scholarly journals The Utility of Mechanical Homogenization in COVID-19 Diagnostic Workflows

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary P. Morehouse ◽  
Rodney J. Nash ◽  
Caleb Proctor ◽  
Gabriella Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Sample Preparation ◽  
Laboratory Safety ◽  
Sample Processing ◽  
Viral Lysis ◽  
Patient Sample ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Face ◽  
Novel Approaches ◽  
The Many ◽  
Mechanical Homogenization

The use of mechanical homogenization in patient sample preparation for COVID-19 diagnostics has proven impactful in the face of the global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Through methods including bead beating and shaker mill homogenization novel approaches to viral detection have been developed and improvements have been made to existing diagnostic workflows for the improvement of throughput and automation capacity. The application of mechanical homogenization techniques has enhanced the sensitivity and methodology for many molecular based approaches to COVID-19 detection and from a variety of sample types ranging from saliva to nasopharyngeal swabs. Additionally, this technology has been used to help increase laboratory safety during sample processing through efficient viral lysis. Herein, the many benefits of mechanical homogenization for COVID-19 detection will be discussed in the context of the many diagnostic workflows currently utilizing the technique.

scholarly journals William James and the Sustainable Transformation of Values, with a Case Study for Rethinking the American Dream

Human Arenas ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Croce
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
American Dream ◽  
William James ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many

AbstractThis article addresses the call of the Psychology of Global Crises conference for linkage of academic work with social issues in three parts: First, examples from conference participants with their mix of bold calls for social transformation and realization of limits, a combination that generated few clear paths to achieving them. Second, presentation of Jamesian practical idealism with psychological insights for moving past impediments blocking implementation of ideals. And third, a case study of impacts from the most recent prominent crisis, the global pandemic of 2020, which threatens to exacerbate the many crises that had already been plaguing recent history. The tentacles of COVID’s impact into so many problems, starting with economic impacts from virus spread, present an opportunity to rethink the hope for constant economic growth, often expressed as the American Dream, an outlook that has driven so many of the problems surging toward crises. Jamesian awareness of the construction of ideological differences and encouragement of listening to those in disagreement provide not political solutions, but psychological preludes toward improvements in the face of crises.

Too WEIRD, Too Fast: Preprints about COVID-19 in the Psychological Sciences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arathy Puthillam
Keyword(s):  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Psychological Studies

That American and European participants are overrepresented in psychological studies has been previously established. In addition, researchers also often tend to be similarly homogenous. This continues to be alarming, especially given that this research is being used to inform policies across the world. In the face of a global pandemic where behavioral scientists propose solutions, we ask who is conducting research and on what samples. Forty papers on COVID-19 published in PsyArxiV were analyzed; the nationalities of the authors and the samples they recruited were assessed. Findings suggest that an overwhelming majority of the samples recruited were from the US and the authors were based in US and German institutions. Next, men constituted a large proportion of primary and sole authors. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Toye
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Face ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
The Many ◽  
Century Development

This book provides a survey of different ways in which economic sociocultural and political aspects of human progress have been studied since the time of Adam Smith. Inevitably, over such a long time span, it has been necessary to concentrate on highlighting the most significant contributions, rather than attempting an exhaustive treatment. The aim has been to bring into focus an outline of the main long-term changes in the way that socioeconomic development has been envisaged. The argument presented is that the idea of socioeconomic development emerged with the creation of grand evolutionary sequences of social progress that were the products of Enlightenment and mid-Victorian thinkers. By the middle of the twentieth century, when interest in the accelerating development gave the topic a new impetus, its scope narrowed to a set of economically based strategies. After 1960, however, faith in such strategies began to wane, in the face of indifferent results and general faltering of confidence in economists’ boasts of scientific expertise. In the twenty-first century, development research is being pursued using a research method that generates disconnected results. As a result, it seems unlikely that any grand narrative will be created in the future and that neo-liberalism will be the last of this particular kind of socioeconomic theory.

scholarly journals Catalyst Twenty-Twenty: Post-Traumatic Growth at Scales of Person, Place and Planet

Challenges ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Alan C. Logan ◽  
Susan H. Berman ◽  
Richard B. Scott ◽  
Brian M. Berman ◽  
Susan L. Prescott
Keyword(s):  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Mass Trauma ◽  
Planetary Health ◽  
Post Traumatic Growth ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Assumptive World ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Discrimination And Oppression ◽  
The Many ◽  
Seismic Impact

Planetary health is a broad multidisciplinary effort that attempts to address what has been described as “Anthropocene Syndrome”—the wicked, interrelated challenges of our time. These include, but are not limited to, grotesque biodiversity losses, climate change, environmental degradation, resource depletion, the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), health inequalities, social injustices, erosion of wisdom and civility, together with the many structural underpinnings of these grand challenges. The ultimate aim of planetary health is flourishing along every link in the person, place and planet continuum. The events of “2020” have illuminated the consequences of “mass trauma” and how sub-threshold anxiety and/or depressive symptoms erase the rigid lines between mental “health” and mental “disorders”, and unmasked the systemic forms of injustice, discrimination, and oppression that have too often escaped discourse. Here, we query the ways in which post-traumatic growth research might inform the larger planetary health community, especially in the context of a global pandemic, broadening socioeconomic inequalities, a worsening climate crisis, and the rise of political authoritarianism. The available research would suggest that “2020” fulfills the trauma criteria of having a “seismic impact on the assumptive world”, and as such, provides fertile ground for post-traumatic growth. Among the many potential positive changes that might occur in response to trauma, we focus on the value of new awareness, perspective and greater wisdom.

scholarly journals Social policy in the face of a global pandemic: Policy responses to the COVID ‐19 crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-260
Author(s):  
Daniel Béland ◽  
Bea Cantillon ◽  
Rod Hick ◽  
Amílcar Moreira
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Face

Development of a C12Im-Cl-assisted method for rapid sample preparation in proteomic application

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Liu ◽  
Xiaoxia Si ◽  
Shumei Yan ◽  
Xinyuan Zhao ◽  
Xiaohong Qian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Sample Preparation ◽  
Protein Extraction ◽  
Sample Processing ◽  
Processing Methods ◽  
Proteomic Analyses

Chromatography and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques have greatly improved the power of proteomic analyses. However, sample processing methods, including protein extraction and digestion, before MS remain as bottlenecks in the...

The silence of the ellipses: Why history can’t be about telling our children lies

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (5) ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Sam Wineburg
Keyword(s):  
History Textbooks ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Boston Massacre

History textbooks are less likely to be complete renderings of the truth than a series of stories textbook authors (and the many stakeholders who influence them) consider beneficial. Sam Wineburg describes how the process of writing history textbooks often leads to sanitized and inaccurate versions of history. As an example, he describes how the story of Crispus Attucks and the Boston massacre has evolved over time. The goal of historical study, he explains, is not to cultivate love or hate of the country. Rather, it should provide us with the courage needed to look ourselves unflinching in the face, so that we may understand who we were and who we might aspire to become.

الحكم الرشيد وكفاءة التخطيط للموازنة الاتحادية والدور المرتقب لتحقيق التنمية المستدامة في العراق

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (71) ◽  
pp. 4-18
Author(s):  
م.د صادق طعمة خلف ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Good Governance ◽  
Foreign Debt ◽  
Federal Budget ◽  
Budget Planning ◽  
Comprehensive Development ◽  
The Face ◽  
Efficient Planning ◽  
Public Money ◽  
Poverty Indicators ◽  
The Many

The Iraqi reality misses the foundations of good governance in Iraq, as well as the comprehensive development programs that produce economic and financial reforms, especially in the federal budget, which is characterized as a fragile, weak and vocal budget. Therefore, it came as a modest attempt to shed light on the justifications for achieving good and good governance and efficient planning for the federal budget in its expenditures and revenues. The public, which contributes to building the state and achieving sustainable development that helps solve the main community problems, reduce poverty indicators, reduce unemployment, provide housing and basic services for all components of Iraqi society, and one of the doors to good and rational governance is the efficient management of the federal budget in Iraq, which is represented by efficient planning for managing public money. And protecting it from corruption is in addition to the many problems that fiscal policy suffers from, including weak non-oil financial revenues and dependence on oil revenues, and the growing deficit in budget planning and reliance in particular on foreign debt in the face of the deficit, and solutions are not impossible but need a national administration to achieve them.

From IRL (in-real-life) to URL: Capturing the art biennial amid COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 291-311
Author(s):  
(Gwen) Kuan-ying Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Art World ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
International Exhibitions ◽  
Art Scene ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Taiwan Strait ◽  
Potential Shifts

In early 2020, the unforeseen COVID-19 has brought the art world to its knees, particularly the contemporary art scene needs viewers and feedback to survive. Artists require new channels connecting them with their audiences, while artists’ work needs to be seen and appreciated by the public to sustain its value. In the face of social distancing restrictions and limited visitors, however, many international exhibitions are forced to cancel or postponed. With less to no patronage, will the global pandemic bring the end of the art world? As the global pandemic has forced most social and cultural events moving online, the art biennials are no exception. This article examines the art biennial, the Olympics of the art world, to rediscover the meaning of ‘art’ before and after COVID-19. Integrating virtual presentation and digital campaign between the Taipei Biennial and the Shanghai Biennale, the first running art biennials across the Taiwan Strait, this article analyses and presents the art world’s potential shifts in the post-pandemic future.

scholarly journals Current Perspectives on High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) for Adventitious Virus Detection: Upstream Sample Processing and Library Preparation

Viruses ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siemon Ng ◽  
Cassandra Braxton ◽  
Marc Eloit ◽  
Szi Feng ◽  
Romain Fragnoud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sample Preparation ◽  
Nucleic Acids ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Virus Detection ◽  
Extraction Methods ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Acid Extraction ◽  
Library Preparation ◽  
Sample Processing

A key step for broad viral detection using high-throughput sequencing (HTS) is optimizing the sample preparation strategy for extracting viral-specific nucleic acids since viral genomes are diverse: They can be single-stranded or double-stranded RNA or DNA, and can vary from a few thousand bases to over millions of bases, which might introduce biases during nucleic acid extraction. In addition, viral particles can be enveloped or non-enveloped with variable resistance to pre-treatment, which may influence their susceptibility to extraction procedures. Since the identity of the potential adventitious agents is unknown prior to their detection, efficient sample preparation should be unbiased toward all different viral types in order to maximize the probability of detecting any potential adventitious viruses using HTS. Furthermore, the quality assessment of each step for sample processing is also a critical but challenging aspect. This paper presents our current perspectives for optimizing upstream sample processing and library preparation as part of the discussion in the Advanced Virus Detection Technologies Interest group (AVDTIG). The topics include: Use of nuclease treatment to enrich for encapsidated nucleic acids, techniques for amplifying low amounts of virus nucleic acids, selection of different extraction methods, relevant controls, the use of spike recovery experiments, and quality control measures during library preparation.

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