Piperacillin/tazobactam‐induced neurotoxicity in a hemodialysis patient: A case report

Antibiotics are potentially a cause of neurotoxicity in dialysis patients, the most common are the beta‐lactams as ceftazidime and cefepime, and few cases have been reported after piperacillin/tazobactam use. This report presents a case of a hypertensive and diabetic 67‐year‐old woman in regular hemodialysis, which previously had a stroke. She was hospitalized presenting pneumonia, which was initially treated with cefepime. Two days after treatment, she presented dysarthria, left hemiparesis, ataxia, and IX and X cranial nerves paresis. Computed tomography showed no acute lesions and cefepime neurotoxicity was hypothesized, and the antibiotic was replaced by piperacillin/tazobactam. The neurologic signs disappeared; however, 4 days after with piperacillin/tazobactam treatment, the neurological manifestations returned. A new computed tomography showed no new lesions, and the second antibiotic regimen withdrawn. After two hemodialysis sessions, the patient completely recovered from neurological manifestations. The patient presented sequentially neurotoxicity caused by two beta‐lactams antibiotics. This report meant to alert clinicians that these antibiotics have dangerous neurological effects in chronic kidney disease patients.     

Flammenpyrolytische Silikatbeschichtung bei Normaldruck als Alternative zu Vakuumverfahren. Combustion CVD of silica as an alternative method to vakuum treatment

In advancement of Pyrosil®‐technology a new kind of precursor delivery was developed, build and tested on real substrates. A Lab‐demonstrator was build to demonstrate the resources of the technology.     

Determination of mechanical properties of thin films: a theoretical feasibility study

The aim of this work was to determine the principal mechanical parameters of a thin film on a substrate, i.e. Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, intrinsic stress, and coefficient of linear thermal expansion. First, standard experiments possibly suitable for this purpose were investigated theoretically. The margin of error of the mechanical parameters determined was estimated as dependent on the geometrical conditions, substrate properties, and error in the respective measurements. In addition, the homogeneity and stability of the parameters were taken into account, for instance inhomogeneity of the film thickness and possible modification of substrate parameters during film growth. To obtain meaningful results, the accuracy of the measurements as well as the homogeneity and stability of several geometrical and physical parameters in general must be extremely high. However, the experimental conditions were found to fulfill these requirements.     

“Ärztliche Freiheit und Berufsethos“ — Hängen ärztliche Berufsfreiheit und ärztliches Berufsethos zusammen?

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Reverse short channel effects in high-k gated nMOSFETs

Anomalous threshold voltage roll-up behavior, commonly referred as reverse short channel effect (RSCE), has been observed in high-k (HfO₂ on SiON buffer, Al₂O₃ on SiON buffer) gated submicron nMOSFETs, while the SiO₂ or SiON control samples show normal short channel effect (SCE) behavior. The possible causes such as inhomogeneous channel doping profile and gate oxide thickness variation near S/D ends have been ruled out. The results indicate that interface trap density that dependents on channel length is the main cause of the RSCE observed here. In addition, oxide charge also plays a role.     

On-line corrosion monitoring in geothermal district heating systems. II. Localized corrosion

Corrosion monitoring in district heating systems has traditionally been performed by using off-line methods, such as weight loss. The disadvantage is that the method is very slow, especially in low-corrosive environments, and that it only provides information about the past corrosion (accumulated over period of time). The purpose of the work is to test on-line monitoring methods in geothermal hot water in the district heating system in Reykjavik, Iceland. Geothermal water poses certain problems with regards to corrosion monitoring due to low conductivity, high pH and the presence of sulphide. These conditions make the geothermal environment low corrosive. However, a quality control is needed, especially since the sulphide causes the steel pipes to be more vulnerable towards localized corrosion. The methods used in this study were: linear polarization resistance (LPR), harmonic analysis (HA), electrochemical noise (EN) and zero resistance ammetry (ZRA). The Pitting Factor was measured with EN and showed promising results for measuring-localized corrosion on-line. A crevice corrosion cell also gave good results but had a low lifetime. However, the results of a galvanic corrosion cell (Fe/Cu) proved more difficult to interpret since they were dependent both on the dissolved oxygen and the sulphide level.