Automated glycan-bead coupling for high throughput, highly reproducible anti-glycan antibody analysis.

Automation of diagnostic assays generally aims to increase reproducibility and throughput while decreasing human errors and hands-on time. Here, we introduce a protocol for the automated chemical conjugation of glycans to color-coded magnetic beads using the KingFisher Flex magnetic particle processor. The resulting glycan-coupled magnetic beads allow the detection of anti-glycan antibodies of different isotypes from various species.

High resolution propagation-based lung imaging at clinically relevant X-ray dose levels.

Absorption-based clinical computed tomography (CT) is the current imaging method of choice in the diagnosis of lung diseases. Many pulmonary diseases are affecting microscopic structures of the lung, such as terminal bronchi, alveolar spaces, sublobular blood vessels or the pulmonary interstitial tissue. As spatial resolution in CT is limited by the clinically acceptable applied X-ray dose, a comprehensive diagnosis of conditions such as interstitial lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis or the characterization of small pulmonary nodules is limited and may require additional validation by invasive lung biopsies.

Osteoradionecrosis and microvascular free flap failure managed with negative pressure wound therapy: A case report.

A 56-year-old female with a history of meningioma status post subtotal resection (Simpson grade IV) and extensive radiation therapy presented with osteoradionecrosis (O.R.N.

Subretinal Stimulation Chip Set with 3025 Electrodes, Spatial Peaking Filter, Illumination Adaptation and Implant Lifetime Optimization.

A subretinal stimulator chip has been designed and tested, which combines high pixel number with highest simulation voltages, lowest power consumption, spatial peaking and illumination adaptation. A supporting ASIC completes the implantable device electronics. Blind mouse retina has successfully been stimulated in vitro.

System design of a physiological ambient illumination adaptation for subretinal stimulator.

Subretinal stimulators help restoring vision to blind people, suffering from degenerative eye diseases. This work aims to reduce patient's efforts to continuously tune his device, by implementing a physiological ambient illumination adaptation system. The parameters of the adaptation to changing illumination conditions are highly customizable, to best fit individual patients requirements.

A Toolbox of Surgical Techniques for Palatal Fistula Repair.

Objective: To provide an inventory of oronasal fistula repair techniques alongside expert commentary on which techniques are appropriate for each fistula type.

Design: A 4-stage approach was used to develop a consensus on surgical techniques available for fistula repair: (1) in-person discussion of oronasal fistula cases among cleft surgeons, (2) development of a schema for fistula management using transcripts of the in-person case discussion, (3) evaluation of the preliminary schema via a web-based survey of additional cleft surgeons, and (4) revision of the management schema using survey responses.

Participants: Six cleft surgeons participated in the in-person case discussion.

Patient-Centered Satisfaction After Secondary Correction of the Cleft Lip and Nasal Defect.

Objective: To evaluate patient-reported aesthetic and psychosocial outcomes of secondary cleft lip and nose revision procedures.

Design: Single-center cohort study.

Setting: Tertiary care pediatric hospital.

Intracranial Venous Hypertension in Craniosynostosis: Mechanistic Underpinnings and Therapeutic Implications.

Patients with complex, multisutural, and syndromic craniosynostosis (CSO) frequently exhibit intracranial hypertension. The intracranial hypertension cannot be entirely attributed to the craniocephalic disproportion with calvarial restriction because cranial vault expansion has not consistently alleviated elevated intracranial pressure. Evidence has most strongly supported a multifactorial interaction, including venous hypertension along with other pathogenic processes.

Interim Results of a Multicenter Trial with the New Electronic Subretinal Implant Alpha AMS in 15 Patients Blind from Inherited Retinal Degenerations.

We assessed the safety and efficacy of a technically advanced subretinal electronic implant, RETINA IMPLANT Alpha AMS, in end stage retinal degeneration in an interim analysis of two ongoing prospective clinical trials. The purpose of this article is to describe the interim functional results (efficacy). The subretinal visual prosthesis RETINA IMPLANT Alpha AMS (Retina Implant AG, Reutlingen, Germany) was implanted in 15 blind patients with hereditary retinal degenerations at four study sites with a follow-up period of 12 months (www.

Personalized RNA mutanome vaccines mobilize poly-specific therapeutic immunity against cancer.

T cells directed against mutant neo-epitopes drive cancer immunity. However, spontaneous immune recognition of mutations is inefficient. We recently introduced the concept of individualized mutanome vaccines and implemented an RNA-based poly-neo-epitope approach to mobilize immunity against a spectrum of cancer mutations.

Evidence-Based Medicine: Wound Management.

Learning Objectives: After reading this article, the participant should be able to: 1. Describe the basic science of chronic wounds. 2.

Low-latency system for evaluation of image-enhancement-algorithms on patients using subretinal implants.

In this paper, a real-time system consisting of a camera device, computational unit and head mounted display, adjusted to the needs of patients using subretinal implants, is presented. Retinal implants demonstrated to partially restore useful vision to patients suffering from hereditary retinal degeneration diseases. Even though various implant-mediated visual perceptions in daily-life were reported, perceived vision could be enhanced using algorithms well known from image-processing.

Benefit of spatial filtering for visual perception with a subretinal implant.

Subretinal implants have proven to be capable of restoring vision to patients suffering from hereditary retinal degeneration diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and cone-rod dystrophy. Although they already provide basic visual perception, there is still much room for improvement in this field. Effects like electric field interference limit the visual acuity and may be the cause of the perceived vision to be blurred.

Clock recovery PLL with gated PFD for NRZ ON-OFF Modulated Signals in a retinal implant system.

A Clock Recovery Phase Locked Loop with Gated Phase Frequency Detector (GPLL) for NRZ ON-OFF Modulated Signals with low data transmission rates for an inductively powered subretinal implant system is presented. Low data transmission rate leads to a long absence of inductive powering in the system when zeros are transmitted. Consequently there is no possibility to extract any clock in these pauses, thus the digital circuitry can not work any more.

A nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer concept for hermetically sealed magic angle spinning investigations on highly toxic, radiotoxic, or air sensitive materials.

A concept to integrate a commercial high-resolution, magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS-NMR) probe capable of very rapid rotation rates (70 kHz) in a hermetically sealed enclosure for the study of highly radiotoxic materials has been developed and successfully demonstrated. The concept centres on a conventional wide bore (89 mm) solid-state NMR magnet operating with industry standard 54 mm diameter probes designed for narrow bore magnets. Rotor insertion and probe tuning take place within a hermetically enclosed glovebox, which extends into the bore of the magnet, in the space between the probe and the magnet shim system.

In vitro study of iridium electrodes for neural stimulation.

Iridium is one of the main electrode materials for applications like neural stimulation. Iridium has a higher charge injection capacity when activated and transformed into AIROF (activated iridium oxide film) using specific electrical signals. Activation is not possible in stimulating devices, if they do not include the necessary circuitry for activation.

An economical and convenient experiment setup for electrode investigation.

Electrodes are among the critical components of neural stimulation devices. Investigating electrode properties like electrode impedance, charge injection capacity, and electrode corrosion limits plays an important role in electrode development. There are many commercial devices available for this purpose.

In vitro study of titanium nitride electrodes for neural stimulation.

For neural stimulation, reliable high density charge transfer into tissue is required. One electrode material for these applications is titanium nitride (TiN). In this paper, a method for lifetime analysis of TiN electrodes is discussed.

rapmad: Robust analysis of peptide microarray data.

Background: Peptide microarrays offer an enormous potential as a screening tool for peptidomics experiments and have recently seen an increased field of application ranging from immunological studies to systems biology. By allowing the parallel analysis of thousands of peptides in a single run they are suitable for high-throughput settings. Since data characteristics of peptide microarrays differ from DNA oligonucleotide microarrays, computational methods need to be tailored to these specifications to allow a robust and automated data analysis.

Contractile tension and beating rates of self-exciting monolayers and 3D-tissue constructs of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes.

The CellDrum technology (The term 'CellDrum technology' includes a couple of slightly different technological setups for measuring lateral mechanical tension in various types of cell monolayers or 3D-tissue constructs) was designed to quantify the contraction rate and mechanical tension of self-exciting cardiac myocytes. Cells were grown either within flexible, circular collagen gels or as monolayer on top of respective 1-mum thin silicone membranes. Membrane and cells were bulged outwards by air pressure.

An impedimetric microelectrode-based array sensor for label-free detection of tau hyperphosphorylation in human cells.

Tauopathies such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) belong to the group of neurodegenerative diseases that are characterised by hyperphosphorylation of the protein tau. Hyperphosphorylation of tau is one of the salient events leading to neuronal cytotoxicity and cognitive impairments. In this context, inhibition of tau hyperphosphorylation by specific tau kinase inhibitors can provide an excellent drug target for the treatment of AD and other tau-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Spheroids of granulosa cells provide an in vitro model for programmed cell death coupled to steroidogenesis.

Unlabelled: We describe the use of rotary cultures (72 rpm) as an excellent method for generating spheroids from dispersed bovine granulosa cells (GC). The GC spheroids were symmetrical (diameter between 100 and 200 microm), easily accessible, and could be obtained at high yields. On day one, the spheroids showed a two-layered outer zone of cells that stained lighter than the inner zone in semi-thin sections.