Pooling of samples

When plant material is gathered for analysis, it is either divided into roots, stems, leaves, and flowers and/or fruit or the whole plant is analyzed as a single entity. Pooling of samples from a site can also provide a single sample for analysis. The choice depends on the characteristics of the suspected contaminant. 

Nucleic acid test (NAT) lab performing tests on small pools of samples expected only viral marker antibody negative samples to be forwarded for testing. 

CSF Four pool of samples from AD (n—27), MCI with progression to AD (n=13), MCI without progression to AD (n=26), and control (n=46) subjects Metabolic profiling of amino acids MEKC-LIF (89)... 

There are various other ways to further increase the effective sample throughput, i.e., pooling of samples prior to analysis, performing cassette-dosing experiment, and/or parallel analysis. 

Bias refers to an error of study design where study cases are handled differently. Possible sources of bias in microarray studies include the batch of reagents used, array batch, array version, operator, processing date, system update, platform, and pooling of tissues from multiple tissue banks. To reduce systematic study bias, one needs to develop strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, avoid inappropriate pooling of samples, and randomize processing of samples [14]. 

Figure 17. A liquid crystal strand is pulled out of a cup containing a pool of sample. Normally this will be in the smectic phase, with temperature being varied after an aligned strand has been formed.

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