Three-Dimensional Epitaxy of Low-Defect 3C-SiC on a Geometrically Modified Silicon Substrate.

We demonstrate the growth of 3C-SiC with reduced planar defects on a micro-scale compliant substrate. Heteroepitaxial growth of 3C-SiC on trenches with a width and separation of 2 µm, etched into a Si(001) substrate, is found to suppress defect propagation through the epilayer. Stacking faults and other planar defects are channeled away from the center of the patterned structures, which are rounded through the use of H2 annealing at 1100 °C. Void formation between the columns of 3C-SiC growth acts as a termination point for defects, and coalescence of these columns into a continuous epilayer is promoted through the addition of HCl in the growth phase. The process of fabricating these compliant substrates utilizes standard processing techniques found within the semiconductor industry and is independent of the substrate orientation and offcut.

A Systematic Review of Methodologies Used in Models of the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic and complex disease, increasing in prevalence and consequent health expenditure. Cost-effectiveness models with long time horizons are commonly used to perform economic evaluations of diabetes' treatments. As such, prediction accuracy and structural uncertainty are important features in cost-effectiveness models of chronic conditions. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this systematic review is to identify and review published cost-effectiveness models of diabetes treatments developed between 2011 and 2022 regarding their methodological characteristics. Further, it also appraises the quality of the methods used, and discusses opportunities for further methodological research. METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted in MEDLINE and Embase to identify peer-reviewed papers reporting cost-effectiveness models of diabetes treatments, with time horizons of more than 5 years, published in English between 1 January 2011 and 31 of December 2022. Screening, full-text inclusion, data extraction, quality assessment and data synthesis using narrative synthesis were performed. The Philips checklist was used for quality assessment of the included studies. The study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021248999). RESULTS: The literature search identified 30 studies presenting 29 unique cost-effectiveness models of type 1 and/or type 2 diabetes treatments. The review identified 26 type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) models, 3 type 1 DM (T1DM) models and one model for both types of diabetes. Fifteen models were patient-level models, whereas 14 were at cohort level. Parameter uncertainty was assessed thoroughly in most of the models, whereas structural uncertainty was seldom addressed. All the models where validation was conducted performed well. The methodological quality of the models with respect to structure was high, whereas with respect to data modelling it was moderate. CONCLUSIONS: Models developed in the past 12 years for health economic evaluations of diabetes treatments are of high-quality and make use of advanced methods. However, further developments are needed to improve the statistical modelling component of cost-effectiveness models and to provide better assessment of structural uncertainty.

The Impact of Pulmonary Arterial Pressure on Exercise Capacity in Mild-to-Moderate Cystic Fibrosis: A Case Control Study.

Background. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an often complication of severe cystic fibrosis (CF); however, data on the presence and impact of pulmonary vasculopathy in adult CF patients with milder disease, is very limited. Aim. To investigate, for the first time, the impact of systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (PASP) on maximal exercise capacity in adults with mild-to-moderate cystic fibrosis, without PH at rest. Methods. This is a Case Control study. Seventeen adults with mild-to-moderate CF, without PH at rest (cases) and 10 healthy, nonsmoking, age, and height matched controls were studied. All subjects underwent maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing and echocardiography before and within 1 minute after stopping exercise. Results. Exercise ventilation parameters were similar in the two groups; however, cases, compared to controls, had higher postexercise PASP and decreased exercise capacity, established with lower peak work rate, peak O(2) uptake, anaerobic threshold, and peak O(2) pulse. Furthermore, the change in PASP values before and after exercise was strongly correlated to the parameters of exercise capacity among cases but not among controls. Conclusions. CF adults with mild-to-moderate disease should be screened for the presence of pulmonary vasculopathy, since the elevation of PASP during exercise might contribute to impaired exercise capacity.