From aptamer-based biomarker discovery to diagnostic and clinical applications: an aptamer-based, streamlined multiplex proteomic assay

Recently, we reported an aptamer-based, highly multiplexed assay for the purpose of biomarker identification. To enable seamless transition from highly multiplexed biomarker discovery assays to a format suitable and convenient for diagnostic and life-science applications, we developed a streamlined, plate-based version of the assay. The plate-based version of the assay is robust, sensitive (sub-picomolar), rapid, can be highly multiplexed (upwards of 60 analytes), and fully automated. We demonstrate that quantification by microarray-based hybridization, Luminex bead-based methods, and qPCR are each compatible with our platform, further expanding the breadth of proteomic applications for a wide user community

Repetition, Reception, Response: Minimal Music and the Use of Affect in Analysis

Affect reorients our approach to expressivity in music. Instead of searching for emotions embedded in the music, we can consider the moment of reception and begin to associate affective responses with musical structure. This approach differs from one that supposes an emotion is felt after the significance of a musical event is consciously apprehended. Music analysis typically shies away from affect; it is often considered too close to emotion, and therefore too subjective, to be treated as an appropriate object of study. In this paper, I use repetition as an entry point into a discussion of how the affective response of the listener plays a key role in identifying and understanding musical structures. In the first analysis, an early Steve Reich piece, I look at how affect can anchor our interpretation of a work’s repetitive elements and their timbral characteristics. For example, the analysis shows how beating phenomena are perceived to be a musical component of the piece rather than an unwelcome artifact of electronic performance. The second analysis, a late chamber work by Morton Feldman, looks at how the perception of similarity and identity is linked to the work’s ability to guide our attention to different aspects of structure. In the third analysis, an electronic composition by Ryoji Ikeda, I examine how the piece calls for an embodied approach to music reception, one that explicitly recognizes the role of affect in perception. Such an approach is necessary in order to notice the presence of recurring musical motives and account for the unexpected reconfiguration of the listening space that the work provides

Musical Sound and Spatial Perception: How Music Structures Our Sense of Space

It is not uncommon to read claims of music’s ability to affect our sense of time and its rate of passage. Indeed, such effects are often considered among the most distinctive and prized aspects of musical aesthetics. Yet when it comes to the similarly abstract notion of space and its manipulation by musical structures, theorists are generally silent. My dissertation addresses this gap in the literature and shows how music’s spatial effects arise through an affective engagement with musical works. In this study, I examine an eclectic selection of compositions to determine how the spaces we inhabit are transformed by the music we hear within them. Drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of embodied perception, as well as research on acoustics, sound studies, and media theory, I deploy an affective model of spatial perception—a model that links the sense of space with the moment-to-moment needs and desires of the perceiver— to explain how these musical modulations of space occur. My claim is that the manner in which the music solicits our engagement affects how we respond, which in turn affects what we perceive. I begin by discussing the development of recording technology and how fixed media works deemed “spatial music” reinforce a particular conception of space as an empty container in which sound sources are arrayed in specific locations relative to a fixed listening position. After showing how innovative studio techniques have been used to unsettle this conventional spatial configuration, I then discuss examples of Renaissance vocal music, instrumental chamber music, and 20th century electronic music in order to develop a richer understanding of the range of spatial interactions that musical textures and timbres can provide. In my final chapter, I draw upon these varieties of affective engagement to construct a hermeneutic analysis of the spatial experience afforded by Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, thereby modeling a phenomenological method for grounding interpretation in embodied, rather than strictly discursive, practices. By soliciting movement through the call for bodily action, music allows us an opportunity to fit together one world of possibilities with another, thereby providing an occasion for grasping new meanings presented through the work. The spatial aspect of music, therefore, does not consist in merely recognizing an environmental setting populated by individual sound sources. Through the embodied practices of music perception and the malleability of space they reveal, we are afforded an opportunity to reshape our understanding of the world around us

Age, education, biological sex, and cognitive reserve as predictors of the Language subtest of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (8.1)

openIl Montreal Cognitive Assessment (8.1) è un test di screening neuropsicologico che permette di identificare precocemente un deterioramento cognitivo. Il presente studio ha valutato la prestazione al test di un campione di 63 partecipanti italiani sani, sia di sesso maschile che femminile. Lo scopo della ricerca era quello di indagare se l’età, la scolarità, il sesso biologico e la riserva cognitiva fossero in grado di predire il risultato del sottotest MoCA-Linguaggio. Le analisi sono state effettuate tramite statistiche inferenziali, come t-test, correlazioni e la regressione lineare multipla. I risultati hanno evidenziato che l’insieme di tutte le variabili analizzate ha predetto il punteggio ottenuto nel sottotest. L’età è stato l’indice che ha avuto un maggiore peso predittivo sulla prestazione ed è risultato correlato negativamente con il risultato. Allo stesso modo, anche la riserva cognitiva è stata un valido predittore del punteggio del campione e dalle analisi non sono state evidenziate differenze nella prestazione tra i due sessi biologici.The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (8.1) is a neuropsychological screening test that allows early identification of cognitive deterioration. This study evaluated the test performance of a sample of 63 healthy Italian participants, both male and female. The purpose of the research was to investigate whether age, education, biological sex and cognitive reserve were able to predict the outcome of the MoCA-Language subtest. The analyses were carried out using inferential statistics, such as t-tests, correlations and multiple linear regression. The results showed that all the variables analysed predicted the score obtained in the subtest. Age was the index that had the highest predictive weight on performance and was negatively correlated with the result. Similarly, the cognitive reserve was also a valuable predictor of the sample score, and the analyses showed no differences in performance between the two biological sexes

Putting knowledge to work in clinical practice: understanding experiences of preceptorship as outcomes of interconnected domains of learning.

AIM: To explore how preceptor support can assist newly qualified nurses (NQNs) to put knowledge to work across interconnected forms of knowledge when delegating to health care assistants (HCAs). BACKGROUND: Current literature on preceptorship in nursing has failed to explore how competence is underpinned by knowledge frameworks in clinical practice. DESIGN: An ethnographic case study in three hospital sites in England (2011-2014). METHODS: Data collection included participant observation, interviews with 33 newly qualified nurses, 10 HCAs and 12 ward managers. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. A tool to assist NQNs to delegate and supervise NQNs during the preceptorship period was developed and piloted with thirteen NQNs in the same sites. A process evaluation was undertaken. FINDINGS: Focusing on a key task for NQNS, delegation to HCAs, we argue that preceptorship can support NQNs as they put knowledge to work in the transition from qualifying student to NQN. In supportive ward cultures, limited access to formal preceptorship can be bolstered by team support. NQNs in less supportive ward cultures may have both a greater need for preceptorship and have fewer compensatory mechanisms available to them when formal preceptorship is not available. We argue that organisational learning contexts and individual learning styles (interconnected domains of learning) are key to understanding effective preceptorship. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that putting knowledge to work early in their careers with preceptorship support may assist NQNs to develop confidence and competence in delegation and supervision of health care assistants. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved