3,539 research outputs found
Developing the Evaluation Framework of Technology Foresight Program: Lesson Learned from European Countries
Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2009This presentation was part of the session : Roundtables on Methods, Measures, and DataThis material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. Ā©2009 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.Foresight activities are valued in many countries since 1990s due to their long term strategic planning. These governments consequently allocate most resources in these foresight activities. As a result, the paper mainly develops the evaluation framework of technology foresight program, by integrating the concepts of evaluation and logic framework with the experience of foresight evaluation from developed countries, for instance European Union, Britain etc., to realize the outcomes of implementing foresight activities. Taking Sweden as a case study, the paper is also proposed to show the effectiveness of this new framework
Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among Escherichia coli urinary isolates from community-onset health care-associated urinary tract infection
Urinary tract infection (UTI) is traditionally classified as community-acquired (CA) and hospital-acquired (HA). Community-onset health care-associated (HCA) infection is a new category that has gained increasing attention. The study aimed to compare the disk susceptibility of nonrepetitive Escherichia coli urinary isolates from HCA-UTI (nĀ =Ā 100) with that of E.Ā coli isolates from CA-UTI (nĀ =Ā 85) and HA-UTI (nĀ =Ā 106). We found that the susceptibility pattern of HCA-UTI E. coli isolates was similar to that of HA-UTI E. coli isolates, but significantly different from that of CA-UTI E. coli isolates. In particular, the proportion of extended-spectrum Ī²-lactamase-producing isolates was significantly higher in HCA-UTI than that in CA-UTI (30.0% vs. 3.5%, pĀ <Ā 0.001). We recommend that when treating HCA-UTI, it is necessary to take urine cultures for susceptibility testing to guide definite antibiotic therapy
An efficient DNA isolation method for tropical plants
Due to interfering components such as polysacharrides, polyphenols, etc, DNA isolation from tropical plants had been challenging. We developed a safe, universal and efficient DNA extraction method, which yielded high-quality DNA from 10 tropical plants including cassava, rubber tree, banana, etc. In the extraction buffer, 2 M NaCl was used to provide a high ionic strength reaction environment, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), lauroyl sarcosine (LSS) and cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) could inhibit DNase activity effectively, polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) produced a deoxidized reaction environment, and borax enhanced the precipitation of interfering compounds. Ordinary reagents like Ī²-mercaptoethanol, chloroform and phenol were unnecessary in this protocol, which made it safe and friendly to use. PCR and EcoR I enzyme restriction digestion results show that the obtained DNA is good enough for downstream analysis. In conclusion, this protocol is expected to be a preferable DNA extraction protocol for tropical plants.Keywords: DNA extraction, tropical plants, cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(19), pp. 2727-273
Innovation Management in Services Industries: The Impacts of Innovative Capacity and Transformative Learning
This study highlights the innovation management and learning perspective of a firmās innovative capability. The model proposed in this study examines the relationships among competence exploitation, competence exploration, transformative learning, innovation, and performance. This study presents empirical results from 225 service industry in Taiwan. First, the innovative capability factors positively affect transformative learning include competence exploitation and competence exploration. Transformative learning in turn has positive effects both on innovation and performance. Secondly, the rank order effects on innovation are competence exploitation, competence exploration, and transformative learning, respectively. The rank order effects on performance are competence exploration, competence exploitation, and transformative learning, respectively. Finally, transformative learning is the mediating effect of competence exploitation and competence exploration on innovation and performance
The Influences of Personality and Motivation on Exercise Participation and Quality of Life
[[abstract]]The major purpose of this study was to identify the effects of personality on individual exercise motivation and exercise participation, which then influences quality of life. A comprehensive model was developed, based on an extensive literature review, and empirically tested using members of fitness centers from Taiwan, Europe and the United States as respondents. The results indicate that individuals with a positive personality tend to have higher levels of exercise motivation and exercise participation. Personality and exercise participation then impacted on individualsā quality of life, in terms of physical health improvement, psychological health improvement, and sexual satisfaction. The study results offer valuable suggestions not only to marketing managers of fitness centers but also to government officers to promote health and quality of life through stimulating exercise motivation and exercise participation
An integrated analysis tool for analyzing hybridization intensities and genotypes using new-generation population-optimized human arrays
The cross-sample plot of the multipoint LOH/LCSH analyses of the three samples used in Fig.ĆĀ 5. The plot comprises four panels: (a) The top-left panel is a cross-sample and cross-chromosome plot. The vertical axis is the index of study samples, and the horizontal axis is the physical position (Mb) on each of the 23 chromosomes. The blue and red bars represent SNPs without and with LOH/LSCH, respectively. (b) The top-right panel is a histogram of cross-chromosome aberration frequency. The vertical axis is the index of study samples, and the horizontal axis is the cross-chromosome aberration frequency of the corresponding samples. The pink (skyblue) background represents that the genetic gender of a sample is female (male). The histogram represents the aberration frequency of LOH/LCSH SNPs across the chromosomes of the corresponding samples. (c) The bottom-left panel is a histogram of the cross-sample aberration frequency. The vertical axis is the cross-sample aberration frequency of a SNP, and the horizontal axis is the physical position (Mb) on each of the 23 chromosomes. The purple line represents the aberration proportion of samples carrying the SNPs with LOH/LCSH. (d) The bottom-right panel is the legend of the genetic gender that is used in panel (b), where the pink (skyblue) background represents that the genetic gender of a sample is female (male). (TIFF 1656ĆĀ kb
A new analysis tool for individual-level allele frequency for genomic studies
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Allele frequency is one of the most important population indices and has been broadly applied to genetic/genomic studies. Estimation of allele frequency using genotypes is convenient but may lose data information and be sensitive to genotyping errors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study utilizes a unified intensity-measuring approach to estimating individual-level allele frequencies for 1,104 and 1,270 samples genotyped with the single-nucleotide-polymorphism arrays of the Affymetrix Human Mapping 100K and 500K Sets, respectively. Allele frequencies of all samples are estimated and adjusted by coefficients of preferential amplification/hybridization (CPA), and large ethnicity-specific and cross-ethnicity databases of CPA and allele frequency are established. The results show that using the CPA significantly improves the accuracy of allele frequency estimates; moreover, this paramount factor is insensitive to the time of data acquisition, effect of laboratory site, type of gene chip, and phenotypic status. Based on accurate allele frequency estimates, analytic methods based on individual-level allele frequencies are developed and successfully applied to discover genomic patterns of allele frequencies, detect chromosomal abnormalities, classify sample groups, identify outlier samples, and estimate the purity of tumor samples. The methods are packaged into a new analysis tool, ALOHA (<b>A</b>llele-frequency/<b>L</b>oss-<b>o</b>f-<b>h</b>eterozygosity/<b>A</b>llele-imbalance).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is the first time that these important genetic/genomic applications have been simultaneously conducted by the analyses of individual-level allele frequencies estimated by a unified intensity-measuring approach. We expect that additional practical applications for allele frequency analysis will be found. The developed databases and tools provide useful resources for human genome analysis via high-throughput single-nucleotide-polymorphism arrays. The ALOHA software was written in R and R GUI and can be downloaded at <url>http://www.stat.sinica.edu.tw/hsinchou/genetics/aloha/ALOHA.htm</url>.</p
Proteomics study of serum exosomes in Kawasaki disease patients with coronary artery aneurysms
Background: To study the protein profile of the serum exosomes of patients with coronary artery aneurysms (CAA) caused by Kawasaki disease (KD).
Methods: Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) was used to identify proteins from the exosomes of serum obtained from children with CAA caused by KD, as well as healthy controls. Differentially expressed proteins were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight/timeof-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/TOF MS) analysis.
Results: Thirty two differentially expressed proteins were identified (18 up-regulated and 14 downregulated) from serum exosomes of children with CAA and were compared to healthy controls. The expression levels of 4 proteins (TN, RBP4, LRG1, and APOA4) were validated using Western blotting. Classification analysis and proteināprotein network analysis showed that they are associated with multiple functional groups, including host immune response, inflammation, apoptotic process, developmental process, and biological adhesion process.
Conclusions: These findings establish a comprehensive proteomic profile of serum exosomes from children with CAA caused by KD, and provide additional insights into the mechanisms of CAA caused by KD
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