An extension of the Benefit Risk Assessment of VaccinEs toolkit to evaluate Comirnaty and Spikevax vaccination in the European Union.

Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines were conditionally authorized for human use to protect against severe infection. The Benefit Risk Assessment of VaccinEs (BRAVE) toolkit, a user-friendly R Shiny application, was developed retrospectively together with the European Medicine Agency (EMA) with the aim of fulfilling the need for flexible tools to assess vaccine benefits and risks during and outside a pandemic situation. This study employed BRAVE to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines across 30 European Union (EU)/EEA countries by quantifying the number of prevented clinical events [i.

Exercise Echocardiography for Risk Stratification in Unexplained Dyspnea: The Incremental Value of the Mean Pulmonary Artery Pressure/Slope.

Background: Patients with unexplained dyspnea and an elevated mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP)/cardiac output (CO) slope on invasive hemodynamic assessment during exercise have worse clinical outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incremental prognostic value of the noninvasive mPAP/CO slope in addition to heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) probability scores and diastolic stress testing in patients with unexplained dyspnea.

Methods: In a multicenter cohort study involving six Belgian dyspnea clinics, patients with unexplained dyspnea underwent exercise echocardiography for mPAP/CO slope assessment.

Graphene Encapsulated Diamond Nanoneedles as Sensitive Electrochemical Paraquat Sensor for Leaves.

Ensuring food security often requires the use of pesticides, which can lead to significant ecological and human health risks due to toxicity. Paraquat (PQ), one of the most dangerous herbicides, poses severe threats to human health, including organ failure and neurological damage. Electrochemical detection methods have demonstrated significant promise for accurate and sensitive detection of PQ.

Reflection on clinical and methodological issues in rare disease clinical trials.

Rare diseases present critical challenges to healthcare systems, patients, and caregivers due to their low prevalence and unique characteristics. Designing clinical trials and developing statistical methodologies for evaluating interventions in rare diseases face several challenges. The "EBStatMax" project, part of the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases' Demonstration Projects, aimed to address one of these challenges, namely: designing and analyzing longitudinal cross-over data in rare diseases, like Epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS).

Dravet syndrome: Insights into seizure and speech progression from registry data.

Objective: Dravet syndrome (DS) is a rare genetic developmental and epileptic encephalopathy syndrome characterized by refractory seizures and neurodevelopmental disorders beginning in infancy. This study aims to understand the natural history of DS by utilizing longitudinal data from patient registries.

Methods: We analysed data from 475 subjects across two European patient registries (RESIDRAS and Platform-RESIDRAS) from Dravet Italia Onlus, collected between 2010 and 2024.

Utilising the Benefit Risk Assessment of Vaccines (BRAVE) toolkit to evaluate the benefits and risks of Vaxzevria in the EU: a population-based study.

Background: Several COVID-19 vaccines have been licensed. To support the assessment of safety signals, we developed a toolkit to support COVID-19 vaccine monitoring and benefit-risk assessment. We aim to show the application of our toolkit in the EU using thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) associated with the Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) vaccine as a use case.

Thermal diffusivity microscope: Zooming in on anisotropic heat transport.

Anisotropic heat-conducting materials play crucial roles in designing electronic, optoelectronic, and thermoelectric devices, where temperature and thermal stress are important. Despite substantial research efforts, a major obstacle to determining the anisotropic thermal diffusivity tensor in polycrystalline systems is the need for a robust, direct, and nondestructive technique to distinguish between distinct thermal diffusivities. Here, we demonstrate a conceptually unique thermal diffusivity microscope capable of performing high-resolution local measurements of anisotropic thermal diffusivity.

AlO/Al hybrid nanolaminates with superior toughness, strength and ductility.

Amorphous alumina is hard but brittle like all ceramic type materials which affects durability under impact or scratch. Here we show that alumina layers below 100 nm thickness when stacked with aluminum interlayers exhibit exceptional performances including toughness equal to 300 J.m determined by on chip nanomechanics.

Effect of targeted education of patients with atrial fibrillation on unplanned cardiovascular outcomes: results of the multicentre randomized AF-EduCare trial.

Aims: Trials on integrated care for atrial fibrillation (AF) showed mixed results in different AF populations using various approaches. The multicentre, randomized AF-EduCare trial evaluated the effect of targeted patient education on unplanned cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods And Results: Patients willing to participate were randomly assigned to in-person education, online education, or standard care (SC) and followed for minimum 18 months.

Improving the accuracy of temperature measurement on TEM samples using plasmon energy expansion thermometry (PEET): Addressing sample thickness effects.

Advances in analytical scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and in microelectronic mechanical systems (MEMS) based microheaters have enabled in-situ materials' characterization at the nanometer scale at elevated temperature. In addition to resolving the structural information at elevated temperatures, detailed knowledge of the local temperature distribution inside the sample is essential to reveal thermally induced phenomena and processes. Here, we investigate the accuracy of plasmon energy expansion thermometry (PEET) as a method to map the local temperature in a tungsten (W) lamella in a range between room temperature and 700 °C.

Multi-stakeholder sessions on major innovation topics in rare disease clinical trials.

Background: The European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases aims to enhance the rare diseases research ecosystem by bringing together stakeholders such as research funders, institutions and patient organizations. Work Package 20 focuses on the validation, use and development of innovative methodologies for rare disease clinical trials. This paper reports on the outcomes of a retreat held in April 2023, where areas for innovation and educational needs in rare disease clinical trials were discussed in multi-stakeholder sessions.

Relativistic EELS scattering cross-sections for microanalysis based on Dirac solutions.

The rich information of electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) comes from the complex inelastic scattering process whereby fast electrons transfer energy and momentum to atoms, exciting bound electrons from their ground states to higher unoccupied states. To quantify EELS, the common practice is to compare the cross-sections integrated within an energy window or fit the observed spectrum with theoretical differential cross-sections calculated from a generalized oscillator strength (GOS) database with experimental parameters. The previous Hartree-Fock-based and DFT-based GOS are calculated from Schrödinger's solution of atomic orbitals, which does not include the full relativistic effects.

Unraveling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mortality trends in Belgium between 2020-2022.

Background: Over the past four years, the COVID-19 pandemic has exerted a profound impact on public health, including on mortality trends. This study investigates mortality patterns in Belgium by examining all-cause mortality, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality.

Methods: We retrieved all-cause mortality data from January 1, 2009, to December 31, 2022, stratified by age group and sex.

The impact of allocation bias on test decisions in clinical trials with multiple endpoints using multiple testing strategies.

Background: Considering multiple endpoints in clinical trials provide a more comprehensive understanding of treatment effects and may lead to increased power or reduced sample size, which may be beneficial in rare diseases. Besides the small sample sizes, allocation bias is an issue that affects the validity of these trials. We investigate the impact of allocation bias on testing decisions in clinical trials with multiple endpoints and offer a tool for selecting an appropriate randomization procedure (RP).

Automated detection and mapping of crystal tilt using thermal diffuse scattering in transmission electron microscopy.

Quantitative interpretation of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) data of crystalline specimens often requires the accurate knowledge of the local crystal orientation. A method is presented which exploits momentum-resolved scanning TEM (STEM) data to determine the local mistilt from a major zone axis. It is based on a geometric analysis of Kikuchi bands within a single diffraction pattern, yielding the center of the Laue circle.

Evaluating the direct effect of vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

Background: Across Europe, countries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a combination of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination. Evaluating the effectiveness of such interventions is of particular relevance to policy-makers.

Methods: We leverage almost three years of available data across 38 European countries to evaluate the effectiveness of governmental responses in controlling the pandemic.

Rationale and Design of the DECONGEST (Diuretic Treatment in Acute Heart Failure With Volume Overload Guided by Serial Spot Urine Sodium Assessment) Study.

Aims: To evaluate whether early-combination diuretic therapy guided by serial post-diuretic urine sodium concentration (UNa) assessments in acute heart failure (AHF) facilitates safe and effective decongestion.

Methods: The Diuretic Treatment in Acute Heart Failure with Volume Overload Guided by Serial Spot Urine Sodium Assessment (DECONGEST) study is a pragmatic, 2-center, randomized, parallel-arm, open-label study aiming to enroll 104 patients with AHF and clinically evident fluid overload requiring treatment with intravenous loop diuretics. Patients are randomized to receive standard of care or a bundled approach comprising: (1) systematic post-diuretic UNa assessments until successful decongestion, defined as no remaining clinical signs of fluid overload with a post-diuretic UNa ≤ 80 mmol/L; (2) thrice-daily intravenous loop diuretic bolus therapy, with dosing according to estimated glomerular filtration rate; (3) upfront use of intravenous acetazolamide (500 mg once daily [OD]); and (4) full nephron blockade with high-dose oral chlorthalidone (100 mg OD) and intravenous canreonate (200 mg OD) for diuretic resistance, defined as persisting signs of fluid overload with a post-diuretic UNa ≤ 80 mmol/L.

Investigation of the Octahedral Network Structure in Formamidinium Lead Bromide Nanocrystals by Low-Dose Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy.

Metal halide perovskites (MHP) are highly promising semiconductors. In this study, we focus on FAPbBr nanocrystals, which are of great interest for green light-emitting diodes. Structural parameters significantly impact the properties of MHPs and are linked to phase instability, which hampers long-term applications.

Unveiling the 3D Morphology of Epitaxial GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Dots.

Strain-free GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) grown by droplet etching and nanohole infilling (DENI) are highly promising candidates for the on-demand generation of indistinguishable and entangled photon sources. The spectroscopic fingerprint and quantum optical properties of QDs are significantly influenced by their morphology. The effects of nanohole geometry and infilled material on the exciton binding energies and fine structure splitting are well-understood.

Covariate-adjusted generalized pairwise comparisons in small samples.

Semiparametric probabilistic index models allow for the comparison of two groups of observations, whilst adjusting for covariates, thereby fitting nicely within the framework of generalized pairwise comparisons (GPC). As with most regression approaches in this setting, the limited amount of data results in invalid inference as the asymptotic normality assumption is not met. In addition, separation issues might arise when considering small samples.

Interlayer Affected Diamond Electrochemistry.

Diamond electrochemistry is primarily influenced by quantities of sp-carbon, surface terminations, and crystalline structure. In this work, a new dimension is introduced by investigating the effect of using substrate-interlayers for diamond growth. Boron and nitrogen co-doped nanocrystalline diamond (BNDD) films are grown on Si substrate without and with Ti and Ta as interlayers, named BNDD/Si, BNDD/Ti/Si, and BNDD/Ta/Ti/Si, respectively.

High-Throughput Morphological Chirality Quantification of Twisted and Wrinkled Gold Nanorods.

Chirality in gold nanostructures offers an exciting opportunity to tune their differential optical response to left- and right-handed circularly polarized light, as well as their interactions with biomolecules and living matter. However, tuning and understanding such interactions demands quantification of the structural features that are responsible for the chiral behavior. Electron tomography (ET) enables structural characterization at the single-particle level and has been used to quantify the helicity of complex chiral nanorods.