Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Report of the Proficiency Testing in the Pneumatic Pressure Region up to 5 MPa

We report the performance of calibration laboratories in the pneumatic pressure region (0 to 5) MPa through a recently conducted inter-laboratory comparison. Six NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited laboratories participated in the program. The proficiency testing program was organized and piloted by CSIR-National Physical Laboratory. The program started in June 2010 and was completed in October 2011. The artifact used was a high precision pressure dial gauge. The reference values were generated by the pilot laboratory. The deviations for each participating laboratory were estimated against the reference pressure values and the compatibility of the results was calculated using the conventional method. Out of the total measurements made, all but two were found to be in good agreement with the reference values. The normalized error values (E (n)) of five laboratories out of the total six were found well within +/- A 1 over the entire pressure range

Effect of temperature on thermal expansion and anharmonicity in Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films grown by co-sputtering and sulfurization

Copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS, made from the earth abundant and non-toxic materials) is a quaternary semiconducting compound which has received increasing interest for solar cells applications. In this study, CZTS thin film has been grown by co-sputtering Cu, Zn and Sn metal targets and sulfurizing it in H2S. XRD, SEM, EDS, XRF and optical studies show that these films are suitable for solar cell applications. The temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopic study on CZTS thin film was carried out in the temperature range of 80-450 K. A decrease in the intensity of "A" mode Raman peaks, shift of Raman peaks towards lower frequency and increase in the line width have been observed with increase in temperature. Raman "A" mode shifts from 337 cm(-1) at 80 K to 329 cm(-1) at 450 K. The peak at 288 cm(-1) disappears when the measurement was taken at 450 K. Based on experimental results and fittings of anharmonic equation; it has been shown that these effects are due to thermal expansion and interaction of the phonon with other phonons which arise at higher temperature. These phonons interact resulting in damping of the "A" mode phonon intensity. It was concluded that in order to truly analyze multicomponent compounds, Raman studies should be carried out at low temperature

SIMS characterization of GaAs MIS devices at the interface

We report here the improvements in the electrical characteristics of Au/Si<SUB>x</SUB>N<SUB>y</SUB>/n-GaAs structures with NH<SUB>3</SUB> plasma treatment of GaAs prior to PECVD of a Si<SUB>x</SUB>N<SUB>y</SUB> dielectric film followed by annealing at 450 &#176;C. These structures were characterized by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling. The depth profiles of the three samples discussed in the present report show that the unpassivated sample has a broad interface consisting of both Ga-O and As-O species. After passivation, the interface becomes quite sharp, but the presence of both the oxides is still observed. However, after annealing, although the interface thickness increases marginally due to diffusion further into the substrate, it is observed that the interface becomes N-rich, which has also been supported by preliminary FTIR data. Looking at the electrical properties, it is seen that the unpassivated sample gives poor device characteristics which are attributed to the presence of wide oxide layers as shown by the SIMS data and consequently Fermi level pinning due to high interface state density, while the NH<SUB>3</SUB> passivated samples show better device characteristics. This is attributed to the fact that the interface state density reduces considerably as the interface thickness reduces. Post-deposition annealing showed marked improvement in device characteristics with decrease in frequency dispersion, conductance and hence interface state density as revealed from C-V and G-V measurements

Lattice vibrational properties of some rare-earth antimonides: Raman scattering measurements and model theory

The lattice vibrational properties of three rare earth (RE) antimonides, namely LaSb, CeSb, and PrSb have been investigated experimentally, for the first time, using Raman Scattering technique at ambient pressure and room temperature. The experimental results show a single high intensity peak at zone center around 150 cm -1 (4.5 THz) for all the three antimonides. The experimental results have been analyzed by using breathing shell model (BSM), which includes the effect of Columb screening due to f-electron of RE ion and the breathing motion of the electron shell. The calculated phonon density of states agrees well with the measured Raman data. Calculated phonon dispersion curves for three RE antimonide compounds (LaSb, PrSb and NdSb) compare well with the available inelastic neutron scattering data. The calculated mean square displacements for these compounds show a systematic trend

Room temperature growth of wafer-scale silicon nanowire arrays and their Raman characteristics

We report a simple, inexpensive, and rapid process for large area growth of vertically aligned crystalline silicon nanowires (SiNWs) of diameter 40– 200 nm and variable length directly on p-type (100) silicon substrate. The process is based on Ag-induced selective etching of silicon wafers wherein the growth of SiNWs was carried out using the aqueous HF solution containing Ag? ions at room temperature in a Teflon vessel. Effect of etching time has been investigated to understand the evolution of SiNW arrays. It has been found that the length of SiNWs has a linear dependence on the etching time for small to moderate periods (0–2 h). However, etching rate decreases slowly for long etching times ([2 h). Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the morphology of the SiNW arrays. Structural and compositional analysis was carried out using Raman spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Orders of magnitude intensity enhancement along with a small downshift and broadening in the first-order Raman peak of SiNW arrays was observed in comparison to the bulk crystalline silicon