Obtain Test Results Research Articles

Pooled testing in the presence of congestion

Pooled testing for infectious diseases has a rich history. However, the focus of much of the academic literature has been on maximizing testing throughput. While this approach maximizes the efficiency of the testing facility, it may not minimize the delay in obtaining test results. In this paper, we provide a procedure, based on a queueing model, for choosing sample batch sizes that minimize expected delay. We show that not doing so, and relying on throughput maximization, may lead to excessive delays.

Agricultural Tractor Test: A Bibliometric Review

Agricultural tractors are an essential agricultural power source. Therefore, the scientific literature tests have described agricultural tractors’ evolution over time and determined future trends. This paper uses bibliometric tools to assess the agricultural evolution of tractor testing from 1969 to 2022 to ascertain the publication’s scientific perspective on operational, ergonomic, and energy performance. We searched for relevant research in the Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases. The data were processed in RStudio software version 4.4.1, and we used elaborated bibliometric maps to research evolution, major journals, studies, countries, and keywords. The first research mainly concerned the development of new wheelsets, more efficient engines, and fuel consumption prediction models. After the 2000s, environmental protocols contributed to increasing publications on biofuels and renewable energies. Recently, an intense process of robotization in autonomous vehicles has improved to allow the replacement of combustion engines. Ergonomics and safety have been less recurrent topics in recent years, indicating a stable level in the actual research. New machine control models involving artificial intelligence are currently applied to obtain test results without using the machine in the field. These virtual models reduce costs and optimize resources. The most common terms were “tractor” and “agricultural machinery”. The terms “Electric tractor”, “agricultural robots”, and “Matlab” indicate solid trends for future research.

The Influence of Zakat Fund and Macroeconomic Variable on Economic Development in Indonesia and Bangladesh

This study aims to analyze the effect of zakat funds and macroeconomic variables on economic development in Indonesia and Bangladesh for the 2010-2019 period. This study uses secondary data with a time series data model of zakat funds, macroeconomic variables consisting of taxes, unemployment, economic growth (GDP), poverty, and the human development index (HDI) from both countries. Furthermore, the data were tested using multiple linear regression models and simultaneous model tests, to obtain test results and complex analysis of the effects of exogenous and endogenous variables on the economic development of the two countries, with the help of the EVIEWS application version 9. The results showed that zakat funds had an effect on positive and significant effect on economic growth in both countries, taxes have a negative and insignificant effect on economic growth in both countries, poverty has a positive and insignificant effect in Indonesia, and insignificant negative in Bangladesh. While the results of the influence of the simultaneous model include; there is a simultaneous effect of zakat, unemployment, and poverty on economic growth in Indonesia and Bangladesh. There is no simultaneous effect between the variables of tax, unemployment, and poverty on economic growth, and there is a simultaneous effect between the variables of the human development index (HDI), poverty, and unemployment on economic growth in Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Sociodemographic Profile of Blood Donations and Ways to Encourage Them.

Maintaining blood stocks in Brazil faces challenges; hence, it is crucial to develop effective strategies to recruit and retain donors, such as campaigns and social marketing programs to raise awareness, but there is a lack of studies about the donators' profiles, as well as their barriers or incentives. The objective of this study was to analyze the characteristics of donors and the factors that influence their decisions. This was a cross-sectional study carried out between April and November 2022 using a structured questionnaire sent through a community created on Facebook, addressing common people over 18 years old, containing closed questions, supported byGoogle Forms.Statistical analyses were carried out usingIBMSPSSStatistics for Windows, Version 17 (Released 2008; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States) and the Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, with p < 0.05. The sample relied on 1019 participants, women (72.8%), age group > 30 years (81.1%), the most represented blood type was O positive (37.5%), and men donated more frequently than women (76.5% vs. 40.6%). The main reasons for not donating are medical conditions (39.7%) and lack of time (33.8%). The main reasons for donating are helping voluntarily (97.6%) and donating to family/friends (96.4%). There was a significant difference between the genders of blood donors, with more men donating, especially those over 30 years old, and with income between 1-8 minimum wages. The main barriers to donating are lackof time and information. Based on this, it is possible to target campaigns at women, young people, and people with income above nine minimum wages. The main reasons for donating are altruism, obtaining test results, and financial benefits.

Impelementasi Data Mining terhadap Evaluasi Kinerja Guru dalam Mengajar Menggunakan Metode Naive Bayes Classifier

Teachers are an important resource in supporting the teaching and learning process. The quality of teachers needs attention because it determines the quality of the teaching and learning process. This research aims to create a system that is able to classify performance as Very Good, Good, and Fair as seen from Pedagogical Competency, Personality Competency, Social Competency, Professional Competency using Naive Bayes Classifier calculations. Implementation of the Naive Bayes Classifier classification using numerical calculations. Based on a dataset divided into 80 training data and 20 testing data, the final test calculation achieved an accuracy level of 85% with precision results of 60% then recall of 57.14%. After carrying out calculations and obtaining test results, they will be distributed into the system using PHP and MySQL which are designed to carry out teacher performance assessment classifications. The prediction results obtained from the system are consistent with the results of manual calculations. Based on the research conducted, the system developed can be implemented in a way that makes it easier to evaluate teaching effectiveness.

A Point-of-Care Testing Device Utilizing Graphene-Enhanced Fiber Optic SPR Sensor for Real-Time Detection of Infectious Pathogens.

Timely detection of highly infectious pathogens is essential for preventing and controlling public health risks. However, most traditional testing instruments require multiple tedious steps and ultimately testing in hospitals and third-party laboratories. The sample transfer process significantly prolongs the time to obtain test results. To tackle this aspect, a portable fiber optic surface plasmon resonance (FO-SPR) device was developed for the real-time detection of infectious pathogens. The portable device innovatively integrated a compact FO-SPR sensing component, a signal acquisition and processing system, and an embedded power supply unit. A gold-plated fiber is used as the FO-SPR sensing probe. Compared with traditional SPR sensing systems, the device is smaller size, lighter weight, and higher convenience. To enhance the detection capacity of pathogens, a monolayer graphene was coated on the sensing region of the FO-SPR sensing probe. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was used to evaluate the performance of the portable device. The device can accurately detect the SARS-CoV-2 spike S1 protein in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and artificial saliva within just 20 min, and the device successfully detected cultured SARS-CoV-2 virus. Furthermore, the FO-SPR probe has long-term stability, remaining stable for up to 8 days. It could distinguish between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the MERS-CoV spike protein. Hence, this FO-SPR device provides reliable, rapid, and portable access to test results. It provides a promising point-of-care testing (POCT) tool for on-site screening of infectious pathogens.

The Mapping Students' Critical Thinking Ability on Vibration and Wave Material

Students' critical thinking skills are very important in facing the challenges of the 21st century. The purpose of this research is to determine the level of students' critical thinking. The benefit of this research is to obtain test results related to students' critical thinking abilities. The methodology in this study used a survey method involving 75 students who were taken randomly. The instrument used is in the form of critical thinking questions which are distributed via gform. The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS. Based on the survey results it is known that the number of subjects is 75 respondents consisting of 48 women and 27 men. Based on the survey results, it is also known that the average student's critical thinking skills are in the good category with a score that can be explained in detail, namely giving simple explanations (8.0), building basic skills (7.9), making inferences (7.8). provide further explanation (7.6) and set strategies and techniques in solving science questions (7.9). In conclusion, the construct that has the highest average value is to provide a simple explanation with an average value of 8.0 and the lowest is to provide a further explanation of 7.6. The recommendation from this study is that students' critical thinking skills still need to be improved and teachers can use the instruments that have been used.

A Bayesian spatio-temporal study of the association between meteorological factors and the spread of COVID-19

BackgroundThe spread of COVID-19 has brought challenges to health, social and economic systems around the world. With little to no prior immunity in the global population, transmission has been driven primarily by human interaction. However, as with common respiratory illnesses such as influenza some authors have suggested COVID-19 may become seasonal as immunity grows. Despite this, the effects of meteorological conditions on the spread of COVID-19 are poorly understood. Previous studies have produced contrasting results, due in part to limited and inconsistent study designs.MethodsThis study investigates the effects of meteorological conditions on COVID-19 infections in England using a Bayesian conditional auto-regressive spatio-temporal model. Our data consists of daily case counts from local authorities in England during the first lockdown from March–May 2020. During this period, legal restrictions limiting human interaction remained consistent, minimising the impact of changes in human interaction. We introduce a lag from weather conditions to daily cases to accommodate an incubation period and delays in obtaining test results. By modelling spatio-temporal random effects we account for the nature of a human transmissible virus, allowing the model to isolate meteorological effects.ResultsOur analysis considers cases across England’s 312 local authorities for a 55-day period. We find relative humidity is negatively associated with COVID-19 cases, with a 1% increase in relative humidity corresponding to a reduction in relative risk of 0.2% [95% highest posterior density (HPD): 0.1–0.3%]. However, we find no evidence for temperature, wind speed, precipitation or solar radiation being associated with COVID-19 spread. The inclusion of weekdays highlights systematic under reporting of cases on weekends with between 27.2–43.7% fewer cases reported on Saturdays and 26.3–44.8% fewer cases on Sundays respectively (based on 95% HPDs).ConclusionBy applying a Bayesian conditional auto-regressive model to COVID-19 case data we capture the underlying spatio-temporal trends present in the data. This enables us to isolate the main meteorological effects and make robust claims about the association of weather variables to COVID-19 incidence. Overall, we find no strong association between meteorological factors and COVID-19 transmission.

Does clinician-initiated Clostridioides difficile testing improve outcomes of patients with Clostridioides Difficile infection?

BackgroundClostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is a common hospital-acquired infection which can lead to major implications for patients and our health care system. In this study, we examine a policy change at a single-site Veterans Affairs Healthcare system that allowed bedside nurses to order C. difficile testing in addition to physicians on the time to obtain test results and initiate treatment. MethodsThe time to receive results and initiate treatment were analyzed before and after the policy change, and between physicians and nurses using descriptive statistics and paired student t-tests. Variables associated with lower ordering times were also analyzed using logistic regression while adjusting for patient admission location and length of inpatient hospital stay. ResultsThe difference in time to obtain the result both before and after the policy change and between ordering provider type were both statistically significant (P < .05). In unadjusted models, nurses were associated with faster test results compared to physicians (OR (95% CI) 1.72 (1.45-2.05). ConclusionsAllowing bedside nurses more autonomy to order the stool sample significantly decreased the amount of time to receive the results, potentially decreasing the risk of additional infections among patients and decreasing the economic burden on the hospital.

A Convolutional Neural Network for COVID-19 Diagnosis: An Analysis of Coronavirus Infections through Chest X-rays

Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease has not only become a pandemic but also an overwhelming strain on the healthcare industry. The conventional diagnostic methods include Antigen Rapid Kits and Reverse Transcription–Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests. However, they entail several drawbacks such as low precision in diagnosis, increased time in obtaining test results, increased human–patient interaction, and high inaccuracy in the diagnosis of asymptomatic individuals, thus posing a significant challenge in today’s medical practice in curbing an extremely infectious disease such as COVID-19. To overcome these shortcomings, a machine learning (ML) approach was proposed to aid clinicians in more accurate and precise infection diagnoses. A Convolutional Neural Network was built using a sample size of 1920 chest X-rays (CXR) of healthy individuals and COVID-19-infected patients. The developed CNN’s performance was further cross-checked using the clinical results of the validation dataset comprising 300 CXRs. By converting the final output to binary, an intuitive classification of whether a specific CXR is of a healthy or a COVID-infected patient was accomplished. The statistical analysis of the CNN was: Accuracy: 95%; Precision: 96%; Specificity: 95%; Recall: 95%, and F1 score: 95%, thus, proving it to be a promising diagnostic tool in comparison to the other existing ML-based models. The datasets were obtained from Kaggle, GitHub, and European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research repositories. The prospects of the proposed CNN lie in its flexibility to be altered and extrapolated in diagnosing other lung infections, such as pneumonia and bacterial infections, with relevant training algorithms and inputs. Additionally, the usage of other bio-imaging modalities as input datasets such as CT scans, Lung Ultrasounds and Heat Maps gives the CNN immense potential to assess for better insights on the severity of infection in both infected and asymptomatic patients as well as other related medical diagnoses.

Impact of rapid molecular testing on diagnosis, treatment and management of community-acquired pneumonia in Norway: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial (CAPNOR)

BackgroundCommunity-acquired pneumonia (CAP) causes a large burden of disease. Due to difficulties in obtaining representative respiratory samples and insensitive standard microbiological methods, the microbiological aetiology of CAP is difficult to ascertain. With a few exceptions, standard-of-care diagnostics are too slow to influence initial decisions on antimicrobial therapy. The management of CAP is therefore largely based on empirical treatment guidelines. Empiric antimicrobial therapy is often initiated in the primary care setting, affecting diagnostic tests based on conventional bacterial culture in hospitalized patients. Implementing rapid molecular testing may improve both the proportion of positive tests and the time it takes to obtain test results. Both measures are important for initiation of pathogen-targeted antibiotics, involving rapid de-escalation or escalation of treatment, which may improve antimicrobial stewardship and potentially patient outcome.MethodsPatients presenting to the emergency department of Haukeland University Hospital (HUH) in Bergen, Norway, will be screened for inclusion into a pragmatic randomised controlled trial (RCT). Eligible patients with a suspicion of CAP will be included and randomised to receive either standard-of-care methods (standard microbiological testing) or standard-of-care methods in addition to testing by the rapid and comprehensive real-time multiplex PCR panel, the BioFire® FilmArray® Pneumonia Panel plus (FAP plus) (bioMérieux S.A., Marcy-l’Etoile, France). The results of the FAP plus will be communicated directly to the treating staff within ~2 h of sampling.DiscussionWe will examine if rapid use of FAP plus panel in hospitalized patients with suspected CAP can improve both the time to and the proportion of patients receiving pathogen-directed treatment, thereby shortening the exposure to unnecessary antibiotics and the length of hospital admission, compared to the standard-of-care arm. The pragmatic design together with broad inclusion criteria and a straightforward intervention could make our results generalizable to other similar centres.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.govNCT04660084. Registered on December 9, 2020

Impact of turnaround time (TAT) of molecular testing on initial treatment (Tx) in newly diagnosed stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC 4): An Integra Connect (IC) retrospective observational study.

e13510 Background: Broad molecular profile-based initiation of Tx in newly diagnosed NSCLC 4 (KF Mileham, Cancer Med, 2022) is advocated by NCCN guidelines. Despite this, Tx is often started prior to, and without knowledge of, an actionable oncogenic driver (AOD), and often without subsequent switch to appropriate tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). In this study we sought to assess the impact of TAT of genomic testing on Tx in patients harboring a potentially actionable EGFR mutation. Methods: By interrogating the IC curated database, we identified 2,357 newly diagnosed NSCLC 4 patients (pts) who started an initial line of therapy (LOT 1) between 1/1/2019 and 12/31/2021. Squamous carcinoma pts were excluded unless documented to be never smokers or &lt;age 40. We assessed testing across all sample types and performed the analysis on solid tumor tissue next-generation sequence (NGS) tested patients. We used an order for EGFR as a surrogate for AOD evaluation and collected date of order and reporting of EGFR test results, and date of 1st Tx start. From this, we calculated TAT and whether Tx was initiated after genomic results. In addition, we captured whether testing was in-house or by reference lab (RL). We looked at the RLs that comprise of the top 85% of NGS test sources, where the testing source was known. We removed records where test order dates and results dates were the same date, where test order dates or results dates were unknown, and where TAT &gt; 90 days. EGFR Effective Testing Rate (EETR) is defined as EGFR result prior to line 1 Tx start. Results: Median age was 70 (range 40 - 89) and 50% male. Pts with TAT of ≤7 days had an 82% EETR vs. Pts with TAT of &gt;29 days had a 61% EETR. Overall, RLs had a median TAT of 19 days with a 72% EETR, whereas in-house labs had a median TAT of 15 days with a EETR of 80%. Conclusions: When providers and patients can obtain test results within 21 days of test order there is a higher likelihood of waiting for the test result to start Tx. Many community oncology practices are contemplating implementing in-house testing solutions to improve rates of testing and turnaround time of testing. This may prove to be an effective strategy given the better TAT for in-house testing. When there is faster TAT, patients and providers wait to start initial Tx. Getting patients on appropriate therapy based on their biomarker status can improve overall survival.[Table: see text]

Sistem Informasi Operasional Apotek Berbasis Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

This study aims to 1) create an effective, efficient, and easy-to-use pharmacy operational system for pharmacy employees and consumers that can be accessed remotely. 2) Implementing a Pharmacy Operational Information System Based on Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The problem faced by the current system is that it is still using a desktop-based system which is difficult to access by management remotely if there is a need for monitoring drug data management. This data was obtained by conducting 1) field research by making observations at pharmacies 2) direct interviews with the pharmacy on behalf of Alwidah Lestari as an employee. The software development method used is the Scrum Method, this system is made using Xampp as a database storage medium and Sublime Text. The results of this study show that the Pharmacy Operational Information System Based on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is attractive and User Friendly because it is easy to use, thus obtaining test results of 89.93% of 20 respondents with 26 questions by sending a questionnaire form for system assessment.

On-Site Safety-Valves Testing in Thermal Power Plants

Abstract The paper describes the function and importance of safety devices on pressure equipment, legal regulations for the necessary scope and periods of functional inspections of safety valves in thermal power plants. The mode of operation of the apparatus for in-site testing and adjustment of safety valves on pressure vessels is described, as well as a comparative presentation of the obtained test results compared to the results obtained by the conventional method that uses hydraulic pressure of the medium for valve spring load. The on-site method uses a motor drive to load the valve spring, and uses sensitive displacement, force and sound sensors to generate signals, which are processed in a suitable software application to obtain test results. Unlike the conventional method, the on-site method allows testing of safety valves without their disassembly from the installation site. A comparison of the test results obtained by the modern method with the test results by the conventional method was made on several safety valves. It has been shown that in addition to better precision, which is important for valves with lower operating pressures, the application of the on-site method shortens the test time several times.

Overcoming the limitations of COVID-19 diagnostics with nanostructures, nucleic acid engineering, and additive manufacturing

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed fundamental limitations in the current model for infectious disease diagnosis and serology, based upon complex assay workflows, laboratory-based instrumentation, and expensive materials for managing samples and reagents. The lengthy time delays required to obtain test results, the high cost of gold-standard PCR tests, and poor sensitivity of rapid point-of-care tests contributed directly to society’s inability to efficiently identify COVID-19-positive individuals for quarantine, which in turn continues to impact return to normal activities throughout the economy. Over the past year, enormous resources have been invested to develop more effective rapid tests and laboratory tests with greater throughput, yet the vast majority of engineering and chemistry approaches are merely incremental improvements to existing methods for nucleic acid amplification, lateral flow test strips, and enzymatic amplification assays for protein-based biomarkers. Meanwhile, widespread commercial availability of new test kits continues to be hampered by the cost and time required to develop single-use disposable microfluidic plastic cartridges manufactured by injection molding. Through development of novel technologies for sensitive, selective, rapid, and robust viral detection and more efficient approaches for scalable manufacturing of microfluidic devices, we can be much better prepared for future management of infectious pathogen outbreaks. Here, we describe how photonic metamaterials, graphene nanomaterials, designer DNA nanostructures, and polymers amenable to scalable additive manufacturing are being applied towards overcoming the fundamental limitations of currently dominant COVID-19 diagnostic approaches. In this paper, we review how several distinct classes of nanomaterials and nanochemistry enable simple assay workflows, high sensitivity, inexpensive instrumentation, point-of-care sample-to-answer virus diagnosis, and rapidly scaled manufacturing.

PENGEMBANGAN BAHAN AJAR BERBASIS WEB GOOGLE SITES PADA TEMA 9 SUBTEMA PEMANFAATAN KEKAYAAN ALAM DI INDONESIA UNTUK SISWA KELAS IV SEKOLAH DASAR

This study aims to understand the validity expert, validity empiric, and practicality of web based google sites teaching materials on the theme 9 subtheme utilization of natural resources in Indonesia to the fourth grade students of primary schools. This type of study was research and development (R&amp;D). The development design in this study was the ADDIE model which consists of five stages, such as Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. However, in this study the Implementation and Evaluation stages can not be executed because of the time limitation. The subject of this research are 2 learning material experts, 2 learning design experts, 2 learning media experts, 2 practicality experts, 10 fourth grade teachers, and 66 students in fourth grade of primary school. An instrument used is the survey validation expert of product, teachers and the student survey. This research carried out by using the validity of expert analysis techniques referring to formula Robert Gregory, the validity of empirical and practicality test using its mean value the observation compared on PAIT category table. Based on the data analysis, this research obtain test results on the validity of expert product in the form of web based teaching materials that all instruments was 1,0 which was considered as very high category, the average result of assessment of learning material experts products was 96,57%, the average of assessment of learning design expert products was of 94%, and the product assessments learning media experts resulting 98% and all fulfill excellent category, so it can be said valid. Then, test results on the validity of empirical in the form of web based teaching materials obtained from the assessment of the teacher's responses showed that all statement items in the assessment rhitung more than rtabel and mean of observation was 308,8 in the excellent category, so it can be said valid. Furthermore, there are practicality test results obtained from the calculation that the mean of observation from the results of the student response questionnaire assessment obtained 170,95 with the value included as excellent category and can be used practically. Based on these results, it was concluded that web based google sites teaching materials on the theme 9 subtheme utilization of natural resources in Indonesia to the fourth grade students of primary schools is in the excellent category, so that, this web based teaching materials is valid and can be used practically to the integration in learning by teachers and students as well as can be used as a supplement of learning.

A Dedicated SARS-CoV-2 Testing Center for Public Service Agency Personnel: Implementation, Results, and Impact on Human Resources

Objective: A global pandemic due to an emerging infectious disease requires efficient use of resources to ensure continued operation of essential services. To mitigate risk to these services and the population served, there needs to be a rapid identification of infected personnel via screening and testing. Methods: This retrospective study used prospectively collected data from a dedicated SARS-CoV-2 testing center for fire, police, and paramedic personnel in Toronto, Canada to determine the incidence of seropositive personnel and their immediate household, and estimate the days off work saved by timely access to testing and results. Results: In the consecutive 12-month study period, 10624 tests were carried out. Of 7951 personnel tested, 282 (3.55%) were positive, with positivity rates ranging from 2.52% for paramedics, 4.01% for police, and 4.25% for fire personnel. Household members tested positive in 173 of 2592 cases (6.67%), ranging from 5.22% for fire, 6.34% for paramedic, and 7.04% for police households. The median time to obtain test results was 1 day, with 90% available within 2 days. Implementation of the Center is estimated to have saved the Services 7669 person-days off work. Conclusion: A dedicated SARS-CoV-2 testing center for essential personnel can improve access to diagnostic testing and turnaround time for results, and provide a positive impact on human resource availability during a pandemic.

THE COMPARISON ANALYSIS OF SOFTWARE FOR MANTEL TEST BETWEEN DNA MARKERS AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF PLANT VARIETIES

An advanced approach to the assessment of varieties for the determination of their differences both within the DUS test and breeding is a combination of morphological traits and DNA markers. An implementation of this approach includes a correlation assessment between genetic distances matrices. To this end, the Mantel test is applied. The purpose of the study was to identify the main advantages and disadvantages of different software products for the Mantel test based on correlation investigation between DNA markers and morphological traits of lettuce varieties and maize lines. As a result of correlation calculation between 8 SSR markers and 36 morphological traits of 100 maize lines by XLSTAT (software for Microsoft Excel) p-value (probability of obtaining test results) was 0.0005. The value of this indicator obtained by PASSaGE software was 0.034. There was a pvalue of 0.045, which was calculated by GenAlEx 6.5 in Microsoft Excel (MS Excel). A similar result (0.036) was obtained by software environment R. The pvalues, which were calculated between 7 EST-SSR markers and 32 morphological traits for four lettuce varieties by XLSTAT, PASSaGE, GenAlEx, and R, were 0.033, 0.039, 0.038, and 0.035, respectively. In the study, the upper-tailed test served an alternative hypothesis type, the level of significance α was 0.05, the type of correlation was Pearson correlation, and the Monte Carlo method was used for p-value computation. Thus, the obtained p-values allow to reject the null hypothesis (H0) and adopt the alternative hypothesis Ha of correlation (p α). The correlation coefficient for maize lines was 0.05 and for lettuce varieties 0.65. Therefore, XLSTAT and software environment R are the most suitable instruments for correlation assessment between genetic distances.

Lateral flow immunoassay based on gold magnetic nanoparticles for the protein quantitative detection: Prostate-specific antigen

Point-of-care testing (POCT) demands for rapidly obtaining test results by means of portable analytical instruments and auxiliary reagents at the sampling site. It's important for tumor marker to be recognized and detected in early clinical diagnosis. Many studies focused on producing small portable devices that would allow fast, accurate, and on-site detection. This study aimed to report a magnetic quantitative lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) system based on poly (acrylic acid) (PAA)-modified gold magnetic nanoparticles (PGMNs) for detecting prostate-specific antigen (PSA) qualitatively and quantitatively. The result was easily achievable with a portable magnetic reader within 15 min. Under optimal conditions, as low as 0.17 ng/mL PSA could be detected. The method was validated using a well-established Solin electrochemiluminescence immunoassay and showed high consistency in detecting 84 serum samples (R2 = 0.98). The quantitative LFIA based on PGMNs established in this study was proven to be rapid, accurate, sensitive, and inexpensive. As a POCT, it can be potentially developed for the quantitative diagnosis of other disease-related protein biomarkers.

Preventing COVID-19 spread in closed facilities by regular testing of employees-An efficient intervention in long-term care facilities and prisons?

Different levels of control measures were introduced to contain the global COVID-19 pandemic, many of which have been controversial, particularly the comprehensive use of diagnostic tests. Regular testing of high-risk individuals (pre-existing conditions, older than 60 years of age) has been suggested by public health authorities. The WHO suggested the use of routine screening of residents, employees, and visitors of long-term care facilities (LTCF) to protect the resident risk group. Similar suggestions have been made by the WHO for other closed facilities including incarceration facilities (e.g., prisons or jails), wherein parts of the U.S., accelerated release of approved inmates is taken as a measure to mitigate COVID-19. Here, the simulation model underlying the pandemic preparedness tool CovidSim 1.1 (http://covidsim.eu/) is extended to investigate the effect of regularly testing of employees to protect immobile resident risk groups in closed facilities. The reduction in the number of infections and deaths within the risk group is investigated. Our simulations are adjusted to reflect the situation of LTCFs in Germany, and incarceration facilities in the U.S. COVID-19 spreads in closed facilities due to contact with infected employees even under strict confinement of visitors in a pandemic scenario without targeted protective measures. Testing is only effective in conjunction with targeted contact reduction between the closed facility and the outside world-and will be most inefficient under strategies aiming for herd immunity. The frequency of testing, the quality of tests, and the waiting time for obtaining test results have noticeable effects. The exact reduction in the number of cases depends on disease prevalence in the population and the levels of contact reductions. Testing every 5 days with a good quality test and a processing time of 24 hours can lead up to a 40% reduction in the number of infections. However, the effects of testing vary substantially among types of closed facilities and can even be counterproductive in U.S. IFs. The introduction of COVID-19 in closed facilities is unavoidable without a thorough screening of persons that can introduce the disease into the facility. Regular testing of employees in closed facilities can contribute to reducing the number of infections there, but is only meaningful as an accompanying measure, whose economic benefit needs to be assessed carefully.