Synthesis of surfactant-assisted nickel ferrite nanoparticles (NFNPs@surfactant) to amplify their application as an advanced electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors.

Nickel ferrite nanoparticles (NFNPs) were synthesized in an alkaline medium (pH ∼ 11) using a wet chemical co-precipitation technique. To probe the effect of surfactants on the surface morphology, particle size and size distribution of nanoparticles; two surfactants, namely, cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), were applied. The native and surfactant-assisted nickel ferrite NPs were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The addition of surfactants (CTAB/SDS) effectively controlled the secondary growth of nickel ferrite particles and reduced their size, as examined by XRD, AFM, DLS, SEM and TEM. Characterization technique results affirmed that CTAB is a more optimistic surfactant to control the clustering, dispersion and particle size (∼22 nm) of NFNPs. To identify the impact of ferrite particle size on charge storage devices, their electrochemical properties were studied by using cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanic charge-discharge (GCD) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in 1 M KOH electrolyte through three-electrode assembly. NiFe2O4@CTAB showed a specific capacity of 267.1 C g-1, specific capacitance of 593.6 F g-1 and energy density of 16.69 W h kg-1, which was far better than the performances of other synthesized native NFNPs and NiFe2O4@SDS having larger surface areas.

An Ontology-Based Architecture to Support Language Variants of Model-Driven Electronic Health Records.

This paper describes the implementation of tools to support multiple language variants of the clinical information models that are used to define a model-driven EHR system. Beyond that, it describes how a complete EHR system can be created with multiple language variants, using the example of an EHR for clinical management of patients in a Fracture Liaison Service. A clinical information model, represented as ontology, was developed in the English language. This model was translated into Spanish and Mandarin, and the modeling tools were refined, on the basis of the experience gained. A workshop was then held, where participants used the EHR tools to create additional language variants in German, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Somali. The results from the workshop are presented here, with a brief summary of the lessons learned; further work will focus on improving the tools in response to those lessons.

Linking Health Records with Knowledge Sources Using OWL and RDF.

This paper describes a method by which the Web Ontology Language (OWL) can be used to specify a highly structured health record, following internationally recognised standards such as ISO 13606 and HL7 CDA. The structured record is coded using schemes such as SNOMED, ICD or LOINC, with the coding applied statically, on the basis of the predefined structure, or dynamically, on the basis of data values entered in the health record. The highly structured, coded record can then be linked with external knowledge sources which are themselves coded using the Resource Description Framework. These methods have been used to implement dynamic decision support in the open source cityEHR health records system. The effectiveness of the decision support depends on the scope and quality of the clinical coding and the sophistication of the algorithm used to match the structured record with knowledge sources.

Storing and Querying Longitudinal Data Sets in an Open Source EHR.

The cityEHR is an example of an open source EHR system which stores clinical data as collections of XML documents. The records gathered in routine clinical care are a rich source of longitudinal data for use in clinical studies. We describe how the standard language XQuery can be used to identify cohorts of patients, matching specified criteria. We discuss methods for ensuring good data quality and the issues in implementing XML queries on longitudinal data sets.

Patient Access to Their Health Record Using Open Source EHR.

In both Europe and North America, patients are beginning to gain access to their health records in electronic form. Using the open source cityEHR as an example, we have focussed on the needs of clinical users to gather requirements for patient access and have implemented these requirements in a new application called cityEHR-PA. The development of a separate application for patient access was necessary to address requirements for security and ease of use. The use of open standards throughout the design of the EHR allows the possibility of third parties to develop applications for patient access, consuming the individual patient record extracted from the full EHR.

Clinician-led development of electronic health records systems.

The open source cityEHR system was evaluated as a toolkit for clinician-led development of an Electronic Health Record for management of patients in the Ponseti clinic of a major London hospital. As a toolkit, it was found that the ontology-driven approach of cityEHR was too complex for clinicians to use. The toolkit was refined to use more familiar spreadsheet s to represent the ontology and was then used successfully to create an effective clinical system, generated automatically from the information model.