Synthesis Of Carbon Nitride Films At Low Temperatures

Carbon nitride films (CN x) have been deposited by sputtering a graphite target with nitrogen ions. Films were grown both with and without the presence of an assisting focused N 2 ion beam. The sputter beam voltage was varied between 150 and 1500 V and the applied assisting beam voltage from 80 to 500 V. The substrate was held at fixed temperatures between 80 and 673 K. The coatings were characterized with respect to their electrical, optical, and structural properties. The nitrogen content was measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and a maximum nitrogen concentration of 44 at. % was obtained for a nonassisted sample deposited at 140 K. The chemical structure was investigated by XPS and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Reduction of the substrate temperature in conjunction with low sputter beam voltages (<200 V) caused the optical band gap to increase up to 2.2 eV, the sheet conductivity to decrease to less th an 10 -9 (Ω cm) -1 and the density to be reduced to 1.6 g/cm 3. The increasing transparency is accompanied by structural changes indicating a transition from a predominantly sp 2 bonded amorphous sp 2/sp 3 C-N network to a more linear polymerlike structure consisting predominantly of doubly and triply bonded C and N atoms. No evidence for the formation of the β-C 3N 4 phase was found. © 1997 American Vacuum Society.151107112Hammer, P., Gissler, W., (1996) Diam. Relat. Mater., 5, p. 1152Hammer, P., Baker, M.A., Lenardi, C., Gissler, W., Thin Solid Films, , to be publishedTodorov, S.S., Marton, D., Boyd, K.J., Al-Bayati, A.H., Rabalais, J.W., (1994) J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 12, p. 3192Liu, A.Y., Cohen, M.L., (1990) Phys. Rev. B, 41, p. 10727Baker, M.A., Hammer, P., Surf. Interface Anal., , submittedKaufman, J.H., Metin, S., Saperstein, D.D., (1989) Phys. Rev. B, 39, p. 13053Dolphin, D., Wick, A., (1977) Tabulation of Infrared Spectral Data, , Wiley, New YorkSocrates, G., (1980) Infrared Characteristic Group Frequencies, , Wiley, Chichester, U.KSjöström, H., Stafström, S., Boman, M., Sundgren, J.E., (1995) Phys. Rev. Lett., 75, p. 1336Marton, D., Al-Bayati, A.H., Todorov, S.S., Boyd, K.J., Rabalais, J.W., (1994) Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B, 90, p. 277Sjöström, H., Hultman, L., Sundgren, J.-E., Hainsworth, S.V., Page, T.F., Theunissen, G.S.A.M., (1996) J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 14, p. 56Briggs, D., Clark, D.T., Keable, H.R., Kilner, M., (1973) J. Chem. Soc. Dalton Trans., p. 2143Barber, M., Conner, J.A., Guest, M.F., Hillier, I.H., Schwartz, M., Stacey, M., (1973) J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. II, 69, p. 551Bircumshaw, L.L., Tayler, F.M., Whiffen, D.H., (1954) J. Chem. Soc., p. 93

Relationship of prenatal maternal obesity and diabetes to offspring neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders: a narrative review

Obesity and diabetes is a worldwide public health problem among women of reproductive age. This narrative review highlights recent epidemiological studies regarding associations of maternal obesity and diabetes with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in offspring, and provides an overview of plausible underlying mechanisms and challenges for future human studies. A comprehensive search strategy selected terms that corresponded to the domains of interest (maternal obesity, different types of diabetes, offspring cognitive functions and neuropsychiatric disorders). The databases searched for articles published between January 2010 and April 2019 were PubMed, Web of Science and CINAHL. Evidence from epidemiological studies strongly suggests that maternal pre-pregnancy obesity is associated with increased risks for autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and cognitive dysfunction with modest effect sizes, and that maternal diabetes is associated with the risk of the former two disorders. The influence of maternal obesity on other psychiatric disorders is less well studied, but there are reports of associations with increased risks for offspring depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and eating disorders, at modest effect sizes. It remains unclear whether these associations are due to intrauterine mechanisms or explained by confounding family-based sociodemographic, lifestyle and genetic factors. The plausible underlying mechanisms have been explored primarily in animal models, and are yet to be further investigated in human studies

Synthesis of carbon nitride films at low temperatures

Carbon nitride films (CNx) have been deposited by sputtering a graphite target with nitrogen ions. Films were grown both with and without the presence of an assisting focused N-2 ion beam. The sputter beam voltage was varied between 150 and 1500 V and the applied assisting beam voltage from 80 to 500 V. The substrate was held at fixed temperatures between 80 and 673 K. The coatings were characterized with respect to their electrical, optical; and structural properties. The nitrogen content was measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and a maximum nitrogen concentration of 44 at. % was obtained for a nonassisted sample deposited at 140 K. The chemical structure was investigated by XPS and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Reduction of the substrate temperature in conjunction with low sputter beam voltages (<200 V) caused the optical band gap to increase up to 2.2 eV, the sheet conductivity to decrease to less than 10(-9) (Omega cm)(-1) and the density to be reduced to 1.6 g/cm(3). The increasing transparency is accompanied by structural changes indicating a transition from a predominantly sp(2) bonded amorphous sp(2)/sp(3) C-N network to a more linear polymerlike structure consisting predominantly of doubly and triply bonded C and N atoms. No evidence for the formation of the beta-C3N4 phase was found

Child deaths due to injury in the four UK countries: a time trends study from 1980 to 2010

Injuries are an increasingly important cause of death in children worldwide, yet injury mortality is highly preventable. Determining patterns and trends in child injury mortality can identify groups at particularly high risk. We compare trends in child deaths due to injury in four UK countries, between 1980 and 2010

Up to seven-fold inter-hospital differences in obstetric anal sphincter injury rates- A birth register-based study in Finland

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The occurrence of obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIS) - which may have serious, long-term effects on affected women, including faecal incontinence, despite primary repair - varies widely between countries and have been chosen one of the indicators for patient safety in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and in Nordic countries.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The aim of the study was to assess risks of OASIS among five university teaching hospitals and 14 non-university central hospitals with more than 1,000 deliveries annually during 1997-2007 in Finland. Women with singleton vaginal deliveries divided into two populations consisting of all 168,637 women from five university hospitals and all 255,660 women from non-university hospitals, respectively, derived from population-based register. Primiparous and multiparous women with OASIS (n = 2,448) were compared in terms of possible risk factors to primiparous and multiparous women without OASIS, respectively, using stepwise logistic regression analysis. The occurrences of OASIS varied from 0.7% to 2.1% in primiparous and from 0.1% to 0.3% in multiparous women among the university hospitals. Three-fold inter-hospital differences in OASIS rates did not significantly change after adjustment for patient mix or the use of interventions. In non-university hospitals OASIS rates varied from 0.2% to 1.4% in primiparous and from 0.02% to 0.4% in multiparous women, and the results remained virtually unchanged after adjustment for known risks.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Up to 3.2-fold inter-hospital differences in OASIS risk demonstrates significant differences in the quality of Finnish obstetric care.</p

Puberty disorders among ART-conceived singletons : a Nordic register study from the CoNARTaS group

STUDY QUESTION Do ART-conceived children have an increased risk for puberty disorders? SUMMARY ANSWER Both ART-conceived boys and girls had a higher risk of puberty disorders; early puberty was more common among girls and late puberty among boys. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Some physiological differences in growth and metabolism have been reported for ART-conceived children compared to non-ART-conceived children. Knowledge on pubertal development and disorders in ART-conceived children is limited. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION A register-based cohort study was carried out including data from 1985 to 2015. The Committee of Nordic Assisted Reproductive Technology and Safety (CoNARTaS) study population consists of all live and stillborn children, as well as their mothers, registered in the Medical Birth Registers during the study period in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS A total of 122 321 ART-conceived singletons and 6 576 410 non-ART singletons born in Denmark (1994-2014), Finland (1990-2014), Norway (2002-2015) and Sweden (1985-2015) were included. Puberty disorders were defined using International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD)-9/ICD-10 codes and classified in the following groups: late puberty (6268/E30.0), early puberty (2591 and 2958/E30.1 and E30.8) and unspecified disorders (V212 and V579/E30.9 and Z00.3 as well as Z51.80 for Finland). The results in Cox regression were adjusted for maternal age, parity, smoking, gestational diabetes, chronic hypertension, hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and country, and further for either gestational age, birthweight, small for gestational age or large for gestational age. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE There were 37 869 children with diagnoses related to puberty disorders, and 603 of them were born after ART. ART-conceived children had higher risks for early (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.45, 95% CI: 1.29-1.64) and late puberty (aHR 1.47, 95% CI: 1.21-1.77). Girls had more diagnoses related to early puberty (aHR 1.46, 95% CI: 1.29-1.66) and boys with late puberty (aHR 1.55, 95% CI: 1.24-1.95). LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Using reported puberty disorders with ICD codes in health care registers might vary, which may affect the numbers of cases found in the registers. Register data may give an underestimation both among ART and non-ART-conceived children, especially among non-ART children, who may not be as carefully followed as ART-conceived children. Adjustment for causes and duration of infertility, mothers' own puberty characteristics and BMI, as well as children's BMI, was not possible because data were not available or data were missing for the early years. It was also not possible to compare ART to non-ART siblings or to study the pubertal disorders by cause of subfertility owing to a small number of discordant sibling pairs and a large proportion of missing data on cause of subfertility. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS This large, register-based study suggests that ART-conceived children have a higher risk for puberty disorders. However, the mechanisms of infertility and pubertal onset are complex, and ART is a rapidly advancing field with various treatment options. Studying the pubertal disorders of ART-conceived offspring is a continuing challenge. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This work was supported by the Nordic Trial Alliance: a pilot project jointly funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and NordForsk (71450), the Central Norway Regional Health Authorities (46045000), the Nordic Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (NF13041, NF15058, NF16026 and NF17043), the Interreg oresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak European Regional Development Fund (ReproUnion project), the Research Council of Norway's Centre of Excellence funding scheme (262700), the Swedish state under the agreement between the Swedish government and the county councils, the ALF-agreement (ALFGBG-70940) and FLUX Consortium 'Family Formation in Flux-Causes, Consequences and Possible Futures', funded by the Strategic Research Council, Academy of Finland (DEMOGRAPHY 345130). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.Peer reviewe

Maternal age and risk of cesarean section in women with induced labor at term - a Nordic register-based study

Abstract Introduction Over the last decades, induction of labor has increased in many countries along with increasing maternal age. We assessed the effects of maternal age and labor induction on cesarean section at term among nulliparous and multiparous women without previous cesarean section. Material and methods We performed a retrospective national registry-based study from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden including 3 398 586 deliveries between 2000 and 2011. We investigated the impact of age on cesarean section among 196 220 nulliparous and 188 158 multiparous women whose labor was induced, had single cephalic presentation at term and no previous cesarean section. Confounders comprised country, time-period and gestational age. Results In nulliparous women with induced labor the rate of cesarean section increased from 14.0% in women less than 20 years of age to 39.9% in women 40 years and older. Compared to women aged 25-29 years, the corresponding relative risk were 0.60 (95% confidence interval (CI); 0.57 to 0.64) and 1.72 (95% CI; 1.66 to 1.79). In multiparous induced women the risk of cesarean section was 3.9% in women less than 20 years rising to 9.1% in women 40 years and older. Compared to women aged 25-29 years, the relative risk were 0.86 (95% CI; 0.54 to 1.37) and 1.98 (95% CI; 1.84 to 2.12), respectively. There were minimal confounding effects of country, time-period and gestational age on risk for cesarean section. Conclusions Advanced maternal age is associated with increased risk of cesarean section in women undergoing labor induction with a single cephalic presentation at term without a previous cesarean section. The absolute risk of cesarean section is 3-5 times higher across 5-year age groups in nulliparous relative to multiparous women having induced labor.Peer reviewe

Perinatal health monitoring in Europe: results from the EURO-PERISTAT project

Data about deliveries, births, mothers and newborn babies are collected extensively to monitor the health and care of mothers and babies during pregnancy, delivery and the post-partum period, but there is no common approach in Europe. We analysed the problems related to using the European data for international comparisons of perinatal health. We made an inventory of relevant data sources in 25 European Union (EU) member states and Norway, and collected perinatal data using a previously defined indicator list. The main sources were civil registration based on birth and death certificates, medical birth registers, hospital discharge systems, congenital anomaly registers, confidential enquiries and audits. A few countries provided data from routine perinatal surveys or from aggregated data collection systems. The main methodological problems were related to differences in registration criteria and definitions, coverage of data collection, problems in combining information from different sources, missing data and random variation for rare events. Collection of European perinatal health information is feasible, but the national health information systems need improvements to fill gaps. To improve international comparisons, stillbirth definitions should be standardised and a short list of causes of fetal and infant deaths should be developed

Anaphylaxis in pregnancy : a population-based multinational European study

Funding Information: M‐P B, OA, and GV had equal contributions to this study. We thank T. Schapp, J. Zwart and E. Overtoom in the NethOSS team; C. Daoui from the French SFAR Research Network; the B.OSS team and Belgian maternity units involved in this study. The work was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Nuffield Department of Population Health. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the MRC. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the article. Permission for the use and sharing of registry and medical records was obtained from the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Finland. Approval was acquired from the B.OSS and NethOSS steering committee for the data collection and sharing of anonymous data for this anaphylaxis study. The French Data Protection Authority approved the collection of the data (CNIL 1985389). All the women in France were informed of anonymised data collection during the study. B.oSS gained approval for data collection from the Ghent University Ethics Committee as central EC (2015/1470, amendment 23/06/2016, B670201526875), and gained informed consent of all women included in the study. The Central University Research Ethics Committee, University of Oxford gave approval to complete this prospective observational study (Reference R46400/RE001). Data sharing statement: Data cannot be shared publicly due to confidentiality issues arising from small numbers of cases in mainland European countries. Requests for access to the UK dataset will be considered by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit Data Sharing committee. Access to the data can be requested from [email protected] . No other external funding or competing interests declared. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Anaesthesia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association of Anaesthetists Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPublisher PD