Synthesis of Single-Crystalline Lead Sulfide Nanoframes and Nanorings

We present a colloidal synthesis strategy to obtain single-crystalline PbS nanorings. By controlling the ripening process in the presence of halide ions, a transformation of initial PbS nanosheets to framelike structures and finally to nanorings was achieved. We found that the competing ligands oleic acid, oleate, and halide ions play an important role in the formation of these nanostructures. Therefore, we propose a formation mechanism based on a thermally induced ripening of crystal facets dependent on the surface passivation. With this method, it became possible to synthesize colloidal nanorings of cubic crystal phase galena PbS. The synthesis was followed via TEM, and the products are characterized by XRD, AFM, and STEM tomography. Control of the initial nanoframe morphology allows adjusting the later nanoring dimensions

Pleural effusions are associated with adverse outcomes after cardiac surgery: a propensity-matched analysis

Background: Pleural effusions commonly occur in patients recovering from cardiac surgery; however, the impact on outcomes is not well characterized. The purpose of this study is to characterize the clinical outcomes of cardiac surgery patients with pleural effusion. Methods: All patients undergoing cardiac surgery between 2006 and 2019 at a tertiary care university hospital were included in this observational, cross-sectional analysis using propensity matching. Results: Of 11,037 patients that underwent cardiac surgery during the study period, 6461 (58.5%) had no pleural effusion (Group 0), 3322 (30.1%) had pleural effusion only (Group 1), and 1254 (11.4%) required at least one secondary drainage procedure after the index operation (Group 2). After propensity matching, the mortality of patients who underwent secondary drainage procedures was 6.1% higher than in Group 1 (p < 0.001). Intensive care unit (ICU) stay was longer for those with pleural effusions (18 [IQR 9-32] days in Group 2, 10 [IQR 6-17] days for Group 1, and 7 [IQR 4-11] days for Group 0, p < 0.001). Patients with pleural effusions had a higher incidence of hemodialysis (246 [20.0%] in Group 2, 137 [11.1%] in Group 1, 98 [7.98%] in Group 0), and a longer ventilation time in the ICU (57 [IQR 21.0-224.0] hours in Group 2, 25.0 [IQR 14.0-58.0] hours in Group 1, 16.0 [IQR 10.0-29.0] hours in Group 0). Conclusion: Pleural effusions, especially those that require a secondary drainage procedure during recovery, are associated with significantly worse outcomes including increased mortality, longer length of stay, and higher complication rates. These insights may be of great interest to scientists, clinicians, and industry leaders alike to foster research into innovative methods for preventing and treating pleural effusions with the aim of improving outcomes for patients recovering from cardiac surgery

Age at onset as stratifier in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease – effect of ageing and polygenic risk score on clinical phenotypes

Several phenotypic differences observed in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients have been linked to age at onset (AAO). We endeavoured to find out whether these differences are due to the ageing process itself by using a combined dataset of idiopathic PD (n = 430) and healthy controls (HC; n = 556) excluding carriers of known PD-linked genetic mutations in both groups. We found several significant effects of AAO on motor and non-motor symptoms in PD, but when comparing the effects of age on these symptoms with HC (using age at assessment, AAA), only positive associations of AAA with burden of motor symptoms and cognitive impairment were significantly different between PD vs HC. Furthermore, we explored a potential effect of polygenic risk score (PRS) on clinical phenotype and identified a significant inverse correlation of AAO and PRS in PD. No significant association between PRS and severity of clinical symptoms was found. We conclude that the observed non-motor phenotypic differences in PD based on AAO are largely driven by the ageing process itself and not by a specific profile of neurodegeneration linked to AAO in the idiopathic PD patients

Lemgoer Modellfabrik: Innovationen der IT-basierten Automatisierungstechnik praktisch erproben und erlebbar machen

Die Automatisierungstechnik ist Leitdisziplin für die Entwicklung intelligenter technischer Systeme. Es handelt sich jedoch um eine „versteckte“ Technik, die nicht unmittelbar erlebbar ist.nbsp; Dieser Umstand führt u.a. zu Akzeptanzproblemen in der Gesellschaft bis hin zu dem zunehmenden Problem junge Menschen für automatisierungsnahe Studiengänge zu begeistern. Gleichzeitig erfordern Forschungsfragen immer häufiger ein sehr gutes Verständnis der Systemumgebung und ein geeignetes Umfeld, um Forschungsergebnisse im Hinblick auf deren Systemkonformität zu untersuchen.nbsp; Am Beispiel der Lemgoer Modellfabrik, die gemeinsam vom Institut für industrielle Informationstechnik (inIT) der Hochschule OWL und dem Fraunhofer IOSB-INA im Lemgoer Centrum Industrial IT (CIIT) betrieben wird, sollen die Vorteile, aber auch die Grenzen eines aufwendigen apparativen Testfelds diskutiert werden. Für die Forschungsbereiche wandlungsfähige Maschinen, also der Erweiterung oder Anpassung von Maschinen mit minimaler Rüstzeit, dem energieoptimierten Betrieb von Maschinen und der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion soll der Nutzen einer Modellfabrik für Forschungsfragen und die sich ergebende „Erlebbarkeit“ in diesem Beitrag vorgestellt werde

Beschreibung von Produktionsprozessen in modularisierten Produktionsanlagen für Industrie 4.0

In diesen Beitrag wird der Einsatz der formalisierten Prozessbeschreibung (FPB) am Beispiel einer modularisierten Produktionsanlage gezeigt. Im Kontext von Industrie 4.0 wird dabei der Nutzen der Ergänzung der aktuell überarbeiteten FPB gezeigt, um neben der Versorgung und Entsorgung von entsprechenden Produkten und Energien, auch den Informationsaustauch von Prozessen und ihren Diensten zu beschreiben. Durch die formale Beschreibung der Produktionsprozesse und deren Schnittstellen entstehen serviceorientierte Architekturen, die einen hohen Grad an Autonomie und Wiederverwendbarkeit aufweisen

Utilizing SDN Infrastructure to provide Smart Services from the Factory to the Cloud

Smart Factory Web is an interconnection of factories all over the globe with the goal to form an easy-to-use manufacturing platform. To handle heterogeneous and changing demands of the participating users, the factory has not only to flexibilize its production assets but its network in regards to management and configuration as well. This contribution provides an insight into how this can be achieved by utilizing Software-defined networking for the concrete use case Smart Factory Web. An architecture proposal is given extending the current design of a factory which participates at Smart Factory Web. This proposal is furthermore discussed leading to a step-by-step process how a factory can transform its current traditional network infrastructure to a more flexible SDN based one

Analyzing the engineering effort for the commissioning of industrial automation systems

In the industrial automation a paradigm shift from centralized, static automation structures to reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) might be lie ahead. RMS are seen as a key enabler for the required changeability of future production companies since they can reduce the engineering effort needed for the reconfiguration of existing or the construction of new production systems. However, it is not clear how the companies can benefit from RMS in detail. For example, the reduction of engineering effort cannot be expressed in figures by today. But such information is necessary to convince the industry of the advantages of the new production principle. Indeed, existing RMS paradigms like Service-Oriented Architectures are rarely used in the practice of automation. The basis for analyzing the advantages of RMS is an analysis of the status quo in the industrial automation. Regarding the engineering effort of current automation systems, this paper will present a case study considering the effort occurring during the commissioning process of a production system constructed by state-of-the-art components. The evaluation of the study can serve as a reference when comparing the engineering effort of RMS with today's systems