National survey on intra-laboratory turnaround time for some most common routine and stat laboratory analyses in 479 laboratories in China

Introduction: To investigate the state of the art of intra-laboratory turnaround time (intra-TAT), provide suggestions and find out whether laboratories accredited by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15189 or College of American Pathologists (CAP) will show better performance on intra-TAT than non-accredited ones. Materials and methods: 479 Chinese clinical laboratories participating in the external quality assessment programs of chemistry, blood gas, and haematology tests organized by the National Centre for Clinical Laboratories in China were included in our study. General information and the median of intra-TAT of routine and stat tests in last one week were asked in the questionnaires. Results: The response rate of clinical biochemistry, blood gas, and haematology testing were 36% (479 / 1307), 38% (228 / 598), and 36% (449 / 1250), respectively. More than 50% of laboratories indicated that they had set up intra-TAT median goals and almost 60% of laboratories declared they had monitored intra-TAT generally for every analyte they performed. Among all analytes we investigated, the intra-TAT of haematology analytes was shorter than biochemistry while the intra-TAT of blood gas analytes was the shortest. There were significant differences between median intra-TAT on different days of the week for routine tests. However, there were no significant differences in median intra-TAT reported by accredited laboratories and non-accredited laboratories. Conclusions: Many laboratories in China are aware of intra-TAT control and are making effort to reach the target. There is still space for improvement. Accredited laboratories have better status on intra-TAT monitoring and target setting than the non-accredited, but there are no significant differences in median intra-TAT reported by them

Parameter Optimization of a Discrete Scattering Model by Integration of Global Sensitivity Analysis Using SMAP Active and Passive Observations

Active and passive microwave signatures respond differently to the land surface and provide complementary information on the characteristics of the observed scenes. The objective of this paper is to explore the synergy of active radar and passive radiometer observations at the same spatial scale to constrain a discrete radiative transfer model, the Tor Vergata (TVG) model, to gain insights into the microwave scattering and emission mechanisms over grasslands. The TVG model can simultaneously simulate the backscattering coefficient and emissivity with a set of input parameters. To calibrate this model, in situ soil moisture and temperature data collected from the Maqu area in the northeastern region of the Tibetan Plateau, interpolated leaf area index (LAI) data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer LAI eight-day products, and concurrent and coincident Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radar and radiometer observations are used. Because this model needs numerous input parameters to be driven, the extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test is first applied to conduct global sensitivity analysis (GSA) to select the sensitive and insensitive parameters. Only the most sensitive parameters are defined as free variables, to separately calibrate the active-only model (TVG-A), the passive-only model (TVG-P), and the active and passive combined model (TVG-AP). The accuracy of the calibrated models is evaluated by comparing the SMAP observations and the model simulations. The results show that TVG-AP can well reproduce the backscattering coefficient and brightness temperature, with correlation coefficients of 0.87, 0.89, 0.78, and 0.43 and root-mean-square errors of 0.49 dB, 0.52 dB, 7.20 K, and 10.47 K for σ HH⁰ , σ VV⁰ , TBH, and TBV, respectively. In contrast, TVG-A and TVG-P can only accurately model the backscattering coefficient and brightness temperature, respectively. Without any modifications of the calibrated parameters, the error metrics computed from the validation data are slightly worse than those of the calibration data. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the synergistic use of SMAP active radar and passive radiometer observations under the unified framework of a physical model. In addition, the results demonstrate the necessity and effectiveness of applying GSA in model optimization. It is expected that these findings can contribute to the development of model-based soil moisture retrieval methods using active and passive microwave remote sensing data

Construction and Characterization of a Chimeric Virus (BIV/HIV-1) Carrying the Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus \u3ci\u3egag\u3c/i\u3e-\u3ci\u3epol\u3c/i\u3e Gene: Research Letters

HIV-1HXB2 5′LTR region, most of BIVR29 gag-pol segment and HIV-1HXB2 pol IN-3′LTR region were respectively amplified. A chimeric clone, designated as pHBIV3753, was constructed by cloning three fragments sequentially into pUC18. MT4 cells were transfected with pHBIV3753. The replication and expressions of the chimeric virus (HBIV3753) were monitored by RT activity and IFA. The results firstly demonstrated that it is possible to generate a new type of the BIV/HIV-1 chimeric virus containing BIV gag-pol gene

Group DETR: Fast DETR Training with Group-Wise One-to-Many Assignment

Detection transformer (DETR) relies on one-to-one assignment, assigning one ground-truth object to one prediction, for end-to-end detection without NMS post-processing. It is known that one-to-many assignment, assigning one ground-truth object to multiple predictions, succeeds in detection methods such as Faster R-CNN and FCOS. While the naive one-to-many assignment does not work for DETR, and it remains challenging to apply one-to-many assignment for DETR training. In this paper, we introduce Group DETR, a simple yet efficient DETR training approach that introduces a group-wise way for one-to-many assignment. This approach involves using multiple groups of object queries, conducting one-to-one assignment within each group, and performing decoder self-attention separately. It resembles data augmentation with automatically-learned object query augmentation. It is also equivalent to simultaneously training parameter-sharing networks of the same architecture, introducing more supervision and thus improving DETR training. The inference process is the same as DETR trained normally and only needs one group of queries without any architecture modification. Group DETR is versatile and is applicable to various DETR variants. The experiments show that Group DETR significantly speeds up the training convergence and improves the performance of various DETR-based models. Code will be available at \url{https://github.com/Atten4Vis/GroupDETR}.Comment: ICCV23 camera ready versio

Non-intact zona improves development of murine preimplantation embryos transfected by an adenovirus vector

The present study explored whether embryos could be transfected by the adenovirus-vector if the zona pellucida (ZP) was not completely removed. An adenovirus vector with green fluorescent protein (pAd-GFP) was used to transfect mouse non-intact zona zygotes (following partial removal of the ZP induced by pronase), zona-free and zona-intact embryos. Non-intact zona and zona-free embryos expressed GFP (confirmed with inverted fluorescence microscopy) after 48 h of culture. The transfection rate of non-intact zona group was up to 51% and the entire zona-free group was transfected. However, none of the zona-intact embryos was transfected. Regardless of whether non-intact zona embryos were transfected by pAd-GFP, their developmental rate (74.3 ± 2.4 and 69.2 ± 3.3% for non-transfected and transfected, respectively; mean ± SEM) was higher (P<0.05) than that of zona-free embryos without and with transfection (54.5 ± 4.3 and 46.7 ± 5.5%). Developmental potential of embryos was decreased for ZP-digestion (non-intact zona 71.8 ± 1.6%; zona-free 50.6 ± 2.2%, P<0.05) or pAd-GFP expression (non-transfected 64.4 ± 1.9%; transfected 56.0 ± 2.1%, P<0.05); therefore, ZP-digestion affected more intensely embryos development than pAd-GFP expression. In summary, non-intact zona murine embryos were readily transfected by the adenovirus-vector, and had much greater development potential than zona-free embryos. Although, the susceptibility of the ZP to digestion by pronase varied among embryos, on average, approximately 3.5 to 4.0 min of digestion resulted in partial removal of the ZP and promoted both transfection and satisfactory embryonic development. It is expected that this method could be used to increase the efficiency of generating transgenic animals.Keywords: Mouse, non-intact zona embryos, adenovirus vector with green fluorescent protein (pAd-GFP), embryos developmen

Lini0.5mn1.5o4 spinel cathode using room temperature ionic liquid as electrolyte

In this study, LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) nanoparticles were prepared as a 5 V cathode material via a rheological phase method and annealed at different temperatures: 680 ◦C, 750 ◦C, and 820 ◦C. The sample annealed at 750 ◦C shows the best performance. A room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) containing 1 M lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide (LiNTf2) in N-butyl-N-methyl-pyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide (C4mpyrNTf2) was used as novel electrolyte in conjunction with the LNMO cathodes and their electrochemical properties have been investigated. The results show that the LNMO using RTIL as electrolyte has better coulombic efficiency and comparable discharge capacities to those of the cells assembled with standard liquid electrolyte (1 M LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate/diethyl carbonate). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy shows that the RTIL is much more stable as the electrolyte for LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 than the conventional electrolyte

FDTD analysis of transient fault induced travelling-wave propagation for multi-branch distribution networks

Many methods are available to analyze the process of the travelling-wave propagation. Among these methods, the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method has a distinct advantage in calculating dynamic process of the travelling wave propagation in the time domain and is thus applied to the field of power system protection for researching transient fault induced travelling-wave propagation. The novelty of this paper is that the attenuation law of the traveling wave signal affected by the fork junction in the multi-branch distribution network is summarized and the cause of failure in the fault location based on the incipient travelling wave front method in distribution networks is found

Crosstalk between microbial biofilms in the gastrointestinal tract and chronic mucosa diseases

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is the largest reservoir of microbiota in the human body; however, it is still challenging to estimate the distribution and life patterns of microbes. Biofilm, as the predominant form in the microbial ecosystem, serves ideally to connect intestinal flora, molecules, and host mucosa cells. It gives bacteria the capacity to inhabit ecological niches, communicate with host cells, and withstand environmental stresses. This study intends to evaluate the connection between GI tract biofilms and chronic mucosa diseases such as chronic gastritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and colorectal cancer. In each disease, we summarize the representative biofilm makers including Helicobacter pylori, adherent-invasive Escherichia coli, Bacteroides fragilis, and Fusobacterium nucleatum. We address biofilm’s role in causing inflammation and the pro-carcinogenic stage in addition to discussing the typical resistance, persistence, and recurrence mechanisms seen in vitro. Biofilms may serve as a new biomarker for endoscopic and pathologic detection of gastrointestinal disease and suppression, which may be a useful addition to the present therapy strategy