Search

Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) is a rare new syndrome occurring after the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine immunization. Patients with VITT are characterized by a variable clinical presentation, likewise also the outcome of these patients is very variable. Here we report the lung ultrastructural findings in the course of VITT of a 58-year-old male patient. Alveoli were mainly dilated, irregular in shape, and occupied by a reticular network of fibrin, while interalveolar septa appeared thickened. The proliferation of small capillaries gave rise to plexiform structures and pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis-like features. Near the alveoli occupied by a dense fibrin network, the medium-sized arteries showed a modified wall and an intraluminal thrombus. This scenario looks quite similar to that found during COVID-19, where the lungs suffer from the attack of the antigen-antibodies complexes and the virus respectively. In both diseases, the final outcome is a severe inflammation, activation of the haemostatic system and fibrinolysis.

The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) showed similar characteristics with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). In the most compromised cases, COVID-19 infection leads to death due to severe respiratory complications. COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the primary cause of death in these patients. In the present study, we show an ultrastructural analysis on the lungs of a patient affected by COVID-19.Lung specimens obtained at autopsy from a 63-years old patient affected by COVID-19 were fixed in 1% paraformaldehyde. Slices of 300 µm thickness were dehydrated and dried by Critical Point Drying in CO2. Slices were covered with a conductive gold film approximately 30 nm thick and observed at a Zeiss Sigma 300 SEM FEG in the secondary electron (SE) and backscattered electron (BSE) modes. As case control a lung biopsy from a 60-year-old man was considered.At low power in all COVID-19 lung specimens severe changes in the pulmonary architecture were found, due to the collapse of air spaces. Moreover, alveolar cavities were covered by large membranes. At high power, alveolar membranes showed a fibrillar structure, suggestive of a loose network of fibrin. It has been also found that intra-alveolar red blood cells were frequently present in the alveolar spaces, surrounded by a reticular fibrin network, suggestive for fibrin-hemorrhagic alveolitis. Alveolar changes were constantly associated with pathological features related to the pulmonary vessels. Vascular changes were prominent, including endothelial damage and thrombosis of large pulmonary vessels. Fibrinous microthrombi were frequently detected in the inter-alveolar septal capillaries. In addition, it has been frequently detected capillary proliferation in the alveolar septa with finding suggestive for intussusceptive neo-angiogenesis.In conclusion, our electron microscopy analysis showed that COVID-19-related lung disease is characterized by a substantial architectural distortion, with the interactions between alveolar and vascular changes. Intra-alveolar hyaline membranes are associated with macro- and micro-thrombotic angiopathy, ending with capillary proliferation. The new blood vessel formation originates from the septa and extends into the surrounding parenchyma. Our findings confirm previous reports on the specificity of the multiple and complex morphological pattern typical, and apparently specific, of COVID-19-related lung disease.

Liver injury has been reported in patients with COVID-19. This condition is characterized by severe outcome and could be related with the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to activate cytotoxic T cells. The purpose of this study is to show the histological and scanning electron microscopy features of liver involvement in COVID-19 to characterize the liver changes caused by the activation of multiple molecular pathways following this infection.Liver biopsies from 4 patients (3 post-mortems and 1 in vivo) with COVID-19 were analyzed with histology and by scanning electron microscopy.The liver changes showed significant heterogeneity. The first case showed ground glass hepatocytes and scattered fibrin aggregates in the sinusoidal lumen. The second evidenced intra-sinusoidal thrombi. The third was characterized by sinusoidal dilatation, atrophy of hepatocytes, Disse's spaces dilatation and intra-sinusoidal aggregates of fibrin and red blood cells. The fourth case exhibited diffuse fibrin aggregates in the dilated Disse spaces and microthrombi in the sinusoidal lumen.In COVID-19-related liver injury, a large spectrum of pathological changes was observed. The most peculiar features were very mild inflammation, intra-sinusoidal changes, including sinusoidal dilatation, thrombotic sinusoiditis and diffuse intra-sinusoidal fibrin deposition. These findings suggested that a thrombotic sinusoiditis followed by a local diffuse intra-vascular (intra-sinusoidal) coagulation could be the typical features of the SARS-CoV-2-related liver injury.

International audience; The nuclear polarization of noble gases, such as xenon, can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude through optical pumping, giving rise to very sensitive NMR probes. Moreover, due to its large and deformable electron cloud, xenon exhibits wide chemical shift range (more than 320 ppm for the monoatomic species) and is soluble in most biological fluids. It can be reversibly encapsulated in molecular host systems such as cage-molecules, decorated with ligands in order to target given receptors, and gives rise to sensitive detection of biological events. This two-step procedure, where the xenon host is first introduced and hyperpolarized xenon then delivered, benefits from the difference in resonance frequency between bound xenon and free xenon (in the gas phase or in the dissolved phase) [1]. This work has recently been published in Magnetic Resonance [2].

Vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia (VITT) is a new syndrome occurring primarily in healthy young adults, with a female predominance, after receiving the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine. We describe VITT syndrome characterized by severe thrombosis and thrombocytopenia found in our patient, with fatal outcome.A 58-year-old man, after 13 days from the first administration of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AstraZeneca), presented with abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomitus. Laboratory tests revealed a severe thrombocytopenia, low fibrinogen serum levels and marked increase of D-dimer serum levels. The patient quickly developed a multiple organ failure, till death, three days after the hospital admission.At histology, in the lungs, interalveolar septa appeared thickened with microthrombi in the capillaries and veins. Interalveolar septa appeared thickened and showed vascular proliferation. Thrombi were detected in the capillaries of glomerular tufts. In the hearth, thrombi were observed in veins and capillaries. In the liver, voluminous fibrin thrombi were diffusely observed in the branches of the portal vein. Microthrombi were also found in the vasa vasorum of the wall of abdominal aorta. In the brain, microthrombi were observed in the capillaries of the choroid plexuses. Diffuse hemorrhagic necrosis was observed in the intestinal wall with marked congestion of the venous vessels.In our patient, the majority of data necessary for a VITT final diagnosis were present: thrombocytopenia and thrombosis in pulmonary, portal, hepatic, renal and mesenteric veins, associated with a marked increase of D-dimer serum levels. The finding of cerebral thrombosis in choroid plexuses, is a new finding in VITT. These features are suggestive for a very aggressive form of VITT.

A case report suspicious for a Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is here described. Pathological findings were consistent with an acute respiratory failure while toxicological analysis revealed an elevated blood methadone concentration. Death was then ascribed to an acute methadone intoxication. In addition to the routinary approach, the urinary sample collected at autopsy was investigated with a 1H NMR metabolomic approach and the identified metabolomic profile was challenged with the urinary metabolomic profiles previously obtained from 10 newborns who experienced perinatal asphyxia and 16 healthy control newborns. Intriguingly, the urinary profile of the methadone intoxicated infant was very similar to those belonging to the perinatal asphyxia newborns, especially to those belonging to the newborns characterised by the worst outcome. The results offer several hints on a shared metabolic derangement between different mechanisms of asphyxia/hypoxia. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of the use of a metabolomic approach in a pathological case, in which metabolomics offers useful additional information regarding the mechanism and the cause of death.

Background: several blood-based biomarkers have been proposed for predicting vancomycin-associated kidney injury (VIKI). However, no systematic analysis has compared their prognostic value. Objective: this systematic review and meta-analysis was designed to investigate the role of blood biomarkers and metabolomic profiling as diagnostic and prognostic predictors in pre-clinical studies of VIKI. Methods: a systematic search of PubMed was conducted for relevant articles from January 2000 to May 2022. Animal studies that administered vancomycin and studied VIKI were eligible for inclusion. Clinical studies, reviews, and non-English literature were excluded. The primary outcome was to investigate the relationship between the extent of VIKI as measured by blood biomarkers and metabolomic profiling. Risk of bias was assessed with the CAMARADES checklist the SYRCLE’s risk of bias tool. Standard meta-analysis methods (random-effects models) were used. Results: there were four studies for the same species, dosage, duration of vancomycin administration and measurement only for serum creatine and blood urea nitrogen in rats. A statistically significant increase was observed between serum creatinine in the vancomycin group compared to controls (pooled p = 0.037; Standardized Mean Difference: 2.93; 95% CI: 0.17 to 5.69; I2 = 92.11%). Serum BUN levels were not significantly different between control and vancomycin groups (pooled p = 0.11; SMD: 3.05; 95% CI: 0.69 to 6.8; I2 = 94.84%). We did not identify experimental studies using metabolomic analyses in animals with VIKI. Conclusions: a total of four studies in rodents only described outcomes of kidney injury as defined by blood biomarkers. Blood biomarkers represented included serum creatinine and BUN. Novel blood biomarkers have not been explored.

Polymyxin B treatment is limited by kidney injury. This study sought to identify Polymyxin B-related urinary metabolomic profile modifications for early detection of polymyxin-associated nephrotoxicity.Samples were obtained from a previously conducted study. Male Sprague-Dawley rats received dose-fractionated polymyxin B (12 mg/kg/day) once daily (QD), twice daily (BID), and thrice daily (TID) for three days, with urinary biomarkers and kidney histopathology scores determined. Daily urine was analysed for metabolites via 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Principal components analyses identified spectral data trends with orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis applied to classify metabolic differences. Metabolomes were compared across groups (i.e., those receiving QD, BID, TID, and control) using a mixed-effects models. Spearman correlation was performed for injury biomarkers and the metabolome.A total of 25 rats were treated with Polymyxin B, and n = 2 received saline, contributing 77 urinary samples. Pre-dosing samples clustered well, characterised by higher amounts of citrate, 2-oxoglutarate, and hippurate. Day 1 samples showed higher taurine; day 3 samples had higher lactate, acetate and creatine. Taurine was the only metabolite that significantly increased in both BID and TID compared with the QD group. Day 1 taurine correlated with increasing histopathology scores (rho = 0.4167, P = 0.038) and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) (rho = 0.4052, P = 0.036), whereas KIM-1 on day 1 and day 3 did not reach significance with histopathology (rho = 0.3248, P = 0.11 and rho = 0.3739, P = 0.066).Polymyxin B causes increased amounts of urinary taurine on day 1, which then normalizes to baseline concentrations. Taurine may provide one of the earlier signals of acute kidney damage caused by polymyxin B.

BackgroundPolymyxin B remains an important antimicrobial against multi-drug resistant bacteria; however, kidney injury is often a treatment limiting event with kidney failure rates that range from 5-13%.MethodsSamples were obtained from a previously conducted study of male Sprague-Dawley rats that received dose fractionated polymyxin B (12 mg/kg/day subcutaneously) once daily (QD), twice daily (BID), and thrice daily (TID) for three days. In the original study, urinary biomarkers and kidney histopathology scores were determined. Urine was sampled daily and analyzed for urinary metabolites via 1H NMR analysis.Unsupervised Principal Components Analysis was applied for exploratory data analysis to identify trends and outliers in the spectral data. Then, supervised Orthogonal Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis was applied to classify the samples collected in different days and identify metabolic differences during the treatment. Metabolomes were compared across study groups (i.e. those receiving QD, BID, TID, and control) using a mixed-effects models. Spearman correlation was performed for injury biomarkers and the metabolome.ResultsA total of 27 rats contributed 77 urinary samples; n=25 rats were included that were treated with Polymyxin B and n=2 received saline. Pre-dosing samples clustered well and were characterized by higher amounts of citrate, 2-oxoglutarate, and Hippurate. On day 1 post treatment, day 1 samples showed higher taurine; day 3 samples had higher lactate, acetate and creatine. Taurine was the only metabolite significantly increased in both BID and TID compared to QD group. Taurine on day 1 correlated with increasing histopathology scores (Spearman’s rho = 0.4167, P=0.038) and KIM-1 (Spearman’s rho =0.4052, P=0.036); whereas KIM-1 on day one and day 3 did not reach significance with histopathology (Spearman’s rho = 0.3248, P=0.11 and Spearman’s rho = 0.3739, P=0.066).ConclusionPolymyxin B causes increased amounts of urinary taurine on day 1 which then normalizes to baseline concentrations. Taurine may provide one of the earlier signals of acute kidney damage caused by polymyxin B.

International audience; The availability of a benchtop NMR spectrometer, of low cost and easily transportable, can allow detection of low quantities of biosensors, provided that hyperpolarized species are used. Here we show that the micromolar threshold can easily be reached, by employing laser-polarized xenon and cage-molecules reversibly hosting it. Indirect detection of caged xenon is made via chemical exchange, using ultrafast Z-spectroscopy based on spatio-temporal encoding. On this non-dedicated low-field spectrometer, several ideas are proposed to improve the signal.

The availability of a benchtop NMR spectrometer, of low cost and easily transportable, can allow detection of low quantities of biosensors, provided that hyperpolarized species are used. Here we show that the micromolar threshold can easily be reached, by employing laser-polarized xenon and cage-molecules reversibly hosting it. Indirect detection of caged xenon is made via chemical exchange, using ultrafast Z-spectroscopy based on spatio-temporal encoding. On this non-dedicated low-field spectrometer, several ideas are proposed to improve the signal.

International audience; The availability of a benchtop NMR spectrometer, of low cost and easily transportable, can allow detection of low quantities of biosensors, provided that hyperpolarized species are used. Here we show that the micromolar threshold can easily be reached, by employing laser-polarized xenon and cage-molecules reversibly hosting it. Indirect detection of caged xenon is made via chemical exchange, using ultrafast Z-spectroscopy based on spatio-temporal encoding. On this non-dedicated low-field spectrometer, several ideas are proposed to improve the signal.

Estimation of the post-mortem interval (PMI) remains a matter of concern in the forensic scenario. Traditional and novel approaches are not yet able to fully address this issue, which relies on complex biological phenomena triggered by death. For this purpose, eye compartments may be chosen for experimental studies because they are more resistant to post-mortem modifications. Vitreous humour, in particular, has been extensively investigated, with potassium concentration ([K+]) being the marker that is better correlated with PMI estimation. Recently, a 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomic approach based on aqueous humour (AH) from an animal model was proposed for PMI estimation, resulting in a robust and validated regression model. Here we studied the variation in [K+] in the same experimental setup. [K+] was determined through capillary ion analysis (CIA) and a regression analysis was performed. Moreover, it was investigated whether the PMI information related to potassium could improve the metabolome predictive power in estimating the PMI. Interestingly, we found that a part of the metabolomic profile is able to explain most of the information carried by potassium, suggesting that the rise in both potassium and metabolite concentrations relies on a similar biological mechanism. In the first 24-h PMI window, the AH metabolomic profile shows greater predictive power than [K+] behaviour, suggesting its potential use as an additional tool for estimating the time since death.

A growing body of evidence suggests that the post-mortem interval exerts a strong effect on the metabolome, independently of the biological matrix or the cause of death. A sound and shared approach in standardization is mandatory.

Brain damage related to perinatal asphyxia is the second cause of neuro-disability worldwide. Its incidence was estimated in 2010 as 8.5 cases per 1000 live births worldwide, with no further recent improvement even in more industrialized countries. If so, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is still an issue of global health concern. It is thought that a consistent number of cases may be avoided, and its sequelae may be preventable by a prompt and efficient physical and therapeutic treatment. The lack of early, reliable, and specific biomarkers has up to now hampered a more effective use of hypothermia, which represents the only validated therapy for this condition. The urge to unravel the biological modifications underlying perinatal asphyxia and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy needs new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Metabolomics for its own features is a powerful approach that may help for the identification of specific metabolic profiles related to the pathological mechanism and foreseeable outcome. The metabolomic profiles of animal and human infants exposed to perinatal asphyxia or developing hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy have so far been investigated by means of 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry coupled with gas or liquid chromatography, leading to the identification of promising metabolomic signatures. In this work, an extensive review of the relevant literature was performed.

The fiber-laser imaging of gas turbine exhaust species project aims to provide a video-rate imaging (100 frames/s) diagnostic tool for application to the exhaust plumes of the largest civil aero-jet engines. This remit, enabled by chemical species tomography (CST) currently targeting carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), requires system design that facilitates expansion of multiple parameters. Scalability is needed in order to increase imaging speeds and spatial resolutions and extends the system toward other pertinent gases such as the oxides of nitrogen and sulfur and unburnt hydrocarbons. This paper presents a fully scalable, noninvasive instrument for installation in a commercial engine testing facility, technical challenges having been tackled iteratively through bespoke optical and mechanical design, and it specifically presents the high-speed data acquisition (DAQ) system required. Measurement of gas species concentration is implemented by tunable diode laser absorption with wavelength modulation spectroscopy (TDLAS-WMS) using a custom, high-speed 10-40-MS/s/channel 14-bit DAQ. For CO 2 tomography, the system uses six angular projections of 21 beams each. However, the presented DAQ has capacity for 192 fully parallel 10-Hz-3-MHz differential inputs, achieving a best-case signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 56.5 dB prior to filtering. A 12 Ethernet-connected digitization nodes based on field-programmable gate array technology with software control are distributed around a 7-m-diameter mounting “ring.” Hence, the high data rates of 8.96-Gb/s per printed circuit board and 107.52 Gb/s for the whole system can be reduced by using local digital lock-in amplifiers. We believe that this DAQ system is unique in both the TDLAS and CST literatures.

The estimation of the time since death, or post-mortem interval (PMI), still remains a main conundrum in forensic science. Several approaches have been so far proposed from either a qualitative or a quantitative point of view, but they still lack reliability and robustness. Recently, metabolomics has shown to be a potential tool to investigate the time-related post-mortem metabolite modifications in animal models. Here we propose, for the first time, the use of a 1H NMR metabolomic approach for the estimation of PMI from aqueous humour (AH) in an ovine model. AH samples were collected at different times after death (from 118 to 1429 min). 1H NMR experiments were performed and spectral data analysed by multivariate statistical tools. A multivariate calibration model was built to estimate PMI on the basis of the metabolite content of the samples. The model was validated with an independent test set, obtaining a prediction error of 59 min for PMI 1000 min. Moreover, the metabolomic approach suggested a picture of the mechanisms underlying the post-mortem biological modifications, highlighting the role played by taurine, choline, and succinate. The time-related modifications of the 1H NMR AH metabolomic profile seem to be encouraging in addressing the issue of a reproducible and robust model to be employed for the estimation of the time since death.

The estimation of the time since death, or post-mortem interval (PMI), still remains a main conundrum in forensic science. Several approaches have been so far proposed from either a qualitative or a quantitative point of view, but they still lack reliability and robustness. Recently, metabolomics has shown to be a potential tool to investigate the time-related post-mortem metabolite modifications in animal models.Here we propose, for the first time, the use of aAH samples were collected at different times after death (from 118 to 1429 min).A multivariate calibration model was built to estimate PMI on the basis of the metabolite content of the samples. The model was validated with an independent test set, obtaining a prediction error of 59 min for PMI 500 min, 104 min for PMI from 500 to 1000 min, and 118 min for PMI 1000 min. Moreover, the metabolomic approach suggested a picture of the mechanisms underlying the post-mortem biological modifications, highlighting the role played by taurine, choline, and succinate.The time-related modifications of the

Recently, Baggish et al1 published a call for a paradigm shift in decision making, dealing with a troublesome issue: competitive sport participation among athletes with heart disease. Several arguments in favor of a progressive introduction of a shared decision-making approach, even in this field of medicine, seem to be robust and they move on a well-defined path walked down by physicians in their everyday medical activities. The long way from the paternalism to autonomy (of both patient and physician) has reached a point of no return: no medical activity may, nowadays, be performed on a patient without exhaustive information and a valid …

We present ongoing work towards a 6-projection 126-beam tool for temporal and spatial diagnostic imaging of jet-engine exhaust plume gas species. At present, the optics of the system are customized for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), however the design is intended to be scalable to other pollutant and green-house gases produced by such engines. For measurement of per-beam path concentration integrals (PCIs) of a gas species, tunable diode absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) and wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) are used. These techniques have been demonstrated, however this paper reports progress on the significant embedded, highly-distributed data acquisition (DAQ) systems that are integral to the instrument. Much of the mechanics and optics are finalized, tested and published, however we will briefly discuss these. The DAQ is parallel due to the high gas-speeds (100–200 m/s), and hierarchical to allow a multi-node system capable of both in-situ signal processing and scalability to higher numbers of projection angles, beams and exhaust gasses. We briefly describe the hardware and gate-level firmware, highlighting that TDLAS/WMS signals are demodulated using dual-harmonic digital lock-in amplifiers (DLIAs) implemented per-channel. Each distributed node can digitize up to sixteen analog channels at 10 to 40 MS/s (14-bit) with an analog bandwidth of 10 Hz to 3 MHz, which is tailored for TDLAS. The digital system, which uses regular interrupts to obtain and transmit data, is suitable for 20 frame/sec tomography, although the spectroscopy and image reconstruction is necessarily off-line. This work demonstrates progress towards a scalable multi-channel DAQ suitable for the harsh environment within jet-engine testing facilities.

We consider the inverse problem of concentration imaging in optical absorption tomography with limited data sets. The measurement setup involves simultaneous acquisition of near-infrared wavelength-modulated spectroscopic measurements from a small number of pencil beams equally distributed among six projection angles surrounding the plume. We develop an approach for image reconstruction that involves constraining the value of the image to the conventional concentration bounds and a projection into low-dimensional subspaces to reduce the degrees of freedom in the inverse problem. Effectively, by reparameterizing the forward model, we impose, simultaneously, spatial smoothness and a choice among three types of inequality constraints, namely, positivity, boundedness, and logarithmic boundedness in a simple way that yields an unconstrained optimization problem in a new set of surrogate parameters. Testing this numerical scheme with simulated and experimental phantom data indicates that the combination of affine inequality constraints and subspace projection leads to images that are qualitatively and quantitatively superior to unconstrained regularized reconstructions. This improvement is more profound in targeting concentration profiles of small spatial variation. We present images and convergence graphs from solving these inverse problems using Gauss-Newton's algorithm to demonstrate the performance and convergence of our method.

Standard Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) techniques are widely used in the design of hydraulic valves for optimising the valve performance and reducing the production effort. They calculate the turbulent flow and predict cavitation. Unfortunately, the currently used models are often inadequate and out of date to catch the complexity of these phenomena such as the transient interaction between cavitation and turbulence. Advanced computational methods have been developed and applied to other engineering branches. Despite this fact, they face many difficulties to be employed in hydraulics. In this paper, a first step is taken towards the usage of these cutting edge CFD methods for hydraulic valves. At first, the different challenges for a CFD code to simulate valve flows are highlighted. A novel computational approach is then presented. It combines a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model for the turbulence modelling as well as a Full Cavitation Model (FCM). The LES technique explicitly resolves the large turbulence scales while the smaller ones are modelled. The FCM not only predicts vapour but also gas cavitation, which plays a vital role in hydraulic fluids. This method is tested to simulate the flow in a pilot stage of a jet-pipe servo-valve. The test case is presented and the different boundary conditions used for the simulations are given. The results of the simulation are compared with experimental results showing a good agreement. A comparison between the LES model and the standard two-equation turbulence model shows the advantages of the LES approach. Finally, the transient features of the flow are highlighted in terms of velocity oscillation.

To investigate novel engine and fuel designs for greener aviation, instrumentation is required that can spatially and temporally resolve gas concentrations within aero-engine exhausts. This paper presents work towards a parallel, high-speed, distributed data acquisition (DAQ) system that employs in-situ demodulation of tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) signals. We briefly describe how this sits within a wider tomographic instrument, the electrical system of this scalable design and preliminary characterization. Being remote from the end-user (approx. 60m) and deployed within an industrial environment, we have used a hierarchical, embedded strategy. This uses photodiode pre-amplification, filtering, digitization, signal demodulation, Ethernet packaging and microprocessor control implemented both on a multi-node, distributed basis and with the DAQ physically mounted on the same mechanical ‘ring’ as the tomographic imaging array. Results show agreement with design but indicate that the first-generation interrupt-based direct-memory-access (DMA) between FPGA fabric memory and microprocessor memories is the predominant bottleneck.

Functionalised silicas 2 and 3 are effective for the cation exchange SPE purification of basic molecules containing acid-sensitive functionalities, the selective separations of mixtures of basic compounds and accelerated reaction work-ups/product isolations.