TY - JOUR AB - Monitoring and assessing the severity of the pandemic situation is one of the key challenges that public officials faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Daily new infections may lead to flawed assessments, as infected individuals lead to different constraints imposed on the health care system amid varying pandemic determinants. On the other hand, hospitalisations or hospital bed occupancy may lead to outdated assessments, as the corresponding data are only observable with considerable delay. In this study, we introduce a hospital beds model, which relates the three quantities of daily new infections, daily hospitalisation rates, and daily hospital bed occupancy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using this model, we develop COVIX—a severity index that assesses the impact of a pandemic in comparison to a specified reference date while taking infection and disease risks into account. The developed methodology and its implications are illustrated on data for the German federal state of Bavaria. AU - Kschonnek, M.* AU - Dobrovolska, I.* AU - Protzer, U. AU - Zagst, R.* C1 - 68157 C2 - 53606 CY - St Alban-anlage 66, Ch-4052 Basel, Switzerland TI - COVIX—An index allowing for the assessment of the pandemic situation based on infections and hospitalisation data. JO - Appl. Sci. VL - 13 IS - 7 PB - Mdpi PY - 2023 SN - 2076-3417 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The main intervention for coronary artery disease is stent implantation. We aim to predict post-intervention target lesion failure (TLF) months before its onset, an extremely challenging task in clinics. This post-intervention decision support tool helps physicians to identify at-risk patients much earlier and to inform their follow-up care. We developed a novel machine-learning model with three components: a TLF predictor at discharge via a combination of nine conventional models and a super-learner, a risk score predictor for time-to-TLF, and an update function to manage the size of the at-risk cohort. We collected data in a prospective study from 120 medical centers in over 25 countries. All 1975 patients were enrolled during Phase I (2016–2020) and were followed up for five years post-intervention. During Phase I, 151 patients (7.6%) developed TLF, which we used for training. Additionally, 12 patients developed TLF after Phase I (right-censored). Our algorithm successfully classifies 1635 patients as not at risk (TNR = 90.23%) and predicts TLF for 86 patients (TPR = 52.76%), outperforming its training by identifying 33% of the right-censored patients. We also compare our model against five state of the art models, outperforming them all. Our prediction tool is able to optimize for both achieving higher sensitivity and maintaining a reasonable size for the at-risk cohort over time. AU - Pachl, E. AU - Zamanian, A. AU - Stieler, M.* AU - Bahr, C.* AU - Ahmidi, N. C1 - 62788 C2 - 51020 TI - Early-, late-, and very late-term prediction of target lesion failure in coronary artery stent patients: An international multi-site study. JO - Appl. Sci. VL - 11 IS - 15 PY - 2021 SN - 2076-3417 ER - TY - JOUR AB - While fast and reliable analytical results are crucial for first responders to make adequate decisions, these can be difficult to establish, especially at large-scale clandestine laboratories. To overcome this issue, multiple techniques at different levels of complexity are available. In addition to the level of complexity their information value differs as well. Within this publication, a comparison between three techniques that can be applied for on-site analysis is performed. These techniques range from ones with a simple yes or no response to sophisticated ones that allows to receive complex information about a sample. The three evaluated techniques are immunoassay drug tests representing easy to handle and fast to explain systems, ion mobility spectrometry as state-of-the-art equipment that needs training and experience prior to use and ambient pressure laser desorption with the need for a highly skilled operator as possible future technique that is currently under development. In addition to the measurement of validation parameters, real case samples are investigated to obtain practically relevant information about the capabilities and limitations of these techniques for on-site operations. Results demonstrate that in general all techniques deliver valid results, but the bandwidth of information widely varies between the investigated techniques. AU - Reiss, R.* AU - Hauser, F.* AU - Ehlert, S.* AU - Pütz, M.* AU - Zimmermann, R. C1 - 62004 C2 - 50586 CY - St Alban-anlage 66, Ch-4052 Basel, Switzerland TI - Comparison of different analytical methods for the on-site analysis of traces at clandestine drug laboratories. JO - Appl. Sci. VL - 11 IS - 9 PB - Mdpi PY - 2021 SN - 2076-3417 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Respiratory motion in living organisms is known to result in image blurring and loss of resolution, chiefly due to the lengthy acquisition times of the corresponding image acquisition methods. Optoacoustic tomography can effectively eliminate in vivo motion artifacts due to its inherent capacity for collecting image data from the entire imaged region following a single nanoseconds-duration laser pulse. However, multi-frame image analysis is often essential in applications relying on spectroscopic data acquisition or for scanning-based systems. Thereby, efficient methods to correct for image distortions due to motion are imperative. Herein, we demonstrate that efficient motion rejection in optoacoustic tomography can readily be accomplished by frame clustering during image acquisition, thus averting excessive data acquisition and post-processing. The algorithm’s efficiency for two- and three-dimensional imaging was validated with experimental whole-body mouse data acquired by spiral volumetric optoacoustic tomography (SVOT) and full-ring cross-sectional imaging scanners. AU - Ron, A. AU - Davoudi, N.* AU - Dean-Ben, X.L. AU - Razansky, D. C1 - 56639 C2 - 47125 TI - Self-gated respiratory motion rejection for optoacoustic tomography. JO - Appl. Sci. VL - 9 IS - 13 PY - 2019 SN - 2076-3417 ER - TY - JOUR AU - Wang, X.* AU - Yang, X.* AU - Dean-Ben, X.L. C1 - 57149 C2 - 47569 CY - St Alban-anlage 66, Ch-4052 Basel, Switzerland TI - Special issue on photoacoustic tomography. JO - Appl. Sci. VL - 9 IS - 19 PB - Mdpi PY - 2019 SN - 2076-3417 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) is a powerful method for the sensitive determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in gaseous mixtures via mass spectrometry (MS). In REMPI, ions are produced by the absorption of at least two photons including defined electronic intermediate states. As a resultunlike other laser-based ionization techniquesspectroscopic selectivity is involved into the ionization process. Nevertheless, these wavelength-dependent ionization rates impede the quantification using REMPI. For this purpose, relative photoionization cross sections (relPICS) give an easy-to-use approach to quantify REMPI-MS measurements. Hereby, the ionization behavior of a single compound was compared to that of a reference substance of a given concentration. In this study, relPICS of selected single-core aromatics and PAHs at wavelengths of 266 nm and 248 nm were determined using two different time-of-flight mass spectrometric systems (TOFMS). For PAHs, relPICS were obtained which showed a strong dependence on the applied laser intensity. In contrast, for single-core aromatics, constant values of relPICS were determined. Deviations of relPICS between both TOFMS systems were found for small aromatics (e.g., benzene), which can be assigned to the differences in UV generation in the particular system. However, the relPICS of this study were found to be in good agreement with previous results and can be used for system-independent quantification. AU - Gehm, C.* AU - Streibel, T. AU - Passig, J. AU - Zimmermann, R. C1 - 54330 C2 - 45490 CY - St Alban-anlage 66, Ch-4052 Basel, Switzerland TI - Determination of relative ionization cross sections for resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. JO - Appl. Sci. VL - 8 IS - 9 PB - Mdpi PY - 2018 SN - 2076-3417 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Fast and reliable information is crucial for first responders to draw correct conclusions at crime scenes. An ambient pressure laser desorption (APLD) mass spectrometer is introduced for this scenario, which enables detecting substances on surfaces without sample pretreatment. It is especially useful for substances with low vapor pressure and thermolabile ones. The APLD allows for the separation of desorption and ionization into two steps and, therefore, both can be optimized separately. Within this work, an improved version of the developed system is shown that achieves limits of detection (LOD) down to 500 pg while remaining fast and flexible. Furthermore, realistic scenarios are applied to prove the usability of this system in real-world issues. For this purpose, post-blast residues of a bomb from the Second World War were analyzed, and the presence of PETN was proven without sample pretreatment. In addition, the analyzable substance range could be expanded by various drugs and drug precursors. Thus, the presented instrumentation can be utilized for an increased number of forensically important compound classes without changing the setup. Drug precursors revealed a LOD ranging from 6 to 100 ng. Drugs such as cocaine hydrochloride, heroin, (3,4-methylendioxy-methamphetamine) hydrochloride (MDMA) hydrochloride, and others exhibit a LOD between 10 to 200 ng. AU - Reiss, R.* AU - Ehlert, S.* AU - Heide, J.* AU - Pütz, M.* AU - Förster, T.* AU - Zimmermann, R. C1 - 53835 C2 - 45071 CY - St Alban-anlage 66, Ch-4052 Basel, Switzerland TI - Ambient pressure laser desorption-chemical ionization mass spectrometry for fast and reliable detection of explosives, drugs, and their precursors. JO - Appl. Sci. VL - 8 IS - 6 PB - Mdpi PY - 2018 SN - 2076-3417 ER -