the main modi operandi of politics, economics and public administration. Despite various measures and initiatives to fight these practises, little evidence for a significant decline can be found over the years. Rather, longitudinal analysis points to changes in the character of neopatrimonialism. Based on more than 60 in-depth interviews, focus-group discussions, and the analysis of both primary and secondary data, the aim of this article is, first, to describe the changes that have taken place, and, second, to investigate what accounts for these changes. Political economy concepts posit the amount and development of economic rents as the explanatory factor for the persistence and change of neopatrimonialism. This study's findings, however, indicate that rents alone cannot explain what has taken place in Indonesia. Democratisation and decentralisation exert a stronger impact

Prevention and Management of Infections in Elderly

Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) represent still one of the greatest factors for adverse outcomes. Elderly patients who tend to have more comorbidities are especially vulnerable. Over the past few years, the incidence for HAI could be significantly reduced by relatively simple interventions (Schreiber et al., Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 9(11):1277–95, 2018). Most healthcare-related infections can be avoided by sticking to a strict regime of hygiene and following some simple measures to reduce nosocomial infections (Schreiber et al., Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 9(11):1277–95, 2018). This chapter gives an overview of the most common HAI and their prevention and treatment. Most of the interventions that have proven useful for preventing HAI are relatively simple. Basic measures like early mobilization and oral hygiene have proven to be effective in preventing hospital-acquired pneumonia. Especially in elderly patients, this can often be challenging and an interprofessional approach is needed. Infections associated with central vascular and urinary catheters can be significantly reduced by strict asepsis during insertion and maintenance, and avoidance of unnecessary catheter days. The most important group of HAI in traumatology, however, are surgical site infections. Especially after osteosynthesis, a wound infection might have a detrimental impact on the outcome. For elderly patients, a prolonged hospital stay and multiple associated surgeries can have devastating effects. Prevention is therefore of fundamental importance

Creation & Validation of Large Lexica for Speech-to-Speech Translation Purposes

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