Towards transforming community eye care: an observational study and time-series analysis of optometrists' prescribing for eye disorders

Objectives: This study aimed to provide evidence on the therapeutic prescribing activity by community optometrists in Scotland and to determine its impact on workload in general practice and ophthalmology clinics. Study design: Scottish administrative healthcare data for a 53-month period (November 2013–April 2018) were used to analyse non-medical prescribing practice by optometrists. Methods: Using interrupted time-series regression (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average), we assessed the impact of optometrist prescribing on ophthalmology outpatient attendances and general practice prescribing for eye disorders. Results: A total of 54,246 items were prescribed by 205 optometrists over the study period. Since the commencement of data recording, optometrist prescribing activity increased steadily from a baseline of zero to 1.2% of all ophthalmic items prescribed. Neither the monthly number of items prescribed nor the size of optometric workforce were associated with a reduction in ophthalmology outpatient appointments over time. Conclusions: Optometrists increasingly contribute to community ophthalmic prescribing in Scotland, releasing capacity and lessening general practice, but not secondary care workload. There appears to be an underutilisation of optometrists related to the management of dry eye, which represents an opportunity to release further capacity

Inducible and constitutive promoters for genetic systems in Sulfolobus acidocaldarius

Central to genetic work in any organism are the availability of a range of inducible and constitutive promoters. In this work we studied several promoters for use in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. The promoters were tested with the aid of an E. coli–Sulfolobus shuttle vector in reporter gene experiments. As the most suitable inducible promoter a maltose inducible promoter was identified. It comprises 266 bp of the sequence upstream of the gene coding for the maltose/maltotriose binding protein (mbp, Saci_1165). Induction is feasible with either maltose or dextrin at concentrations of 0.2–0.4%. The highest increase in expression (up to 17-fold) was observed in late exponential and stationary phase around 30–50 h after addition of dextrin. Whereas in the presence of glucose and xylose higher basal activity and reduced inducibility with maltose is observed, sucrose can be used in the growth medium additionally without affecting the basal activity or the inducibility. The minimal promoter region necessary could be narrowed down to 169 bp of the upstream sequence. The ABCE1 protein from S. solfataricus was successfully expressed under control of the inducible promoter with the shuttle vector pC and purified from the S. acidocaldarius culture with a yield of about 1 mg L−1 culture. In addition we also determined the promoter strength of several constitutive promoters

“Hot standards” for the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus

Within the archaea, the thermoacidophilic crenarchaeote Sulfolobus solfataricus has become an important model organism for physiology and biochemistry, comparative and functional genomics, as well as, more recently also for systems biology approaches. Within the Sulfolobus Systems Biology (“SulfoSYS”)-project the effect of changing growth temperatures on a metabolic network is investigated at the systems level by integrating genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic and enzymatic information for production of a silicon cell-model. The network under investigation is the central carbohydrate metabolism. The generation of high-quality quantitative data, which is critical for the investigation of biological systems and the successful integration of the different datasets, derived for example from high-throughput approaches (e.g., transcriptome or proteome analyses), requires the application and compliance of uniform standard protocols, e.g., for growth and handling of the organism as well as the “–omics” approaches. Here, we report on the establishment and implementation of standard operating procedures for the different wet-lab and in silico techniques that are applied within the SulfoSYS-project and that we believe can be useful for future projects on Sulfolobus or (hyper)thermophiles in general. Beside established techniques, it includes new methodologies like strain surveillance, the improved identification of membrane proteins and the application of crenarchaeal metabolomics

Terahertz cross-correlation system with a combless spectrum

We present a novel technique to generate a continuous, broadband terahertz spectrum with non AR-coated laser diodes. The combination of two spectrally controlled diode lasers and the use of their combined output in a terahertz cross-correlation spectroscopy setup results in signals principally comparable to that of femtosecond pumped TDS systems

Inline multilayer thickness sensing by using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy in reflection geometry

We present a novel approach to determine the individual layer thickness in a dielectric multilayer sample using pulsed terahertz spectroscopy in reflection geometry. In a first step, the optical parameters of each layer have to be determined. Based on these parameters, we simulate the reflected THz-pulse from the multilayer system and compare it to the measurement. A genetic algorithm is used to determine the best agreement between simulation and measurement by varying the thickness of each layer

Terahertz standoff identification under real world conditions

Many chemicals, including hazardous substances, can be distinguished based on their spectral fingerprints in the terahertz range under laboratory conditions. In a real-world standoff environment, additional factors such as water vapor absorption in humid air, clothes and packaging materials, and the surface properties of the particular sample make this task more difficult. We have performed measurements and simulations in order to quantify these influences and improve on the limits of detection

Combless broadband terahertz generation with conventional laser diodes

We present a novel technique to generate a continuous, combless broadband Terahertz spectrum with conventional low-cost laser diodes. A standard time-domain spectroscopy system using photoconductive antennas is pumped by the output of two tunable diode lasers. Using fine tuning for one laser and fine and coarse tuning for the second laser, difference frequency generation results in a continuous broadband THz spectrum. Fast coarse-tuning is achieved by a simple spatial light modulator introduced in an external cavity. The results are compared to multi-mode operation for THz generation

Influences of real-world conditions on terahertz stand-off detection: Simulation and experiment

Terahertz spectroscopy has become a well-established tool under laboratory conditions but terahertz standoff detection in the real world is hampered by a number of influences related to the environment and the sample properties such as air humidity, surface roughness and angle of detection. A terahertz stand-off system must be calibrated in order to account for these influences. We have performed experiments and simulations in order to probe the limits of terahertz stand-off detection under real-world conditions

Non-contact multilayer thickness measurements with reflection-mode terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Terahertz waves penetrate nonconductive coatings and are reflected at the boundary layers between different refraction indices. This creates new potential for quality control when added to established nondestructive testing techniques such as ultrasonic or x-ray