CombiFlow:Flow cytometry-based identification and characterization of genetically and functionally distinct AML subclones

Summary: Many cancers, including leukemias, are dynamic oligoclonal diseases. Tools to identify and prospectively isolate genetically distinct clones for functional studies are needed. We describe our CombiFlow protocol, which is a combinatorial flow cytometry-based approach to identify and isolate such distinct clones. CombiFlow enables the visualization of clonal evolution during disease progression and the identification of potential relapse-inducing cells at minimal residual disease (MRD) time points. The protocol can be adapted to various research questions and allows functional studies on live sorted cell populations.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to de Boer et al. (2018)

The Effect of Agricultural Practices on a Dairy Farm on Nitrate Leaching to 1m

Dairy farms, in Ireland, carry the highest stock densities and use the highest rates of fertiliser nitrogen (N). They constitute the highest risk of nitrate leaching, especially where soils are thin or free-draining. The effect of 4 grass managements on leaching was studied on a dairy farm having free-draining soils overlying Karst limestone. This was a new, farm-comprehensive approach to nitrate leaching which had not been carried out previously

Interventions to improve medication adherence in tuberculosis patients:A systematic review of randomized controlled studies

Non-adherence to anti-tuberculosis (anti-TB) medication is a major risk factor for poor treatment outcomes. We therefore assessed the effectiveness of medication adherence enhancing interventions in TB patients. We report a systematic review of randomized controlled trials that included either latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) or active TB patients. Outcomes of interest included adherence rate, completed treatment, defaulted treatment and treatment outcomes. We identified four LTBI and ten active TB studies. In active TB patients, directly observed treatment (DOT) by trained community workers, short messaging service combined with education, counselling, monthly TB vouchers, drug box reminders and combinations of those were found effective. In LTBI patients, shorter regimens and DOT effectively improved treatment completion. Interestingly, DOT showed variable effectiveness, highlighting that implementation, population and setting may play important roles. Since non-adherence factors are patient-specific, personalized interventions are required to enhance the impact of a programme to improve medication adherence in TB patients

Communications Biophysics

Contains reports on three research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 PO1 GM14940-04)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NGL 22-009-304

Incremental Evaluation of Rules and its Relationship to Parallelism

Rule interpreters usually start with an initial database and perform the inference procedure in cycles, ending with a final database. In a real time environment it is possible to receive updates to the initial database after the inference procedure has started or even after it has ended. We present an algorithm for incremental maintenance of the deductive database in the presence of such updates. Interestingly, the same algorithm is useful for parallel and distributed rule processing in the following sense. \\'hen the processors evaluating a program operate asynchronously. then they may have different views of the database. The incremental maintenance procedure we present can be used to synchronize these views

Nonlinear Dynamics of the Perceived Pitch of Complex Sounds

We apply results from nonlinear dynamics to an old problem in acoustical physics: the mechanism of the perception of the pitch of sounds, especially the sounds known as complex tones that are important for music and speech intelligibility