Nurses’ knowledge about perioperative care of patients with neurological diseases

This study investigated the level of nurses’ knowledge regarding the perioperative care of neurological patients. An author-developed questionnaire of 20 items was used in a sample of 94 hospital nurses serving in the neurology, surgery and anesthesiology departments and the intensive care unit. The average percentage of participants with correct answers was 49.2%. The mean value of participants' score was 9.8 ±3.4. Preexisting experience in the care of cases with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease was positively related to the level of knowledge (p = 0.001 and 0.014 respectively). The ascertained level of nurses' knowledge regarding the perioperative care of neurological patients was moderate, questioning their adequacy to handle such cases. Previous experience in the care of particular diseases had significantly positive impact on knowledge, suggesting potential improvement strategies through targeted education and specialization of nurses. In conclusion, nurse's knowledge regarding perioperative care of neurological patients was insufficient, requiring appropriate improvement interventions. © The Author(s) 2018

InGaN nanohole arrays coated by lead halide perovskite nanocrystals for solid-state lighting

Down-conversion of light via phosphors is central to the generation of white and multi-color emission for solid-state lighting. Lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) are viable contenders to phosphors as they offer higher emission yields with narrower linewidth and facile synthesis and compositional tunability across the visible. Herein, we employ green-emitting CsPbBr3 and FAPbBr3 and near infrared-emitting FAPbI3 NCs to efficiently down-convert the emission of InGaN/GaN structures. The nitride wafers are patterned into nanohole arrays which are filled by the perovskite NCs to minimize the nitride-NC separation while increasing the heterointerfacial area, thus improving light conversion via both non-radiative resonant and radiative energy transfer. The efficient quenching of the nitride emission dynamics in the presence of the NC overlayers accompanied by a concurrent increase of the NC emission, provides evidence of efficient light down-conversion with efficiencies as high as ~83±6% in the green and ~74±5% in the near-IR

Size-dependent charge transfer in blends of Pbs quantum dots with a low-gap silicon-bridged copolymer

The photophysics of bulk heterojunctions of a high-performance, low-gap silicon-bridged dithiophene polymer with oleic acid capped PbS quantum dots (QDs) are studied to assess the material potential for light harvesting in the visible- and IR-light ranges. By employing a wide range of nanocrystal sizes, systematic dependences of electron and hole transfer on quantum-dot size are established for the first time on a low-gap polymer-dot system. The studied system exhibits type II band offsets for dot sizes up to ca. 4 nm, whch allow fast hole transfer from the quantum dots to the polymer that competes favorably with the intrinsic QD recombination. Electron transfer from the polymer is also observed although it is less competitive with the fast polymer exciton recombination for most QD sizes studied. The incorporation of a fullerene derivative provides efficient electron-quenching sites that improve interfacial polymer-exciton dissociation in ternary polymer-fullerene-QD blends. The study indicates that programmable band offsets that allow both electron and hole extraction can be produced for efficient light harvesting based on this low-gap polymer-PbS QD composite