Deep learning for optical tweezers.

Optical tweezers exploit light-matter interactions to trap particles ranging from single atoms to micrometer-sized eukaryotic cells. For this reason, optical tweezers are a ubiquitous tool in physics, biology, and nanotechnology. Recently, the use of deep learning has started to enhance optical tweezers by improving their design, calibration, and real-time control as well as the tracking and analysis of the trapped objects, often outperforming classical methods thanks to the higher computational speed and versatility of deep learning.

Drinking practices: The variation of drinking events across intersections of sex, age and household income.

Introduction: Investigations of drinking practices often rely on cross-country comparisons of population averages in beverage preferences, drinking volumes and frequencies. Here, we investigate within-culture patterns and variations in where, why and how people drink, answering the research question: how does engagement in drinking practices vary by sex, age and household income?

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis examining the societal distribution (by age, sex, household income) of 12 drinking practices: four off-trade practices (in-home consumption; e.g.

The price of progress: understanding innovation and affordability of prescription drugs.

Economic incentives and patent protections drive development of innovative medications. Drug prices are determined by consumer demand, not production costs. Therefore, governmental regulation risks future investment in research and development.

Gamma rays impact on 2D-MoS in water solution.

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides, particularly MoS, are interesting materials for many applications in aerospace research, radiation therapy and bioscience more in general. Since in many of these applications MoS-based nanomaterials can be placed in an aqueous environment while exposed to ionizing radiation, both experimental and theoretical studies of their behaviour under these conditions is particularly interesting. Here, we study the effects of tiny imparted doses of 511 keV photons to MoS nanoflakes in water solution.

Solitary drinkers in Great Britain: How do their sociodemographic characteristics, consumption patterns, and drinking occasions differ from those who drink with others?

Objective: Inequalities in alcohol-related harm may arise partly from differences in drinking practices between population groups. One under-researched practice associated with harm is consuming alcohol alone. We identify sociodemographic characteristics associated with drinking alone and the occasion-level characteristics associated with occasions when people drink alone.

How is alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking spread across different types of drinking occasion in Great Britain: An event-level latent class analysis.

Background: This paper aimed to (i) update a previous typology of British alcohol drinking occasions using a more recent and expanded dataset and revised modelling procedure, and (ii) estimate the average consumption level, prevalence of heavy drinking, and distribution of all alcohol consumption and heavy drinking within and across occasion types.

Methods: The paper uses a cross-sectional latent class analysis of event-level diary data that includes characteristics of 43,089 drinking occasions in 2019 reported by 17,821 adult drinkers in Great Britain. The latent class indicators are characteristics of off-trade only (e.

Optimal calibration of optical tweezers with arbitrary integration time and sampling frequencies: a general framework [Invited].

Optical tweezers (OT) have become an essential technique in several fields of physics, chemistry, and biology as precise micromanipulation tools and microscopic force transducers. Quantitative measurements require the accurate calibration of the trap stiffness of the optical trap and the diffusion constant of the optically trapped particle. This is typically done by statistical estimators constructed from the position signal of the particle, which is recorded by a digital camera or a quadrant photodiode.

Central nervous system tumours in neonates: what should the neonatologist know?

Central nervous system (CNS) tumours in neonates are relatively rare and present differently when compared with those occurring later in childhood in terms of aetiology, clinical features, location, histology and prognosis. The clinical presentation is extremely variable. Even if the most frequent clinical sign is a macrocephaly, there are many other non-specific symptoms associated.

Change and stability in British drinking practices and culture between 2009 and 2019: A longitudinal latent class analysis of drinking occasions.

Rationale: Theories of practice can support understanding of health-related behaviours, but few studies use quantitative methods to understand time-trends in practices. This paper describes changes in the prevalence and performance of alcohol drinking practices in Great Britain between 2009 and 2019.

Methods: Latent class analyses of annual cross-sectional data collected between 2009 and 2019.

Exploring Reliable and Efficient Plasmonic Nanopatterning for Surface- and Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopies.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is of growing interest for a wide range of applications, especially for biomedical analysis, thanks to its sensitivity, specificity, and multiplexing capabilities. A crucial role for successful applications of SERS is played by the development of reproducible, efficient, and facile procedures for the fabrication of metal nanostructures (SERS substrates). Even more challenging is to extend the fabrication techniques of plasmonic nano-textures to atomic force microscope (AFM) probes to carry out tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) experiments, in which spatial resolution below the diffraction limit is added to the peculiarities of SERS.

Relationship Between Standardized Measures of Chronic Kidney Disease-associated Pruritus Intensity and Health-related Quality of Life Measured with the EQ-5D Questionnaire: A Mapping Study.

Chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus is linked with decreased health-related quality of life assessed using disease-specific instruments. The extent to which worsening pruritus reduces generic quality of life assessed using the EQ-5D instrument is unknown. Prevalent kidney failure patients receiving in-centre haemodialysis from 5 centres completed the EQ-5D-5L quality of life measure, worst Itching Intensity Numerical Rating Scale and 5-D itch pruritus instruments.

A Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy-Based Biosensor for the Detection of Biological Macromolecules: The Case of the Lipopolysaccharide Endotoxin Molecules.

The development of sensitive methods for the detection of endotoxin molecules, such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS), is essential for food safety and health control. Conventional analytical methods used for LPS detection are based on the pyrogen test, plating and culture-based methods, and the limulus amoebocyte lysate method (LAL). Alternatively, the development of reliable biosensors for LPS detection would be highly desirable to solve some critical issues, such as high cost and a long turnaround time.

Structural and functional damage to the retina and skeletal muscle in Xenopus laevis embryos exposed to the commonly used psychotropic benzodiazepine delorazepam.

Benzodiazepines, psychotropic drugs, are among the most frequently found pharmaceuticals in aquatic matrices. An increasing number of studies are reporting their harmful effects on adults' behaviour and physiology, while little information is available regarding developing organisms exposed since early stages. Improper activation of GABA receptors during embryonic development is likely to induce relevant consequences on the morphogenesis and, at later stages, on behaviour.

The Effectiveness of Cyrene as a Solvent in Exfoliating 2D TMDs Nanosheets.

The pursuit of environmentally friendly solvents has become an essential research topic in sustainable chemistry and nanomaterial science. With the need to substitute toxic solvents in nanofabrication processes becoming more pressing, the search for alternative solvents has taken on a crucial role in this field. Additionally, the use of toxic, non-economical organic solvents, such as N-methyl-2 pyrrolidone and dimethylformamide, is not suitable for all biomedical applications, even though these solvents are often considered as the best exfoliating agents for nanomaterial fabrication.

Supporting Clinical Care: SOFA on FHIR.

To illustrate to health professionals how interoperability may improve patient care we (1) built a prototype to automate the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) risk score and (2) designed its display on a medical dashboard. In Accordance with prioritized system requirements from stakeholder interviews, the prototype microservice uses FHIR as the first focus of this work. As the second focus, PretoFaces were used to facilitate user interface design feedback.

Evaluating the effects of minimum unit pricing in Scotland on the prevalence of harmful drinking: a controlled interrupted time series analysis.

Objectives: In May 2018, the Scottish Government introduced a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol of £0.50 (1 UK unit = 8 g ethanol) to reduce alcohol consumption, particularly among people drinking at harmful levels. This study aimed to evaluate MUP's impact on the prevalence of harmful drinking among adults in Scotland.

Situated drinking: The association between eating and alcohol consumption in Great Britain.

This paper examines the co-occurrence of drinking alcohol and eating in Great Britain. Applying a practice-theoretical framework, it attends primarily to the nature and characteristics of events - to social situations. It asks whether drinking events involving food are significantly different from those without, whether differences are the same at home as on commercial public premises, and whether differences are the same for men and women.

Fickian yet non-Gaussian diffusion of a quasi-2D colloidal system in an optical speckle field: experiment and simulations.

We investigate a quasi-2D suspension of Brownian particles in an optical speckle field produced by holographic manipulation of a laser wavefront. This system was developed to study, in a systematic and controllable way, a distinctive instance of diffusion, called Fickian yet Non Gaussian diffusion (FnGD), observed, during the last decade, for colloidal particles in a variety of complex and biological fluids. Our setup generates an optical speckle field that behaves like a disordered set of optical traps.

Cost Effectiveness of Difelikefalin Compared to Standard Care for Treating Chronic Kidney Disease Associated Pruritus (CKD-aP) in People with Kidney Failure Receiving Haemodialysis.

Background: Chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus (CKD-aP) is associated with an increased risk of depression, poor sleep and reduced health-related quality of life. Two phase III studies (KALM-1 and KALM-2) of difelikefalin showed reduced CKD-aP severity and improved itch-related health-related quality of life in patients with moderate and severe CKD-aP receiving haemodialysis for kidney failure.

Objective: We aimed to estimate the cost effectiveness of difelikefalin for patients with CKD-aP receiving haemodialysis for kidney failure compared to standard care from a UK National Health Service perspective.

A model-based economic analysis of the CFHealthHub intervention to support adherence to inhaled medications for people with cystic fibrosis in the UK.

Background: Adherence to preventative inhaled therapies in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) is low, resulting in potentially avoidable health losses and the need for costly rescue therapies.

Objectives: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of the CFHealthHub (CFHH) intervention to support adherence to inhaled medications.

Methods: A state transition model was developed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the CFHH intervention versus usual care from the perspective of the UK National Health Service and Personal Social Services over a lifetime horizon.

Utility of Measuring Circulating Bio-Adrenomedullin and Proenkephalin for 30-Day Mortality Risk Prediction in Patients with COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Interstitial Pneumonia in the Emergency Department.

: In order to accelerate the risk stratification of patients referred to the Emergency Department (ED) with interstitial pneumonia, it could be useful to provide new and effective laboratory tests for use. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prognostic role of two biomarkers, bio-adrenomedullin (Bio-ADM) and proenkephalin (penKid), in patients with interstitial pneumonia (IP) at ED admission. : In 153 consecutive patients with IP, both from COVID-19 or non-COVID-19 etiology, we measured, in a prospective observational manner, penKid and Bio-ADM at ED admission and after 24 h.

Understanding changes in the locations of drinking occasions in Great Britain: An age-period-cohort analysis of repeat cross-sectional market research data, 2001-2019.

Introduction: The 21st century has seen wide-ranging changes in drinking locations in Great Britain, with on-trade alcohol sales decreasing and off-trade sales increasing. To better understand the underlying time-trends in consumer behaviour, we examine age-period-cohort (APC) effects related to changes in the share of individuals' drinking occasions taking place in: (i) on-trade versus off-trade locations; and (ii) specific on-trade or off-trade locations, that is traditional/community pubs, modern pubs/bars/café bars, nightclubs/late-night venues, restaurants/pub restaurants, social/working men's clubs, golf/other sports clubs/venues, at home (social setting) and at home (non-social setting).

Methods: Repeat cross-sectional 1-week drinking diary data, collected 2001-2019.