Publications by authors named "Briggs G"

Article Synopsis
  • Trauma patients have significantly higher levels of cell-free mitochondria in their blood compared to healthy individuals, especially right after surgery, which declines by day 5 post-op.
  • These active cell-free mitochondria correlate with tissue injury severity, indicating a relationship with complications like acute thrombocytopenia and organ failure.
  • While high levels of cell-free mitochondria aren't directly inflammatory, their active form may contribute to more severe secondary tissue injuries in trauma patients.
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The potential of Si and SiGe-based devices for the scaling of quantum circuits is tainted by device variability. Each device needs to be tuned to operation conditions and each device realisation requires a different tuning protocol. We demonstrate that it is possible to automate the tuning of a 4-gate Si FinFET, a 5-gate GeSi nanowire and a 7-gate Ge/SiGe heterostructure double quantum dot device from scratch with the same algorithm.

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Graphene is atomically thin, possesses excellent thermal conductivity, and is able to withstand high current densities, making it attractive for many nanoscale applications such as field-effect transistors, interconnects, and thermal management layers. Enabling integration of graphene into such devices requires nanostructuring, which can have a drastic impact on the self-heating properties, in particular at high current densities. Here, we use a combination of scanning thermal microscopy, finite element thermal analysis, and scanning transmission electron microscopy techniques to observe prototype graphene devices in operation and gain a deeper understanding of the role of geometry and interfaces during high current density operation.

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Quantum effects in nanoscale electronic devices promise to lead to new types of functionality not achievable using classical electronic components. However, quantum behaviour also presents an unresolved challenge facing electronics at the few-nanometre scale: resistive channels start leaking owing to quantum tunnelling. This affects the performance of nanoscale transistors, with direct source-drain tunnelling degrading switching ratios and subthreshold swings, and ultimately limiting operating frequency due to increased static power dissipation.

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When designing a molecular electronic device for a specific function, it is necessary to control whether the charge-transport mechanism is phase-coherent transmission or particle-like hopping. Here we report a systematic study of charge transport through single zinc-porphyrin molecules embedded in graphene nanogaps to form transistors, and show that the transport mechanism depends on the chemistry of the molecule-electrode interfaces. We show that van der Waals interactions between molecular anchoring groups and graphene yield transport characteristic of Coulomb blockade with incoherent sequential hopping, whereas covalent molecule-electrode amide bonds give intermediately or strongly coupled single-molecule devices that display coherent transmission.

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Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) represent a recently discovered polymorphonuclear leukocyte-associated ancient defence mechanism, and they have also been identified as part of polytrauma patients' sterile inflammatory response. This systematic review aimed to determine the clinical significance of NETs in polytrauma, focusing on potential prognostic, diagnostic and therapeutic relevance. The methodology covered all major databases and all study types, but was restricted to polytraumatised humans.

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The common view of the transition between subitizing and numerosity estimation regimes is that there is a hard bound on the subitizing range, and beyond this range, people estimate. However, this view does not adequately address the behavioral signatures of enumeration under conditions of attentional load or in the immediate post-subitizing range. The possibility that there might exist a numerosity range where both processes of subitizing and estimation operate in conjunction has so far been ignored.

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Since the early days of quantum mechanics, it has been known that electrons behave simultaneously as particles and waves, and now quantum electronic devices can harness this duality. When devices are shrunk to the molecular scale, it is unclear under what conditions does electron transmission remain phase-coherent, as molecules are usually treated as either scattering or redox centers, without considering the wave-particle duality of the charge carrier. Here, we demonstrate that electron transmission remains phase-coherent in molecular porphyrin nanoribbons connected to graphene electrodes.

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Background: Recently, retrospective registry-based studies have reported the decreasing incidence and increasing mortality of postinjury multiple organ failure (MOF). We aimed to describe the current epidemiology of MOF following the introduction of haemostatic resuscitation.

Methods: A 10-year prospective cohort study was undertaken at a Level-1 Trauma Centre-based ending in December 2015.

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The outcome of an electron-transfer process is determined by the quantum-mechanical interplay between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom. Nonequilibrium vibrational dynamics are known to direct electron-transfer mechanisms in molecular systems; however, the structural features of a molecule that lead to certain modes being pushed out of equilibrium are not well understood. Herein, we report on electron transport through a porphyrin dimer molecule, weakly coupled to graphene electrodes, that displays sequential tunneling within the Coulomb-blockade regime.

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Article Synopsis
  • Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in plasma can trigger an immune response similar to bacterial DNA and is found at elevated levels in trauma patients, but results on its relevance to patient outcomes vary across studies.
  • Most of the "cell-free" mtDNA in healthy individuals can be removed through centrifugation within a specific size range, indicating that larger mtDNA complexes exist in plasma that may play a role in various diseases.
  • In a study involving 25 trauma patients, it was found that while larger mtDNA forms are common, they do not correlate with injury severity or inflammation; instead, smaller mtDNA fragments are more closely linked to these clinical factors.
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  • - A study investigated the impact of repeat intravenous contrast doses on the development of acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically injured patients in the ICU, with the aim to assess how these additional doses might affect patient outcomes.
  • - The study analyzed data from 663 adult ICU patients with significant injuries, finding an AKI incidence of 13.4% and contrast-induced AKI (CI-AKI) of 14.5%, but no significant link between additional contrast doses and the development of AKI.
  • - Key risk factors for AKI identified included higher injury severity, older age, increased heart rate, and abnormal lab results; AKI was associated with longer ICU stays, higher mortality rates, and increased incidence of multiple
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Controlled electrobreakdown of graphene is important for the fabrication of stable nanometer-size tunnel gaps, large-scale graphene quantum dots, and nanoscale resistive switches, etc. However, owing to the complex thermal, electronic, and electrochemical processes at the nanoscale that dictate the rupture of graphene, it is difficult to generate conclusions from individual devices. We describe here a way to explore the statistical signature of the graphene electrobreakdown process.

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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact beyond physical morbidity and mortality. A mid-cycle Community Health Needs Assessment survey was administered in 1 community to generate data to evaluate change in community well-being since the beginning of the pandemic.

Methods: Surveys were mailed to 2,000 randomly selected residents in Olmsetd County, Minnesota.

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There is a considerable body of literature that outlines the dangers of mobile phone use by drivers. However, there is very little research that explores the role and effectiveness of attempts to tackle this specific road user problem. Generally, normative motives are more likely to generate compliance with traffic law, and are more likely to be developed through approaches which focus on engagement and education.

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Objectives: Advances in surgical management strategies have substantially reduced fatality from congenital heart defects (CHD). Decreased infant mortality might be expected, consequentially to result in greater morbidity in older children due to complications later in childhood and adolescence. This study aims to evaluate the use of cardiovascular medication (CVM) as an indicator of disease burden in children born with CHD in the first 10 years of life.

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Prior authorization is an approval process to ensure that services provided by healthcare organizations will be reimbursed by insurance carriers. Prior authorization denials can result in revenue loss. Due to multiple prior authorization issues, over $21 million in charges was denied, and $291,217.

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Article Synopsis
  • Endohedral nitrogen fullerenes show potential for quantum information processing due to their prolonged spin coherence time.
  • Through molecular engineering, researchers successfully lifted the degeneracy of the electron spin levels, enabling individual addressability using a liquid-crystal-assisted technique.
  • This advancement paves the way for manipulating qudits with multiple electron spin levels and implementing quantum geometric phase manipulation in electron spin systems for enhanced error tolerance and faster operations.
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Objective: To measure well-being at a community level using a valid instrument.

Patients And Methods: Written surveys were mailed to a random sample of residents in Olmsted County, Minnesota, in 2015 and 2019 including the 5-item World Health Organization Well-being Index (0-100; for which 100 is the best imaginable well-being or quality of life). Multivariable hierarchical regression was used to evaluate the association between well-being and demographic characteristics, comorbid conditions, and environmental factors.

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Electron-electron interactions are at the heart of chemistry and understanding how to control them is crucial for the development of molecular-scale electronic devices. Here, we investigate single-electron tunneling through a redox-active edge-fused porphyrin trimer and demonstrate that its transport behavior is well described by the Hubbard dimer model, providing insights into the role of electron-electron interactions in charge transport. In particular, we empirically determine the molecule's on-site and inter-site electron-electron repulsion energies, which are in good agreement with density functional calculations, and establish the molecular electronic structure within various oxidation states.

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Graft loss incidence is reported to be inversely related to recipient age. We used a national cohort of liver transplant (LT) recipients from the United Kingdom and Ireland to compare the age-dependent risk of graft failure in different post-transplantation time-periods ('epochs'). A cohort of first-time LT recipients (1995-2016) were identified (11 006).

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Non-union is a taxing complication of fracture management for both the patient and their surgeon. Modern fracture fixation techniques have been developed to optimise the biomechanical environment for fracture healing but do not guarantee union. Patient biology has a critical role in achieving union and stem cell therapy has potential for improving fracture healing at a cellular level to treat or avoid non-union.

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Deciding whether to delay non-lifesaving orthopaedic trauma surgery to prevent multiple organ failure (MOF) or sepsis is frequently disputed and largely based on expert opinion. We hypothesise that neutrophils and monocytes differentially express activation markers prior to patients developing these complications. Peripheral blood from 20 healthy controls and 162 patients requiring major orthopaedic intervention was collected perioperatively.

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Article Synopsis
  • Inflammation linked to neuropathology was studied by injecting rats with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to observe long-term effects on tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) regulation in the midbrain.
  • Cytokine levels were measured over six months, revealing significant increases in the substantia nigra (SN) immediately post-injection and notable long-term changes, while the ventral tegmental area (VTA) exhibited different patterns with no significant changes after the first week.
  • TH activity showed increases in the SN over time, with surprising activation changes that did not correlate with expected phosphorylation patterns, indicating distinct inflammatory responses in the SN compared to the VTA.
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When the absence of an event causes some outcome, it is an instance of omissive causation. For instance, not eating lunch may cause you to be hungry. Recent psychological proposals concur that the mind represents causal relations, including omissive causal relations, through mental simulation, but they disagree on the form of that simulation.

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