| 1. |
- Fusco, F M, et al.
(author)
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EuroNHID checklists for the assessment of high-level isolation units and referral centres for highly infectious diseases : results from the pilot phase of a European survey
- 2009
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In: CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTION. - : Elsevier BV. - 1198-743X. ; 15:8, s. 711-719
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Healthcare settings have been identified as preferential for the transmission of many agents causing highly infectious diseases (HIDs). Infection control procedures strongly reduce the risk of transmission of HIDs in hospital settings, when adequately applied. The main objective of the European Network for Highly Infectious Diseases (EuroNHID), a network co-funded by the European Commission, is to assess the current capabilities for dealing with HIDs in Europe, specifically in the context of infection control and healthcare worker (HCW) safety, through conducting an on-the-field survey of high-level isolation units (HLIUs)/referral centres for the management of HIDs in participating countries. During the first year of the projects activities, specifically designed, evidence-based checklists were developed. This review introduces the EuroNHID checklists as a standard tool for the assessment of hospital capabilities concerning infection control and HCW safety in the management of patients with HIDs, and presents preliminary results from five HLIUs.
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| 2. |
- Meng, Fanqi, et al.
(author)
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Relativistic Doppler Frequency Up-conversion and Probing the Initial Relaxation of a Non-Equilibrium Electron-Hole Plasma in Silicon
- 2015
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In: 2015 40TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFRARED, MILLIMETER AND TERAHERTZ WAVES (IRMMW-THZ). - : IEEE. - 9781479982721 - 9781479982714
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- we demonstrate experimentally the relativistic Doppler frequency up-conversion of the THz pulses from the counter-propagating ionized plasma front in silicon. The observed frequency up-conversion can be well modeled by the 1D FDTD simulations if significant short scattering time (well below 10 fs) in the plasma is assumed. To further elucidate the scattering rate in the electro-hole plasma, we performed pump probe experiment employing ultra-broadband (150 THz) THz-Mid-Infrared pulse. The results show the scattering time decreases from similar to 200 fs down to similar to 20 fs when the carrier density increases up to 10(19)-cm(-3), and then saturates for higher densities. Such scattering time dependence on plasma carrier density can be very well fitted by the Drude model for thermalized electron-holes, and the saturation behavior is attributed to electron-hole phase-space restriction as the plasma becomes degenerate. The resultant much shorter scattering time measured with non-thermalized plasma is in good accordance with the Doppler experiment, which demonstrates Doppler geometry an effective method for probing non-equilibrium plasma dynamics.
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| 3. |
- Meng, Fanqi, et al.
(author)
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Ultrafast dynamic conductivity and scattering rate saturation of photoexcited charge carriers in silicon investigated with a midinfrared continuum probe
- 2015
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In: Physical Review B. Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. - : American Physical Society. - 1098-0121 .- 1550-235X. ; 91:7, s. 075201-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We employ ultrabroadband terahertz-midinfrared probe pulses to characterize the optical response of photoinduced charge-carrier plasmas in high-resistivity silicon in a reflection geometry, over a wide range of excitation densities (10(15)-10(19) cm(-3)) at room temperature. In contrast to conventional terahertz spectroscopy studies, this enables one to directly cover the frequency range encompassing the resultant plasma frequencies. The intensity reflection spectra of the thermalized plasma, measured using sum-frequency (up-conversion) detection of the probe pulses, can be modeled well by a standard Drude model with a density-dependent momentum scattering time of similar to 200 fs at low densities, reaching similar to 20 fs for densities of similar to 10(19) cm(-3), where the increase of the scattering rate saturates. This behavior can be reproduced well with theoretical results based on the generalized Drude approach for the electron-hole scattering rate, where the saturation occurs due to phase-space restrictions as the plasma becomes degenerate. We also study the initial subpicosecond temporal development of the Drude response and discuss the observed rise in the scattering time in terms of initial charge-carrier relaxation, as well as the optical response of the photoexcited sample as predicted by finite-difference time-domain simulations.
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| 4. |
- Thomson, John P., et al.
(author)
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Comparative analysis of affinity-based 5-hydroxymethylation enrichment techniques
- 2013
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In: Nucleic Acids Research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy C - Option B / Oxford University Press. - 0305-1048 .- 1362-4962. ; 41:22
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The epigenetic modification of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is receiving great attention due to its potential role in DNA methylation reprogramming and as a cell state identifier. Given this interest, it is important to identify reliable and cost-effective methods for the enrichment of 5hmC marked DNA for downstream analysis. We tested three commonly used affinity-based enrichment techniques; (i) antibody, (ii) chemical capture and (iii) protein affinity enrichment and assessed their ability to accurately and reproducibly report 5hmC profiles in mouse tissues containing high (brain) and lower (liver) levels of 5hmC. The protein-affinity technique is a poor reporter of 5hmC profiles, delivering 5hmC patterns that are incompatible with other methods. Both antibody and chemical capture-based techniques generate highly similar genome-wide patterns for 5hmC, which are independently validated by standard quantitative PCR (qPCR) and glucosyl-sensitive restriction enzyme digestion (gRES-qPCR). Both antibody and chemical capture generated profiles reproducibly link to unique chromatin modification profiles associated with 5hmC. However, there appears to be a slight bias of the antibody to bind to regions of DNA rich in simple repeats. Ultimately, the increased specificity observed with chemical capture-based approaches makes this an attractive method for the analysis of locus-specific or genome-wide patterns of 5hmC.
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| 5. |
- Thomson, John P, et al.
(author)
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Non-genotoxic carcinogen exposure induces defined changes in the 5-hydroxymethylome
- 2012
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In: Genome Biology. - : BioMed Central. - 1465-6906 .- 1474-760X. ; 13:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Induction and promotion of liver cancer by exposure to non-genotoxic carcinogens coincides with epigenetic perturbations, including specific changes in DNA methylation. Here we investigate the genome-wide dynamics of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) as a likely intermediate of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) demethylation in a DNA methylation reprogramming pathway. We use a rodent model of non-genotoxic carcinogen exposure using the drug phenobarbital.RESULTS:Exposure to phenobarbital results in dynamic and reciprocal changes to the 5mC/5hmC patterns over the promoter regions of a cohort of genes that are transcriptionally upregulated. This reprogramming of 5mC/5hmC coincides with characteristic changes in the histone marks H3K4me2, H3K27me3 and H3K36me3. Quantitative analysis of phenobarbital-induced genes that are involved in xenobiotic metabolism reveals that both DNA modifications are lost at the transcription start site, while there is a reciprocal relationship between increasing levels of 5hmC and loss of 5mC at regions immediately adjacent to core promoters.CONCLUSIONS:Collectively, these experiments support the hypothesis that 5hmC is a potential intermediate in a demethylation pathway and reveal precise perturbations of the mouse liver DNA methylome and hydroxymethylome upon exposure to a rodent hepatocarcinogen.
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| 6. |
- Thomson, Mark D., et al.
(author)
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Relativistic Doppler reflection as a probe for the initial relaxation of a non-equilibrium electron-hole plasma in silicon
- 2015
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In: 19th International Conference on Electron Dynamics in Semiconductors, Optoelectronics and Nanostructures (EDISON'19). - : Institute of Physics (IOP). ; , s. 012016-012019
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reviews the status of investigations of the relativistic Doppler reflectionof a broadband terahertz pulse at a counter-propagating plasma front of photo-excited chargecarriers in undoped silicon. When a THz pulse with 20-THz bandwidth impinges onto amoving plasma front with a carrier density in the range of 1019 per cm3, one observes a spectralup-shift, which is, however, much less pronounced than expected from simulations assuming a Drude plasma characterized by a single carrier relaxation time τ of the order of 15-100 fs.Qualitative agreement between simulations and experiments can be achieved if τ is chosen tobe less than 5 fs. In order to explore carrier relaxation in more detail, optical-pump/THz-probeexperiments in the conventional co-propagation geometry were performed. If the pump-probedelay is long enough for monitoring of the equilibrium value of the scattering time, τ rangesfrom 200 fs at low carrier density to 20 fs in the 1019-cm-3 density range. For small (subpicosecond)pump-probe delay, the data reveal a significantly faster scattering, which slowsdown during energy relaxation of the charge carriers.
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| 7. |
- Veenstra, M M K, et al.
(author)
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Complications and survival after hybrid and fully minimally invasive oesophagectomy
- 2021
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In: BJS Open. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2474-9842. ; 5:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive oesophagectomy (MIO) is reported to produce fewer respiratory complications than open oesophagectomy. This study assessed differences in postoperative complications between MIO and hybrid MIO (HMIO) employing thoracoscopy and laparotomy, along with the influence of co-morbidities on postoperative outcomes.METHODS: Patients with oesophageal cancer undergoing three-stage MIO or three-stage HMIO between 1999 and 2018 were identified from a prospectively developed database, which included patient demographics, co-morbidities, preoperative therapies, and cancer stage. The primary outcome was postoperative complications in the two groups. Secondary outcomes included duration of operation, blood transfusion requirement, duration of hospital stay, and overall survival.RESULTS: There were 828 patients, of whom 722 had HMIO and 106 MIO, without significant baseline differences. Median duration of operation was longer for MIO (325 versus 289 min; P < 0.001), but with less blood loss (median 250 versus 300 ml; P < 0.001) and a shorter hospital stay (median 12 versus 13 days; P = 0.006). Respiratory complications were not associated with operative approach (31.1 versus 35.2 per cent for MIO and HMIO respectively; P = 0.426). Anastomotic leak rates (10.4 versus 10.2 per cent) and 90-day mortality (1.0 versus 1.7 per cent) did not differ. Cardiac co-morbidity was associated with more medical and surgical complications. Overall survival was associated with AJCC stage and co-morbidities, but not operative approach.CONCLUSION: MIO had a small benefit in terms of blood loss and hospital stay, but not in operating time. Oncological outcomes were similar in the two groups. Postoperative complications were associated with pre-existing cardiorespiratory co-morbidities rather than operative approach.
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