Summary
Background
Faecal microbiota transplantation or transfer (FMT) aims at replacing or reinforcing the gut microbiota of a patient with the microbiota from a healthy donor. Not many controlled ...or randomised studies have been published evaluating the use of FMT for other diseases than Clostridium difficile infection, making it difficult for clinicians to decide on a suitable indication.
Aim
To provide an expert consensus on current clinical indications, applications and methodological aspects of FMT.
Methods
Well‐acknowledged experts from various countries in Europe have contributed to this article. After literature review, consensus has been achieved by repetitive circulation of the statements and the full manuscript among all authors with intermittent adaptation to comments (using a modified Delphi process). Levels of evidence and agreement were rated according to the GRADE system. Consensus was defined a priori as agreement by at least 75% of the authors.
Results
Key recommendations include the use of FMT in recurrent C. difficile infection characterised by at least two previous standard treatments without persistent cure, as well as its consideration in severe and severe‐complicated C. difficile infection as an alternative to total colectomy in case of early failure of antimicrobial therapy. FMT in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and metabolic syndrome should only be performed in research settings.
Conclusions
Faecal microbiota transplantation or transfer is a promising treatment for a variety of diseases in which the intestinal microbiota is disturbed. For indications other than C. difficile infection, more evidence is needed before more concrete recommendations can be made.
The Coulomb scattering dynamics in graphene in energetic proximity to the Dirac point is investigated by polarization resolved pump-probe spectroscopy and microscopic theory. Collinear Coulomb ...scattering rapidly thermalizes the carrier distribution in k directions pointing radially away from the Dirac point. Our study reveals, however, that, in almost intrinsic graphene, full thermalization in all directions relying on noncollinear scattering is much slower. For low photon energies, carrier-optical-phonon processes are strongly suppressed and Coulomb mediated noncollinear scattering is remarkably slow, namely on a ps time scale. This effect is very promising for infrared and THz devices based on hot carrier effects.
•We introduce eight years’ worth of New Zealand forestry incident data.•We analyse forestry incidents from the perspective of worker-failure and fatigue.•70% of incidents in this data are attributed, ...at least in part, to worker-failures.•78% of worker-failure based causes show indications of fatigue.
Reports of incidents in dangerous work environments can be analysed to identify common hazards, in turn aiding in the prevention of future accidents. Whilst studies exist that do this, most focus on causes that involve physical risks. In this paper we propose an alternative approach, and illustrate causes of forestry incidents from the perspective of worker-failure and fatigue. Method This paper outlines the analysis of eight years’ worth of New Zealand forestry incident data, with a focus on the cause of, and time that, incidents occur. Results This has resulted in two main findings. First, 70% of incidents can be attributed, at least in part, to worker-failures. Second, 78% of worker-failure based causes show indications of fatigue. This indicates that a significant number of forestry incidents are caused by worker-fatigue. Finally, this dataset showed inconsistencies in data quality, similar to those that exist in other datasets. This did not affect our analysis. However, these types of errors have the potential to affect the data quality in the national reporting system. Impact on industry The results from this study will be used in a larger project on detecting fatigue in forestry workers for injury and incident prevention. It is also our hope that other researchers may find these results of interest for further fatigue prevention research in hazardous industries.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The coordinate activity of hepatic uptake transporters e.g. organic anion transporting polypeptide 1B1 (OATP1B1), drug‐metabolizing enzymes e.g. UDP‐glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 ...(UGT1A1) and efflux pumps (e.g. MRP2) is a crucial determinant of drug disposition. However, limited data are available on transport of drugs (e.g. ezetimibe, etoposide) and their glucuronidated metabolites by human MRP2 in intact cell systems.
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Using monolayers of newly established triple‐transfected MDCK‐OATP1B1‐UGT1A1‐MRP2 cells as well as MDCK control cells, single‐ (OATP1B1) and double‐transfected (OATP1B1‐UGT1A1, OATP1B1‐MRP2) MDCK cells, we therefore studied intracellular concentrations and transcellular transport after administration of ezetimibe or etoposide to the basal compartment.
KEY RESULTS Intracellular accumulation of ezetimibe was significantly lower in MDCK‐OATP1B1‐UGT1A1‐MRP2 triple‐transfected cells compared with all other cell lines. Considerably higher amounts of ezetimibe glucuronide were found in the apical compartment of MDCK‐OATP1B1‐UGT1A1‐MRP2 monolayers compared with all other cell lines. Using HEK cells, etoposide was identified as a substrate of OATP1B1. Intracellular concentrations of etoposide equivalents (i.e. parent compound plus metabolites) were affected only to a minor extent by the absence or presence of OATP1B1/UGT1A1/MRP2. In contrast, apical accumulation of etoposide equivalents was significantly higher in monolayers of both cell lines expressing MRP2 (MDCK‐OATP1B1‐MRP2, MDCK‐OATP1B1‐UGT1A1‐MRP2) compared with the single‐transfected (OATP1B1) and the control cell line.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Ezetimibe glucuronide is a substrate of human MRP2. Moreover, etoposide and possibly also its glucuronide are substrates of MRP2. These data demonstrate the functional interplay between transporter‐mediated uptake, phase II metabolism and export by hepatic proteins involved in drug disposition.
Background. In May and June 2011 the largest known outbreak of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) occurred in northern Germany. Because, quite unusually, a large number of adults was affected and the ...causative Escherichia coli strain, serotype O104:H4, showed an atypical virulence factor pattern, it was speculated that this outbreak was associated with an aggressive course and an unfavorable prognosis also in children. Methods. Retrospective analysis of medical records of 90 children and comparison to previous outbreak and sporadic case series. Results. Median age was unusually high (11.5 years) compared with that in historical series. Only 1 patient (1.1%) died in the acute phase. Most patients (67/90 74%) received supportive care only. Renal replacement therapy was required in 64 of 90 (71%) of the children. Neurological complications, mainly seizures and altered mental stage, were present in 23 of 90 (26%) patients. Ten patients received plasmapheresis, 6 eculizumab, and 7 a combination of both. After a median follow-up of 4 months, renal function normalized in 85 of 90 (94%) patients, whereas 3 patients had chronic kidney disease stage 3 or 4, and 1 patient (1.1%) still requires dialysis. Complete neurological recovery occurred in 18 of 23 patients. Mild to moderate and major residual neurological changes were present in 3 patients and 1 patient, respectively, although all patients were still improving. Conclusions. E. coli O104:H4 caused the largest HUS outbreak in children reported in detail to date and most patients received supportive treatment only. Initial morbidity, as well as short-term outcome, due to this pathogen, is comparable to previous pediatric series of Shiga toxin—producing E. coli HUS.
Spin resonance without spin splitting Hell, M.; Sothmann, B.; Leijnse, M. ...
Physical review. B, Condensed matter and materials physics,
05/2015, Volume:
91, Issue:
19
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We predict that a single-level quantum dot without discernible splitting of its spin states develops a spin-precession resonance in charge transport when embedded into a spin valve. The resonance ...occurs in the generic situation of Coulomb blockaded transport with ferromagnetic leads whose polarizations deviate from perfect antiparallel alignment. The resonance appears when electrically tuning the interaction-induced exchange field perpendicular to one of the polarizations-a simple condition relying on vectors in contrast to usual resonance conditions associated with energy splittings. The spin resonance can be detected by stationary dI/dV spectroscopy and by oscillations in the time-averaged current using a gate-pulsing scheme. The generic noncollinearity of the ferromagnets and junction asymmetry allow for an all-electric determination of the spin-injection asymmetry, the anisotropy of spin relaxation, and the magnitude of the exchange field. We also investigate the impact of a nearby superconductor on the resonance position. Our simplistic model turns out to be generic for a broad class of coherent few-level quantum systems.
Graphene is an ideal material to study fundamental Coulomb‐ and phonon‐induced carrier scattering processes. Its remarkable gapless and linear band structure opens up new carrier relaxation channels. ...In particular, Auger scattering bridging the valence and the conduction band changes the number of charge carriers and gives rise to a significant carrier multiplication ‐ an ultrafast many‐particle phenomenon that is promising for the design of highly efficient photodetectors. Furthermore, the vanishing density of states at the Dirac point combined with ultrafast phonon‐induced intraband scattering results in an accumulation of carriers and a population inversion suggesting the design of graphene‐based terahertz lasers. Here, we review our work on the ultrafast carrier dynamics in graphene and Landau‐quantized graphene is presented providing a microscopic view on the appearance of carrier multiplication and population inversion.
The feature article presents a review of the recent theoretical work, providing a microscopic view of the time‐ and energy‐resolved dynamics of optically excited carriers in graphene. The remarkable gapless and linear band structure of graphene opens up new relaxation channels, giving rise to fascinating ultrafast phenomena. In this work, the authors focus on the appearance of technologially relevant carrier multiplication and population inversion.
We prove a conjecture by Stefan Kohl on the existence of triples of permutations of bounded degree with prescribed orders and product 1. More precisely, let a,b,c be integers, all ≥2. Then there ...exist elements x,y,z∈Sc+2 of orders a, b and c respectively, with xyz=1. This result leads to an existence result for covers of the complex projective line with bounded degree and prescribed ramification indices.
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