Validating differential volatilome profiles in Parkinson’s disease

Contains fulltext : 231972.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access

Breast cancer management pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic: outcomes from the UK ‘Alert Level 4’ phase of the B-MaP-C study

Abstract: Background: The B-MaP-C study aimed to determine alterations to breast cancer (BC) management during the peak transmission period of the UK COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impact of these treatment decisions. Methods: This was a national cohort study of patients with early BC undergoing multidisciplinary team (MDT)-guided treatment recommendations during the pandemic, designated ‘standard’ or ‘COVID-altered’, in the preoperative, operative and post-operative setting. Findings: Of 3776 patients (from 64 UK units) in the study, 2246 (59%) had ‘COVID-altered’ management. ‘Bridging’ endocrine therapy was used (n = 951) where theatre capacity was reduced. There was increasing access to COVID-19 low-risk theatres during the study period (59%). In line with national guidance, immediate breast reconstruction was avoided (n = 299). Where adjuvant chemotherapy was omitted (n = 81), the median benefit was only 3% (IQR 2–9%) using ‘NHS Predict’. There was the rapid adoption of new evidence-based hypofractionated radiotherapy (n = 781, from 46 units). Only 14 patients (1%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during their treatment journey. Conclusions: The majority of ‘COVID-altered’ management decisions were largely in line with pre-COVID evidence-based guidelines, implying that breast cancer survival outcomes are unlikely to be negatively impacted by the pandemic. However, in this study, the potential impact of delays to BC presentation or diagnosis remains unknown

Biophotonics : Vibrational Spectroscopic Diagnostics

Biophotonic diagnostics/biomedical spectroscopy can revolutionise the medical environment by providing a responsive and objective diagnostic environment. This book aims to explain the fundamentals of the physical techniques used combined with the particular requirements of analysing medical/clinical samples as a resource for any interested party. In addition, it will show the potential of this field for the future of medical science and act as a driver for translation across many different biological problems/questions

The influence of scaling metabolomics data on model classification accuracy

Supplementary information The influence of scaling metabolomics data on model classification accurac

Mobilising ion mobility mass spectrometry for metabolomics

Syftet med denna studie var att fördjupa förståelsen för distansledarskapets utmaningar med att förebygga och hantera psykosocial ohälsa vid Trafikverket. För att uppnå syftet har ett kvalitativt metodval med semistrukturerade intervjuer använts som datainsamlingsmetod där intervjuer skett med både chefer och medarbetare. Studien bidrar till att lyfta fram viktiga faktorer som kan vara avgörande för att chefer ska kunna upptäcka och hantera psykosocial ohälsa. Resultatet visar att relationer, kommunikation och en hög interaktionsfrekvens är avgörande för chefens förebyggande arbete gällande den psykosociala arbetsmiljön. Resultatet visar även att fysisk närvaro inte är avgörande för huruvida chefen upplevs som närvarande, istället handlar det om att chefen i sina interaktioner är psykosocialt närvarande.The purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of the challenges of distance leadership in preventing and managing psychosocial illness at the Swedish Transport Administration. In order to achieve the purpose, a qualitative choice of method with semistructured interviews has been used as a data collection method where interviews have been conducted with both managers and employees. The study contributes to highlighting important factors that can be crucial for managers in order to detect and manage psychosocial illness. The result shows that relationships, communication and a high frequency of interaction are crucial for the manager's preventive work regarding the psychosocial work environment. The result also shows that physical presence is not necessary for whether the manager is perceived as present, instead, it becomes important that the managers are psychosocially present in their interactions

Mobilising Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry in a Synthetic Biology Analytics Workflow

Chromatography based mass spectrometry approaches (xC-MS) are commonly used in untargeted metabolomics, providing retention time, m/z values and metabolite specific-fragments all of which are used to identify and validate an unknown analyte. Ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) is emerging as an enhancement to classic xC-MS strategies, by offering additional separation as well as collision cross section (CCS) determination. In order to apply such an approach to a synthetic biology workflow, verified data from metabolite standards is necessary. In this work we present experimental DTCCSN2 values for a range of metabolites in positive and negative ionisation modes using drift time-ion mobility-mass spectrometry (DT-IM-MS) with nitrogen as the buffer gas. Creating a useful database containing DTCCSN2 measurements for application in metabolite identification relies on a robust technique that acquires measurements of high reproducibility. We report that 86% of the metabolites measured in replicate have a relative standard deviation lower than 0.2 %. Examples of metabolites with near identical mass are demonstrated to be separated by ion mobility with over 4% difference in DTCCSN2 values. We conclude that the integration of ion mobility into current LC-MS workflows can aid in small molecule identification for both targeted and untargeted metabolite screening which is commonly performed in synthetic biology.</p