Contribution of acoustic emission to the understanding of sulfide stress cracking of low alloy steels

cited By 17International audienceThe acoustic emission technique was applied to standard tests devoted to evaluate sulfide stress cracking susceptibility of steels for oil and gas industry. The mapping of the density of AE signals vs. their location on the specimen gauge length as a function of time allowed early detection of cracking, and gave meaningful information on incubation times and propagation rates. Sulfide stress cracking initiation was correlated with the presence of critical surface defects. A mechanism involving plastic strain and/or metal dissolution was proposed to account for crack propagation. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd

Acoustic emission monitoring of wet H2S cracking of linepipe steels: Application to hydrogen-induced cracking and stress-oriented hydrogen-induced cracking

cited By 9International audienceAcoustic emission (AE) was used for monitoring steel cracking during exposure to wet hydrogen sulfide (H2S) environments. A method for filtering AE data related to hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) was presented and applied for several case studies. In a series of tests on unstressed sweet service steels, evolution of AE indicated three successive HIC phases. An initial incubation period corresponded to hydrogen entry in the steel, during which no cracking occurred. Then two cracking phases were detected. The first was associated with decohesion of weak steel interphases. The second was identified as crack propagation under high internal hydrogen pressure. Crack propagation decreased and eventually ceased over time. Analysis of AE data was then used to evaluate the extent of HIC after sour exposure. Correlation was found when appropriate data filtering was applied. AE analysis was also applied to sour service steels under an applied load. The first steel exhibited HIC AE signals. Its fracture surface was typical of a stress-oriented hydrogen-induced cracking (SOHIC) mode of failure, in good agreement with AE results. For the second steel, which also failed during the test, no AE related to HIC was detected. Fracture surface was typical of sulfide stress cracking (SSC), also in good agreement with AE findings. © 2011, NACE International

recommendations by the Conect4Children expert advice group

Funding Information: Competing interests: A.V.R. has received Speaker fees/Consultant for Abbvie, Novartis, UCB, SOBI, Eli Lilly and Roche. N.M. reports grants outside the submitted work in the last five years from the Medical Research Council, National Institute of Health Research, March of Dimes, British Heart Foundation, HCA international, Health Data Research UK, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, Prolacta Life Sciences, and Westminster Children’s Research Fund; N.M. is a member of the Nestle Scientific Advisory Board and accepts no personal remuneration for this role. N.M. reports travel and accommodation reimbursements from Chiesi, Nestle and Shire. N.M. is a member of C4C, International Neonatal Collaboration (INC), UK National Research Ethics Advisory Service and MHRA advisory groups and/or working parties. S.W. has received compensation as a member of the scientific advisory board of AM Pharma, Novartis and Khondrion and receives research funding from IMI2 for the Conect4children project. B.A. has worked for GlaxoSmithKline between October 2006 and September 2009 and holds company shares. Between October 2009 and May 2015, she has worked for Novartis. M.S. has recieved research grant and honoraria for meetings and Advisory Boards from Alexion, Sanofi/Genzyme, Takeda, CHIESI, Ultragenix, Orchard, Orphazyme. P.I. is a permanent employee of Bayer AG, Germany. M.V. has received compensation for Advisory boards or Steering committes from Roche, Novartis, Achillion, Apellis, Retrophin/Travere, Alexion pharmaceuticals. C.M. has been a consultant to or has received honoraria from Janssen, Angelini, Servier, Nuvelution, Otsuka, Lundbeck, Pfizer, Neuraxpharm and Esteve outside the submitted work. She declares conflicts of interest unrelated to the present work. M.C. had advisory roles for AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eisai, Lilly, and Roche in the last 2 years (outside the topic of the submitted work, for oncology drugs). M.J. has received research grants from Shire and has been engaged as a speaker or consultant by Shire, Ginsana, PCM Scientific Evolan, and New Nordic, all unrelated to the present work. P.S. has received speaker fees and participated at advisory boards for Biomarin, Zogenyx, GW Pharmaceuticals, and has received research funding by ENECTA BV, GW Pharmaceuticals, Kolfarma srl., Eisai. E.R. has received speaker fees and participated at advisory boards for Eisai and has received research funding by GW Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Italian Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Italian Medicine Agency (AIFA). This work was developed within the framework of the DINOGMI Department of Excellence of MIUR 2018-2022 (legge 232 del 2016). M.A.R. is a member of the c4c Ethics Expert Group and received compensation for ethical consulting activities from Bayer AG Wallace Crandall is employee of Eli Lilly and Co. P.C. is an employee of UCB, and owns stock in the company. She was previously an employee of GSK and owns stock in the company. N.R. has received honoraria for consultancies or speaker bureaus from the following pharmaceutical companies in the past 3 years: Ablynx, Amgen, Astrazeneca-Medimmune, Aurinia, Bayer, Bristol Myers and Squibb, Cambridge Healthcare Research (CHR), Celgene, Domain therapeutic, Eli-Lilly, EMD Serono, Glaxo Smith and Kline, Idorsia, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, Sobi, UCB. The IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini (IGG), where NR works as full-time public employee has received contributions from the following industries in the last 3 years: Bristol Myers and Squibb, Eli-Lilly, F Hoffmann-La Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, Sobi. This funding has been reinvested for the research activities of the hospital in a fully independent manner, without any commitment with third parties. M.L. receives/has received consultation fees from CSL Behring, Novartis, Roche and Octopharma, travel grants from Merck Serono, and been awarded educational grants to organise meetings by Novartis, Biogen Idec, Merck Serono and Bayer. All other authors have no disclosures. Funding Information: Conect4children has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 777389. The Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA. The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and should not be interpreted as made on behalf of, or reflecting the position of, the regulatory agency/agencies or organisations with which the author(s) is/are employed/affiliated . Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on multiple aspects of healthcare, but has also triggered new ways of working, stimulated novel approaches in clinical research and reinforced the value of previous innovations. Conect4children (c4c, www.conect4children.org) is a large collaborative European network to facilitate the development of new medicines for paediatric populations, and is made up of 35 academic and 10 industry partners from 20 European countries, more than 50 third parties, and around 500 affiliated partners. Methods: We summarise aspects of clinical research in paediatrics stimulated and reinforced by COVID-19 that the Conect4children group recommends regulators, sponsors, and investigators retain for the future, to enhance the efficiency, reduce the cost and burden of medicines and non-interventional studies, and deliver research-equity. Findings: We summarise aspects of clinical research in paediatrics stimulated and reinforced by COVID-19 that the Conect4children group recommends regulators, sponsors, and investigators retain for the future, to enhance the efficiency, reduce the cost and burden of medicines and non-interventional studies, and deliver research-equityWe provide examples of research innovation, and follow this with recommendations to improve the efficiency of future trials, drawing on industry perspectives, regulatory considerations, infrastructure requirements and parent–patient–public involvement. We end with a comment on progress made towards greater international harmonisation of paediatric research and how lessons learned from COVID-19 studies might assist in further improvements in this important area.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

X-ray Nanodiffraction on a Single SiGe Quantum Dot inside a Functioning Field-Effect Transistor

For advanced electronic, optoelectronic, or mechanical nanoscale devices a detailed understanding of their structural properties and in particular the strain state within their active region is of utmost importance. We demonstrate that X-ray nanodiffraction represents an excellent tool to investigate the internal structure of such devices in a nondestructive way by using a focused synchotron X-ray beam with a diameter of 400 nm. We show results on the strain fields in and around a single SiGe island, which serves as stressor for the Si-channel in a fully functioning Si-metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) Expression in Allergic Asthmatic Airways: Role in Airway Smooth Muscle Migration and Chemokine Production

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a soluble pattern recognition receptor with non-redundant functions in inflammation and innate immunity. PTX3 is produced by immune and structural cells. However, very little is known about the expression of PTX3 and its role in allergic asthma.We sought to determine the PTX3 expression in asthmatic airways and its function in human airway smooth muscle cells (HASMC). In vivo PTX3 expression in bronchial biopsies of mild, moderate and severe asthmatics was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. PTX3 mRNA and protein were measured by real-time RT-PCR and ELISA, respectively. Proliferation and migration were examined using (3)H-thymidine incorporation, cell count and Boyden chamber assays.PTX3 immunoreactivity was increased in bronchial tissues of allergic asthmatics compared to healthy controls, and mainly localized in the smooth muscle bundle. PTX3 protein was expressed constitutively by HASMC and was significantly up-regulated by TNF, and IL-1β but not by Th2 (IL-4, IL-9, IL-13), Th1 (IFN-γ), or Th-17 (IL-17) cytokines. In vitro, HASMC released significantly higher levels of PTX3 at the baseline and upon TNF stimulation compared to airway epithelial cells (EC). Moreover, PTX3 induced CCL11/eotaxin-1 release whilst inhibited the fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2)-driven HASMC chemotactic activity.Our data provide the first evidence that PTX3 expression is increased in asthmatic airways. HASMC can both produce and respond to PTX3. PTX3 is a potent inhibitor of HASMC migration induced by FGF-2 and can upregulate CCL11/eotaxin-1 release. These results raise the possibility that PTX3 may play a dual role in allergic asthma

Pediatric drug safety signal detection: a new drug-event reference set for performance testing of data-mining methods and systems

BACKGROUND: Better evidence regarding drug safety in the pediatric population might be generated from existing data sources such as spontaneous reporting systems and electronic healthcare records. The Global Research in Paediatrics (GRiP)-Network of Excellence aims to develop pediatric-specific methods that can be applied to these data sources. A reference set of positive and negative drug-event associations is required. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a pediatric-specific reference set of positive and negative drug-event associations. METHODS: Considering user patterns and expert opinion, 16 drugs that are used in individuals aged 0-18 years were selected and evaluated against 16 events, regarded as important safety outcomes. A cross-table of unique drug-event pairs was created. Each pair was classified as potential positive or negative control based on information from the drug's Summary of Product Characteristics and Micromedex. If both information sources consistently listed the event as an adverse event, the combination was reviewed as potential positive control. If both did not, the combination was evaluated as potential negative control. Further evaluation was based on published literature. RESULTS: Selected drugs include ibuprofen, flucloxacillin, domperidone, methylphenidate, montelukast, quinine, and cyproterone/ethinylestradiol. Selected events include bullous eruption, aplastic anemia, ventricular arrhythmia, sudden death, acute kidney injury, psychosis, and seizure. Altogether, 256 unique combinations were reviewed, yielding 37 positive (17 with evidence from the pediatric population and 20 with evidence from adults only) and 90 negative control pairs, with the remainder being unclassifiable. CONCLUSION: We propose a drug-event reference set that can be used to compare different signal detection methods in the pediatric population

Development and validation of the Dynamic Career Scale (DCS): a psychodynamic conceptualization of career adjustment

The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a new instrument, the Dynamic Career Scale (DCS), which measures four different modes of functioning in facing career failures and challenges (mania, envy, manic reparation, and true reparation) according to Klein’s object relations theory. Two studies were respectively conducted on adult working participants (N = 260, Study 1) and newly-qualified psychologists enrolled in a career research program (N = 196, Study 2), to assess reliability, factorial validity and convergent evidence of validity. Overall, findings suggest adequate psychometric properties of the DCS and its potential usefulness to grasp unconscious processes affecting career adjustment

The effectiveness of psychodynamic career counselling: a randomised control trial on the PICS programme

The work aims at extending the research into the effectiveness of psychodynamic career counselling for improving career adjustment. The short- and medium-term effects of the PICS (Psychodynamic Intervention for Career Strategies) programme were tested through an RCT conducted on a sample of 82 psychology professionals entering the labour market. It was hypothesised that after completing the programme–at posttest and at 6-month follow-up–participants would have higher scores on measures of career adaptability (assumed as primary outcome) and other secondary career-related outcomes. Overall, the results of the present study suggest a medium-sized effect on the curiosity dimension of career adaptability at 6-month follow-up, despite not fully robust in terms of statistical significance, and other promising impacts suggesting a more relational approach in career construction in those participating in the programme according to the treatment protocol