How patients and families describe major medical treatments: They are no longer living, just existing

Background: As more life-sustaining treatments become available, the need to provide patients and families clarity about what these treatments are and what they do is increasing. Little is known about how patients and families conceptualize life support. Objective: To explore the discourse that patients and families used to describe major medical treatments in their accounts of treatment decision-making. Methods: This study is a secondary data analysis of a survey sent to random addresses in Wisconsin regarding experiences with major medical treatment decision-making. This analysis includes the subsample of 366 respondents who specified the type of decision made in the survey\u27s open-ended questions. Inductive content analysis was used to qualitatively analyze the responses to the open-ended questions, with particular attention to how respondents described the treatment in their responses. Results: Respondents\u27 descriptions showed a conceptualization of engaging in major medical treatments as keeping patients alive, whereas discontinuing or choosing not to engage in such treatments would bring about the patient\u27s death. However, respondents recognized the potential adverse consequences of engaging in major medical treatments, such as their capacity to cause pain or result in an undesirable neurologic state. Additionally, respondents described the limitations of such treatment regarding the uncertainty of the treatments providing the desired outcome or their uselessness in situations in which the patient\u27s death would be inevitable. Conclusion: Understanding how patients and families make sense of major medical treatments can help clinicians during decision-making conversations

Oxygen permeation and creep behavior of Ca1-xSrxTi0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3-δ (x=0, 0.5) membrane materials

Oxygen permeation measurements were performed on dense symmetric samples of Ca0.5Sr0.5Ti0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3−δ and compared to CaTi0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3−δ in order to assess the influence of the perovskite lattice volume on oxygen permeation. Oxygen flux measurements were performed in the temperature range 700–1000 °C and as function of feed side pO2 from 10−2 to 1 bar, and at high pressures up to 4 bar with a pO2 of 3.36 bar. The O2 permeability of the Sr-doped sample was significantly lower than that of the Sr-free sample, amounting to 3.9×10−3 mL min−1 cm−1 at 900 °C for a feed side pO2 of 0.21 bar. The O2 permeability of CaTi0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3−δ shows little variation with increased feed side pressures and reaches 1.5×10−2 mL min−1 cm−1 at 900 °C for a feed side pO2 of 3.36 bar. This is approximately 1.5 times higher than the O2 permeability with a feed side pO2 of 0.21 bar. Furthermore, in order to assess the applicability of CaTi0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3−δ as an oxygen membrane material, creep tests were performed under compressive loads of 30 and 63 MPa, respectively, in air in the temperature range 700–1000 °C; the results indicate a high creep resistance for this class of materials. The measured O2 permeabilities and creep rates are compared with other state-of-the-art membrane materials and their performance for relevant applications is discussed in terms of chemical and mechanical stability.acceptedVersio

Mechanical characterization of ceramics by means of a 3D defect analysis

A three-dimensional defect study was carried out on CaTi0.9Fe0.1O3−d ceramic membrane material as a model study for the use of computed tomography in both microstructural analysis and mechanical characterization. The study demonstrated many advantages over the commonly used fractographic study which is also presented in this paper. The data obtained by computed tomography were further used for mechanical modeling and prediction of material’s behavior based on finite element analysis, where the stress state was also analyzed by varying the defect’s position and the loading configuration. The results obtained by these techniques were validated by microstructural studies, mechanical experiments and fractographic analysis. The fracture strength of the tested material was determined and compared to other potential membrane materials

Oxygen permeation and creep behavior of Ca1-xSrxTi0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3-δ (x=0, 0.5) membrane materials

Oxygen permeation measurements were performed on dense symmetric samples of Ca0.5Sr0.5Ti0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3−δ and compared to CaTi0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3−δ in order to assess the influence of the perovskite lattice volume on oxygen permeation. Oxygen flux measurements were performed in the temperature range 700–1000 °C and as function of feed side pO2 from 10−2 to 1 bar, and at high pressures up to 4 bar with a pO2 of 3.36 bar. The O2 permeability of the Sr-doped sample was significantly lower than that of the Sr-free sample, amounting to 3.9×10−3 mL min−1 cm−1 at 900 °C for a feed side pO2 of 0.21 bar. The O2 permeability of CaTi0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3−δ shows little variation with increased feed side pressures and reaches 1.5×10−2 mL min−1 cm−1 at 900 °C for a feed side pO2 of 3.36 bar. This is approximately 1.5 times higher than the O2 permeability with a feed side pO2 of 0.21 bar. Furthermore, in order to assess the applicability of CaTi0.6Fe0.15Mn0.25O3−δ as an oxygen membrane material, creep tests were performed under compressive loads of 30 and 63 MPa, respectively, in air in the temperature range 700–1000 °C; the results indicate a high creep resistance for this class of materials. The measured O2 permeabilities and creep rates are compared with other state-of-the-art membrane materials and their performance for relevant applications is discussed in terms of chemical and mechanical stability