The tubules of the kidney display a remarkable capacity for self-renewal on damage. Whether this regeneration is mediated by dedifferentiating surviving cells or, as recently suggested, by stem cells has not been unequivocally settled. Herein, we demonstrate that aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity may be used for isolation of cells with progenitor characteristics from adult human renal cortical tissue. Gene expression profiling of the isolated ALDH high and ALDH low cell fractions followed by immunohistochemical interrogation of renal tissues enabled us to delineate a tentative progenitor cell population scattered through the proximal tubules (PTs). These cells expressed CD24 and

Quality management, by means of total quality management (TQM), is considered to foster organisational performance characterised by competitiveness and long‐term profitability. Since the benefits of quality management cannot be achieved without the sustained performance of equipment affecting product quality, maintenance management has become important. This has led to the development of maintenance methodologies, such as total productive maintenance (TPM) and reliability centred maintenance (RCM). TQM, TPM and RCM implementation have, however, often failed or been poorly executed. This has affected organisations' performance and ultimately survival in a competitive environment. This paper includes a comparative study of literature on TQM, TPM and RCM implementation, focusing on organisational change. The study found several common categories of activities when implementing TQM and the maintenance methodologies. These categories can be considered crucial to obtain management and employee commitment. Case studies on TQM, TPM and RCM implementation are used to validate the categories identified, and to yield recommendations on the handling of activities within these.

Comprehensive transcriptome studies of cancers often rely on corresponding normal tissue samples to serve as a transcriptional reference. In this study, we performed in-depth analyses of normal kidney tissue transcriptomes from the TCGA and demonstrate that the histological variability in cellularity, inherent in the kidney architecture, lead to considerable transcriptional differences between samples. This should be considered when comparing expression profiles of normal and cancerous kidney tissues. We exploited these differences to define renal-cell-specific gene signatures and used these as a framework to analyze renal cell carcinoma (RCC) ontogeny. Chromophobe RCCs express FOXI1-driven genes that define collecting duct intercalated cells, whereas HNF-regulated genes, specific for proximal tubule cells, are an integral part of clear cell and papillary RCC transcriptomes. These networks may be used as a framework for understanding the interplay between genomic changes in RCC subtypes and the lineage-defining regulatory machinery of their non-neoplastic counterparts.

Whole-blood microsampling provides many benefits such as remote, patient-centric, and minimally invasive sampling. However, blood plasma, and not whole blood, is the prevailing matrix in clinical laboratory investigations. The challenge with plasma microsampling is to extract plasma volumes large enough to reliably detect low-concentration analytes from a small finger prick sample. Here we introduce a passive plasma filtration device that provides a high extraction yield of 65%, filtering 18 μL of plasma from 50 μL of undiluted human whole blood (hematocrit 45%) within less than 10 min. The enabling design element is a wedge-shaped connection between the blood filter and the hydrophilic bottom surface of a capillary channel. Using finger prick and venous blood samples from more than 10 healthy volunteers, we examined the filtration kinetics of the device over a hematocrit range of 35−55% and showed that 73 ± 8% of the total protein content was successfully recovered after filtration. The presented plasma filtration device tackles a major challenge toward patient-centric blood microsampling by providing highyield plasma filtration, potentially allowing reliable detection of low-concentration analytes from a blood microsample.