BAL31-NGS approach for identification of telomeres de novo in large genomes.

This article describes a novel method to identify as yet undiscovered telomere sequences, which combines next generation sequencing (NGS) with BAL31 digestion of high molecular weight DNA. The method was applied to two groups of plants: i) dicots, genus Cestrum, and ii) monocots, Allium species (e.g.

Allium telomeres unmasked: the unusual telomeric sequence (CTCGGTTATGGG)n is synthesized by telomerase.

Phylogenetic divergence in Asparagales plants is associated with switches in telomere sequences. The last switch occurred with divergence of the genus Allium (Amaryllidaceae) from the other Allioideae (formerly Alliaceae) genera, resulting in uncharacterized telomeres maintained by an unknown mechanism. To characterize the unknown Allium telomeres, we applied a combination of bioinformatic processing of transcriptomic and genomic data with standard approaches in telomere biology such as BAL31 sensitivity tests, terminal restriction fragment analysis, the telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP), and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).

Automatic identification of solid-phase medication intake using wireless wearable accelerometers.

We have proposed a novel solution to a fundamental problem encountered in implementing non-ingestion based medical adherence monitoring systems, namely, how to reliably identify pill medication intake. We show how wireless wearable devices with tri-axial accelerometer can be used to detect and classify hand gestures of users during solid-phase medication intake. Two devices were worn on the wrists of each user.