473 research outputs found
Biobanking and consenting to research: a qualitative thematic analysis of young people's perspectives in the North East of England
BACKGROUND: Biobanking biospecimens and consent are common practice in paediatric research. We need to explore children and young people's (CYP) knowledge and perspectives around the use of and consent to biobanking. This will ensure meaningful informed consent can be obtained and improve current consent procedures. METHODS: We designed a survey, in co-production with CYP, collecting demographic data, views on biobanking, and consent using three scenarios: 1) prospective consent, 2) deferred consent, and 3) reconsent and assent at age of capacity. The survey was disseminated via the Young Person's Advisory Group North England (YPAGne) and participating CYP's secondary schools. Data were analysed using a qualitative thematic approach by three independent reviewers (including CYP) to identify common themes. Data triangulation occurred independently by a fourth reviewer. RESULTS: One hundred two CYP completed the survey. Most were between 16-18 years (63.7%, N = 65) and female (66.7%, N = 68). 72.3% had no prior knowledge of biobanking (N = 73). Acceptability of prospective consent for biobanking was high (91.2%, N = 93) with common themes: 'altruism', 'potential benefits outweigh individual risk', 'frugality', and '(in)convenience'. Deferred consent was also deemed acceptable in the large majority (84.3%, N = 86), with common themes: 'altruism', 'body integrity' and 'sample frugality'. 76.5% preferred to reconsent when cognitively mature enough to give assent (N = 78), even if parental consent was previously in place. 79.2% wanted to be informed if their biobanked biospecimen is reused (N = 80). CONCLUSION: Prospective and deferred consent acceptability for biobanking is high among CYP in the UK. Altruism, frugality, body integrity, and privacy are the most important themes. Clear communication and justification are paramount to obtain consent. Any CYP with capacity should be part of the consenting procedure, if possible
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Chemically Specific Cellular Imaging of Biofilm Formation
This document and the accompanying manuscripts summarize the technical accomplishments for our one-year LDRD-ER effort. Biofilm forming microbes have existed on this planet for billions of years and make up 60% of the biological mass on earth. Such microbes exhibit unique biochemical pathways during biofilm formation and play important roles in human health and the environment. Microbial biofilms have been directly implicated in, for example, product contamination, energy losses, and medical infection that cost the loss of human lives and billions of dollars. In no small part due to the lack of detailed understanding, biofilms unfortunately are resistant to control, inhibition, and destruction, either through treatment with antimicrobials or immunological defense mechanisms of the body. Current biofilm research has concentrated on the study of biofilms in the bulk. This is primarily due to the lack of analytical and physical tools to study biofilms non-destructively, in three dimensions, and on the micron or sub-micron scale. This has hindered the development of a clear understanding of either the early stage mechanisms of biofilm growth or the interactions of biofilms with their environment. Enzymatic studies have deduced a biochemical reaction that results in the oxidation of reduced sulfur species with the concomitant reduction of nitrate, a common groundwater pollutant, to dinitrogen gas by the bacterium, Thiobacillus denitrificans (TD). Because of its unique involvement in biologically relevant environmental pathways, TD is scheduled for genome sequencing in the near future by the DOE's Joint Genome Institute and is of interest to DOE's Genomes to Life Program. As our ecosystem is exposed to more and more nitrate contamination large scale livestock and agricultural practices, a further understanding of biofilm formation by organisms that could alleviate these problems is necessary in order to protect out biosphere. However, in order to study this complicated organism, we needed to first turn our attention to a well understood organism. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is a well-studied organism and will be used to compare our results with others. Then, we will turn our attention to TD. It is expected that the research performed will provide key data to validate biochemical studies of TD and result in high profile publications in leading journals. For this project, our ultimate goal was to combine both Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) experimental analysis with computer simulations to provide unique 3D molecular structural, dynamics, and functional information on the order of microns for this DOE mission relevant microorganism, T. denitrificans. For FY05, our goals were to: (1) Determine proper media for optimal growth of PA; growth rate measurements in that media and characterization of metabolite signatures during growth via {sup 1}H and {sup 13}C NMR, (2) Determine and build mineral, metal, and implant material surfaces to support growth of PA, (3) Implementing new MRI sequences to image biofilms more efficiently and increase resolution with new hardware design, (4) Develop further diffusion and flow MRI measurements of biofilms and biofilm formation with different MRI pulse sequences and different hardware design, and (5) Develop a zero dimension model of the rate of growth and the metabolite profiles of PA. Our major accomplishments are discussed in the following text. However, the bulk of this work is described in the attached manuscript entitled, ''NMR Metabolomics of Planktonic and Biofilm Modes of Growth in Pseudomonas aeruginosa''. This paper will be submitted to the Journal of Bacteriology in coming weeks. In addition, this one-year effort has lead to our incorporation into the Enhanced Surveillance Campaign during FY05 for some proof-of-principle MRI measurements on polymers. We are currently using similar methods to evaluate these polymers. In addition, this work on MRI measurements on polymers has lead to a paper entitled, ''Characterization of local deformation in filled-silicone elastomers subject to high strain NMR MOUSE and Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a diagnostic tool for detection of inhomogeneities''
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Probing degradation in complex engineering silicones by 1H multiple quantum NMR
Static {sup 1}H Multiple Quantum Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MQ NMR) has recently been shown to provide detailed insight into the network structure of pristine silicon based polymer systems. The MQ NMR method characterizes the residual dipolar couplings of the silicon chains that depend on the average molecular weight between physical or chemical constraints. Recently, we have employed MQ NMR methods to characterize the changes in network structure in a series of complex silicone materials subject to numerous degradation mechanisms, including thermal, radiative, and desiccative. For thermal degradation, MQ NMR shows that a combination of crosslinking due to post-curing reactions as well as random chain scissioning reactions occurs. For radiative degradation, the primary mechanisms are via crosslinking both in the network and at the interface between the polymer and the inorganic filler. For samples stored in highly desiccating environments, MQ NMR shows that the average segmental dynamics are slowed due to increased interactions between the filler and the network polymer chains
Gad65 is recognized by t-cells, but not by antibodies from nod-mice
Since the 64kDa-protein glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) is one of the major autoantigens in T-cell mediated Type 1 diabetes, its relevance as a T-cell antigen needs to be clarified. After isolation of splenic T-cells from non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice, a useful model for human Type 1 diabetes, we found that these T-cells proliferate spontaneously when incubated with human GAD65, but only marginally after incubation with GAD67, both recombinated in the baculovirus system. No effect was observed with non-diabetic NOD mice or with T-cells from H-2 identical NON-NOD-H-2g7 control mice. It has been published previously that NOD mice develop autoantibodies against a 64kDa protein detected with mouse beta cells. In immunoprecipitation experiments with sera from the same NOD mice and 33S-methionine-labelled GAD, no autoantibody binding could be detected. We conclude firstly that GAD65 is an important T-cell antigen which is relevant early in the development of Type 1 diabetes and secondly that there is an antigenic epitope in the human GAD65 molecule recognized by NOD T-cells, but not by NOD autoantibodies precipitating conformational epitopes. Our results therefore provide further evidence that GAD65 is a T-cell antigen in NOD mice, being possibly also involved in very early processes leading to the development of human Type 1 diabetes
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Pressure-induced polymerization of carbon monoxide: disproportionation and synthesis of an energetic lactonic polymer
We have studied pressure-induced chemical reactions in carbon monoxide using both a diamond-anvil cell and a modified large volume press. Our spectroscopic data reveal that carbon monoxide disproportionates into molecular CO{sub 2} and a solid lactone-type polymer; photochemically above 3.2 GPa, thermochemically above 5 GPa at 300K, or at 3 GPa and {approx}2000K as achieved by laser heating. The solid product can be recovered at ambient conditions with a high degree of conversion, measured to be up to 95% of the original CO. Its fundamental chemical structure includes {beta}-lactone and conjugated C=C, which can be considered a severely modified polymeric carbon suboxide with open ladders and smaller five-membered rings. The polymer is metastable at ambient conditions, spontaneously liberating CO{sub 2} gases exothermically. We find that the recovered polymer has a high energy density, 1-8 KJ/g, and is very combustible. We estimate the density of recovered CO polymer to be at least 1.65 g/cm cm{sup 3}
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Shape memory polymers based on uniform aliphatic urethane networks
Aliphatic urethane polymers have been synthesized and characterized, using monomers with high molecular symmetry, in order to form amorphous networks with very uniform supermolecular structures which can be used as photo-thermally actuable shape memory polymers (SMPs). The monomers used include hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), trimethylhexamethylenediamine (TMHDI), N,N,N{prime},N{prime}-tetrakis(hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine (HPED), triethanolamine (TEA), and 1,3-butanediol (BD). The new polymers were characterized by solvent extraction, NMR, XPS, UV/VIS, DSC, DMTA, and tensile testing. The resulting polymers were found to be single phase amorphous networks with very high gel fraction, excellent optical clarity, and extremely sharp single glass transitions in the range of 34 to 153 C. Thermomechanical testing of these materials confirms their excellent shape memory behavior, high recovery force, and low mechanical hysteresis (especially on multiple cycles), effectively behaving as ideal elastomers above T{sub g}. We believe these materials represent a new and potentially important class of SMPs, and should be especially useful in applications such as biomedical microdevices
Diagnosis of Kawasaki disease using a minimal whole blood gene expression signature
Importance There is no diagnostic test for Kawasaki disease (KD). Diagnosis is based on clinical features shared with other febrile conditions, frequently resulting in delayed or missed treatment and an increased risk of coronary artery aneurysms. Objective To identify a whole blood gene expression signature that distinguishes children with KD in the first week of illness from other febrile conditions. Design Case-control discovery study groups comprising training, test, and validation groups of children with KD or comparator febrile illness. Setting Hospitals in the UK, Spain, Netherlands and USA. Participants The training and test discovery group comprised 404 children with infectious and inflammatory conditions (78 KD, 84 other inflammatory diseases, 242 bacterial or viral infections) and 55 healthy controls. The independent validation group included 130 febrile children and 102 KD patients, including 72 in the first 7 days of illness. Exposures Whole blood gene expression was evaluated using microarrays, and minimal transcript sets distinguishing KD were identified using a novel variable selection method (Parallel Deterministic Model Search). Main outcomes and measures The ability of transcript signatures - implemented as Disease Risk Scores - to discriminate KD cases from controls, was assessed by Area Under the Curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity at the optimal cut-point according to Youden’s index. Results A 13-transcript signature identified in the discovery training set distinguished KD from other infectious and inflammatory conditions in the discovery test set with AUC, sensitivity, and specificity (95% confidence intervals (CI)) of 96.2% (92.5-99.9), 81.7% (60.0-94.8), and 92.1% (84.0-97.0), respectively. In the validation set, the signature distinguished KD from febrile controls with AUC, sensitivity, and specificity (95% CI) of 94.6% (91.3-98.0), 85.9% (76.8-92.6), and 89.1% (83.0-93.7) respectively. The signature was applied to clinically defined categories of Definite, Highly Probable and Possible KD resulting in AUCs of 98.1%, 96.3% and 70.0% respectively, mirroring clinical certainty. Conclusions and relevance A 13-transcript blood gene expression signature distinguished KD from other febrile conditions. Diagnostic accuracy increased with certainty of clinical diagnosis. A test incorporating the 13-transcript Disease Risk Score may enable earlier diagnosis and treatment of KD, and reduce inappropriate treatment in those with other diagnoses
Effect of recent R_p and R_n measurements on extended Gari-Krumpelmann model fits to nucleon electromagnetic form factors
The Gari-Krumpelmann (GK) models of nucleon electromagnetic form factors, in
which the rho, omega, and phi vector meson pole contributions evolve at high
momentum transfer to conform to the predictions of perturbative QCD (pQCD), was
recently extended to include the width of the rho meson by substituting the
result of dispersion relations for the pole and the addition of rho' (1450)
isovector vector meson pole. This extended model was shown to produce a good
overall fit to all the available nucleon electromagnetic form factor (emff)
data. Since then new polarization data shows that the electric to magnetic
ratios R_p and R_n obtained are not consistent with the older G_{Ep} and G_{En}
data in their range of momentum transfer. The model is further extended to
include the omega' (1419) isoscalar vector meson pole. It is found that while
this GKex cannot simultaneously fit the new R_p and the old G_{En} data, it can
fit the new R_p and R_n well simultaneously. An excellent fit to all the
remaining data is obtained when the inconsistent G_{Ep} and G_{En} is omitted.
The model predictions are shown up to momentum transfer squared, Q^2, of 8
GeV^2/c^2.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, using RevTeX4; email correspondence to
[email protected] ; minor typos corrected, figures added, conclusions
extende
Extraction of electromagnetic neutron form factors through inclusive and exclusive polarized electron scattering on polarized 3He target
Inclusive 3He(e,e') and exclusive 3He(e,e'n) processes with polarized
electrons and 3He have been theoretically analyzed and values for the magnetic
and electric neutron form factors have been extracted. In both cases the form
factor values agree well with the ones extracted from processes on the
deuteron. Our results are based on Faddeev solutions, modern NN forces and
partially on the incorporation of mesonic exchange currents.Comment: 28 pages, 29 Postscript figure
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Portable, Low-cost NMR with Laser-Lathe Lithography Produced
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is unsurpassed in its ability to non-destructively probe chemical identity. Portable, low-cost NMR sensors would enable on-site identification of potentially hazardous substances, as well as the study of samples in a variety of industrial applications. Recent developments in RF microcoil construction (i.e. coils much smaller than the standard 5 mm NMR RF coils), have dramatically increased NMR sensitivity and decreased the limits-of-detection (LOD). We are using advances in laser pantographic microfabrication techniques, unique to LLNL, to produce RF microcoils for field deployable, high sensitivity NMR-based detectors. This same fabrication technique can be used to produce imaging coils for MRI as well as for standard hardware shimming or 'ex-situ' shimming of field inhomogeneities typically associated with inexpensive magnets. This paper describes a portable NMR system based on a laser-fabricated microcoil and homebuilt probe design. For testing this probe, we used a hand-held 2 kg Halbach magnet that can fit into the palm of a hand, and an RF probe with laser-fabricated microcoils. The focus of the paper is on the evaluation of the microcoils, RF probe, and first generation gradient coils. The setup of this system, initial results, sensitivity measurements, and future plans are discussed. The results, even though preliminary, are promising and provide the foundation for developing a portable, inexpensive NMR system for chemical analysis. Such a system will be ideal for chemical identification of trace substances on site
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