Perinatal preterm brain injury. Risk assessment, antenatal surveillance and managing

This work reports the results of two different lines of research: 1. On the employment of ultrasound in the management of fetuses with intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR); 2. On management of preterm birth for prevention of neurological impairment in high-risk pregnancies and low risk pregnancies. Pre-natal flow data and post-natal neurological outcome in IUGR fetuses have been evaluated. Doppler ultrasound in obstetrics has allowed the detection of the early signs of fetal demise, involving the management of pregnancies at risk of fetal hypoxia. The second line of research focuses on the need to identify strategies to predict preterm birth in asymptomatic low-risk women as well as in those presenting with threatened preterm labor (symptomatic high risk women) and underlines the importance to prevent brain injury and long-term neurological sequelae related to preterm deliveries. Neurological insults result in significant immediate and longterm physical, emotional, and financial costs. Advances in obstetrical and neonatal care have led to survival at earlier gestational ages and consequently increasing numbers of periviable infants who are at significant risk for long-term neurological deficits. Therefore, efforts to decrease and prevent cerebral insults attempt not only to improve neurological outcomes in infants delivered preterm but also primarily to decrease preterm delivery

The Future is electrically driven – Power (not only) for cars

Air pollution issues, especially in metropolitan cities, are another driver for a change of fossil fuel based energy technology towards renewable energy sources and the use of electric power. However, electrical power is difficult to store. This presentation gives an introduction of the amount of electrical energy that may be needed for a transition of a fossil fuel based to an electricity based society, how different renewable energy sources can contribute, and how electrical energy can be stored in general. The second part focuses more on the technology of energy storage and conversion, especially in modern batteries and fuel cells. Materials science plays an outstanding role in the development of high performance in electrochemical devices. Processing technologies and various analysis methods will be presented and discussed in this talk

The Future is electrically driven – Power (not only) for cars

Air pollution issues, especially in metropolitan cities, are another driver for a change of fossil fuel based energy technology towards renewable energy sources and the use of electric power. However, electrical power is difficult to store. This presentation gives an introduction of the amount of electrical energy that may be needed for a transition of a fossil fuel based to an electricity based society, how different renewable energy sources can contribute, and how electrical energy can be stored in general. The second part focuses more on the technology of energy storage and conversion, especially in modern batteries and fuel cells. Materials science plays an outstanding role in the development of high performance in electrochemical devices. Processing technologies and various analysis methods will be presented and discussed in this talk

A Physical Derivation of the Capacitive Brick Layer Model in Polycrystalline Ceramics from Fundamental Electrodynamic Equations

The brick layer model in electrochemical impedance spectroscopy has been successfully used for decades to describe the behaviorof polycrystalline materials. Equivalent circuits were created to obtain information about grain and grain boundary properties fromelectrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. Previous publications have expanded on initial interpretations anddescribed grains and grain boundaries as plate capacitors filled with the grain and grain boundary material, respectively. However,this approach poses a number of significant issues, since key assumptions for the equivalent circuits do not match with the actualexperimental situation of the material when exposed to an outer electric field, thus calling into question the entire approach for theinterpretation