University of Maryland, Baltimore County

About: University of Maryland, Baltimore County is a education organization based out in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Aerosol. The organization has 8749 authors who have published 20843 publications receiving 795706 citations. The organization is also known as: UMBC.

Selective Naked-Eye Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Mediated by N Gene Targeted Antisense Oligonucleotide Capped Plasmonic Nanoparticles.

Abstract: The current outbreak of the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) demands its rapid, convenient, and large-scale diagnosis to downregulate its spread within as well as across the communities. But the reliability, reproducibility, and selectivity of majority of such diagnostic tests fail when they are tested either to a viral load at its early representation or to a viral gene mutated during its current spread. In this regard, a selective "naked-eye" detection of SARS-CoV-2 is highly desirable, which can be tested without accessing any advanced instrumental techniques. We herein report the development of a colorimetric assay based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), when capped with suitably designed thiol-modified antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) specific for N-gene (nucleocapsid phosphoprotein) of SARS-CoV-2, could be used for diagnosing positive COVID-19 cases within 10 min from the isolated RNA samples. The thiol-modified ASO-capped AuNPs agglomerate selectively in the presence of its target RNA sequence of SARS-CoV-2 and demonstrate a change in its surface plasmon resonance. Further, the addition of RNaseH cleaves the RNA strand from the RNA-DNA hybrid leading to a visually detectable precipitate from the solution mediated by the additional agglomeration among the AuNPs. The selectivity of the assay has been monitored in the presence of MERS-CoV viral RNA with a limit of detection of 0.18 ng/μL of RNA having SARS-CoV-2 viral load. Thus, the current study reports a selective and visual "naked-eye" detection of COVID-19 causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, without the requirement of any sophisticated instrumental techniques.

A joint band prioritization and band-decorrelation approach to band selection for hyperspectral image classification

Abstract: Band selection for remotely sensed image data is an effective means to mitigate the curse of dimensionality. Many criteria have been suggested in the past for optimal band selection. In this paper, a joint band-prioritization and band-decorrelation approach to band selection is considered for hyperspectral image classification. The proposed band prioritization is a method based on the eigen (spectral) decomposition of a matrix from which a loading-factors matrix can be constructed for band prioritization via the corresponding eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Two approaches are presented, principal components analysis (PCA)-based criteria and classification-based criteria. The former includes the maximum-variance PCA and maximum SNR PCA, whereas the latter derives the minimum misclassification canonical analysis (MMCA) (i.e., Fisher's discriminant analysis) and subspace projection-based criteria. Since the band prioritization does not take spectral correlation into account, an information-theoretic criterion called divergence is used for band decorrelation. Finally, the band selection can then be done by an eigenanalysis based band prioritization in conjunction with a divergence-based band decorrelation. It is shown that the proposed band-selection method effectively eliminates a great number of insignificant bands. Surprisingly, the experiments show that with a proper band selection, less than 0.1 of the total number of bands can achieve comparable performance using the number of full bands. This further demonstrates that the band selection can significantly reduce data volume so as to achieve data compression.

Optimization of the split-step Fourier method in modeling optical-fiber communications systems

Abstract: We studied the efficiency of different implementations of the split-step Fourier method for solving the nonlinear Schro/spl uml/dinger equation that employ different step-size selection criteria. We compared the performance of the different implementations for a variety of pulse formats and systems, including higher order solitons, collisions of soliton pulses, a single-channel periodically stationary dispersion-managed soliton system, and chirped return to zero systems with single and multiple channels. We introduce a globally third-order accurate split-step scheme, in which a bound on the local error is used to select the step size. In many cases, this method is the most efficient when compared with commonly used step-size selection criteria, and it is robust for a wide range of systems providing a system-independent rule for choosing the step sizes. We find that a step-size selection method based on limiting the nonlinear phase rotation of each step is not efficient for many optical-fiber transmission systems, although it works well for solitons. We also tested a method that uses a logarithmic step-size distribution to bound the amount of spurious four-wave mixing. This method is as efficient as other second-order schemes in the single-channel dispersion-managed soliton system, while it is not efficient in other cases including multichannel simulations. We find that in most cases, the simple approach in which the step size is held constant is the least efficient of all the methods. Finally, we implemented a method in which the step size is inversely proportional to the largest group velocity difference between channels. This scheme performs best in multichannel optical communications systems for the values of accuracy typically required in most transmission simulations.

Revision of the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test: Studies of normal performance, reliability, and validity.

Abstract: There is an increasing demand for alternate-form neuropsychological tests that can be used in clinical trials with little risk of direct practice effect. Although the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test (BVMT) includes six equivalent alternate forms, its administration is limited to an immediate and 25-min delayed free-recall trial. We now present a revised version of the BVMT called the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) that includes three learning trials, a 25-min delayed recall trial, and a delayed yes/no recognition task. A new scoring system, which accounts for the location of test stimuli as well as the accuracy of recall, is also introduced. Using these new administration and scoring procedures, we administered the BVMT-R to 261 neuropsychiatric patients and 456 normal healthy adults. The results indicated that the test has excellent interform reliability, and the construct and criterion-related validity of the test were supported in studies using clinical samples. Although the BVMT-R is not without its limitations, the test's brevity and alternate-form capacity make it a valuable instrument for serial neuropsychological assessments.