British Columbia Institute of Technology

About: British Columbia Institute of Technology is a education organization based out in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Smart grid & Belief revision. The organization has 458 authors who have published 785 publications receiving 16140 citations.

Determination of Alkaloids in Mitragyna speciosa (Kratom) Raw Materials and Dietary Supplements by HPLC-UV: Single-Laboratory Validation, First Action 2017.14.

Abstract: The AOAC Expert Review Panel (ERP) approved a method for the quantitation of alkaloids in Mitragyna speciosa for consideration as First Action Official MethodSM status. The previously published method summarized a single-laboratory validation of two alkaloids, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, in raw materials and finished products. The methods performance was compared with the AOAC Standard Method Performance Requirement 2015.008. With repeatability precision (RSDr) ranging from 0.51 to 0.95% and recoveries from 93.6 to 98.9% in the different product matrices, the ERP adopted the method and provided recommendations for achieving Final Action status.

Experimental and Modeling Approaches for Understanding the Effect of Gene Expression Noise in Biological Development

Abstract: Biological development involves numerous chemical and physical processes which must act in concert to reliably produce a cell, a tissue, or a body. To be successful, the developing organism must be robust to variability at many levels, such as the environment (e.g. temperature, moisture), upstream information (such as long-range positional information gradients), or intrinsic noise due to the stochastic nature of low concentration chemical kinetics. The latter is especially relevant to the regulation of gene expression in cell differentiation. The temporal stochasticity of gene expression has been studied in single celled organisms for nearly two decades, but only recently have techniques become available to gather temporally-resolved data across spatially-distributed gene expression patterns in developing multicellular organisms. These demonstrate temporal noisy ‘bursting’ in the number of gene transcripts per cell, raising the question of how the transcript number defining a particular cell type is produced, such that one cell type can reliably be distinguished from a neighbouring cell of different type along a tissue boundary. Stochastic spatio-temporal modelling of tissue-wide expression patterns can identify signatures for specific types of gene regulation, which can be used to extract regulatory mechanism information from experimental time series. This Perspective focuses on using this type of approach to study gene expression noise during the anterior-posterior segmentation of the fruit fly embryo. Advances in experimental and theoretical techniques will lead to an increasing quantification of expression noise that can be used to understand how regulatory mechanisms contribute to embryonic robustness across a range of developmental processes.

Cognitive Radio Technology: System Evolution

Abstract: Cognitive Radio is a novel method of radio communication which enables more efficient use of the frequency spectrum. This efficiency is achieved by dynamically allocating frequency bands within the spectrum to different users. Within the field of Cognitive Radio, many different aspects of the system must be considered in order to achieve an optimal system. This includes methods for sensing whether the spectrum is available, sensing which channel is best for use, determining the time required to transmit data, and determining protocols which ensure all users achieve an adequate quality of service. This paper reviews a section of current topics in Cognitive Radio research on how cognition is used to make optimal channel selection. Paper compares various methods and identifies significance of various options and their efficiencies.

Ecological fallacy as a novel risk factor for poor translation in neuroscience research: A systematic review and simulation study

Abstract: Background Translational neuroscience is largely concerned with establishing causal links between biological processes and functional outcomes. Exciting new methods have emerged and top-tier biomedical journals are placing increasingly high demand for experiments that link outcomes. One pitfall to making these connections is the "ecological fallacy"-establishing a relationship between outcomes based on aggregate (averaged) results (a distinct issue from correlation vs causation). Methods To showcase the ecological fallacy, we first used simulated data to define and demonstrate the problem. Next, we performed a systematic review to determine the prevalence of the fallacy in top-tier biomedical journals (Science, Nature Medicine, Neuron, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Cell). Based on our own research interests and specializations, we specifically focused on recent publications in the area of spinal cord injury and regenerative medicine. Results Of the articles reviewed which examined a relationship between central nervous system regeneration and a behavioural outcome, 100% (21/21) were subject to possible ecological fallacy. Conclusions Ecological fallacy is highly prevalent in neuroscience research and could partially account for translation failures in this field. Reporting guidelines for in vivo experiments should include subject-level correlation analyses for the primary outcomes.