SBOL Visual: A Graphical Language for Genetic Designs

Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) Visual is a graphical standard for genetic engineering. It consists of symbols representing DNA subsequences, including regulatory elements and DNA assembly features. These symbols can be used to draw illustrations for communication and instruction, and as image assets for computer-aided design. SBOL Visual is a community standard, freely available for personal, academic, and commercial use (Creative Commons CC0 license). We provide prototypical symbol images that have been used in scientific publications and software tools. We encourage users to use and modify them freely, and to join the SBOL Visual community: http://www.sbolstandard.org/visual

In-hospital vs. 30-day mortality in the critically ill - a 2-year Swedish intensive care cohort analysis

BackgroundStandardised mortality ratio (SMR) is a common quality indicator in critical care and is the ratio between observed mortality and expected mortality. Typically, in-hospital mortality is used to derive SMR, but the use of a time-fixed, more objective, end-point has been advocated. This study aimed to determine the relationship between in-hospital mortality and 30-day mortality on a comprehensive Swedish intensive care cohort. MethodsA retrospective study on patients >15years old, from the Swedish Intensive Care Register (SIR), where intensive care unit (ICU) admissions in 2009-2010 were matched with the corresponding hospital admissions in the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register. Recalibrated SAPS (Simplified Acute Physiology Score) 3 models were developed to predict and compare in-hospital and 30-day mortality. SMR based on in-hospital mortality and on 30-day mortality were compared between ICUs and between groups with different case-mixes, discharge destinations and length of hospital stays. ResultsSixty-five ICUs with 48861 patients, of which 35610 were SAPS 3 scored, were included. Thirty-day mortality (17%) was higher than in-hospital mortality (14%). The SMR based on 30-day mortality and that based on in-hospital mortality differed significantly in 7/53 ICUs, for patients with sepsis, for elective surgery-admissions and in groups categorised according to discharge destination and hospital length of stay. ConclusionChoice of mortality end-point influences SMR. The extent of the influence depends on hospital-, ICU- and patient cohort characteristics as well as inter-hospital transfer rates, as all these factors influence the difference between SMR based on 30-day mortality and SMR based on in-hospital mortality