University of Hawaii at Manoa

About: University of Hawaii at Manoa is a education organization based out in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 13693 authors who have published 25161 publications receiving 1023924 citations.

Plasma processing conditions substantially influence circulating microRNA biomarker levels.

Abstract: Circulating, cell-free microRNAs (miRNAs) are promising candidate biomarkers, but optimal conditions for processing blood specimens for miRNA measurement remain to be established. Our previous work showed that the majority of plasma miRNAs are likely blood cell-derived. In the course of profiling lung cancer cases versus healthy controls, we observed a broad increase in circulating miRNA levels in cases compared to controls and that higher miRNA expression correlated with higher platelet and particle counts. We therefore hypothesized that the quantity of residual platelets and microparticles remaining after plasma processing might impact miRNA measurements. To systematically investigate this, we subjected matched plasma from healthy individuals to stepwise processing with differential centrifugation and 0.22 µm filtration and performed miRNA profiling. We found a major effect on circulating miRNAs, with the majority (72%) of detectable miRNAs substantially affected by processing alone. Specifically, 10% of miRNAs showed 4–30x variation, 46% showed 30-1,000x variation, and 15% showed >1,000x variation in expression solely from processing. This was predominantly due to platelet contamination, which persisted despite using standard laboratory protocols. Importantly, we show that platelet contamination in archived samples could largely be eliminated by additional centrifugation, even in frozen samples stored for six years. To minimize confounding effects in microRNA biomarker studies, additional steps to limit platelet contamination for circulating miRNA biomarker studies are necessary. We provide specific practical recommendations to help minimize confounding variation attributable to plasma processing and platelet contamination.

Cotton-textile-enabled flexible self-sustaining power packs via roll-to-roll fabrication

Abstract: With rising energy concerns, efficient energy conversion and storage devices are required to provide a sustainable, green energy supply. Solar cells hold promise as energy conversion devices due to their utilization of readily accessible solar energy; however, the output of solar cells can be non-continuous and unstable. Therefore, it is necessary to combine solar cells with compatible energy storage devices to realize a stable power supply. To this end, supercapacitors, highly efficient energy storage devices, can be integrated with solar cells to mitigate the power fluctuations. Here, we report on the development of a solar cell-supercapacitor hybrid device as a solution to this energy requirement. A high-performance, cotton-textile-enabled asymmetric supercapacitor is integrated with a flexible solar cell via a scalable roll-to-roll manufacturing approach to fabricate a self-sustaining power pack, demonstrating its potential to continuously power future electronic devices.

Coupling between Northward-Propagating, Intraseasonal Oscillations and Sea Surface Temperature in the Indian Ocean*

Abstract: Using a hybrid atmosphere‐ocean coupled model, it is shown that during the boreal summer northwardpropagating, intraseasonal oscillations (NPISOs) are strongly coupled to the underlying sea surface temperature (SST) in the Indian Ocean sector. On the one hand, the intraseasonal atmospheric convection changes the SST through solar radiation, latent heat flux, and mixed-layer entrainment; on the other, the induced SST fluctuations feed back to affect the intraseasonal convection. The preferential northward, rather than southward, propagation of boreal summer ISOs in the Indian Ocean is partially explained by an interaction among the summer-mean climate state, the atmospheric disturbances, and the ocean surface temperature. A solution to an atmosphere-only model forced with daily SST produces much stronger NPISOs than a similar solution forced with monthly mean SST (AMIP-type run). The atmosphere-only model, however, even when it is forced by daily SST from the coupled model (with a small amount of noise in the initial and/or boundary conditions), is unable to reproduce the NPISOs in the coupled case. In the coupled system, intraseasonal SST anomalies are forced by intraseasonal atmospheric convection, and hence are in quadrature with the convection. In the stand-alone atmospheric model, however, SST acts only as a boundary forcing, and the resultant atmospheric convection has almost the same phase with the underlying SST. One consequence is that the intensity of the SST-forced intraseasonal convection in the stand-alone atmospheric model is considerably weaker than in the coupled model. Finally, solutions indicate that the northward movement of the off-equatorial convection in the northern Indian Ocean is more closely related to local intraseasonal SST anomalies than to the equatorial eastward-moving Madden‐Julian oscillation: Positive (negative) SST anomalies in the northern Indian Ocean lead the active (break) phases of the intraseasonal convection by about 2 pentads (10 days). Therefore, intraseasonal SST anomalies in the northern Indian Ocean are potentially a useful index to forecast active (break) spells of the south Asian summer monsoon.