BACKGROUND Meta-analysis is intended as a tool for the objective synthesis of evidence across a literature, in order to obtain the best evidence as to whether or not an association or effect is robust. However, as the use of meta-analysis has proliferated it has become increasingly clear that the results of a meta-analysis can be critically sensitive to methodological and analytical choices, so...

RATIONALE Analyses of stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13 C values) of organic and inorganic matter remains have been instrumental for much of our understanding of present and past environmental and biological processes. Until recently, the analytical window of such analyses has been limited to samples containing at least several μg of carbon. METHODS Here we present a setup combining laser abl...

Cell walls are part of the apoplasm pathway that transports water, solutes, and nutrients to cells within plant tissue. Pressures within the apoplasm (cell walls and xylem) are often different from atmospheric pressure during expansive growth of plant cells in tissue. The previously established Augmented Growth Equations are modified to evaluate the turgor pressure, water uptake, and expansive ...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Solanum section Herpystichum is a lineage that comprises both widespread and very narrowly distributed species. This study investigates the phylogenetic relationships of sect. Herpystichum and evaluates several phylogenetic methods for analysis of multiple sequences. METHODS Sequence data from seven nuclear (ITS, GBSSI, and five COSII) and three plastid (psbA-trnH, trnT-t...

This paper analyses the estimation process for Finite Rate of Innovation (FRI) signals. The main contribution is the derivation of the well known Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) for the estimation of signal parameters for a pulse stream. Other publications consider the estimation of the signal instead of its parameters or omit the effect of sampling. In this contribution both effect are considered and a...

This comprehensive review of analytical methods used for urine drug testing for the support of pain management describes the methods, their strengths and limitations, and types of analyses used in clinical laboratories today. Specific applications to analysis of opioid levels are addressed. Qualitative versus quantitative testing, immunoassays, chromatographic methods, and spectrometry are disc...

The analytical solution is obtained for a semi-infinite linear elastic solid with a sinusoidal, “wavy” surface profile subject to applied strain. The amplitude A of a deformed wavy surface is related to the initial amplitude A0 and the applied strain a through the simple expression A A0 1 a . This relation is confirmed independently by finite element analyses and experimental measurements of st...

We evaluated the analytical performance of the Du Pont Dimension Clinical Chemistry System to assess its suitability as a replacement for the Du Pont aca III, currently routinely used for analysis of pediatric, high-risk, and emergency specimens. Twenty-six analyses were studied. These generally fulfilled pre-set analytical goals for precision based on biological variation or "state of the art....

BioSim is a simulation tool which captures many basic life support functions in an integrated simulation. Conventional analyses can not efficiently consider all possible life support system configurations. Heuristic approaches are a possible alternative. In an effort to demonstrate efficacy, a validating experiment is designed to compare the configurational optima discovered by heuristic approa...