Publications by authors named "David Sharp"

Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on creating high-quality optical resonators, essential for technologies like metrology and quantum optics, particularly aiming to achieve extreme temporal coherence at visible wavelengths.* -
  • Researchers developed a new type of etch-free metasurface that minimizes defects, successfully demonstrating an impressive ultrahigh-Q resonance in free space, along with a novel spectroscopy technique for detailed analysis.* -
  • By integrating a monolayer material, the team achieved highly unidirectional exciton emission without a power density threshold, showcasing potential applications in optical sensing and controlling quantum light sources.*
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Traumatic brain injury represents a significant global health burden and has the highest prevalence among neurological disorders. Even mild traumatic brain injury can induce subtle, long-lasting changes that increase the risk of future neurodegeneration. Importantly, this can be challenging to detect through conventional neurological assessment.

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Traumatic brain injury commonly impairs attention and executive function, and disrupts the large-scale brain networks that support these cognitive functions. Abnormalities of functional connectivity are seen in corticostriatal networks, which are associated with executive dysfunction and damage to neuromodulatory catecholaminergic systems caused by head injury. Methylphenidate, a stimulant medication that increases extracellular dopamine and noradrenaline, can improve cognitive function following TBI.

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  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is prevalent among military personnel and is linked to an increased risk of dementia, with the ADVANCE-TBI study focusing on the neurological effects of major battlefield trauma using blood biomarkers like NfL and GFAP.
  • The study involved 1,145 servicemen and veterans, where TBI was identified in 16.9% of those exposed to major trauma, revealing significant mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, alongside impaired mobility and quality of life.
  • Elevated GFAP levels were found post-TBI, particularly in more severe cases, indicating a correlation with mental health challenges and increased unemployment, demonstrating the long-term impact of TBI on military personnel.
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Background: Home monitoring systems utilising artificial intelligence hold promise for digitally enhanced healthcare in older adults. Their real-world use will depend on acceptability to the end user i.e.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study explores the complex pathophysiology and outcomes of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), highlighting that current classifications do not adequately reflect the underlying biological processes involved.
  • - Using advanced proteomic techniques, researchers analyzed plasma samples from 88 participants to identify 16 proteins with significant expression differences in TBI patients compared to non-injured controls, focusing on various markers related to neurons, astrocytes, and inflammation.
  • - Their findings indicated correlations between specific plasma proteins and brain injury measures, suggesting that certain biomarkers like UCH-L1 and total tau could serve as potential indicators for TBI severity and progression.
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Accurate assessment of neurological disease through monitoring of biomarkers has been made possible using the antibody-based assays. But these assays suffer from expensive development of antibody probes, reliance on complicated equipments, and high maintenance costs. Here, using the novel reduced graphene oxide/polydopamine-molecularly imprinted polymer (rGO/PDA-MIP) as the probe layer, a robust electrochemical sensing platform is demonstrated for the ultrasensitive detection of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a biomarker for a range of neurological diseases.

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The microtubule cytoskeleton regulates microglial morphology, motility, and effector functions. The microtubule-severing enzyme, fidgetin-like 2 (FL2), negatively regulates cell motility and nerve regeneration, making it a promising therapeutic target for central nervous system injury. Microglia perform important functions in response to inflammation and injury, but how FL2 affects microglia is unclear.

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Background: Markerless motion capture (MMC) uses video cameras or depth sensors for full body tracking and presents a promising approach for objectively and unobtrusively monitoring functional performance within community settings, to aid clinical decision-making in neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.

Objective: The primary objective of this systematic review was to investigate the application of MMC using full-body tracking, to quantify functional performance in people with dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and Parkinson disease.

Methods: A systematic search of the Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Scopus databases was conducted between November 2022 and February 2023, which yielded a total of 1595 results.

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Identifying disease-specific imaging features of idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (iNPH) is crucial to develop accurate diagnoses, although the abnormal brain anatomy of patients with iNPH creates challenges in neuroimaging analysis. We quantified cortical thickness and volume using FreeSurfer 7.3.

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Single-photon sources are essential for advancing quantum technologies with scalable integration being a crucial requirement. To date, deterministic positioning of single-photon sources in large-scale photonic structures remains a challenge. In this context, colloidal quantum dots (QDs), particularly core/shell configurations, are attractive due to their solution processability.

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Article Synopsis
  • Dementia is a big health problem for many countries, including the UK, and finding solutions is very important for everyone.
  • To help people with dementia, researchers need to conduct studies, but it's tricky to work with participants who may not fully understand what they’re agreeing to.
  • The article talks about legal rules and ethical challenges researchers face and suggests ways to improve how they conduct studies involving people with dementia.
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An accurate diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease and traumatic brain injury is important for prognostication and treatment. Neurofilament light and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) are leading biomarkers for neurodegeneration and glial activation that are detectable in blood. Yet, current recommendations require rapid centrifugation and ultra-low temperature storage post-venepuncture.

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A signal mixer facilitates rich computation, which has been the building block of modern telecommunication. This frequency mixing produces new signals at the sum and difference frequencies of input signals, enabling powerful operations such as heterodyning and multiplexing. Here, we report that a neuron is a signal mixer.

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Article Synopsis
  • Urinary tract infections (UTIs) significantly contribute to hospitalizations and fatalities among individuals with dementia compared to matched controls and those with diabetes.
  • A large study analyzed data from over 2.4 million people aged 50+ in Wales between 2000-2021, finding that UTIs in dementia and diabetes were linked to increased mortality rates, especially in those with both conditions.
  • Delayed or untreated UTIs led to a notable increase in the risk of death, with 5.4% of untreated individuals with dementia dying within 60 days after diagnosis, rising to 5.9% for those also having diabetes.
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Introduction: Although limited, recent research suggests that contact sport participation might have an adverse long-term effect on brain health. Further work is required to determine whether this includes an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease and/or subsequent changes in cognition and behaviour. The Advanced BiomaRker, Advanced Imaging and Neurocognitive Health Study will prospectively examine the neurological, psychiatric, psychological and general health of retired elite-level rugby union and association football/soccer players.

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Active metasurfaces with tunable subwavelength-scale nanoscatterers are promising platforms for high-performance spatial light modulators (SLMs). Among the tuning methods, phase-change materials (PCMs) are attractive because of their nonvolatile, threshold-driven, and drastic optical modulation, rendering zero-static power, crosstalk immunity, and compact pixels. However, current electrically controlled PCM-based metasurfaces are limited to global amplitude modulation, which is insufficient for SLMs.

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Article Synopsis
  • A significant portion of epilepsy patients still experience seizures despite treatment, prompting exploration of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a potential supplementary therapy for genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE).
  • A study involved both healthy controls and GGE patients receiving tDCS while undergoing fMRI, assessing its effects on sensorimotor cortex connectivity through three stimulation types: anodal, cathodal, and sham.
  • Results indicated that tDCS was safe and well-tolerated, with anodal and cathodal stimulation leading to a notable decrease in sensorimotor network connectivity, while the sham condition showed no significant differences compared to rest.
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Background: Technology-related research on people with dementia and their carers often aims to enable people to remain living at home for longer and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. To develop person-centered, effective, and ethical research, patient and public involvement (PPI) is necessary, although it may be perceived as more difficult with this cohort. With recent and rapid expansions in health and care-related technology, this review explored how and with what impact collaborations between researchers and stakeholders such as people with dementia and their carers have taken place.

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Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with health problems across multiple domains and TBI patients are reported to have high rates of medication use. However, prior evidence is thin due to methodological limitations. Our aim was thus to examine the use of a wide spectrum of medications prescribed to address pain and somatic conditions in a population-based cohort of TBI patients, and to compare this to a sex- and age-matched cohort.

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There is growing concern that elite rugby participation may negatively influence brain health, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Cortical thickness is a widely applied biomarker of grey matter structure, but there is limited research into how it may be altered in active professional rugby players. Cross-sectional MRI data from 44 active elite rugby players, including 21 assessed within 1 week of head injury, and 47 healthy controls were analysed.

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Article Synopsis
  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI) does not significantly increase plasma levels of phosphorylated tau at serine-181 (p-tau181) within a year post-injury, unlike Alzheimer's disease where p-tau181 is elevated.* -
  • In contrast, other biomarkers like total-tau (t-tau), neurofilament light (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were significantly elevated following TBI and were predictive of brain atrophy rates.* -
  • The study highlights that while p-tau181 is a relevant marker in Alzheimer's, it doesn't serve as an indicator of neurodegeneration after moderate-to-severe TBI.*
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The microtubule cytoskeleton is required for several crucial cellular processes, including chromosome segregation, cell polarity and orientation, and intracellular transport. These functions rely on microtubule stability and dynamics, which are regulated by microtubule-binding proteins (MTBPs). One such type of regulator is the microtubule-severing enzymes (MSEs), which are ATPases Associated with Diverse Cellular Activities (AAA+ ATPases).

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