The small sample, the fact that subjects were self-selected according to bioethics requirements and the catchment throughout local patient associations may limit the generalization of our findings to treatment of less motivated patients.
Limitations of this pilot study include the enrolment of patients via convenience sampling, the fact that patient outcomes were not monitored beyond hospital discharge and that a risk/benefit analysis was not included in the study design.
This increase may have been influenced by delay in processing times of the samples, and the fact that samples were checked less often (due to personnel availability), rather than every day.
One advantage of using the planar paper-based samples is the fact that sample preparation and AFM analysis becomes more straightforward compared to the 96-well plate bottoms.
The stochastic part is due to averaging over some series of samples, and the fact that these samples fit into the concept of RVE (Representative Volume Element) in order to reduce the variance effect.
We selected λ = 1 2, because Veridical's untransformed output is skewed left, due to their being, in general, less validating reads in control samples and the fact that there are, by design, vastly more control samples than experimental samples.
However, counterbalancing this loss of sample is the fact that ThinPrep samples are significantly less labour intensive than SurePath samples for the processing laboratory.
Given the gradient of the Er content within the samples' thickness, the fact that the highest values of the threshold Er/Si ratio are observed for thinner samples may be explained by the fact that while the samples' surface remains the same, the time needed to reach the same doping level for thick layers is higher than that required for thin samples.
However, our finding may also be due to the relatively young age of the sample and the fact that the sample is from Colombo rather than being a national sample.
They did not distinguish between men and women in their study despite the unequal numbers of men and women in their sample and the fact that both samples were taken from highly sex segregated professions.
