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Improved single-swab sample preparation for recovering bacterial and phage DNA from human skin and wound microbiomes.
BackgroundCharacterization of the skin and wound microbiome is of high biomedical interest, but is hampered by the low biomass of typical samples. While sample preparation from other microbiomes (e.g., gut) has been the subject of extensive optimization, procedures for skin and wound microbiomes have received relatively little attention. Here we describe an improved method for obtaining both phage and microbial DNA from a single skin or wound swab, characterize the yield of DNA in model samples, and demonstrate the utility of this approach with samples collected from a wound clinic.ResultsWe find a substantial improvement when processing wound samples in particular; while only one-quarter of wound samples processed by a traditional method yielded sufficient DNA for downstream analysis, all samples processed using the improved method yielded sufficient DNA. Moreover, for both skin and wound samples, community analysis and viral reads obtained through deep sequencing of clinical swab samples showed significant improvement with the use of the improved method.ConclusionUse of this method may increase the efficiency and data quality of microbiome studies from low-biomass samples
Hybrid fuzzy and sliding-mode control for motorised tether spin-up when coupled with axial vibration
A hybrid fuzzy sliding mode controller is applied to the control of motorised tether spin-up coupled with an axial oscillation phenomenon. A six degree of freedom dynamic model of a motorised momentum exchange tether is used as a basis for interplanetary payload exchange. The tether comprises a symmetrical double payload configuration, with an outrigger counter inertia and massive central facility. It is shown that including axial elasticity permits an enhanced level of performance prediction accuracy and a useful departure from the usual rigid body representations, particularly for accurate payload positioning at strategic points. A special simulation program has been devised in MATLAB and MATHEMATICA for a given initial condition data case
Cloaking and imaging at the same time
In this letter, we propose a conceptual device to perform subwavelength
imaging with positive refraction. The key to this proposal is that a drain is
no longer a must for some cases. What's more, this device is an isotropic
omnidirectional cloak with a perfect electric conductor hiding region and shows
versatile illusion optical effects. Numerical simulations are performed to
verify the functionalities.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
MgB2 tunnel junctions and 19 K low-noise dc superconducting quantum interference devices
Point contact junctions made from two pieces of MgB2 can be adjusted to
exhibit either superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) or
superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) current-voltage
characteristics. The SIS characteristics are in good agreement with the
standard tunneling model for s-wave superconductors, and yield an energy gap of
(2.02 +/- 0.08) meV. The SNS characteristics are in good agreement with the
predictions of the resistively-shunted junction model. DC Superconducting
QUantum Interference Devices made from two SNS junctions yield magnetic field
noise as low as 35 fT/Hz^{1/2} at 19 K.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
NLO corrections in MC event generator for angular distribution of Drell-Yan lepton pair production
Using a subtraction method, we derive the formulae suitable for use in
Monte-Carlo event generators to give the angular distribution for the
gluon-quark induced NLO corrections in Drell-Yan lepton pair production. We
also give the corresponding helicity density matrix for W and Z boson
production.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure
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