Liposomal-polyene preliposomal powder and method for its preparation

A method is disclosed for preparing a stable preliposomal powder which, when reconstituted with water or saline solution, forms a suspension of liposomes containing a polyene drug, such as nystatin. The method involves the steps of combining at least one phospholipid with a first organic solvent to form a first solution, adding a clarifying amount of water to the first solution, combining a polyene with a second organic solvent to form a second solution, combining the first and second solutions to produce a substantially clear combined solution, and then removing the organic solvents, leaving a powder.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

Parental Rights vs. Best Interests of the Child: A False Dichotomy in the Context of Adoption

I. Introduction: Identifying the Controversy The mythology of adoption involves a scenario in which a teenage girl gets pregnant, and neither she nor the father is ready to raise a child. Upon birth, these young parents voluntarily relinquish the baby to an upwardly mobile couple who have been waiting years to adopt. The adoptive parents become, in essence, the birth parents to the baby who grows up happy and well-adjusted. The birth parents vanish from the picture, perhaps eventually marrying and having additional children. No one looks back. But what happens to this myth when the birth mother changes her mind or misidentifies the father, when the adoptee is not a baby but a ten-year-old foster child, when the adoptive parents abuse the child, when the adoptive parents are the baby\u27s grandparents, or when the adoptee begins asking questions about her family of origin? If ever the reality of adoption fit this myth, it certainly does not today. Adoption, as with every issue involving families, is much more complicated and diverse than the above scenario suggests. Indeed, most adoptions do not even involve infants, but instead concern older children who have lived with multiple families. 1 Moreover, it is now widely recognized that even children adopted as infants do not have just one family, but are always physically and existentially related to their birth families. 2 It is against this backdrop of contemporary adoption that courts are increasingly being called upon to resolve contested adoptions involving competing adults. ..

The Virtual Tutor: Tasks for conversational agents in Online Collaborative Learning Environments

Online collaborative learning environments are becoming increasingly popular in higher education. E-tutors need to supervise, guide students and look out for conflicts within the online environment to ensure a successful learning experience. Web-based platforms allow for interactive elements such as conversational agents to disencumber the e-tutor. Repeatable tasks, which do not require a human response, can be automatized by these systems. The aim of this study is to identify and synthesize the tasks an e-tutor has and to investigate the automatisation potential with conversational agents. Using a design science research approach a literature review is conducted, identifying 13 tasks. Subsequently, a matrix is established, contrasting the tasks with requirements for the use of conversational agents. Furthermore, a virtual tutor framework is developed, clarifying the agent type selection, the technical structure and components for a prototype development in an online collaborative learning environment

The Influence of Bioactive Oxylipins from Marine Diatoms on Invertebrate Reproduction and Development

Diatoms are one of the main primary producers in aquatic ecosystems and occupy a vital link in the transfer of photosynthetically-fixed carbon through aquatic food webs. Diatoms produce an array of biologically-active metabolites, many of which have been attributed as a form of chemical defence and may offer potential as candidate marine drugs. Of considerable interest are molecules belonging to the oxylipin family which are broadly disruptive to reproductive and developmental processes. The range of reproductive impacts includes; oocyte maturation; sperm motility; fertilization; embryogenesis and larval competence. Much of the observed bioactivity may be ascribed to disruption of intracellular calcium signalling, induction of cytoskeletal instability and promotion of apoptotic pathways. From an ecological perspective, the primary interest in diatom-oxylipins is in relation to the potential impact on energy flow in planktonic systems whereby the reproductive success of copepods (the main grazers of diatoms) is compromised. Much data exists providing evidence for and against diatom reproductive effects; however detailed knowledge of the physiological and molecular processes involved remains poor. This paper provides a review of the current state of knowledge of the mechanistic impacts of diatom-oxylipins on marine invertebrate reproduction and development

Capillary driven devices for patient-centric diagnostics

Lateral flow assays is an example of a successful microfluidic platform relying on passive fluid transport, making them suitable for patient-centric and point-of-care applications. Flow control and valving in capillary driven devices typically rely on design-imprinted functions and operations which can be a limiting factor. This thesis explores dissolvable polymer valves in capillary driven microfluidic systems, a novel type of valves with a timing function. The dissolvable valve technology was used to develop autonomous operations in lamination-based polymer microfluidic systems such as sequential reagent delivery, reagent release and volume-metering, and further utilizes this technology in the Dried Blood Spot (DBS) and Dried Plasma Spot applications described below. Lamination technology is suitable for the integration of the water-dissolvable polymer layers and allows upscaling at a relatively low cost. Advances in the development of LC-MS/MS systems enable the quantification of analytes in microliter-sized blood samples such as DBS. This makes DBS sampling a minimally invasive alternative to venous blood sampling with logistical and ethical advantages for users and health care providers. Unknown sample volume, spot inhomogeneity and hematocrit-related issues have been an obstacle for a wider acceptance of DBS sampling technology. To address these issues, a novel blood-sampling device, the microfluidic DBS card, has been developed within this thesis. The device function is based on capillary driven volume-metering and allows accurate and user independent collection of microliter-sized DBS, directly from a finger-prick. The microfluidic DBS card could help to eliminate some of the issues related to DBS sampling and contribute to a wider acceptance of the technology. Usability and reliability have been considered during the development to enable testing of the microfludic DBS card in a pre-clinical setting. For many analytes and biomarkers, conventional blood sample analysis is performed on plasma or serum samples. This thesis further discusses the use of capillary driven plasma separation based on commercially available asymmetric filtration membranes and capillary driven flow in microchannels. A novel concept for hematocrit and input-volume-independent collection of a 11.6~µl plasma sample from a single drop of blood is demonstrated. The plasma sample is automatically transferred to a sample collection pad forming a Dried Plasma Spot. This could be the next generation of dried sample matrix, enabling an accurate quantification of analytes in Dried Plasma Spots.QC 20180910</p

Capillary driven devices for patient-centric diagnostics

Lateral flow assays is an example of a successful microfluidic platform relying on passive fluid transport, making them suitable for patient-centric and point-of-care applications. Flow control and valving in capillary driven devices typically rely on design-imprinted functions and operations which can be a limiting factor. This thesis explores dissolvable polymer valves in capillary driven microfluidic systems, a novel type of valves with a timing function. The dissolvable valve technology was used to develop autonomous operations in lamination-based polymer microfluidic systems such as sequential reagent delivery, reagent release and volume-metering, and further utilizes this technology in the Dried Blood Spot (DBS) and Dried Plasma Spot applications described below. Lamination technology is suitable for the integration of the water-dissolvable polymer layers and allows upscaling at a relatively low cost. Advances in the development of LC-MS/MS systems enable the quantification of analytes in microliter-sized blood samples such as DBS. This makes DBS sampling a minimally invasive alternative to venous blood sampling with logistical and ethical advantages for users and health care providers. Unknown sample volume, spot inhomogeneity and hematocrit-related issues have been an obstacle for a wider acceptance of DBS sampling technology. To address these issues, a novel blood-sampling device, the microfluidic DBS card, has been developed within this thesis. The device function is based on capillary driven volume-metering and allows accurate and user independent collection of microliter-sized DBS, directly from a finger-prick. The microfluidic DBS card could help to eliminate some of the issues related to DBS sampling and contribute to a wider acceptance of the technology. Usability and reliability have been considered during the development to enable testing of the microfludic DBS card in a pre-clinical setting. For many analytes and biomarkers, conventional blood sample analysis is performed on plasma or serum samples. This thesis further discusses the use of capillary driven plasma separation based on commercially available asymmetric filtration membranes and capillary driven flow in microchannels. A novel concept for hematocrit and input-volume-independent collection of a 11.6~µl plasma sample from a single drop of blood is demonstrated. The plasma sample is automatically transferred to a sample collection pad forming a Dried Plasma Spot. This could be the next generation of dried sample matrix, enabling an accurate quantification of analytes in Dried Plasma Spots.QC 20180910</p

Disposable Chip to Enable Metering in Dried Blood Spot Sampling

This work presents a disposable chip for metering and transferring an exactly defined liquid volume into a paper matrix by capillary filling and emptying of a microchannel together with self-actuated dissolvable valves. Once a liquid droplet of 20-50 μl is applied to the chip, a volume of 1 μl is automatically metered, separated from the applied volume and subsequently transferred into conventional Whatman 903 paper used in Dried Blood Spot (DBS) sampling. The presented concept allows accurate volume metering for lateral flow devices and is here designed to the specific purpose of metering blood spots for DBS analysis. The material costs for each chip are below 0.04 €.QC 20140613</p

YOLO approach to human activity classification

Cilvēku aktivitātes klasificēšana ar viedierīču palīdzību ir noderīga gan medicīnas pielietojumiem, gan sporta pielietojumiem, un citiem. Piemēram, pateicoties tai ir iespējams atpazīt lietotāja kritienu un savlaicīgi izsaukt palīdzību. Šajā darbā ir apskatīts kā tiek veikta cilvēku kustību atpazīšana un sportisko aktivitāšu atkārtojumu skaitīšana ar viedtālruņiem. Darba praktiskajā daļā ir ievākti kustību dati no vairākiem cilvēkiem veicot pietupienus. Šie dati izmantoti, lai izveidotu dziļo neironu tīklu modeli, kurš spēj atpazīt pietupienus, kā arī saskaitīt to atkārtojumu skaitu. Darbā tiek piedāvāts izmantot konvolūciju līmeņus un idejas no YOLO dziļo neironu tīkla, kuru izmanto objektu atpazīšanai attēlos. Uz validācijas kopas modelis sasniedz 90% precizitāti, kas ir samērojama ar līdzīgiem pētījumiem. Šis darbs ir izstrādāts FLPP projekta "Kompleksa novērtēšanas un atbalsta programma, lai samazinātu ar ekrānos pavadīto laiku saistītos veselības riskus pusaudžiem" ietvaros, kuru veic LSPA sadarbībā ar LU.Human activity classification with the help of smart devices is useful for medical, sports, and other applications. For example, thanks to HAR it is possible to determine if a person has fallen, and promptly call for help. This thesis examines how the recognition of human movements and counting of repetitions in sports activities with smartphones is performed. In the practical part of the thesis, movement data is collected from several people performing squats. This data is used to create a model of deep neural networks that can recognize squats, as well as count their number of repetitions. The paper proposes to use convolutional layers and ideas from the YOLO network which is used for object recognition in images to create a single model for both of these tasks. The model on the validation set achieves an accuracy of 90%, which is comparable to similar studies. This work has been developed within the FLPP "Comprehensive Assessment and Support Program to Reduce Screen Time Related Health Risks in Adolescents" project, which is carried out by LSPA in cooperation with LU

Disposable Chip to Enable Metering in Dried Blood Spot Sampling

This work presents a disposable chip for metering and transferring an exactly defined liquid volume into a paper matrix by capillary filling and emptying of a microchannel together with self-actuated dissolvable valves. Once a liquid droplet of 20-50 μl is applied to the chip, a volume of 1 μl is automatically metered, separated from the applied volume and subsequently transferred into conventional Whatman 903 paper used in Dried Blood Spot (DBS) sampling. The presented concept allows accurate volume metering for lateral flow devices and is here designed to the specific purpose of metering blood spots for DBS analysis. The material costs for each chip are below 0.04 €.QC 20140613</p