Modification of a Commercial Nanoindentation System for measurement of hysteresis cycles under mechanical load in polycrystalline ferroelectric films

A commercial hardness-tester by nanoindentation was modified to use metallic indenter tips for the measurement of hysteresis cycles of ferroelectric films under mechanical load and with high lateral resolution. A novel semi-automatic charge integrating module was developed to this aim. LabVIEW 8.6 graphical programming environment was used to control the data acquisition system (DAS), the sinusoidal high voltage generator (± 300V) and the charge integrating module in the measurement of the loops. The software also provides data correction due to non-ferroelectric-switching contributions to obtain reliable remanent polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) values. It also displays the loops both in polarization-field (P-E) and current density-field (J-E) modes. The experimental set-up was validated with measurements on dense PZT films (10μm) on platinised Si substrates. Coherent cycles are obtained using the novel semi-automatic charge integrator, the classical Sawyer and Tower circuit and using an electrometer. Under low indentation load causing quasi-elastic strain, the loops do not show any artifact.CSIC-PIE#201060E069Peer reviewe

Projeto de um aplicativo móvel para monitoramento domiciliar de bebês com cardiopatias congênitas complexas

Introducción: Las cardiopatías congénitas están relacionadas con defectos cardíacos que se desarrollan durante el embarazo y están presentes al nacer. El éxito de las intervenciones depende en gran medida de la educación de los padres/cuidadores sobre los signos y síntomas de alerta. Los cuidadores necesitan tener herramientas para hacer frente a las barreras del sistema de salud. Objetivo: crear un sistema como herramienta de seguimiento para los bebés con cardiopatías congénitas complejas que ayude a los padres/cuidadores y a los profesionales médicos a observar las variables fisiológicas del paciente y a brindar una retroalimentación oportuna y profesional a los padres/cuidadores desde la atención domiciliaria. Materiales y métodos:se presenta un sistema que proporciona apoyo a los pacientes que necesitan seguimiento de cardiopatías congénitas complejas mediante un programa de monitoreo en casa. El sistema consiste en una aplicación móvil que permite a los padres/cuidadores controlar las variables fisiológicas del paciente (peso, ingesta de alimento y oximetría). La información registrada en la aplicación se envía para ser evaluada en tiempo real por el equipo médico. Resultados: la aplicación proporciona un medio eficaz para enviar datos y comunicarse con el centro de control médico, además de ofrecer material educativo e informativo. De este modo, los padres/cuidadores reciben constantemente ayuda e información acerca del estado de su bebé. Conclusiones: la aplicación móvil podría ayudar a minimizar los costos de la atención médica y superar las limitaciones del seguimiento domiciliario, dando a los médicos la posibilidad de ver la evolución del paciente y dar recomendaciones oportunas. Como citar este artículo: Castro David, Pérez-Rivero Paula, Quintero-Lesmes Doris Cristina, Castro Javier. Design of a mobile application for home monitoring of babies with complex congenital heart disease. Revista Cuidarte. 2022;13(3):e2335. http://dx.doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.2335       Introduction: Congenital heart diseases are related to heart defects that develop during pregnancy and are present at birth. Children must regularly attend specialized clinical centers for treatment, which includes medical check-ups, hemodynamic procedures, and surgery. Nevertheless, the success of interventions largely depends on the education of parents and caregivers about the symptoms and warning signs that babies with complex congenital heart disease may present during the period between stages. Likewise, it is necessary for caregivers to have tools to face the barriers of the health system, such as, obstacles or delays in obtaining healthcare services. This facilitates timely health care for patients and avoids fatal outcomes or deterioration in quality of life. Materials and Methods: This document presents a system that provides support to patients with complex congenital heart disease in follow-up by a home monitoring program. The system consists of a mobile application that allows parents/caregivers to monitor physiological variables of the patients (weight, intake, and oximetry). The information registered in the application is sent for real-time evaluation by the medical team. Results:The application provides an effective means for sending data and communicating with the medical control center, in addition to offering educational and informative material. In this way, parents/caregivers get constant help and feedback about their baby's condition. Conclusions: The mobile application could help mitigate the costs of medical care and overcome the limitations of follow-up at home, giving doctors the possibility to see the patient's evolution and give timely recommendations. How to cite this article: Castro David, Pérez-Rivero Paula, Quintero-Lesmes Doris Cristina, Castro Javier. Design of a mobile application for home monitoring of babies with complex congenital heart disease. Revista Cuidarte. 2022;13(3):e2335. http://dx.doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.2335       Introdução: as doenças cardíacas congênitas estão relacionadas a defeitos cardíacos que se desenvolvem durante a gravidez e estão presentes no nascimento. O sucesso das intervenções depende em grande parte da educação dos pais/responsáveis sobre os sinais e sintomas de alerta. Os cuidadores precisam ter ferramentas para lidar com as barreiras do sistema de saúde. Objetivo: Criar uma ferramenta de sistema de monitoramento para bebês com doenças cardíacas congênitas complexas, que ajude pais/cuidadores e profissionais médicos a observar as variáveis fisiológicas do paciente e manter um feedback profissional e oportuno para os pais/cuidadores dos cuidados domiciliares. Materiais e Métodos: é apresentado um sistema que fornece suporte aos pacientes com cardiopatias congênitas complexas em acompanhamento através de um programa de monitoramento domiciliar. O sistema consiste em uma aplicação móvel que permite aos pais/responsáveis pelo acompanhamento das variáveis fisiológicas do paciente (peso, ingestão e oximetria). As informações registradas no aplicativo são enviadas para serem avaliadas em tempo real pela equipe médica. Resultados: a aplicação fornece um meio eficiente para enviar dados e se comunicar com o centro de controle médico, além de oferecer material educativo e informativo. Desta forma, os pais/responsáveis recebem ajuda constante e feedback sobre a condição de seu bebê. Conclusões: a aplicação móvel pode ajudar a minimizar os custos do atendimento médico e superar as limitações do acompanhamento domiciliar, dando aos médicos a possibilidade de ver a evolução do paciente e dar recomendações oportunas. Como citar este artigo: Castro David, Pérez-Rivero Paula, Quintero-Lesmes Doris Cristina, Castro Javier. Design of a mobile application for home monitoring of babies with complex congenital heart disease. Revista Cuidarte. 2022;13(3):e2335. http://dx.doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.2335      &nbsp

Cerámica y Vidrio Modification of a commercial nanoindentation system for measurement of hysteresis cycles under mechanical load in polycrystalline ferroelectric films

A commercial hardness-tester by nanoindentation was modified to use metallic indenter tips for the measurement of hysteresis cycles of ferroelectric films under mechanical load and with high lateral resolution. A novel semi-automatic charge integrating module was developed to this aim. LabVIEW 8.6 graphical programming environment was used to control the data acquisition system (DAS), the sinusoidal high voltage generator (± 300V) and the charge integrating module in the measurement of the loops. The software also provides data correction due to non-ferroelectric-switching contributions to obtain reliable remanent polarization (P r ) and coercive field (E c ) values. It also displays the loops both in polarization-field (P-E) and current density-field (J-E) modes. The experimental set-up was validated with measurements on dense PZT films (10μm) on platinised Si substrates. Coherent cycles are obtained using the novel semi-automatic charge integrator , the classical Sawyer and Tower circuit and using an electrometer. Under low indentation load causing quasi-elastic strain, the loops do not show any artifact. Keywords: Nanoindentation; Polycrystalline Ferroelectrics; Films; Hysteresis loops; Data acquisition systems Modificación de un nanoindentador comercial para medir los ciclos de histéresis ferroelectrica bajo la accion de una tensión mecanica en capas poliscristalinas Se ha modificado un nanoindentador comercial para el uso de puntas metálicas para la medida de ciclos de histéresis en láminas ferroeléctricas bajo carga mecánica y con alta resolución lateral. A este fin, se ha desarrollado un circuito integrador de carga semi-automático. Se ha utilizado el entorno de programación gráfica LabVIEW 8.6 para el control del sistema de adquisición de datos (SAD), un generador de alto voltaje sinusoidal (± 300V) y el circuito integrador en la medida del ciclo. El software desarrollado también realiza la corrección de los ciclos por sustracción de las contribuciones no debidas a la inversión de la polarización ferroeléctrica en la obtención de valores fiables de polarización remanente (P r ) y campo coercitivo (E c ). La representación del ciclo puede hacerse como polarización-campo eléctrico (P-E) o como densidad de corriente-campo eléctrico (J-E). El sistema se ha verificado mediante la medida de ciclos de histéresis en láminas densas de PZT (10μm) sobre sustratos de silicio recubierto con platino. Se ha obtenido resultados coherentes en las medidas utilizando el integrador de carga, el clásico circuito de Sawer y Tower y un electrómetro. Se ha comprobado que no hay artefactos en la medida cuando esta se realiza en el nanoindentador bajo pequeñas cargas que generan deformación cuasi-elástica. Palabras clave: Nanoindentación; Ferroeléctricos policristalinos; Láminas; Ciclos de histéresis; Sistemas de adquisión de dato

Miradas y voces de la Investigación Educativa III : Formación y desarrollo profesional docente. Innovación Educativa con miras a la justicia social. Aportes desde la Investigación Educativa

Fil: Ferreyra, Horacio Ademar. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Sañudo Guerra, Lya. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; Argentin

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe