The fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) is a key parameter in describing the exchange of fluxes of energy, mass and momentum between the surface and atmosphere. In this study, we present a method to measure FPAR using a digital camera and a reference panel. A digital camera was used to capture color images of low canopy vegetation, which contained a reference panel i...

OBJECTIVES Emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Neisseria gonorrhoeae remain a major global problem and expanded, but valid, AMR surveillance is crucial for public health purposes. The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre in Sydney, Australia, continually evaluates N. gonorrhoeae strains used in quality control and assurance aspects of the national, WHO regi...

Introduction: Recognition of human leukocyte antigens (HLA) is of importance for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Any HLA-mismatches between the donor and recipient can cause graft rejection or other complications. In HLA-typing experiments, usage of HLA-known reference cells accompany with HLA-unknown samples is obligatory. Some international centers represent these cells with high e...

BACKGROUND Microarrays enable high-throughput screening (HTS) of disease-related molecules, including important signaling proteins/peptides and small molecules that are in low abundance. In this study, we developed a multiplex blood bank screening platform, referred to as the Hi3-1 assay, for simultaneous detection of human immunodeficiency virus 1/2 (HIV 1/2) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). MET...

Background: Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are among the leading causes of hospitalization in children ≤5 years old. Rapid diagnostics of viral pathogens is essential to avoid unnecessary antibiotic treatment, thereby slowing down antibiotic-resistance. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of the Luminex xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel FAST v2 against viral specific PCR as reference assays ...

A multicenter trial of the Sensititre AP80 panel read on the Sensititre AutoReader (Radiometer America, Westlake, Ohio) for the automated identification of gram-negative bacilli was conducted with 1,023 clinical isolates (879 members of the family Enterobacteriaceae plus 144 nonenteric organisms). Assignment of taxa was based on the computer-assisted interpretation of the results of a series of...

Reference points and loss aversion are two essential and commonly used concepts in behavioral economics. In this paper, based on insight of Loewenstein’s (1988) reference point model, we construct a structural model for intertemporal choice with reference points and loss aversion by considering four scenarios: delay of gains, delay of losses, speed-up of gains, and speed-up of losses. We use pa...