Open-source tools for the fabrication and characterization of organic electronics

Funding: J.F.B. acknowledges funding from Beverly and Frank MacInnis via the University of St Andrews. This work was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Humboldt Professorship to M.C.G.) and the DFG-funded Research Training Group “Template-Designed Organic Electronics (TIDE)” (RTG2591).By promoting collaborative sharing of knowledge, the open-source movement has catalyzed substantial progress across diverse fields, including software development and artificial intelligence. Similarly, the concept of openly shared hardware has gained attention, due to its cost-effectiveness and the prospect of improved reproducibility. A major motivation for the development of organic electronics is its promise to deliver substantial advantages in price and manufacturability relative to its inorganic counterpart. Here, two open-source tools for organic electronics are introduced: a dip-coating device designed for thin film fabrication and a four-point probe for precisely measuring the resistance of thin films. These tools only cost a fraction of comparable commercial devices and run with open-source software to ensure a user-friendly experience. A case study demonstrates the optimization of simple fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using these open-source tools achieving 4% external quantum efficiency (EQE). To characterize these OLEDs, a previously reported open-source setup for accurate efficiency measurements is used. A substantial software upgrade to this setup, which speeds up the characterization of electroluminescence, is also repor. This work contributes open-source hardware and software to the field of organic electronics, thereby lowering the entrance barrier to the field and fostering the involvement of scientists with diverse scientific backgrounds.Peer reviewe

The burden of self-reported acute gastrointestinal illness in Italy: a retrospective survey, 2008–2009

A retrospective telephone survey (n=3490) was conducted in Italy between 2008 and 2009 to estimate the occurrence of self-reported acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) and to describe subjects' recourse to healthcare, using a symptom-based case definition. Three hundred and ten AGI cases were identified. The annual incidence rate was 1·08 episodes/person-year (95% confidence interval 0·90–1·14). The proportion of subjects consulting physicians was 39·5% while only 0·3% submitted a specimen for laboratory investigation. Risk factors for AGI and medical care-seeking were identified using logistic regression analysis. Females, children and young adults had a significantly higher incidence rate of AGI. Factors associated with medical care-seeking were age <10 years, presence of fever, diarrhoea, and duration of illness >3 days. Our results provide a relevant contribution towards estimating the global burden of AGI using standard methods that ensure a good level of comparability with other studies

Estimating the incidence of acute infectious intestinal disease in the community in the UK:A retrospective telephone survey

Objectives: To estimate the burden of intestinal infectious disease (IID) in the UK and determine whether disease burden estimations using a retrospective study design differ from those using a prospective study design. Design/Setting: A retrospective telephone survey undertaken in each of the four countries comprising the United Kingdom. Participants were randomly asked about illness either in the past 7 or 28 days. Participants: 14,813 individuals for all of whom we had a legible recording of their agreement to participate Outcomes: Self-reported IID, defined as loose stools or clinically significant vomiting lasting less than two weeks, in the absence of a known non-infectious cause. Results: The rate of self-reported IID varied substantially depending on whether asked for illness in the previous 7 or 28 days. After standardising for age and sex, and adjusting for the number of interviews completed each month and the relative size of each UK country, the estimated rate of IID in the 7-day recall group was 1,530 cases per 1,000 person-years (95% CI: 1135 – 2113), while in the 28-day recall group it was 533 cases per 1,000 person-years (95% CI: 377 – 778). There was no significant variation in rates between the four countries. Rates in this study were also higher than in a related prospective study undertaken at the same time. Conclusions: The estimated burden of disease from IID varied dramatically depending on study design. Retrospective studies of IID give higher estimates of disease burden than prospective studies. Of retrospective studies longer recall periods give lower estimated rates than studies with short recall periods. Caution needs to be exercised when comparing studies of self-reported IID as small changes in study design or case definition can markedly affect estimated rates

Healthcare use for acute gastrointestinal illness in two Inuit communities: Rigolet and Iqaluit, Canada

Background. The incidence of self-reported acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, and Iqaluit, Nunavut, is higher than reported elsewhere in Canada; as such, understanding AGI-related healthcare use is important for healthcare provision, public health practice and surveillance of AGI. Objectives: This study described symptoms, severity and duration of self-reported AGI in the general population and examined the incidence and factors associated with healthcare utilization for AGI in these 2 Inuit communities. Design: Cross-sectional survey data were analysed using multivariable exact logistic regression to examine factors associated with individuals’ self-reported healthcare and over-the-counter (OTC) medication utilization related to AGI symptoms. Results: In Rigolet, few AGI cases used healthcare services [4.8% (95% CI=1.5-14.4%)]; in Iqaluit, some cases used healthcare services [16.9% (95% CI=11.2-24.7%)]. Missing traditional activities due to AGI (OR=3.8; 95% CI=1.18-12.4) and taking OTC medication for AGI symptoms (OR=3.8; 95% CI=1.2-15.1) were associated with increased odds of using healthcare services in Iqaluit. In both communities, AGI severity and secondary symptoms (extreme tiredness, headache, muscle pains, chills) were significantly associated with increased odds of taking OTC medication. Conclusions: While rates of self-reported AGI were higher in Inuit communities compared to non-Inuit communities in Canada, there were lower rates of AGI-related healthcare use in Inuit communities compared to other regions in Canada. As such, the rates of healthcare use for a given disease can differ between Inuit and non-Inuit communities, and caution should be exercised in making comparisons between Inuit and non-Inuit health outcomes based solely on clinic records and healthcare use

Measuring underreporting and under-ascertainment in infectious disease datasets: a comparison of methods

Gibbons CL, Mangen M-JJ, Plaß D, et al. Measuring underreporting and under-ascertainment in infectious disease datasets: a comparison of methods. BMC Public Health. 2014;14(1): 147.Background: Efficient and reliable surveillance and notification systems are vital for monitoring public health and disease outbreaks. However, most surveillance and notification systems are affected by a degree of underestimation (UE) and therefore uncertainty surrounds the 'true' incidence of disease affecting morbidity and mortality rates. Surveillance systems fail to capture cases at two distinct levels of the surveillance pyramid: from the community since not all cases seek healthcare (under-ascertainment), and at the healthcare-level, representing a failure to adequately report symptomatic cases that have sought medical advice (underreporting). There are several methods to estimate the extent of under-ascertainment and underreporting. Methods: Within the context of the ECDC-funded Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe (BCoDE)-project, an extensive literature review was conducted to identify studies that estimate ascertainment or reporting rates for salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis in European Union Member States (MS) plus European Free Trade Area (EFTA) countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland and four other OECD countries (USA, Canada, Australia and Japan). Multiplication factors (MFs), a measure of the magnitude of underestimation, were taken directly from the literature or derived (where the proportion of underestimated, under-ascertained, or underreported cases was known) and compared for the two pathogens. Results: MFs varied between and within diseases and countries, representing a need to carefully select the most appropriate MFs and methods for calculating them. The most appropriate MFs are often disease-,country-, age-, and sex-specific. Conclusions: When routine data are used to make decisions on resource allocation or to estimate epidemiological parameters in populations, it becomes important to understand when, where and to what extent these data represent the true picture of disease, and in some instances (such as priority setting) it is necessary to adjust for underestimation. MFs can be used to adjust notification and surveillance data to provide more realistic estimates of incidence

Large and prolonged food-borne multistate hepatitis A outbreak in Europe associated with consumption of frozen berries, 2013 to 2014

In May 2013, Italy declared a national outbreak of hepatitis A, which also affected several foreign tourists who had recently visited the country. Molecular investigations identified some cases as infected with an identical strain of hepatitis A virus subgenotype IA. After additional European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries reported locally acquired and travel-related cases associated with the same outbreak, an international outbreak investigation team was convened, a European outbreak case definition was issued and harmonisation of the national epidemiological and microbiological investigations was encouraged. From January 2013 to August 2014, 1,589 hepatitis A cases were reported associated with the multistate outbreak; 1,102 (70%) of the cases were hospitalised for a median time of six days; two related deaths were reported. Epidemiological and microbiological investigations implicated mixed frozen berries as the vehicle of infection of the outbreak. In order to control the spread of the outbreak, suspected or contaminated food batches were recalled, the public was recommended to heat-treat berries, and post-exposure prophylaxis of contacts was performed. The outbreak highlighted how large food-borne hepatitis A outbreaks may affect the increasingly susceptible EU/EEA general population and how, with the growing international food trade, frozen berries are a potential high-risk food

Analysis of possibilities for utilizing power generation waste from a wet flue gas desulphurization method (code 10 01 05) as a component of solidifying mixtures being applied in hard coal underground mines

Od kilkunastu lat energetyka zawodowa coraz częściej wykorzystuje do odsiarczania spalin metody mokre, charakteryzujące się bardzo wysoką sprawnością, kształtującą się na poziomie oko?o 90-95%. Produktem ubocznym powstaj?cym podczas pracy instalacji jest tzw. reagips. Produkt ten w Polsce masowo wykorzystywany jest do produkcji różnych elementów gipsowych, z których najpopularniejszym są płyty gipsowo-kartonowe. Potencjalnym obszarem wykorzystania reagipsów może być także górnictwo podziemne, które masowo zagospodarowuje różne odpady drobnofrakcyjne pochodzące z energetyki zawodowej w technologii doszczelniania zrobów zawałowych. Jednakże z uwagi na brak właściwości wiążących reagipsu oraz wymagania dotyczące materiałów do technologii doszczelniania zawarte w normie PN-G 11011:1998, należy reagips wprowadzić do mieszaniny popiołowo--wodnej sporządzonej na bazie popiołu o właściwościach wiążących. W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badać właściwości fizykomechanicznych oraz wymywalności substancji chemicznych hydromieszanin popio?u o kodzie 100102 z dodatkiem reagipsu w zakresie 0-20% zarobionych wod? kopalnian?. Badane hydromieszaniny miały rozlewność 180, 220 i 260 mm (tab. 1). Na podstawie przedstawionych bada? podstawowych w?asno?ci fizykomechanicznych należ y stwierdzić, że : gęstość zmieniała się od 1362 do 1515 g/dm3 (rys. 1); wskaźnik wodno-popiołowy wynosił od 0,40 do 0,64 (rys. 2); ilość wody nadosadowej przyjmowała wartości od 0,3 do 9,8% (rys. 3); wytrzymałość na ściskanie po 28 dniach wynosiła od 0,12 do 0,43 MPa(rys. 4); rozmakalność zmieniała się od 2 do 48% (rys. 5). Badania wymywalności siarczanów i chlorków na zgodność z wymaganiami normowymi wykonane w akredytowanych laboratoriach wykaza?y nieznaczne przekroczenie chlorków w jednej mieszaninie o rozlewności 180 mm i udziale 20% reagipsu. W przypadku siarczanów przekroczeń wartości normowych nie zanotowano (tab. 2). Jak wynika z analizy wyników wyżej wymienionych bada? w?a?ciwo?ci fizykomechanicznych oraz wymywalności substancji chemicznych hydromieszanin stwierdza się, że wymagania normowe dla technologii doszczelniania zrobów spe?niaj? nast?puj?ce mieszaniny wykonane na bazie popio?u 10 01 02 i wody kopalnianej: przy rozlewności 180 mm z udzia?em reagipsu do 15%, przy rozlewności 220 mm z udzia?em reagipsu do 20%, przy rozlewności 260 mm z udzia?em reagipsu do 20%For several years, professional power generation more and more often applies wet methods for the desulphurization of flue gases which are characterized by very high efficiency, reaching a level of about 90–95%. A byproduct generated during the operation of such a plant is REA- -gypsum. This product sees broad usage in Poland for the production of different gypsum-based materials of which the most popular are gypsum-cardboards. A potential area where REA-gypsum could be applied is also underground mining which utilizes in bulk different, finely-grained waste, originating from professional power generation mainly in the technology for the grouting of cavings