Variable allele frequency threshold

The present invention relates to monitoring a patient's response to therapy. In order to improve the monitoring of a patient's response to therapy, a method is provided to set a plurality of allele frequency thresholds to accounting for variations among tumours and patients. As the multiple allele frequency thresholds take into account differences between genes, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and/or patients, the multiple allele frequency thresholds may provide significant value to improve personalized therapy selection, disease surveillance, and monitoring to improve patient outcomes

A predictive model for hypocalcaemia in dairy cows utilizing behavioural sensor data combined with deep learning

(Sub)clinical hypocalcaemia occurs frequently in the dairy industry, and is one of the earliest symptoms of an impaired transition period. Calcium deficiency is accompanied by changes in cows’ daily behavioural variables, which can be measured by sensors. The goal of this study was to construct a predictive model to identify cows at risk of hypocalcaemia in dairy cows using behavioural sensor data. For this study 133 primiparous and 476 multiparous cows from 8 commercial Dutch dairy farms were equipped with neck and leg sensors measuring daily behavioural parameters, including eating, ruminating, standing, lying, and walking behaviour of the 21 days before calving. From each cow, a blood sample was taken within 48 h after calving to measure their blood calcium concentration. Cows with a blood calcium concentration ≤2.0 mmol/L were defined as hypocalcemic. In order to create a more context based cut-off, a second way of dividing the calcium concentrations into two categories was proposed, using a linear mixed-effects model with a k-Means clustering. Three possible binary predictive models were tested; a logistic regression model, a XgBoost model and a LSTM deep learning model. The models were expanded by adding the following static features as input variables; parity (1, 2 or 3＋), calving season (summer, autumn, winter, spring), day of calcium sampling relative to calving (0, 1 or 2), body condition score and locomotion score. Of the three models, the deep learning model performed best with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.71 and an average precision of 0.47. This final model was constructed with the addition of the static features, since they improved the model's tuning AUC with 0.11. The calcium label based on the cut-off categorization method proved to be easier to predict for the models compared to the categorization method with the k-means clustering. This study provides a novel approach for the prediction of hypocalcaemia, and an ameliorated version of the deep learning model proposed in this study could serve as a tool to help monitor herd calcium status and to identify animals at risk for associated transition diseases

Teacher professional learning and development in the context of educational innovations in higher education: A typology of practices

Higher education (HE) is engaged in a variety of educational innovations, as well as professional development initiatives (PDIs) to support teachers in attaining the required expertise. To improve teacher professional learning and development (PLD) and innovation processes, it is important to understand whether, how and why different PLD practices work for different innovations, contexts and populations. However, research is characterized by descriptive, single case studies and lacks a common framework to relate research findings. To address this shortcoming, this study collected and compared a wide variety of cases to develop a typology of practices. The results showed that educational innovations and teacher PLD were typically configured in three ways: (1) the focus is on implementing a new form of education and teacher learning is used as a means to this end, (2) the focus is on teachers’ professional learning and the educational innovations are spin-offs, and (3) the focus is on stimulating innovations and teacher learning is a side-effect. These types of configurations differed regarding the educational innovation, required teacher expertise, professional development initiatives, teacher learning, and outcome measures. The typology serves as a framework that may help to reflect on practices, bridge disciplines, and formulate hypotheses for future research

Sox6 Is Necessary for Efficient Erythropoiesis in Adult Mice under Physiological and Anemia-Induced Stress Conditions

BACKGROUND: Definitive erythropoiesis is a vital process throughout life. Both its basal activity under physiological conditions and its increased activity under anemia-induced stress conditions are highly stimulated by the hormone erythropoietin. The transcription factor Sox6 was previously shown to enhance fetal erythropoiesis together and beyond erythropoietin signaling, but its importance in adulthood and mechanisms of action remain unknown. We used here Sox6 conditional null mice and molecular assays to address these questions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Sox6fl/flErGFPCre adult mice, which lacked Sox6 in erythroid cells, exhibited compensated anemia, erythroid cell developmental defects, and anisocytotic, short-lived red cells under physiological conditions, proving that Sox6 promotes basal erythropoiesis. Tamoxifen treatment of Sox6fl/flCaggCreER mice induced widespread inactivation of Sox6 in a timely controlled manner and resulted in erythroblast defects before reticulocytosis, demonstrating that impaired erythropoiesis is a primary cause rather than consequence of anemia in the absence of Sox6. Twenty five percent of Sox6fl/flErGFPCre mice died 4 or 5 days after induction of acute anemia with phenylhydrazine. The others recovered slowly. They promptly increased their erythropoietin level and amplified their erythroid progenitor pool, but then exhibited severe erythroblast and reticulocyte defects. Sox6 is thus essential in the maturation phase of stress erythropoiesis that follows the erythropoietin-dependent amplification phase. Sox6 inactivation resulted in upregulation of embryonic globin genes, but embryonic globin chains remained scarce and apparently inconsequential. Sox6 inactivation also resulted in downregulation of erythroid terminal markers, including the Bcl2l1 gene for the anti-apoptotic factor Bcl-xL, and in vitro assays indicated that Sox6 directly upregulates Bcl2l1 downstream of and beyond erythropoietin signaling. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study demonstrates that Sox6 is necessary for efficient erythropoiesis in adult mice under both basal and stress conditions. It is primarily involved in enhancing the survival rate and maturation process of erythroid cells and acts at least in part by upregulating Bcl2l1

Dry period, special needs cows and treatments/ Hulsen

71 hal.: ill. tab.: 25 cm

Pig signals : look, think and act/ Hulsen

95 hal.: ill, tab.; 27 cm

Hoof signals: Success factors for healthy hooves/ Hulsen

60 hal.: ill. tab.: 25 cm