Scanned Single-Electron Probe inside a Silicon Electronic Device.

Solid-state devices can be fabricated at the atomic scale, with applications ranging from classical logic to current standards and quantum technologies. Although it is very desirable to probe these devices and the quantum states they host at the atomic scale, typical methods rely on long-ranged capacitive interactions, making this difficult. Here, we probe a silicon electronic device at the atomic scale using a localized electronic quantum dot induced directly within the device at a desired location, using the biased tip of a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope.

Non-invasive ventilation versus high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy with apnoeic oxygenation for preoxygenation before intubation of patients with acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure: a randomised, multicentre, open-label trial.

Background: Non-invasive ventilation has never been compared with high-flow oxygen to determine whether it reduces the risk of severe hypoxaemia during intubation. We aimed to determine if preoxygenation with non-invasive ventilation was more efficient than high-flow oxygen in reducing the risk of severe hypoxaemia during intubation.

Methods: The FLORALI-2 multicentre, open-label trial was done in 28 intensive care units in France.

Relationship between digestive tract colonization and subsequent ventilator-associated pneumonia related to ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae.

Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most common ICU-acquired infection. Recently, the incidence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBLE) has substantially increased in critically ill patients. Identifying patients at risk for VAP related to ESBLE could be helpful to improve the rate of appropriate initial antibiotic treatment, and to reduce unnecessary exposure to carbapenems.

Respiratory changes of the inferior vena cava diameter predict fluid responsiveness in spontaneously breathing patients with cardiac arrhythmias.

Background: Whether the respiratory changes of the inferior vena cava diameter during a deep standardized inspiration can reliably predict fluid responsiveness in spontaneously breathing patients with cardiac arrhythmia is unknown.

Methods: This prospective two-center study included nonventilated arrhythmic patients with infection-induced acute circulatory failure. Hemodynamic status was assessed at baseline and after a volume expansion of 500 mL 4% gelatin.

The next generation of rapid point-of-care testing identification tools for ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a frequent issue in intensive care units (ICU), with a major impact on morbidity, mortality and cost of care. VAP diagnosis remains challenging: traditional culture-based microbiological techniques are still the gold-standard, but are too slow to enable clinicians to improve prognosis with timely antimicrobial therapy adjustment. Prolonged exposure to inappropriate antibiotics has also been shown to increase the incidence of multi-drug-resistant organisms (MDROs).

Towards visualisation of central-cell-effects in scanning tunnelling microscope images of subsurface dopant qubits in silicon.

Atomic-scale understanding of phosphorus donor wave functions underpins the design and optimisation of silicon based quantum devices. The accuracy of large-scale theoretical methods to compute donor wave functions is dependent on descriptions of central-cell corrections, which are empirically fitted to match experimental binding energies, or other quantities associated with the global properties of the wave function. Direct approaches to understanding such effects in donor wave functions are of great interest.

Diagnostic Accuracy of the Inferior Vena Cava Collapsibility to Predict Fluid Responsiveness in Spontaneously Breathing Patients With Sepsis and Acute Circulatory Failure.

Objective: To investigate whether the collapsibility index of the inferior vena cava recorded during a deep standardized inspiration predicts fluid responsiveness in nonintubated patients.

Design: Prospective, nonrandomized study.

Setting: ICUs at a general and a university hospital.

Efficiency of an electronic device in controlling tracheal cuff pressure in critically ill patients: a randomized controlled crossover study.

Background: Despite intermittent control of tracheal cuff pressure (P ) using a manual manometer, cuff underinflation (<20 cmHO) and overinflation (>30 cmHO) frequently occur in intubated critically ill patients, resulting in increased risk of microaspiration and tracheal ischemic lesions. The primary objective of our study was to determine the efficiency of an electronic device in continuously controlling P . The secondary objective was to determine the impact of this device on the occurrence of microaspiration of gastric or oropharyngeal secretions.

The use of static and dynamic haemodynamic parameters before volume expansion: A prospective observational study in six French intensive care units.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine the use of static and dynamic haemodynamic parameters for predicting fluid responsiveness prior to volume expansion (VE) in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS).

Methods: We conducted a prospective, multicentre, observational study in 6 French ICUs in 2012. ICU physicians were audited concerning their use of static and dynamic haemodynamic parameters before each VE performed in patients with SIRS for 6 consecutive weeks.

Donor hyperfine Stark shift and the role of central-cell corrections in tight-binding theory.

Atomistic tight-binding (TB) simulations are performed to calculate the Stark shift of the hyperfine coupling for a single arsenic (As) donor in silicon (Si). The role of the central-cell correction is studied by implementing both the static and the non-static dielectric screenings of the donor potential, and by including the effect of the lattice strain close to the donor site. The dielectric screening of the donor potential tunes the value of the quadratic Stark shift parameter (η2) from -1.

Few-electron edge-state quantum dots in a silicon nanowire field-effect transistor.

We investigate the gate-induced onset of few-electron regime through the undoped channel of a silicon nanowire field-effect transistor. By combining low-temperature transport measurements and self-consistent calculations, we reveal the formation of one-dimensional conduction modes localized at the two upper edges of the channel. Charge traps in the gate dielectric cause electron localization along these edge modes, creating elongated quantum dots with characteristic lengths of ∼10 nm.

Thermo-active elastomer composite for optical heating in microfluidic systems.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes are used as doping agents to form thermo-active composites with an elastomeric block-copolymer. Thermal imaging reveals that the temperature response upon irradiation with NIR laser light is dependent (among other things) on the mass fraction of the nanotubes in the polymer matrix.

Air stream-mediated vortex agitation of microlitre entities on a fluidic chip.

The method presented in this paper uses air flux to induce spiral motion in small-scale (e.g., microlitre) fluid entities in an efficient, technologically convenient manner.

The conservative management of severe caustic gastric injuries.

Objective: To determine the safety of a conservative approach to treating severe caustic injury in patients lacking clinical and biochemical signs of transmural necrosis.

Background: Esophagogastrectomy is thought to limit the progression of severe caustic injury in the upper gastrointestinal tract observed upon initial endoscopic examination. However, endoscopic evaluation of the depth and spread of necrosis is challenging and may lead to unnecessary gastrectomy.