Self-Diffusion versus Intentional Doping: Beneficial and Damaging Impact on Hematite Photoanode Interfaces.

The comprehension of side effects caused by high-temperature thermal treatments in the design of (photo)electrodes is essential to achieve efficient and cost-effective devices for solar water splitting. This investigation explores the beneficial and damaging impacts of thermal treatments in the (photo)electrode design, unraveling the impact of self-diffusion and its consequences. The industrial-friendly polymeric precursor synthesis (PPS) method, which is known for its easy technological application, was chosen as the fabrication technique for hematite photoabsorbers. For substrate evaluation, two types of conductive glass substrates, aluminum borosilicate and quartz, both coated with fluorine-doped tin oxide (ABS/FTO and QTZ/FTO, respectively), were subjected to thermal treatments following the PPS protocol. Optical and structural analyses showed no significant alterations in substrate properties, whereas X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed the migration of silicon and calcium ions from the glass component to the FTO surface. This diffusion can be further mitigated by an oxide buffer layer. To track the potential ion diffusion on the photoabsorber surface and assess its effect on the photoelectrode performance, hematite was selected as the model material and deposited onto the glass substrates. From all the ions that could possibly migrate, only Si4+ and Ca2+ originating from the glass component, as well as Sn4+ from the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), were detected on the surface of the hematite photoabsorber. Interestingly, the so-called "self-diffusion" of these ions did not result in any beneficial effect on the hematite photoelectrochemical response. Instead, intentional modifications showed more substantial impacts on the photoelectrochemical efficiency compared to unintentional self-diffusion. Therefore, "self-diffusion", which can unintentionally dope the hematite, is not sufficient to significantly impact the final photocurrent. These findings emphasize the importance of understanding the true effect of thermal treatments on the photoelectrode properties to unlock their full potential in photoelectrochemical applications.

Transforming Two Decades of ePR Data to OMOP CDM for Clinical Research.

This paper presents the extract-transform-and-load (ETL) process from the Electronic Patient Records (ePR) at the Heart Institute (InCor) to the OMOP Common Data Model (CDM) format. We describe the initial database characterization, relational source mappings, selection filters, data transformations and patient de-identification using the open-source OHDSI tools and SQL scripts. We evaluate the resulting InCor-CDM database by recreating the same patient cohort from a previous reference study (over the original data source) and comparing the cohorts' descriptive statistics and inclusion reports. The results exhibit that up to 91% of the reference patients were retrieved by our method from the ePR through InCor-CDM, with AUC=0.938. The results indicate that the method that we employed was able to produce a new database that was both consistent with the original data and in accordance to the OMOP CDM standard.

Managing medical images and clinical information: InCor's experience.

Patients usually get medical assistance in several clinics and hospitals during their lifetime, archiving vital information in a dispersed way. Clearly, a proper patient care should take into account that information in order to check for incompatibilities, avoid unnecessary exams, and get relevant clinical history. The Heart Institute (InCor) of São Paulo, Brazil, has been committed to the goal of integrating all exams and clinical information within the institution and other hospitals. Since InCor is one of the six institutes of the University of São Paulo Medical School and each institute has its own information system, exchanging information among the institutes is also a very important aspect that has been considered. In the last few years, a system for transmission, archiving, retrieval, processing, and visualization of medical images integrated with a hospital information system has been successfully created and constitutes the InCor's electronic patient record (EPR). This work describes the experience in the effort to develop a functional and comprehensive EPR, which includes laboratory exams, images (static, dynamic, and three dimensional), clinical reports, documents, and even real-time vital signals. A security policy based on a contextual role-based access control model was implemented to regulate user's access to EPR. Currently, more than 10 TB of digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) images have been stored using the proposed architecture and the EPR stores daily more than 11 GB of integrated data. The proposed storage subsystem allows 6 months of visibility for rapid retrieval and more than two years for automatic retrieval using a jukebox. This paper addresses also a prototype for the integration of distributed and heterogeneous EPR.