Psychosocial factors during the first year after a coronary heart disease event in cases and referents. Secondary Prevention in Uppsala Primary Health Care Project (SUPRIM)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A large number of studies have reported on the psychosocial risk factor pattern prior to coronary heart disease events, but few have investigated the situation during the first year after an event, and none has been controlled. We therefore performed a case-referent study in which the prevalence of a number of psychosocial factors was evaluated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Three hundred and forty-six coronary heart disease male and female cases no more than 75 years of age, discharged from hospital within the past 12 months, and 1038 referents from the general population, matched to the cases by age, sex and place of living, received a postal questionnaire in which information on lifestyle, psychosocial and quality of life measures were sought.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The cases were, as expected, on sick leave to a larger extent than the referents, reported poorer fitness, poorer perceived health, fewer leisure time activities, but unexpectedly reported better social support, and more optimistic views of the future than the referents. There were no significant case-referent differences in everyday life stress, stressful life events, vital exhaustion, depressive mood, coping or life orientation test. However, women reported less favourable situations than men regarding stressful life events affecting others, vital exhaustion, depressive mood, coping, self-esteem, sleep, and symptom reporting, and female cases reported the most unfavourable situation of all groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this first controlled study of the situation during the first year after a CHD event disease and gender status both appeared to be determinants of psychological well-being, with gender status apparently the strongest. This may have implications for cardiac rehabilitation programmes.</p

Operating Organic Electronics via Aqueous Electric Double Layers

The field of organic electronics emerged in the 1970s with the discovery of conducting polymers. With the introduction of plastics as conductors and semiconductors came many new possibilities both in production and function of electronic devices. Polymers can often be processed from solution and their softness provides both the possibility of working on flexible substrates, and various advantages in interfacing with other soft materials, e.g. biological samples and specimens. Conducting polymers readily partake in chemical and electrochemical reactions, providing an opportunity to develop new electrochemicallydriven devices, but also posing new problems for device engineers. The work of this thesis has focused on organic electronic devices in which aqueous electrolytes are an active component, but still operating in conditions where it is desirable to avoid electrochemical reactions. Interfacing with aqueous electrolytes occurs in a wide variety of settings, but we have specifically had biological environments in mind as they necessarily involve the presence of water. The use of liquid electrolytes also provides the opportunity to deliver and change the device electrolyte continuously, e.g. through microfluidic systems, which could then be used as a dynamic feature and/or be used to introduce and change analytes for sensors. Of particular interest is the electric double layer at the interface between the electrolyte and other materials in the device,  specifically its sensitivity to charge reorganization and high capacitance. The thesis first focuses on organic field effect transistors gated through aqueous electrolytes. These devices are proposed as biosensors with the transistor architecture providing a direct transduction and amplification so that it can be electrically read out. It is discussed both how to distinguish between the various operating mechanisms in electrolyte thin film transistors and how to choose a strategy to achieve the desired mechanism. Two different strategies to suppress ion penetration into, and thus electrochemical doping of, the organic semiconductor are presented. The second focus of the thesis is on polarization of ferroelectric polymer films through electrolytes. A model for the interaction between the remnant ferroelectric charge in the polymer film and the mobile ionic charges of the electrolyte is presented, and verified experimentally. The reorientation of the ferroelectric polarization via the electric double layer is also demonstrated in a regenerative medicine application; the ferroelectric polarization is shown to affect cell binding, and is used as a gentle method to nondestructively detach cells from a culture substrate

HiFi Radar Target : High fidelity soft targets and radar simulation for more efficient testing (real and virtual)

The 77 GHz radar is a crucial sensor in the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD) system due to its ability to detect and track objects at distances up to 200 meters. To ensure high reliability of the radar function, extensive testing with soft surrogate targets is needed. However, the radar response of a surrogate target may differ from that of real targets, causing unexpected reactions of the ADAS and AD functions in real traffic situations. The first project goal was therefore to develop and validate realistic soft surrogate targets, a work which was performed in several steps. First radar reference targets were designed and verified. Secondly procedures for calibration of automotive radars were developed. Finally, a thorough investigation on Radar Cross Section (RCS) characterization methods for large test objects on the test track was conducted resulting in several measurement setups and measurement procedures including uncertainty analysis. Now, with the ability to perform repeatable and reliable RCS characterizations, several real and surrogate targets were characterized and work on improving RCS profile of surrogate targets were conducted.Strong competition in the automotive industry and the need to validate more and more complex functions (including autonomous drive) drives the development of virtual test methods. The ability to test the ADAS or AD functions virtually early in the development will save considerable time and cost. However, there were no such tools available with full radar simulation in-loop available prior to the project, which was the reason for the second goal of this project: an ADAS/AD system simulation tool-chain with radar simulation in-loop.The HiFi Radar Target project (diarienr. 2015-04852) was an FFI project within the Electronics, Software and Communications program. After prolongation it was a 30-month project that started 2015-12-31 and ended 2018-06-30. The project had a total budget of 15.9 MSEK.Radarsensorn på 77 GHz är en vital komponent för ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) samt system för autonom körning (AD) tack vare sin förmåga att detektera och följa objekt på avstånd upp till 200 meter. För att säkerställa hög tillförlitlighet hos fordonets funktioner baserade på radarn krävs omfattande tester med mjuka surrogatmål. Radarresponsen hos ett surrogatmål kan dock skilja sig från det för reella mål, vilket i förlängningen kan orsaka oväntade reaktioner från ADAS- och AD-funktioner i verkliga trafiksituationer. Det första projektmålet var därför att utveckla och validera mjuka surrogatmål så att de blir mer realistiska, ett arbete som utfördes i flera steg: referensmål togs fram och verifierades, metoder för on site kalibrering av radarsensorer utvecklades, och slutligen togs metoder fram för karakterisering av radarmålarea (RCS) av stora objekt på testbana (AstaZero, high speed area). Detta resulterade i flera mätuppställningar och mätprocedurer inklusive osäkerhetsanalys. Nu, med förmågan att utföra repeterbara och pålitliga RCS-mätningar, karakteriserandes ett antal reella mål (verkliga bilar) samt surrogatmål och arbetet med att syntetisera radarmålarean hos surrogatmål genomfördes. Stark konkurrens inom bilindustrin och behovet av att validera mer och mer komplexa funktioner (inklusive autonom körning) driver utvecklingen av virtuella testmetoder. Möjligheten att testa ADAS eller AD-funktioner tidigt i utvecklingscykeln kommer att spara tid, kostnad och vara en konkurrensfördel. Dock fanns inga verktyg med kapacitet att utvärdera radarsensorn tillsammans med resten av bilens hård- och mjukvara virtuellt tillgängliga före projektet, vilket var orsaken till det andra målet: ett simuleringsverktyg för ADAS/AD-system inklusive simulering av radarn. HiFi Radar Target-projektet (diarienr. 2015-04852) var ett FFI-projekt inom programmet Elektronik, programvara och kommunikation. Efter förlängning blev det ett 30-månaders projekt med start 2015-12-31 och slut datum 2018-06-30. Projektet hade en total budget på 15,9 MSEK.2.1 Mål Utvecklingen av radarsystem, en nödvändig sensor för aktiv säkerhet och autonoma fordon, kräver pålitlig och effektiv testning för validering av systemprestanda. Effektiv utveckling kräver att man tidig upptäcker och löser möjliga problem, något som testinfrastrukturen måste stödja. Målet med projektet var därför att möjliggöra effektiv och tillförlitlig verifiering av radarsystem, inklusive ADAS och AD-system som är beroende av radarsensorer, genom: Utveckling samt validering av repeterbara RCS mätmetoder. Utveckling av mer realistiska surrogatmål för säker provning av bilradarsystem. Utveckling av simuleringsverktyg för radarsystem i virtuell miljö. Demonstration av förbättrad verifiering med hjälp av de utvecklade verktygen och metoderna. Stödja internationell standardisering (ISO) i deras arbete för framtida verifiering och kalibrering av surrogatmål. Projektresultaten kommer att: Bidra till nollvisionen, det vill säga noll dödliga trafikolyckor. Stärka svensk bilindustris konkurrenskraft i ett globalt perspektiv. Bidra till att utveckla AstaZero till en testplats i världsklass för ADAS och AD system. Ge verktyg och metoder för AD-testning till VCC. Resultat och leveranser Målen som beskrivits i föregående kapitel har alla (i olika utsträckning) blivit uppfyllda: Utveckling och validering av noggranna och repeterbara RCS mätmetoder: detta mål uppnåddes mycket väl och konsortiet har arbetat internationellt. Utveckling av mer realistiska surrogatmål för säker provning av bilradarsystem: projektet har fått kunskap om vilka egenskaper som påverkar radarresponsen för ett specifikt mål och har förbättrat surrogatmål inklusive den automatiserade mobila plattform som förflyttar surrogatmålen under test. Utveckling av simuleringsverktyg för virtuell testning av radarsystem: verktygskedjan för trafiksimulering av AD och ADAS funktioner hos VCC har uppdaterats med nya realistiska (mätbaserade) klustermodeller för radarmål. För framtida utveckling definierades också ett interface som möjliggör implementering av nya modeller. Demonstration av metoder framtagna i projektet: projektresultat presenterades och demonstrerades vid AstaZero. Stödja internationell standardisering (ISO) i utvecklingen av metoder för framtida verifiering och kalibrering av surrogatmål: projektet har bidragit till arbetet i ISO genom att öka förståelsen för RCS hos riktiga fordon och surrogatmål, definierat representativa egenskaper hos radarmål, tagit fram metoder för repeterbar och noggrann karakterisering, samt tagit fram en osäkerhetsbudget.HiFi Radar Targe

Polarization of ferroelectric films through electrolyte

A simplified model is developed to understand the field and potential distribution through devices based on a ferroelectric film in direct contact with an electrolyte. Devices based on the ferroelectric polymer polyvinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) were produced – in metalferroelectric-metal, metal-ferroelectric-dielectric-metal, and metal-ferroelectric-electrolyte-metal architectures – and used to test the model, and simulations based on the model and these fabricated devices were performed. From these simulations we find indication of progressive polarization of the films. Furthermore, the model implies that there is a relation between the separation of charge within the devices and the observed open circuit voltage. This relation is confirmed experimentally. The ability to polarize ferroelectric polymer films through aqueous electrolytes, combined with the strong correlation between the properties of the electrolyte double layer and the device potential, opens the door to a variety of new applications for ferroelectric technologies, e.g., regulation of cell culture growth and release, steering molecular self-assembly, or other large area applications requiring aqueous environments.Funding agencies:  Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA) [2010-00507]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; Advanced Functional Materials Center at Linkoping University; Onnesjo Foundation</p