176 research outputs found
An end to Nordic exceptionalism? Europeanisation and Nordic development policies
The Nordic countries have traditionally been praised for their generous and advanced development policies. Recently, however, it has been claimed that the Nordic model has faded: that the Nordic donors have become more similar to other European donors. One possible reason for such trends is influences from EU policies, that is, Europeanisation. This article critically evaluates such claims by presenting arguments for and against Europeanisation effects. We argue that changes have indeed taken place. The Nordic exceptionalism has been eroded. At the same time, a convergence of European aid policies has occurred. The question is if this is the consequence of Europeanisation – or is it rather a result of Nordicisation (the Nordic countries influencing the EU), or perhaps like-mindisation (a broader set of progressive member states having impact upon EU policies)? We suggest that Europeanisation has been extremely weak while there is strong evidence of Nordicisation but also, and increasingly, of like-mindisation. Today, a core group of mainly northern member states, including the Nordics, are the main driving forces behind European aid convergence
Self-organized nanostructuring in Zr0.69Al0.31N thin films studied by atom probe tomography
We have applied atom probe tomography (APT) to analyze self-organizing structures of wear-resistant Zr0.69Al0.31N thin films grown by magnetron sputtering. Transmission electron microscopy shows that these films grow as a three-dimensional nanocomposite, consisting of interleaved lamellae in a labyrinthine structure, with an in-plane size scale of ~ 5 nm. The structure was recovered in the Al APT signal, while the Zr and N data lacked structural information. The onset of the self-organized labyrinthine growth was observed to occur by surface nucleation, 5–8 nm above the MgO substrate, due to increasing Zr–Al compositional fluctuations during elemental segregation. At a final stage, the labyrinthine growth mode was observed to be interrupted by the formation of larger ZrN grains
High temperature decomposition and age hardening of single-phase wurtzite TiAlN thin films grown by cathodic arc deposition
We investigated the high temperature decomposition behavior of wurtzite phase
TiAlN films using experimental methods and first-principles
calculations. Single phase metastable wurtzite TiAlN (x = 0.65,
0.75, 085 and 0.95) solid solution films were grown by cathodic arc deposition
using low duty cycle pulsed substrate-bias voltage. First-principles calculated
elastic constants of the wurtzite TiAlN phase show a strong
dependence on alloy composition. The predicted phase diagram shows a
miscibility gap with an unstable region. High resolution scanning transmission
electron microscopy and chemical mapping demonstrate decomposition of the films
after high temperature annealing (950C), which resulted in nanoscale
chemical compositional modulations containing Ti-rich and Al-rich regions with
coherent or semi coherent interfaces. This spinodal decomposition of the
wurtzite film causes age hardening of 1-2 GPa
Thermal and mechanical stability of wurtzite-ZrAlN/cubic-TiN and wurtzite-ZrAlN/cubic-ZrN multilayers
The phase stability and mechanical properties of wurtzite (w)-Zr0.25Al0.75N/cubic (c)-TiN and w-Zr0.25Al0.75N/c-ZrN multilayers grown by arc evaporation are studied. Coherent interfaces with an orientation relation of c-TiN (111)[1-10]||w-ZrAlN (0001)[11-20] form between ZrAlN and TiN sublayers during growth of the w-ZrAlN/c-TiN multilayer. During annealing at 1100 °C a c-Ti(Zr)N phase forms at interfaces between ZrAlN and TiN, which reduces the lattice mismatch so that the coherency and the compressive strain are partially retained, resulting in an increased hardness (32 GPa) after annealing. For the w-ZrAlN/c-ZrN multilayer, there is no coherency between sublayers leading to strain relaxation during annealing causing the hardness to drop. The retained coherency between layers and the compressive strain in the w-ZrAlN/c-TiN multilayer results in superior fracture toughness compared to the w-ZrAlN/c-ZrN multilayer as revealed by cross-sectional investigations of damage events under scratch and indentation tests.Preprin
Body fat mass and the proportion of very large adipocytes in pregnant women are associated with gestational insulin resistance.
Pregnancy is accompanied by fat gain and insulin resistance. Changes in adipose tissue morphology and function during pregnancy and factors contributing to gestational insulin resistance are incompletely known. We sought to characterize adipose tissue in trimesters 1 and 3 (T1/T3) in normal weight (NW) and obese pregnant women, and identify adipose tissue-related factors associated with gestational insulin resistance
Derivations that enable the testing of fetal urine production as a method of fetal surveillance
To calculate the measurement error of the hourly fetal urine production rate (HFUPR) and evaluate the implication of different methods for measuring the HFUPR, i.e. ellipsoid versus sum-of-cylinders method
Reducing uncertainty in health-care resource allocation
A key task for health policymakers is to optimise the outcome of health care interventions. The pricing of a new generation of cancer drugs, in combination with limited health care resources, has highlighted the need for improved methodology to estimate outcomes of different treatment options. Here we introduce new general methodology, which for the first time employs continuous hazard functions for analysis of survival data. Access to continuous hazard functions allows more precise estimations of survival outcomes for different treatment options. We illustrate the methodology by calculating outcomes for adjuvant treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumours with imatinib mesylate, which selectively inhibits the activity of a cancer-causing enzyme and is a hallmark representative for the new generation of cancer drugs. The calculations reveal that optimal drug pricing can generate all win situations that improve drug availability to patients, make the most of public expenditure on drugs and increase pharmaceutical company gross profits. The use of continuous hazard functions for analysis of survival data may reduce uncertainty in health care resource allocation, and the methodology can be used for drug price negotiations and to investigate health care intervention thresholds. Health policy makers, pharmaceutical industry, reimbursement authorities and insurance companies, as well as clinicians and patient organisations, should find the methodology useful
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