Temperature dependence of mechanical properties in ultrathin Au films with and without passivation

ISSN:0884-2914ISSN:2044-532

The role of tactile stimulation for expectation, perceived treatment assignment and the placebo effect in an experimental nausea paradigm.

Introduction: Tactile stimulation during a placebo treatment could enhance its credibility and thereby boost positive treatment expectations and the placebo effect. This experimental study aimed to investigate the interplay between tactile stimulation, expectation, and treatment credibility for the placebo effect in nausea. Methods: Ninety healthy participants were exposed to a 20-min vection stimulus on two separate days and were randomly allocated to one of three groups on the second day after the baseline period: Placebo transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) with tactile stimulation (n = 30), placebo TENS without tactile stimulation (n = 30), or no intervention (n = 30). Placebo TENS was performed for 20 min at a dummy acupuncture point on both forearms. Expected and perceived nausea severity and further symptoms of motion sickness were assessed at baseline and during the evaluation period. At the end of the experiment, participants in the placebo groups guessed whether they had received active or placebo treatment. Results: Expected nausea decreased significantly more in the placebo groups as compared to the no treatment control group (interaction day × group, F = 6.60, p = 0.003, partial η2 = 0.20), with equal reductions in the two placebo groups (p = 1.0). Reduced expectation went along with a significant placebo effect on nausea (interaction day × group, F = 22.2, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.35) with no difference between the two placebo groups (p = 1.0). Twenty-three out of 29 participants in the tactile placebo group (79%) but only 14 out of 30 participants (47%) in the non-tactile placebo group believed that they had received the active intervention (p = 0.015). Bang’s blinding index (BI) indicated random guessing in the non-tactile placebo group (BI = 0; 95% CI, −0.35 to 0.35) and non-random guessing in the direction of an “opposite guess” in the tactile placebo group (BI = −0.52; 95% CI, −0.81 to −0.22). Conclusion: Tactile stimulation during placebo TENS did not further enhance positive treatment expectations and the placebo effect in nausea but increased the credibility of the intervention. Further trials should investigate the interaction between perceived treatment assignment, expectation, and the placebo effect during the course of a trial

Modular coating for flexible gas turbine operation

In heavy duty gas turbines, the loading boundary conditions of MCrAlY systems are differently weighted for different operation regimes as well as for each turbine component or even in individual part locations. For an overall optimized component protection it is therefore of interest to produce coatings with flexible and individually tailored properties. In this context, ALSTOM developed an Advanced Modular Coating Technology (AMCOTEC™), which is based on several powder constituents, each providing specific properties to the final coating, in combination with a new application method, allowing in-situ compositional changes. With this approach, coating properties, such as oxidation, corrosion, and cyclic lifetime, etc., can be modularly adjusted for individual component types and areas. For demonstration purpose, a MCrAlY coating with modular ductility increase was produced using the AMCOTEC™ methodology. The method was proven to be cost effective and a highly flexible solution, enabling fast compositional screening. A calculation method for final coating composition was defined and validated. The modular addition of ductility agent enabled increasing the coating ductility with up to factor 3 with only slight decrease of oxidation resistance. An optimum composition with respect to ductility is reached with addition of 20 wt.% of ductility agent

Large area arrays of metal nanowires

We present novel modified lift-off processes for the fabrication of large-area, uniform metal nanowire arrays. In all processes, dense line arrays with periods in the 50–100 nm range were obtained in photoresist films with Extreme Ultraviolet Interference Lithography (EUV-IL). The critical problem of preparing lift-off masks with a negative resist profile is solved by the use of either a bilayer resist stack of HSQ/PMMA or deposition of a metal layer at oblique angles on top of the patterned resist lines. As an added benefit, the metal deposition step enables fine-tuning of the width of the nanowires. Using the developed processes, Au and Cr nanowires with 8 nm–70 nm linewidth were obtained