Mixture of Graphene Oxide/Phosphoric Acid/Melamine as Coating for Improved Fire Protective Performance and Enhancement of Surface Electrical Properties on Wood Chipboard.

Looking for multifunctional materials, an assessment of the performances both as fire retardant and generator of electrically conductive surfaces for a three component mixture of graphene oxide, phosphoric acid and melamine applied on wood chipboard was performed. A simple approach was used to investigate the intumescent char formation and quantify the loss mass during vertical burning tests, in which the prepared samples were exposed for a certain time interval to a flame generated by an ethanol lamp in ambient conditions. Moreover, mass loss evolution and structural changes that occur during the burning process were more comprehensive investigated by differential thermal and thermogravimetric (DTA/TGA) techniques. By comparing the performances between the wood chipboard samples without any coverage and those covered with one or multiple component mixture, an increase of protection against the fire action was noticed when the three component mixture was used. Also, an improvement of the electrical properties was observed, after flame exposure of the samples covered with multiple layers (i.e., two and three), when the three component mixture was used. Morphological and structural investigations by microscopy (optical and electronic-SEMEDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and spectral (Raman, FTIR) methods are described. An assessment of market potential is also discussed.

Isothermal annealing study of the EH1 and EH3 levels in n-type 4H-SiC.

Particle irradiation is known to give rise to several majority carrier traps in the band gap of n-type 4H-SiC, in the 0.4-1.6 eV energy range below the conduction band edge (E C). Among these traps, the EH1 (E C-0.4 eV) and the EH3 (E C-0.7 eV) are the least thermally stable ones and not much is known on their microscopic origin. In order to understand the nature of EH1 and EH3, their annealing kinetics was studied by means of deep level transient spectroscopy and the results were interpreted by invoking the diffusion-limited theory. It is found that EH1 and EH3 are two different charge states of the same defect, labeled EH-center, that anneals out with an activation energy of ∼1.1 eV and whose nature is related to a carbon interstitial. Our study shows that the EH-center is not the same as the S-center defect which was reported by previous studies found in the literature.

PSYCHO-SOCIAL ASPECTS OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN WOMEN WITH ENDOMETRIOSIS.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the impact of endometriosis on the quality of life. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Study group of 205 women, aged between 18-45 years old, hospitalized in the "Cuza-Voda" Hospital of Iasi, between 2013-2015. We used the Fertility Problem Inventory, the Endometriosis Health Profile and the Beck Depression Inventory. RESULTS: We first realized a descriptive analyses of patients' health related quality of life - 60% of women reported higher infertility distress associated with relationship issues caused by difficulties to conceive. The descriptive analysis over the quality of life in patients with endometriosis suggests that the high level of stress related factors, are: the loss over the control of the symptoms, dyspareunia and altered emotional status. Regarding the sexual aspect of life, almost a quarter of the women complained about an altered sexual status, due to both fear of failing in conceiving and dyspareunia caused by the endometriosis. The descriptive analysis over the infertility related stress suggests that the factors associated with a high level of stress are: sadness, pessimism, feeling of failure, irritability, lack of confidence, self-hatred and fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with endometriosis are dealing daily with a large spectrum of symptoms, including pain, dyspareunia, emotional instability and high levels of stress, which have a negative impact upon the quality of life, by lowering it on different levels. Also, within the present study we showed a significant presence of high infertility stress in patients of all ages that lead to depression and social anxiety.

Human alveolar macrophages express elafin and secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor.

Elafin and secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) are two structurally related serine protease inhibitors present in the lung. The cellular origin of elafin in the alveolar space is unknown. It has been suggested that at least one alveolar leukocyte population express elafin. We therefore postulated that the alveolar macrophage, as the most numerous leukocyte in the alveolar space, express elafin. On the other hand, it is unclear whether human alveolar macrophages are a source of SLPI. In the present study, we showed by RT-PCR that human alveolar macrophages, but not peripheral blood monocytes, express elafin and SLPI transcripts. Elafin, but not SLPI, mRNA expression was increased time dependently in alveolar macrophages stimulated with Saccharopolyspora rectivirgula antigen (50 microg/ml), a causative agent of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, but not LPS (10 microg/ml). Intracellular or cell-associated elafin protein accumulated after 24 h of culture only in S. rectivirgula antigen-stimulated alveolar macrophages as shown by Western blot. In contrast, alveolar macrophages release 50+/-6 pg/ml of SLPI in culture medium with no increase in function of time. Alveolar macrophages could be a source of elafin in the lung. In addition to lung structural cells, SLPI could also be derived from alveolar macrophages.