Development and validation of a rapid, aldehyde dehydrogenase bright-based cord blood potency assay.

Banked, unrelated umbilical cord blood provides access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients lacking matched bone marrow donors, yet 10% to 15% of patients experience graft failure or delayed engraftment. This may be due, at least in part, to inadequate potency of the selected cord blood unit (CBU). CBU potency is typically assessed before cryopreservation, neglecting changes in potency occurring during freezing and thawing. Colony-forming units (CFUs) have been previously shown to predict CBU potency, defined as the ability to engraft in patients by day 42 posttransplant. However, the CFU assay is difficult to standardize and requires 2 weeks to perform. Consequently, we developed a rapid multiparameter flow cytometric CBU potency assay that enumerates cells expressing high levels of the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH bright [ALDH(br)]), along with viable CD45(+) or CD34(+) cell content. These measurements are made on a segment that was attached to a cryopreserved CBU. We validated the assay with prespecified criteria testing accuracy, specificity, repeatability, intermediate precision, and linearity. We then prospectively examined the correlations among ALDH(br), CD34(+), and CFU content of 3908 segments over a 5-year period. ALDH(br) (r = 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76-0.79), but not CD34(+) (r = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.22-0.28), was strongly correlated with CFU content as well as ALDH(br) content of the CBU. These results suggest that the ALDH(br) segment assay (based on unit characteristics measured before release) is a reliable assessment of potency that allows rapid selection and release of CBUs from the cord blood bank to the transplant center for transplantation.

Hydrological and meteorological investigations in a lake near Kangerlussuaq, west Greenland

Few hydrological studies have been made in Greenland, other than on glacial hydrology associated with the ice sheet. Understanding permafrost hydrology and hydroclimatic change and variability, however, provides key information for understanding climate change effects and feedbacks in the Arctic landscape. This paper presents a new extensive and detailed hydrological and meteorological open access dataset, with high temporal resolution from a 1.56 km**2 permafrost catchment with a lake underlain by a through talik close to the ice sheet in the Kangerlussuaq region, western Greenland. The paper describes the hydrological site investigations and utilized equipment, as well as the data collection and processing. The investigations were performed between 2010 and 2013. The high spatial resolution, within the investigated area, of the dataset makes it highly suitable for various detailed hydrological and ecological studies on catchment scale.

(Table 3, page 8) Chemical composition and physical cahracteristics of manganese nodules from the Pacific Ocean

This paper reviews the state of the art in processing and extraction of ocean floor manganese nodules. It briefly reviews the mining sites where the abundant rich nodules occur and also discusses the metal distribution in nodules in view of economical processing and extraction of these metal values. The paper discloses in a detailed manner the physical and chemical characteristics of nodules, including porosity, surface area, water content and the effect of temperature on crystal structure of major constituents of nodules. In the extraction aspect of nodules, the paper reviews two different extraction schemes revealed in the literature, namely hydrometallurgical treatment and pyrometallurgical treatment. The hydrometallurgical treatments include acid leaching, ammonia leaching, leaching with reducing agents and leaching after high temperature pre-treatments such as in sulfating rousting, while the pyrometallurgical processes include smelting, chlorination-vaporization and segregation. The paper also covers metal recovery processes from leach liquor. An economic survey of processing nodules has been made in terms of problems associated with metal-marketing, and impact of metal production from nodules on mineral industries.

Origin authentication of distillers' dried grains and solubles (DDGS) - Application and comparison of different analytical strategies

In the context of products from certain regions or countries being banned because of an identified or non-identified hazard, proof of geographical origin is essential with regard to feed and food safety issues. Usually, the product labeling of an affected feed lot shows origin, and the paper documentation shows traceability. Incorrect product labeling is common in embargo situations, however, and alternative analytical strategies for controlling feed authenticity are therefore needed. In this study, distillers' dried grains and solubles (DDGS) were chosen as the product on which to base a comparison of analytical strategies aimed at identifying the most appropriate one. Various analytical techniques were investigated for their ability to authenticate DDGS, including spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques combined with multivariate data analysis, as well as proven techniques for authenticating food, such as DNA analysis and stable isotope ratio analysis. An external validation procedure (called the system challenge) was used to analyze sample sets blind and to compare analytical techniques. All the techniques were adapted so as to be applicable to the DDGS matrix. They produced positive results in determining the botanical origin of DDGS (corn vs. wheat), and several of them were able to determine the geographical origin of the DDGS in the sample set. The maintenance and extension of the databanks generated in this study through the analysis of new authentic samples from a single location are essential in order to monitor developments and processing that could affect authentication.

Comparison between SensibleThings and Kaa platform

With the Internet of Things becoming more and more popular, and a prediction that there will be more than 50 million devices connected to the Internet in 2020, the quantity of IoT platforms on the market is rapidly growing. Facing so many platforms to choose, the object of this thesis is to give some suggestions for reference by performing a quantitative comparison between two platforms: SensibleThings and Kaa. These two platforms have difference architectures so may suitable in different scenes. The comparison includes some measurement and evaluation under two designed scenarios and a general contrast in theory. Two scenarios cover cases of message delivery between two endpoints at different rates and multiple endpoints pushing log data continually. The result of measurement together with the theoretical analysis draw out the following conclusion. SensibleThings platform is more suitable for simple and small-scale message delivery between endpoints, like home environment with few devices. And Kaa platform is more suitable for large-scale and complicated application for data collection and processing, like meteorology field with huge amount of sensors and data.