Thermopower and conductivity of aerosol deposited BaFe1-xTaxO3-δ films

The thermopower, also known as Seebeck coefficient, is an important parameter to determine constants for defect chemical models of semiconductor materials since it is a measure for the charge carrier concentration. The Seebeck coefficient does not depend on the geometry of the material, like the often investigated conductivity. BaFe0.7Ta0.3O3-δ is known as a temperature independent conductometric oxygen sensor material with perovskite crystal structure. The present work considers the thermopower as well as the electrical conductivity of BaFe1-xTaxO3-δ for x in the range of 0.1 to 0.45 (BFTx). Seebeck coefficient and conductivity were measured simultaneously between 400 and 850°C under varying oxygen partial pressures from 10-2 to 1 bar. BFTx fine powders have been prepared by conventional mixed-oxide route and were calcined at 1350°C. Crystal structure and phase purity were investigated by X-ray diffraction. BFTx thick-films have been successfully deposited by the novel Aerosol Deposition Method (ADM) at room temperature on a special transducer. This well designed transducer includes four platinum electrodes and two gold-platinum thermocouples. Both, thermopower and electrical conductivity, of samples with tantalum contents between x=0.2-0.3 show almost no temperature dependency but depend strongly on the oxygen partial pressure in the temperature range from 700 to 850°C. Results are shown for sample BFT20 in figure 1 and figure 2. All samples have a positive Seebeck coefficient and no n-p-type transition was observed in the investigated oxygen partial pressure range. In contrast to the electrical conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient of all samples decreases with increasing oxygen partial pressure. An initial defect chemical model of BFTx will be presented in this study as well. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

The Case of Smart City Istanbul: How to Evaluate the City Region and its Benchmarks with Participatory and Negotiation Processes?

Since the 1990s, the Greater Municipality of Istanbul has been investing in intelligent, digital services and supporting infrastructures, while at the same time Istanbul has started to become an important centre for ICT technologies. Recently, the efforts of the municipality and the private stakeholders are significantly up-scaled as the city has become an important international business, transportation and digital hub. One of the most recent efforts to tackle the city’s management challenges is the “Smart City Istanbul Program” which covers a range of activities from developing a Smart City benchmark model to the assessment of the metropolitan city with a specific Maturity Model. The Greater Municipality has recently developed an assessment and monitoring model for Istanbul’s development as an international financial sector. The development of other models focusing on particular issues is also on the agenda. In a way, the municipality is trying to establish an information-rich intelligence base that focuses on strategic priority areas. These efforts may contribute to the adaptation of the global and national metropolitan agenda that pushes metropolitan governments to establish evidence-based policies and integrated management supported by indicator systems that allow benchmarking city-regions. The development of such intelligence capabilities poses significant challenges. Meticulous encouragement of participatory processes by the Greater Municipality of Istanbul itself within its own activities should facilitate the diffusion of its emerging knowledge assets to other stakeholders, thereby creating a dynamic and complex environment of urban intelligence building. Enhancing the quality of participatory processes is thus very important. The paper provides information on the participatory methodological approach used in the establishment of the Smart City Assessment and Monitoring Model, developed by the authors in collaboration with the Greater Municipality of Istanbul and its affiliate ISBAK. It also discusses the benefits and challenges associated with the Smart City Assessment Models based on a rich literature survey. The approach employed is particularly aimed at avoiding empty signifier problems, feeding participatory processes with rich information, establishing trust among stakeholders, avoiding fuzziness and indecisiveness, and enabling the production of a small set of mutually agreed and selected benchmark indicators which can later successfully inform maturity models. Lessons learned are: the involvement of specialised practitioners in the Smart City domain in disseminating local information into the process; the use of a layered participatory process to enable evaluation and agreement on a large set of indicators in a relatively short time; and the co-presence of these two processes to help avoid empty signifier problems. The paper suggests that it is possible to tackle the unique challenges associated with Smart City development activities. Enabling repetitive benchmarking processes makes itpossible to challenge rapid technological change and achieve convergence. Layered participatory processes work better when practitioner teams also see potentials in collaboration. Also third, feedback mechanisms should be provided at different layers of participatory processes as they enhance decision-making processes

Powder pre-treatment for aerosol deposition of tin dioxide coatings for gas sensors

The Aerosol Deposition (AD) method has the unique property to allow for manufacturing dense ceramic films at room temperature. As found in many publications, the deposition process is very sensitive to powder properties. In particular, powders of nano-sized particles and grains, e.g., from precipitation, are usually beyond the conventional size range of AD processability, yielding chalk-like films of low mechanical stability. Thus, the conventional AD process is limited in applicability. In this study, we try to overcome this problem by adapting the standard milling treatment of powders for improved deposition by additional temperature pre-treatment. Using commercial tin dioxide and including a temperature treatment for grain growth, makes the powder accessible to deposition. In this way, we achieve optically translucent and conductive SnO2 thick films. With the application such as a gas sensitive film as one of many possible applications for SnO2 thick-films, the sensors show excellent response to various reducing gases. This study shows one exemplary way of extending the range of adequate powder and applications for the AD method

Gender differences in clinical characteristics and in-hospital and one-year outcomes of young patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction under the age of 40

Introduction: Although the incidence of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in the elderly population has decreased in recent years, this is not the case for young people. At the same time, no reduction in hospitalization rate after STEMI was shown in young people. Clinical characteristics, risk factors, angiographic findings, in-hospital and one-year outcomes of patients under the age of 40 and their gender differences were investigated. Methods: This study has been performed retrospectively in two centers. Between January 2015 and April 2019, 212 patients aged 18-40 years with STEMI and who underwent reperfusion therapy were included. The gender differences were compared. Results: The median age of (male 176; 83.0% and female 36; 17.0%) patients included in the study was 36 (33-38) for men and 36 (34-38) for women. Chest pain was the most common complaint for both genders (96.0% vs. 94.4%; P = 0.651). While men presented more often with Killip class 1,women presented more often with Killip class 2. The anterior myocardial infarction (MI) was the most common MI type and it was higher in women than in man (P = 0.027). At one year of follow-up, the prevalence of all-cause hospitalization was 24%, MI 3.8%, coronary angiography 15.1%, cardiovascular death 1.4%, and all-cause death 0.47%, there was no gender difference. Conclusion: Anterior MI was the most common type of MI and it was more common in women than in men. Left anterior descending artery was the most common involved coronary artery. The most common risk factor is smoking. In terms of in-hospital outcome, left ventricular ejection fraction was significantly lower in women. There was no significant difference in one-year outcomes between both genders

Effect of Coenzyme Q10 on ischemia and neuronal damage in an experimental traumatic brain-injury model in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Head trauma is one of the most important clinical issues that not only can be fatal and disabling, requiring long-term treatment and care, but also can cause heavy financial burden. Formation or distribution of free oxygen radicals should be decreased to enable fixing of poor neurological outcomes and to prevent neuronal damage secondary to ischemia after trauma. Coenzyme Q₁₀(CoQ₁₀), a component of the mitochondrial electron transport chain, is a strong antioxidant that plays a role in membrane stabilization. In this study, the role of CoQ₁₀in the treatment of head trauma is researched by analyzing the histopathological and biochemical effects of CoQ₁₀administered after experimental traumatic brain injury in rats. A traumatic brain-injury model was created in all rats. Trauma was inflicted on rats by the free fall of an object of 450 g weight from a height of 70 cm on the frontoparietal midline onto a metal disc fixed between the coronal and the lambdoid sutures after a midline incision was carried out.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the biochemical tests, tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were significantly higher in the traumatic brain-injury group compared to the sham group (<it>p </it>< 0.05). Administration of CoQ₁₀after trauma was shown to be protective because it significantly lowered the increased MDA levels (<it>p </it>< 0.05). Comparing the superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels of the four groups, trauma + CoQ₁₀group had SOD levels ranging between those of sham group and traumatic brain-injury group, and no statistically significant increase was detected. Histopathological results showed a statistically significant difference between the CoQ₁₀and the other trauma-subjected groups with reference to vascular congestion, neuronal loss, nuclear pyknosis, nuclear hyperchromasia, cytoplasmic eosinophilia, and axonal edema (<it>p </it>< 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Neuronal degenerative findings and the secondary brain damage and ischemia caused by oxidative stress are decreased by CoQ₁₀use in rats with traumatic brain injury.</p

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Frequency of coronary artery anomalies and relationship between coronary artery with anomalous origin and myocardial bridge

The association between coronary artery with anomalous origin and myocardial bridge is not investigated well yet. We aimed to investigate the incidence of coronary artery anomalies and the relationship between coronary artery with anomalous origin and the presence of myocardial bridge. The coronary angiography records of 6100 patients who undergone coronary angiography in Eskisehir Osmangazi University school of medicine hospital between 2008 and 2010 were retrospectively assessed. The Angelini classification system was used to classify the coronary artery anomalies. Coronary arteries were classified in three classes: (i) Coronary artery with anomalous origin, (ii) abnormal course (myocardial bridge) and; (iii) termination (fistula). Myocardial bridge is a type of coronary anomaly and is defined as the case where a segment of the epicardial coronary artery is covered by myocardium. The incidence of coronary artery anomalies was 3.1%. Coronary artery with anomalous origin was 1.5%, myocardial bridge was 1.4% and fistula was 0.3%. The frequency of coronary artery anomalies was significantly higher in males (66.7%) than in females (33.3%). Among the coronary arteries with anomalous origin, the circumflex and left descending artery originating from separate ostia in the left aortic sinus was the most common anomaly. Myocardial bridge was significantly higher in males (81.9%) than in females (18.07%). Among the coronary artery with anomalous origin, originating of right coronary artery from left sinus of valsalva was significantly higher with the presence of myocardial bridge (p [Med-Science 2020; 9(3.000): 595-599