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2. Iron phosphide thin films for electrocatalytic H2 generation and water remediation studies : abstractTakwa Chouki, Manel Machreki, Jelena Topic, Lorena Butinar, Plamen Stefanov, Erika Jež, Jack S Summers, Matjaž Valant, Aaron Fait, Saim Emin, 2022, published scientific conference contribution abstract Keywords: Iron phosphide thin films
H2 generation
water remediation
Published in RUNG: 10.02.2023; Views: 1288; Downloads: 0
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3. Composition and diversity analysis of the lung microbiome in patients with suspected ventilator-associated pneumoniaDominic Fenn, Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, Pouline van Oort, Paul Brinkman, Waqar Ahmed, Timothy Felton, Antonio Artigas, Pedro Póvoa, Ignacio Martin-Loeches, Marcus Schultz, Paul Dark, Stephen Fowler, Iain R. White, 2022, original scientific article Abstract: Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is associated with high morbidity and health care costs, yet diagnosis remains a challenge. Analysis of airway microbiota by amplicon sequencing provides a possible solution, as pneumonia is characterised by a disruption of the microbiome. However, studies evaluating the diagnostic capabilities of microbiome analysis are limited, with a lack of alignment on possible biomarkers. Using bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from ventilated adult patients suspected of VAP, we aimed to explore how key characteristics of the microbiome differ between patients with positive and negative BALF cultures and whether any differences could have a clinically relevant role. Methods: BALF from patients suspected of VAP was analysed using 16s rRNA sequencing in order to: (1) differentiate between patients with and without a positive culture; (2) determine if there was any association between microbiome diversity and local inflammatory response; and (3) correctly identify pathogens detected by conventional culture. Results: Thirty-seven of 90 ICU patients with suspected VAP had positive cultures. Patients with a positive culture had significant microbiome dysbiosis with reduced alpha diversity. However, gross compositional variance was not strongly associated with culture positivity (AUROCC range 0.66–0.71). Patients with a positive culture had a significantly higher relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria compared to those without [0.45 (IQR 0.10–0.84), 0.02 (IQR 0.004–0.09), respectively], and an increased interleukin (IL)-1β was associated with reduced species evenness (rs = − 0.33, p < 0.01) and increased pathogenic bacteria presence (rs = 0.28, p = 0.013). Untargeted 16s rRNA pathogen detection was limited by false positives, while the use of pathogen-specific relative abundance thresholds showed better diagnostic accuracy (AUROCC range 0.89–0.998). Conclusion: Patients with positive BALF culture had increased dysbiosis and genus dominance. An increased caspase-1-dependent IL-1b expression was associated with a reduced species evenness and increased pathogenic bacterial presence, providing a possible causal link between microbiome dysbiosis and lung injury development in VAP. However, measures of diversity were an unreliable predictor of culture positivity and 16s sequencing used agnostically could not usefully identify pathogens; this could be overcome if pathogen-specific relative abundance thresholds are used.
Keywords: Microbiome, Next-generation sequencing, Ventilator-associated pneumonia
Published in RUNG: 26.10.2022; Views: 1286; Downloads: 0
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4. Advantages and disadvantages of experiments with ultrashort two-color pulsesMatija Stupar, 2020, doctoral dissertation Abstract: Advances in the development of lasers have led to a new class of radiation sources generating coherent, tunable, ultrashort light pulses in the spectral region ranging from infrared to soft X-rays. This includes high-order harmonics generation in gas (HHG), on which relies the CITIUS facility at University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia), and free-electron lasers (FELs), such as the facility FERMI at Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste (Italy). The distinctive structure of HHG and FEL radiation paved the way to time-resolved experiments, which are performed to investigate events occurring on a short, or very short, temporal scale, from picoseconds to femtoseconds.
This work focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of some experimental techniques based on using these novel light sources to investigate the microscopic and/or ultrafast dynamics of matter samples, which have been previously driven out of equilibrium.
Advantages rely on the implementation of various applications based on two-color schemes and, more specifically, include the possibility of acquiring two-dimensional frequency maps, measuring electrons’ effective masses, or investigating electronic properties decoupled from the influence of the lattice. Particular focus will be put on experimental methods relying on photoelectric effect and photoelectron spectroscopy. In all experiments, we took advantage of one or more specific properties of HHG and FEL sources, such as controllable chirp, to study laser dressed states in helium, variable polarization, to study electronic properties of iron-based pnictides and ultrashort pulses (< 10 fs) to study the purely electronic dynamics in transition metal dichalcogenides.
On the other hand, the study of the interface between a molecule and a topological insulator revealed some intrinsic limitations and physical drawbacks of the technique, such as spurious effects originating from the high power pulses, like multiphoton absorption and the space charge effect, or the reduction of experimental resolution when pushing for shorter and shorter pulse durations. Some disadvantages are also connected to the current state-of-the-art in the field of ultrashort laser systems, where a trade-off needs to be found between repetition rate and laser power.
Finally, state-of-the-art experiments based on the ability to generate ultrashort pulses carrying orbital angular momentum in visible, near-infrared as well as extreme UV range will be presented. The use of these pulses opens the door to the investigation of new physical phenomena, such as probing magnetic vortices using extreme ultraviolet light from a free-electron laser or imprinting the spatial distribution of an ultrashort infrared pulse carrying orbital angular momentum onto a photoelectron wave packet.
Keywords: ultrafast lasers, two-color experiments, photoemission, high-order harmonic generation, free-electron lasers, hot-electrons dynamics, surface science, pump-probe photoemission, ultraviolet photoemission, orbital angular momentum
Published in RUNG: 02.12.2020; Views: 4270; Downloads: 131
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8. Coupling of autoionizing states by a chirped laser pulseMatjaž Žitnik, Andrej Mihelič, Klemen Bučar, Mateja Hrast, Žiga Barba, Špela Krušič, Primož Rebernik Ribič, Jurij Urbančič, Barbara Ressel, Matija Stupar, David Gauthier, Giovanni De Ninno, 2020, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: We have observed the autoionization of the laser-coupled 2s2p 1Po and 2p2 1Se resonances in helium. The ions were collected while varying the frequency and delay of the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) excitation pulse with respect to the linearly chirped visible (VIS) laser pulse. From the measured frequency-delay map the Autler- Townes splitting, the EUV-VIS cross-correlation and the linear chirp parameter were extracted.
Keywords: High Harmonic Generation
Published in RUNG: 29.06.2020; Views: 3402; Downloads: 0
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9. Spectrotemporal control of soft x-ray laser pulsesNajmeh S. Miria, Enrico Allaria, Niky Bruchon, Paolo Cinquegrana, Miltcho Bojanov Danailov, Giovanni De Ninno, S. Di Mitri, Eugenio Ferrari, Luca Giannessi, Primož Rebernik Ribič, 2020, original scientific article Keywords: coherent control, free electron lasers, echo-enabled harmonic generation
Published in RUNG: 15.06.2020; Views: 3225; Downloads: 80
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10. Element-resolved study on the influence of a magnetic dopant on the exchange interaction in FePt on ultrashort timescalesJurij Urbančič, 2017, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: In this study, we investigate the optically induced ultrafast demagnetization dynamics of a FePt alloy doped with Mn atoms on the characteristic timescale of the exchange interaction of a few femtoseconds. We use high harmonic generation with photon energies in the XUV to gain elemental resolution in a femtosecond magneto-optical Kerr-effect experiment [1] in transversal geometry. Following up on earlier experiments, which showed the importance of the exchange interaction in the demagnetization process in alloys [2,3], we see clear differences in the dynamical responses of the three elements Fe, Pt, and Mn. Our results suggest, that the exchange coupling between the magnetic moments of the FePt alloy and the Mn dopant changes on ultrashort timescales.
Keywords: FePt, High Harmonic Generation, Laser, Magnetic Materials
Published in RUNG: 22.05.2020; Views: 3285; Downloads: 0 |
