Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infections in two returning travellers in the Netherlands, May 2014

Two patients, returning to the Netherlands from pilgrimage in Medina and Mecca, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were diagnosed with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in May 2014. The source and mode of transmission have not yet been determined. Hospital-acquired infection and community-acquired infection are both possible

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infections in two returning travellers in the Netherlands, May 2014

Two patients, returning to the Netherlands from pilgrimage in Medina and Mecca, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were diagnosed with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in May 2014. The source and mode of transmission have not yet been determined. Hospital-acquired infection and community-acquired infection are both possible

Diffusion profile of macromolecules within and between human skin layers for (trans)dermal drug delivery

Delivering a drug into and through the skin is of interest as the skin can act as an alternative drug administration route for oral delivery. The development of new delivery methods, such as microneedles, makes it possible to not only deliver small molecules into the skin, which are able to pass the outer layer of the skin in therapeutic amounts, but also macromolecules. To provide insight into the administration of these molecules into the skin, the aim of this study was to assess the transport of macromolecules within and between its various layers. The diffusion coefficients in the epidermis and several locations in the papillary and reticular dermis were determined for fluorescein dextran of 40 and 500 kDa using a combination of fluorescent recovery after photobleaching experiments and finite element analysis. The diffusion coefficient was significantly higher for 40 kDa than 500 kDa dextran, with median values of 23 and 9 µm2/s in the dermis, respectively. The values only marginally varied within and between papillary and reticular dermis. For the 40 kDa dextran, the diffusion coefficient in the epidermis was twice as low as in the dermis layers. The adopted method may be used for other macromolecules, which are of interest for dermal and transdermal drug delivery. The knowledge about diffusion in the skin is useful to optimize (trans)dermal drug delivery systems to target specific layers or cells in the human skin

Flexible large-area ultrasound arrays for medical applications made using embossed polymer structures

With the huge progress in micro-electronics and artificial intelligence, the ultrasound probe has become the bottleneck in further adoption of ultrasound beyond the clinical setting (e.g. home and monitoring applications). Today, ultrasound transducers have a small aperture, are bulky, contain lead and are expensive to fabricate. Furthermore, they are rigid, which limits their integration into flexible skin patches. New ways to fabricate flexible ultrasound patches have therefore attracted much attention recently. First prototypes typically use the same lead-containing piezo-electric materials, and are made using micro-assembly of rigid active components on plastic or rubber-like substrates. We present an ultrasound transducer-on-foil technology based on thermal embossing of a piezoelectric polymer. High-quality two-dimensional ultrasound images of a tissue mimicking phantom are obtained. Mechanical flexibility and effective area scalability of the transducer are demonstrated by functional integration into an endoscope probe with a small radius of 3 mm and a large area (91.2×14 mm2) non-invasive blood pressure sensor.</p

Muon spin relaxation study of spin dynamics in poly(triarylamine)

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have been of great interest over the last couple of decades owing to their mechanic flexibility, ease of processing, high tuneability and availability. One area of OSCs that is of growing interest is polymers as they possess many of the desirable properties, in particular print processing and tunability of electronic properties, necessary for application in devices such as organic solar cells and the spin valves being engineered for hard disks and logic devices. Much focus has been given in recent years to the areas of research including the electron and hole dynamics, transport mechanisms and spin relaxation in OSCs in order to utilise them in novel organic devices. In this paper the µSR technique is applied to carry out an in depth study of the electron dynamics and spin relaxation in the commonly used Poly(triarylamine) polymer (PTAA). It is shown that the electron wavefunction can be considered localised to the aromatic rings providing a strong hyperfine coupling interaction with the muon. In addition the presence of an electron spin relaxation (eSR) is demonstratated that resembles that previously reported in the small organic molecule series

On a Model for the Prediction of the Friction Coefficient in Mixed Lubrication Based on a Load-Sharing Concept with Measured Surface Roughness

A new model was developed for the simulation of the friction coefficient in lubricated sliding line contacts. A half-space-based contact algorithm was linked with a numerical elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication solver using the load-sharing concept. The model was compared with an existing asperity-based friction model for a set of theoretical simulations. Depending on the load and surface roughness, the difference in friction varied up to 32 %. The numerical lubrication model makes it possible to also calculate lightly loaded contacts and can easily be extended to solve transient problems. Experimental validation was performed by measuring the friction coefficient as a function of sliding velocity for the stationary case

Influenza vaccination for immunocompromised patients: systematic review and meta-analysis from a public health policy perspective.

Immunocompromised patients are vulnerable to severe or complicated influenza infection. Vaccination is widely recommended for this group. This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses influenza vaccination for immunocompromised patients in terms of preventing influenza-like illness and laboratory confirmed influenza, serological response and adverse events

Gender differences in the use of cardiovascular interventions in HIV-positive persons; the D:A:D Study

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