Introduction: Premedication with acetaminophen and/or diphenhydramine to prevent febrile nonhemolytic transfusion reactions and minor allergic transfusion reactions is a common practice based on historical recommendations. However, recent small randomized-controlled trials showed no benefit of premedication. This inconsistency leads to practice variability, which results in the inefficiency of our institution's blood product ordering process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work, we survey a breadth of literature that has revealed the limitations of predominant practices for dataset collection and use in the field of machine learning. We cover studies that critically review the design and development of datasets with a focus on negative societal impacts and poor outcomes for system performance. We also cover approaches to filtering and augmenting data and modeling techniques aimed at mitigating the impact of bias in datasets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpigenetics Chromatin
December 2014
Background: The notion that epigenetic mechanisms may be central to cancer initiation and progression is supported by recent next-generation sequencing efforts revealing that genes involved in chromatin-mediated signaling are recurrently mutated in cancer patients.
Results: Here, we analyze mutational and transcriptional profiles from TCGA and the ICGC across a collection 441 chromatin factors and histones. Chromatin factors essential for rapid replication are frequently overexpressed, and those that maintain genome stability frequently mutated.
Summary: Cancer genomics data produced by next-generation sequencing support the notion that epigenetic mechanisms play a central role in cancer. We have previously developed Chromohub, an open access online interface where users can map chemical, structural and biological data from public repositories on phylogenetic trees of protein families involved in chromatin mediated-signaling. Here, we describe a cancer genomics interface that was recently added to Chromohub; the frequency of mutation, amplification and change in expression of chromatin factors across large cohorts of cancer patients is regularly extracted from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the International Cancer Genome Consortium and can now be mapped on phylogenetic trees of epigenetic protein families.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to develop a methodology to rapidly detect viable Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) in clinical blood samples. MAP cells spiked into commercially available blood were recovered using optimised peptide-mediated magnetic separation (PMMS) and detected using a phage-based method, and the identity of the cells detected confirmed using nested-PCR amplification of MAP signature sequences (IS900).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The rapidly increasing research activity focused on chromatin-mediated regulation of epigenetic mechanisms is generating waves of data on writers, readers and erasers of the histone code, such as protein methyltransferases, bromodomains or histone deacetylases. To make these data easily accessible to communities of research scientists coming from diverse horizons, we have created ChromoHub, an online resource where users can map on phylogenetic trees disease associations, protein structures, chemical inhibitors, histone substrates, chromosomal aberrations and other types of data extracted from public repositories and the published literature. The interface can be used to define the structural or chemical coverage of a protein family, highlight domain architectures, interrogate disease relevance or zoom in on specific genes for more detailed information.
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