Low temperature mobility in hafnium-oxide gated germanium p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors

Effective mobility measurements have been made at 4.2 K on high performance high-k gated germanium p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors with a range of Ge/gate dielectric interface state densities. The mobility is successfully modelled by assuming surface roughness and interface charge scattering at the SiO2 interlayer/Ge interface. The deduced interface charge density is approximately equal to the values obtained from the threshold voltage and subthreshold slope measurements on each device. A hydrogen anneal reduces both the interface state density and the surface root mean square roughness by 20%

Solvency II und die Auswirkungen auf den österreichischen Versicherungsmarkt

Diese Magisterarbeit behandelt zentral die aufsichtsrechtlichen Bestimmungen für Versicherungen unter Solvency II, die derzeit auf europäischer Ebene entwickelt und auch in Österreich gültig sein werden. Solvency I war von Anfang an nur als Überganslösung gedacht und soll möglichst bald durch flexiblere und risikoadäquate Bestimmungen ersetzt werden. Dabei kommt ein Drei-Säulen-System, ähnlich dem von Basel II, zum Einsatz, das die Eigenmittelausstattung, das Risikomanagement und Publizitätsbestimmungen der Versicherungen an die nationalen Aufsichtsbehörden regelt. Um dieses Modell zu testen wurden bereits 4 Feldstudien, die Quantitative Impact Studies, durchgeführt. Einige Unternehmen haben noch Probleme mit den Änderungen in der Ermittlung des Solvenzkapitals, des Mindestkapitalbedarfs und einiger neuer Bewertungsvorschriften. Auf Österreichischer Ebene gibt das FMA den heimischen Versicherungsmarkt bis zur Durchführung einer möglichen 5. Feldstudie eine weitere Möglichkeit sich auf die umfangreichen Umstellungen vorzubereiten. Dieser Versicherungsmarkt unterscheidet sich von anderen in der EU deshalb, weil es viele kleine und mittelgroße Versicherungen gibt, die geringe Marktanteile halten und denen Solvency II möglicherweise Nachteile bringt.This Master Thesis deals with Solvency II, the future regulatory requirements for insurance companies operating in the European Union, which are being presently developed and which will also be valid in Austria. From the very beginning Solvency I was never intended to be more than an interim solution. It should get replaced by a model which deals with risk adequately and which is more flexible than the existing one. This will be ensured by using a system which is based upon the three pillars capital requirements, risk management and disclosure requirements, similar to the Basel II approach. Four Quantitative Impact Studies were conducted in order to test this model. One of the conclusions is, that many companies are facing problems in calculating the capital requirements with the new methods and that they have difficulties in the valuation of their assets. In Austria the regulatory authority FMA offers domestic insurers to take part in another study which is another opportunity to prepare for the upcoming adjustments. The local insurance market differs from other markets in the EU because of the high number of small- and medium-sized companies which have minor market share. These companies may get in trouble and Solvency II could be a drawback to the domestic market

FOSS as an efficient tool for extraction of MOSFET compact model parameters

A GNU Octave - based application for device-level compact model evaluation and parameter extraction has been developed. The applications main features are as follows: experimental I-V data importing, generating input data for different circuit simulation programs, running the simulation program to calculate I-V characteristics of the specified models, calculating model misfit and its sensitivity to selected parameter variation, and the comparison of experimental and simulated characteristics. Measured I-V data stored by different measurement systems are accepted. Circuit simulations may be done with Ngspice, Qucs and LTSpiceIV © . Selected aspects of the application are presented and discussed

Severe course of COVID-19 in pregnant woman and newborn’s alloimmune thrombocytopenia — case study and review of the literature

So far, little is known about the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on pregnancy and data is often inconsistent. Even less information has been published on the management of severe courses of COVID-19 in pregnant women. By writing this article, we aim to share our experience in the treatment of pregnant woman critically ill with COVID-19 and newborn’s condition, FNAIT (Fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia), as well as literature review of this disease. After admission, the woman’s respiratory status rapidly worsened, requiring administration of oxygen and in the end ECMO therapy. At the 9th day of ECMO support, and 28 weeks 3 days of gestation, due to mother’s prognosis and increased feto-placental vascular resistance a decision of Caesarean section was taken. The neonate required intensive care not only due to extreme prematurity but coagulation disorder, alloimmune thrombocytopenia, which we diagnosed a few weeks after delivery.

Changes in MiRNA-5196 expression as a potential biomarker of anti-TNF-α therapy in rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis Patients

In this study, we analysed the expression level of sera circulating miRNA-5196 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients before and after tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α therapy as biomarkers predicting positive treatment outcome. We enrolled 10 RA patients, 13 AS patients, and 12 healthy individuals in the study. The expression of miRNA-5196 was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction before and after anti-TNF-α therapy. Disease activity of RA patients was assessed using disease activity score 28 (DAS28), whereas ankylosing spondylitis DAS (ASDAS) was used in AS patients. MiRNA-5196 expression was significantly higher in patients with RA and AS before TNF-α therapy than in those following anti-TNF-α therapy and healthy controls. Changes in miRNA-5196 expression positively correlated with delta DAS28 or delta ASDAS, respectively, following TNF-α therapy. In contrast, changes in C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in RA and AS patients did not positively correlate with DAS28 or ASDAS changes. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis showed better diagnostic accuracy of miRNA-5196 expression both in RA (area under curve (AUC) = 0.87, p = 0.055) and AS patients (AUC = 0.90, p = 0.050) compared to CRP levels in RA (AUC = 0.75, p = 0.201) and AS patients (AUC = 0.85, p = 0.086) upon biologic therapy treatment. Finding novel biomarkers, including miRNA-5196 which allow to predict and monitor anti-TNF-α response, would be of clinical value especially during the early phase of RA or AS development

EAA clinical guideline on management of bone health in the andrological outpatient clinic

Background: Male osteoporosis is now a well-recognized medical disorder with established clinical guidelines for both diagnosis and management. Prevention as well as management of osteoporosis in men consulting the andro- logical outpatient clinic because of low testosterone, how- ever, is not well established. This gap of knowledge is -at least partly- explained by the controversy with respect to the threshold of testosterone needed for skeletal mainte- nance. However, testosterone deficiency may be clearly associated with bone loss as well frailty in men. The aim of the guideline was to provide andrologists with the most updated, evidence based advices on the management of bone disease in men and to make them aware of the potential silent presence of osteoporosis in hypogonadal men. Methods: The GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) system for grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recom- mendations was used to grade recommendations. Results: A total of 32 recommendations were provided concerning clinical evaluation, diagnosis and therapy of male osteoporosis in the andrological patient. Conclusion: Therefore, the management of patients with potential hypogonadism should include a complete bone health assessment, besides clinical and biochemical evalu- ation of gonadal status. Such bone health assessment should include specific items in medical history and phys- ical examination related to fracture risk. Furthermore, dual-energy absorptiometry is indicated to evaluate frac- ture risk in men with confirmed clinical hypogonadism. Regarding treatment, besides general measures to prevent or manage male osteoporosis testosterone replacement can be initiated (as described in guidelines for hypogo- nadism), but data on its efficacy in preventing fractures are lacking. Thus, additional anti-osteoporotic may be needed, especially in men with very low testosterone who are at high risk for bone loss and/or in men not able to receive testosterone replacement

Kontrollierte Freisetzung eines antiproliferativen Wirkstoffes aus Koronarstents

Stenting is one of the most common and successful minimally invasive surgical methods to threat atherosclerosis. The main limitation of this method which occurs to date in approximately 30% of all treated patiens is in-stent restenosis. This is a healing process with excessive cell proliferation resulting in a re-narrowing of the stented coronary artery. This work studied possibilites of reducing the in-stent restenosis by developing long term biocompatible and effective custom made stent coatings which allow the user to select among adequate drug concentrations to be released and its kinetic behaviour. Two different release controlling methods have been developed: drug release controlling by stent surface modification and release controlling by additional biodegradable polymer matrix. It could be worked out that both methods offer reliable ways to positively influence future formation of in-stent restenosis.Stenting ist eine gängige, minimal-invasive chirurgische Methode zur Behandlung der Arteriosklerose. Hauptlimitation dieser Methode ist die nachfolgende In-Stent Restenose, welche durch eine Zellwucherungen als Reaktion auf die Gefäßverletzung während der Stentimplantation verursacht wird. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden Verfahren entwickelt für Optimierung der Stent-Oberflächen, für Beschichtung dieser Oberflächen mit Rapamycin, einem antiproliferativen Medikament und für die Verlängerung der Medikamenten-Freisetzung durch Zusatz eines abbaubaren Polymers. Beide durchgeführten experimentellen Verfahren sind nun geeignet, im Tierversuch und der späteren Humanapplikation getestet zu werden

Reglas de Praga ¿Una solución en busca de un problema?

Es una publicación realizada en colaboración con la Universidad Austral