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At least 1,117 records · Page 62Linked to original sources
PubMed2000

Enhanced production of L-(+)-lactic acid in chemostat by Lactobacillus casei DSM 20011 using ion-exchange resins and cross-flow filtration in a fully automated pilot plant controlled via NIR.

Due to the lack of suitable in-process sensors, on-line monitoring of fermentation processes is restricted almost exclusively to the measurement of physical parameters only indirectly related to key process variables, i.e., substrate, product, and biomass concentration. This obstacle can be overcome by near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, which allows not only real-time process monitoring, but also automated process control, provided that NIR-generated information is fed to a suitable computerized bioreactor control system. Once the relevant calibrations have been obtained, substrate, biomass and product concentration can be evaluated on-line and used by the bioreactor control system to manage the fermentation. In this work, an NIR-based control system allowed the full automation of a small-scale pilot plant for lactic acid production and provided an excellent tool for process optimization. The growth-inhibiting effect of lactic acid present in the culture broth is enhanced when the growth-limiting substrate, glucose, is also present at relatively high concentrations. Both combined factors can result in a severe reduction of the performance of the lactate production process. A dedicated software enabling on-line NIR data acquisition and reduction, and automated process management through feed addition, culture removal and/or product recovery by microfiltration was developed in order to allow the implementation of continuous fermentation processes with recycling of culture medium and cell recycling. Both operation modes were tested at different dilution rates and the respective cultivation parameters observed were compared with those obtained in a conventional continuous fermentation. Steady states were obtained in both modes with high performance on lactate production. The highest lactate volumetric productivity, 138 g L(-1) h(-1), was obtained in continuous fermentation with cell recycling.

Automation↗
PubMed2000

The accuracy of community-based automated blood pressure machines.

BACKGROUND: Despite widespread use, the accuracy of community-based automated blood pressure machines has been questioned. We sought to determine if these machines are as accurate and reliable as those obtained by a clinician with a mercury manometer. METHODS: We randomly selected 25 pharmacies and compared blood pressure readings obtained from their automated machines with from a mercury manometer. We used 3 volunteers with arm circumferences at the low, medium, and high ends of the acceptable range of a normal adult cuff size. RESULTS: For the subject with the small arm size, store machines reported systolic pressure readings that were, on average, 10 mm Hg higher than those obtained by the clinician (P <.001) and diastolic pressures 9 mm Hg higher (P <.001). The mean systolic pressure readings for the subject with the medium arm size were not significantly different between the store machine and the mercury manometer, and the readings were only modestly different for diastolic pressure. For the subject with the large arm size, store machines reported diastolic pressure readings that were, on average, 8.3 mm Hg lower than those obtained using the mercury manometer (P <.001), but with no significant difference in the systolic pressure. CONCLUSIONS: We found that automated blood pressure machines from a representative community-based sample of pharmacies did not meet the accepted standards of accuracy and reliability. Accuracy of readings is especially uncertain for patients having arm sizes larger or smaller than average.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Quality control in a manual and an automated leukocyte differential count.

Quality control (QC) has been introduced in laboratories, and QC surveys in leukocyte differential count to enhance quality have been performed by College of American Pathologists, Japanese Association of Medical Technologists, Osaka Medical Association and manufacturers. The results of QC survey in a manual leukocyte differential count indicated problems on the differentiation of segmented neutrophils and band neutrophils and the detection of pathological blood cells on blood smear. While the results of QC survey in an automated leukocyte differential count performed by same manufacturer with an automated blood cell counter were satisfactory, however, there was a difference in leukocyte differential cell counts among laboratories with other manufacturer's instruments because the synthetic blood material used in QC is an exclusive item for an instrument. It is necessary to further reeducate the medical technologists in order to improve morphological performance, and to standardize the synthetic blood material for compatibility with various automated blood cell counters.

Automation↗
PubMed2000

[Developmental frontier of a modular automated system].

The clinical laboratory is faced with increasing problems such as healthcare reform, cost pressure and increased laboratory regulations. Despite these problems, the users have even higher expectations for laboratory services. To resolve these issues, the clinical laboratory must become more efficient by incorporating creative solutions and adapting to changes. One key word is increased automation of laboratory procedures and integration of automated systems. First, automation will reduce the dependence on manual labor. Second, laboratories could perform a larger menu of tests in-house. This not only reduces expense but also reduces the turn around time for testing. To realize cost reduction and reduce turn around time, we propose the Modular system.

Automation↗
PubMed2001

Automated evaluation of frequencies of aneuploid sperm by laser-scanning cytometry (LSC).

BACKGROUND: Laser-scanning cytometry (LSC) allows fast automated scoring of fluorescence signals directly on microscopic slides. Frequencies of spontaneous aneuploidies in murine and human sperm were evaluated by using this new LSC technique. Rapid detection may be of great interest in reproductive toxicology, as certain chemicals act as aneugens during meiosis, increasing the production of aneuploid germ cells. Materials and Methods Selected chromosomes were detected by using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and fluorochrome-labeled DNA-probes. Sperm chromatin was counterstained with propidium iodide. By scanning across the slide, fluorescence signals within sperm nuclei were detected and counted. RESULTS: In murine sperm, the frequencies of disomies for chromosomes 8 and X were 0.019% and 0.021%, respectively. The automated assessment in human sperm resulted in disomy frequencies of 0.061% and 0.090% for chromosomes 13 and X, respectively. These results were comparable to data obtained from the same samples by manual microscopic scoring and to literature data. CONCLUSIONS: Frequencies of genotypically abnormal sperm were not significantly different between automated and manual scoring. In conclusion, sperm aneuploidy was reliably determined and disomic sperm were successfully relocated by LSC. By virtue of rapid and reliable analyses, LSC has the powerful potential to replace manual microscopic FISH analysis in molecular cytogenetics.

Aneuploidy↗
PubMed2001

Recent trends in laboratory automation in the pharmaceutical industry.

The impact of robotics and automation on the pharmaceutical industry over the last two decades has been significant. In the last ten years, the emphasis of laboratory automation has shifted from the support of manufactured products and quality control of laboratory applications, to research and development. This shift has been the direct result of an increased emphasis on the identification, development and eventual marketing of innovative new products. In this article, we will briefly identify and discuss some of the current trends in laboratory automation in the pharmaceutical industry as they apply to research and development, including screening, sample management, combinatorial chemistry, ADME/Tox and pharmacokinetics.

Automation↗
PubMed2002

[Use of modern technologies and designing means for development of automated information systems for military medicine].

At present time, the intensive activity implementation of automated information systems (AIS) to the military medical establishment are observed. From design quality the successful functioning of the AIS depend on. The effective functioning and the interaction of the automated information technologies by specialists, which computers and telecommunications use for performance of the their purpose, are a goal of the design. Today, there are two classes" technologies for designing of the automated information systems of military medical application: conventional technology and integrated instrumental means technologies. In this article, the conventional technology and integrated instrumental means technologies are considered more detail. CASE-technologies (the functional-oriented and object-oriented approaches) and RAD (Rapid Application Development) are viewed.

Automation↗
PubMed2002

Fully automated proteomic detection of cervical dysplasia.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of two biomarkers, transferrin receptor (TfR) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), for the early detection of cervical dysplasia and to explore the relationship of E5, one of three viral oncogenes expressed by the human papillomavirus (HPV), to TfR and EGFR. STUDY DESIGN: Two hundred seventy-four patients were evaluated in two separate preclinical studies using EGFR and TfR in fluorescent antibody-based assays. Cervical epithelial monolayers on glass slides were immunostained and scanned using an automated microscope platform and proprietary analysis software. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated in patient cohorts for both assays. RESULTS: Sensitivity for high grade dysplasia (HSIL) and invasive cancer in the EGFR study was 100%; specificity was 73.3%. The TfR assay, which is completely automated, demonstrated sensitivity for HSIL and invasive cancer of 96.3%, with a specificity of 81.3% in 211 patients, from five different clinical sites. CONCLUSION: Both EGFR and TfR assays detected HSIL with very high accuracy (100% and 96.3%, respectively). Specificity of the TfR assay was slightly higher (81.3%) than that of the EGFR assay (73.3%). HPV E5-induced disruption of intracellular endosomal acidification and its effects upon both EGFR and TfR may provide the specific mechanistic connection between overexpression of these receptor proteins, and HPV in fection and integration. EGFR and especially TfR show great promise as biomarkers in a highly sensitive and specific, fully automated assay for the early detection of cervical dysplasia.

Automation↗
PubMed2002

Evaluation of the Sysmex UF-100 automated urinalysis analyzer and comparative study with JCCLS reference method.

Microscopic urine sediment analysis has been accepted as the mainstay test for examining urine cells and particles. Although it provides essential information for clinicians about disease states in the patients, it is a high-volume and laborious procedure. Therefore, an automated analyzer was developed recently and has just been introduced to Thailand. In this study, the authors evaluated the analytical performance of this new automated urine analyze. Also a comparative study was performed between the UF-100 test results and those of JCCLS reference method. In evaluation of the Sysmex UF-100 automated urinalysis analyzer, both precision and linearity studies were performed. Between-run CVs for RBCs (mean = 182.46/microl), WBCs (mean = 193.37/microl), ECs (mean = 70.05/microl) and casts (mean = 12.21/microl) were 7.74 per cent, 5.52 per cent, 21.32 per cent and 7.69 per cent, respectively. Concerning the within-run CVs for the RBC analysis, the CV ranged from 16.28 per cent for low numbers of RBCs (35.67/microl) to 2.93 per cent at RBC concentrations (712.13/microl). Concerning within-run precision for the WBC analysis, the CV ranged from 22.31 per cent for low numbers of WBCs (WBCs 12.53/microl) to 2.07 per cent at a WBC count of 211.01/microl. Within-run precision ranged from 11.36 per cent at 24.99 ECs/microl to 6.18 per cent at 53.08 ECs/microl. Within-run precision for casts varied from 35 per cent for samples with 1.33 casts/microl to 12.38 per cent for samples with 4927.35 casts/microl. From the comparative study, good agreements (p < 0.05) were obtained between UF-100 and JCCLS reference method for RBCs counts (p = 0.000, r = 0.974) and WBCs counts (p = 0.000, r = 0.913). However, fair agreement (p > 0.05) was obtained between UF-100 and JCCLS reference method for ECs counts (p = 0.017, r = 0.212) and casts counts (p = 0.624, r = 0.044). In conclusion, the UF-100 analyzer is a new useful analyzer although it cannot be a substitute for microscopic sediment examination.

Automation↗
PubMed2002

Leukocyte counts in cerebrospinal fluid with the automated hematology analyzer, Technicon H*3.

BACKGROUND: Presently, the counting of leukocytes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is still performed manually. This requires sufficiently experienced medical technologists. At present, specific automated systems for CSF cell counting are not available. In this study, we evaluated the use of the automated hematology analyzer, Technicon H*3 in the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). METHODS: We tested the hematology analyzer, Technicon H*3, which was not designed for CSF analysis. Sixty CSF samples were analyzed by the analyzer, Technicon H*3. Then the counts obtained were compared with the manual microscopic method. RESULTS: Linearity was tested by both plasma and normal saline solution (NSS). Concerning the NSS dilution, a good correlation can be observed at theoretical number of WBC > 30 cells/microL and so did the plasma dilution. The results of the comparison of both methods used for the determination of total leukocytes in the CSF gave a good correlation (r = 0.984). Concerning the determinations of neutrophils and lymphocytes, the correlation coefficients were 0.855 and 0.835, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: According to our study, the use of this automated analyzer for cell counting in CSF is probably feasible. The high degree of accuracy and linearity that is offered by the analyzer should prompt us and the manufacturers to remedy the interfering factors as described by improving the algorithms. Once this is done, these analyzers may be very useful for cell counts in CSF.

Automation↗
PubMed2002

Heuristics for identification of acronym-definition patterns within text: towards an automated construction of comprehensive acronym-definition dictionaries.

OBJECTIVES: To develop an automated, accurate and scalable method by which acronym-definition pairs can be identified within text. Its primary advantage is in enabling information processing methods to resolve author-defined acronyms, but it also allows an automated creation of a reference work on acronym definitions. This has several advantages over manual or semi-automated methods, besides time and effort saved, such as enabling identification of relative frequencies for alternate acronyms and definitions as well as spelling, phrasing and hyphenation variants for a unique acronym-definition pair. It also aids users in identifying acronym/definition variants present in the literature that may not necessarily be in biomedical databases. METHODS: A set of heuristics to accurately locate and identify the boundaries of acronym-definition pairs was developed and refined in terms of precision and recall on subsets of MEDLINE records. These training sets were gradually increased in size and heuristics re-evaluated to ensure scalability. RESULTS: Our final set of Acronym Resolving General Heuristics (ARGH) had a sample-based estimated rate of 96.5 +/- 0.4% precision and 93.0 +/- 2.7% recall when tested on over 12 million MEDLINE records, identifying more than 174,000 unique acronyms and their 737,000 associated definitions. CONCLUSIONS: We estimate that as much as 36% of the acronyms in MEDLINE are associated with more than one definition and, conversely, up to 10% of definitions are associated with more than one acronym. The number of unique acronyms in MEDLINE is increasing at a rate of approximately 11,000 per year, while the number of definitions associated with them is growing at approximately four times that rate. Access to the ARGH database is available online at http://lethargy.swmed.edu/ARGH/argh.asp. The heuristic module and database are available upon request.

Abbreviations as Topic↗
PubMed1992

Artificial intelligence in automated classification of rat vaginal smear cells.

Microscopic examination of vaginal smears has been used routinely to determine the stage of the estrous cycle of female rats in reproductive research. The stage of the estrous cycle is based on relative counts of nucleated epithelial cells, cornified epithelial cells and leukocytes. The purpose of this project was to explore automation of vaginal smear analysis using image processing and artificial intelligence techniques. A fully connected back-propagation neural network was used to locate all potential objects in a digitized scene. A unique algorithm was then employed to center a subsequent sampling box to collect pixel intensity values from the red and green components of each image. A final neural network was used in the classification of cell type. Neural networks were used because of their ability to generalize among input patterns and to tolerate extraneous noise due to variations in staining artifacts and aberrant illumination of the microscope field. This preliminary cell diagnosing system not only provides the basis for the fully automated system but also provides a method by which many other cytologic image processing problems can be automated.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

The place for automated peritoneal dialysis.

The progress of automated peritoneal dialysis is initmately linked to the evolution of automated peritoneal delivery systems. The state of the art devices have incorporated computerized programs capable of delivering precise timing and volumes of dialysate and have made possible the delivery of CCPD, NPD, IPD or TPD with either time-controlled or volume-controlled delivery modes. Data storage and telephone transmission to the center have also helped in assessing compliance and documentation of dialysis delivered. The most common indications for automated peritoneal dialysis remain patient preference and the need for partner assistance. However, new indications have emerged from our better understanding of peritoneal dialysis kinetics and the recent emphasis on dialysis prescription and quality assurance.

Automation↗
PubMed2003

Abnormal leukocyte histogram with a factitious automated white cell count due to Plasmodium vivax parasitemia--a case report.

Automated hematology analyzers are designed to produce accurate and precise blood counts on specimens which are either normal or show only numerical abnormalities. However they alert the operator in samples with unusual characteristics which could result in inaccurate measurement or require review of the blood smear. Even the most sophisticated instruments cannot recognize all the significant abnormalities that can be recognized by a human observer. Spurious automated white cell counts could result from platelet aggregates, nucleated red cells, non lysis of cells and a variety of other causes. We present a case with spurious leukocytosis due to Plasmodium vivax parasitemia which was flagged by the automated analyzer.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Cost-benefit analysis of a semi-automated process in the preparation of unit-doses by the Pharmacy Department].

OBJECTIVE: To determine in monetary terms the effect of implementing a semi-automated procedure for preparation of drugs for unit dose distribution. METHODS: The current net value was estimated for three different flows involved in the evaluation of semi-automated drug storage and retrieval systems used in the unit dose distribution area in a hospital: capital investment, staff costs and structural costs related to physical space occupied. RESULTS: Implantation of the new work procedure produced an annual saving of 32,390 euro in staff costs and 5,645 euro in structural costs. Global cash flow has been estimated in -96,565 euro for a five year amortization period, with a benefit/cost ratio of 2.19. CONCLUSION: Replacement of traditional unit dose cart filling systems by a semi automated procedure presents a positive benefit/cost ratio and initial investment is paid off in 44 months.

Automation↗
PubMed2004

Can we use automated data to assess quality of hypertension care?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether extractable blood pressure (BP) information available in a computerized patient record system (CPRS) could be used to assess quality of hypertension care independently of clinicians' notes. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study of a random sample of hypertensive patients from 10 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sites across the country. METHODS: We abstracted BPs from electronic clinicians' notes for all medical visits of 981 hypertensive patients in 1999. We compared these with BP measurements available in a separate vitals signs file in the CPRS. We also evaluated whether assessments of performance varied by source by using patients' last documented BP reading. RESULTS: When the vital signs file and notes were combined, a BP measurement was taken for 71% of 6097 medical visits; 60% had a BP measurement only in the vital signs file. Combining sources, 43% of patients had a BP reading of less than 140/90 mm Hg; by site this varied (34%-51%). Vital signs file data alone yielded similar findings; site rankings by rates of BP control changed minimally. CONCLUSIONS: Current performance review programs collect clinical data from both clinicians' notes and automated sources as available. However, we found that notes contribute little information with respect to BP values beyond automated data alone. The VA's vital signs file is a prototypical automated data system that could make assessment of hypertension care more efficient in many settings.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Which clinical decisions benefit from automation? A task complexity approach.

This paper describes a model for analysing medical decision making tasks and evaluation of their suitability for automation. The overall approach focuses on the assessment of decision complexity and possible reduction of human effort by automated decision support. The approach consists of five subsequent steps: (1) selection of the domain and relevant tasks; (2) evaluation of the knowledge complexity for tasks selected; (3) selection of potentially most cognitively demanding task; (4) assessment of unaided and aided effort requirements for this task accomplishment; and (5) selection of computational tools to achieve this complexity reduction. The model described allows for task automation without lowering of decision quality.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1992

Automated column equilibration, washing, sample loading and elution of bench-packed mini-columns.

In this paper we describe an easy and efficient way to pack mini-columns and use them in the Biomek 1000 Automated Laboratory Workstation. These procedures allow for automated column equilibration, column washing, sample loading and elution, and utilization of commercially available components. Various resins can be packed, allowing for automation of a variety of procedures in which minicolumns are used.

Automation↗