533 research outputs found
Loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP): a versatile technique for detection of micro‐organisms
Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) amplifies DNA with high specificity, efficiency and rapidity under isothermal conditions by using a DNA polymerase with high displacement strand activity and a set of specifically designed primers to amplify targeted DNA strands. Following its first discovery by Notomi et al. ( Nucleic Acids Res 28: E63), LAMP was further developed over the years which involved the combination of this technique with other molecular approaches, such as reverse transcription and multiplex amplification for the detection of infectious diseases caused by micro-organisms in humans, livestock and plants. In this review, available types of LAMP techniques will be discussed together with their applications in detection of various micro-organisms. Up to date, there are varieties of LAMP detection methods available including colorimetric and fluorescent detection, real-time monitoring using turbidity metre and detection using lateral flow device which will also be highlighted in this review. Apart from that, commercialization of LAMP technique had also been reported such as lyophilized form of LAMP reagents kit and LAMP primer sets for detection of pathogenic micro-organisms. On top of that, advantages and limitations of this molecular detection method are also described together with its future potential as a diagnostic method for infectious disease
Plasma lipoprotein subfraction concentrations are associated with lipid metabolism and age-related macular degeneration
10.1194/jlr.M073684Journal of Lipid Research5891785-179
High-reflectivity, high-Q micromechanical membranes via guided resonances for enhanced optomechanical coupling
Using Fano-type guided resonances (GRs) in photonic crystal (PhC) slab
structures, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate optical reflectivity
enhancement of high-Q SiNx membrane-type resonators used in
membrane-in-the-middle optomechanical (OM) systems. Normal-incidence
transmission and mechanical ringdown measurements of 50-nm-thick PhC membranes
demonstrate GRs near 1064 nm, leading to a ~ 4\times increase in reflectivity
while preserving high mechanical Q factors of up to ~ 5 \times 10^6. The
results would allow improvement of membrane-in-the-middle OM systems by virtue
of increased OM coupling, presenting a path towards ground state cooling of
such a membrane and observations of related quantum effects
Special Care Dentistry Curriculum at The Undergraduate Level : Students’ Prespective
Special needs patients (SNP) have difficulty accessing dental services, partly due to reluctance of dentists to treat them. Objective: We assess didactic and clinical training experiences of final-year dental students and new graduates in managing SNP. Methods: An online questionnaire was sent to 123 final year dental students and new graduates, assessing their experiences and readiness in handling SNP. Results: Majority of the respondents were not confident in attending to SNP. Majority gained knowledge in handling SNP via lectures while more than half had managed patients with complex medical history. Majority mentioned a lack of clinical training to treat SNP as their dental training experience had only been in a dental school clinical setting. Most of the respondents hope their curriculum would include more education to improve clinical skills in managing SNP. Conclusion: Respondents demonstrated minimum training and lack of confidence and skills that might contribute to a lack of preparedness to manage the oral health care needs of SNP. Clinical exposure in managing SNP at the undergraduate level is still inadequate and it needs to be emphasized in the curriculum.DOI: 10.14693/jdi.v22i3.976
Functional implications of Epstein-Barr virus lytic genes in carcinogenesis
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with a diverse range of tumors of both lymphoid and epithelial origin. Similar to other herpesviruses, EBV displays a bipartite life cycle consisting of latent and lytic phases. Current dogma indicates that the latent genes are key drivers in the pathogenesis of EBV-associated cancers, while the lytic genes are primarily responsible for viral transmission. In recent years, evidence has emerged to show that the EBV lytic phase also plays an important role in EBV tumorigenesis, and the expression of EBV lytic genes is frequently detected in tumor tissues and cell lines. The advent of next generation sequencing has allowed the comprehensive profiling of EBV gene expression, and this has revealed the consistent expression of several lytic genes across various types of EBV-associated cancers. In this review, we provide an overview of the functional implications of EBV lytic gene expression to the oncogenic process and discuss possible avenues for future investigations
Stochastic modeling of superconducting qudits in the dispersive regime
The field of superconducting quantum computing, based on Josephson junctions,
has recently seen remarkable strides in scaling the number of logical qubits.
In particular, the fidelities of one- and two-qubit gates have reached the
breakeven point with the novel error mitigation and correction methods.
Parallel to these advances is the effort to expand the Hilbert space within a
single junction or device by employing high-dimensional qubits, otherwise known
as qudits. Research has demonstrated the possibility of driving higher-order
transitions in a transmon or designing innovative multimode superconducting
circuits, termed multimons. These advances can significantly expand the
computational basis while simplifying the interconnects in a large-scale
quantum processor. In this work we extend the measurement theory of a
conventional superconducting qubit to that of a qudit, focusing on modeling the
dispersive quadrature measurement in an open quantum system. Under the Markov
assumption, the qudit Lindblad and stochastic master equations are formulated
and analyzed; in addition, both the ensemble-averaged and the quantum-jump
approach of decoherence analysis are detailed with analytical and numerical
comparisons. We verify our stochastic model with a series of experimental
results on a transmon-type qutrit, verifying the validity of our
high-dimensional formalism.Comment: 16-page main text, 6 figures, 15-page appendice
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