Abstract: This disclosure provides methods for detecting microbial cell-free nucleic acids for use in a wide variety of contexts. In some embodiments, this disclosure provides methods of monitoring a response to treatment. In some embodiments, this disclosure provides methods applicable for detecting bacterial infections (e.g., Bartonella spp. infections) and/or fungal infections. In some embodiments, the microbial cell-free nucleic acids are detected by metagenomic next-generation sequencing.

Abstract: Described herein is a method of detecting secondary infection in a patient, particularly a patient with a primary infection that is a pneumonia, a COVID-19 infection, or a COVID-19 pneumonia. In some cases, the secondary infection is a secondary bacterial infection, e.g., secondary bacterial pneumonia. In some cases, the methods provided herein detect a hyper-inflammatory response or severity of disease, e.g., indicating a severe COVID-19 infection, or provide a risk of death from a disease (e.g., COVID-19). This disclosure also provides method of detecting a localized respiratory infection in a subject by quantifying microbial cell-free nucleic acids (e.g., mdfDNA) from plasma from the subject. In some cases, the subject is not bacteremic when plasma is collected from the subject. This disclosure also provides systems, such as nucleic acid-sequencing systems with increased reliability for detecting secondary infections, particularly in patients with culture-negative pneumonia.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods of detecting and treating subjects for bloodstream infections (BSI). Disclosed herein are methods of predicting a bloodstream infection prior to an onset of a symptom. Disclosed herein are method of detecting bloodstream infections using high-throughput sequencing of microbial cell free nucleic acids.

Abstract: A communication system including a transmit antenna that transmits an output signal including output information, a network interface that receives state data regarding a first remote platform, and a processing circuit. The processing circuit predicts a performance of a communication link that the transmit antenna uses to transmit the output signal based on the state data, evaluates a performance condition based on the estimated performance and a threshold performance, responsive to the performance condition being satisfied, uses the transmit antenna to transmit the output signal, and responsive to the performance condition not being satisfied, at least one of (i) adjusts at least one of a time parameter or a frequency parameter that the transmit antenna uses to transmit the output signal, or (ii) provide an instruction to a second remote platform to cause the second remote platform to transmit the output information to the first remote platform.

Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for error correction utilizing turbo code and signal transmission with error correction utilizing turbo code. A sequence of data is divided into a plurality of elements. Each element is encoded separately in parallel utilizing turbo encoding and decoded separately in parallel utilizing turbo decoding. The encoding and decoding of each element may be performed by an encoder and a decoder dedicated to that respective element. The control mechanism that controls each encoder and decoder may be identical, similar to a SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) architecture, allowing each element to be encoded and decoded separately in parallel utilizing turbo encoding and decoding. The encoding and decoding of each element separately in parallel utilizing turbo encoding and decoding may utilize the same interleaver permutation.