Inadequate sleep has become endemic, which imposes a substantial burden for public health and safety. At present, there are no objective tests to determine if an individual has gone without sleep for an extended period of time. Here we describe a novel approach that takes advantage of the evolutionary conservation of sleep to identify markers of sleep loss. To begin, we demonstrate that IL-6 is...

Spinal deformities assessment using 3D ultrasound scanning has limitations in fitting onto different back surface contour as well within the gaps between subject and their spinal brace during bracing assessments. The study proposed a flexible array transducer to overcome these limitations. results demonstrated feasibility of deformity assessments with when arranged four shapes, namely Linear, C...

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) immunization of children induces shifts in colonizing pneumococcal serotypes. This study evaluated the effect of infant vaccination with 7-valent PCV (PCV7) on vaccine serotype (VT) colonization and whether the increase in nonvaccine serotype (NVT) was due to either unmasking of previously low-density-colonizing serotypes or increase in acquisition of NVT. A...

BACKGROUND Efforts have been made to establish sensitive diagnostic tools for malaria screening in blood banks in order to detect malaria asymptomatic carriers. Microscopy, the malaria reference test in Brazil, is time consuming and its sensitivity depends on microscopist experience. Although molecular tools are available, some aspects need to be considered for large-scale screening: accuracy a...

In this study, Taguchi experimental design has been used for the optimization of thickness of chromium layers. For this purpose brass materials have been electroplated under various conditions of the process. An orthogonal array (OA) was employed to analyze the effect of plating parameters on the characteristic of the thickness. Variables which were considered for working were as following; amo...

AIM To present validation studies performed for the implementation of existing and new technologies to increase the efficiency in the forensic DNA Section of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO) Crime Laboratory. METHODS Using federally funded grants, internal support, and an external Process Mapping Team, the PBSO collaborated with forensic vendors, universities, and other forensic ...