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- Nguyen, Thanh N, et al.
(författare)
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Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stroke Volumes and Cerebrovascular Events: A 1-Year Follow-up.
- 2023
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Ingår i: Neurology. - 1526-632X. ; 100:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Declines in stroke admission, IV thrombolysis (IVT), and mechanical thrombectomy volumes were reported during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a paucity of data on the longer-term effect of the pandemic on stroke volumes over the course of a year and through the second wave of the pandemic. We sought to measure the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volumes of stroke admissions, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), IVT, and mechanical thrombectomy over a 1-year period at the onset of the pandemic (March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021) compared with the immediately preceding year (March 1, 2019, to February 29, 2020).We conducted a longitudinal retrospective study across 6 continents, 56 countries, and 275 stroke centers. We collected volume data for COVID-19 admissions and 4 stroke metrics: ischemic stroke admissions, ICH admissions, IVT treatments, and mechanical thrombectomy procedures. Diagnoses were identified by their ICD-10 codes or classifications in stroke databases.There were 148,895 stroke admissions in the 1 year immediately before compared with 138,453 admissions during the 1-year pandemic, representing a 7% decline (95% CI [95% CI 7.1-6.9]; p < 0.0001). ICH volumes declined from 29,585 to 28,156 (4.8% [5.1-4.6]; p < 0.0001) and IVT volume from 24,584 to 23,077 (6.1% [6.4-5.8]; p < 0.0001). Larger declines were observed at high-volume compared with low-volume centers (all p < 0.0001). There was no significant change in mechanical thrombectomy volumes (0.7% [0.6-0.9]; p = 0.49). Stroke was diagnosed in 1.3% [1.31-1.38] of 406,792 COVID-19 hospitalizations. SARS-CoV-2 infection was present in 2.9% ([2.82-2.97], 5,656/195,539) of all stroke hospitalizations.There was a global decline and shift to lower-volume centers of stroke admission volumes, ICH volumes, and IVT volumes during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the prior year. Mechanical thrombectomy volumes were preserved. These results suggest preservation in the stroke care of higher severity of disease through the first pandemic year.This study is registered under NCT04934020.
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| 4. |
- André, Benny, et al.
(författare)
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Friction and contact resistance of nanocomposite Ti-Ni-C coatings
- 2011
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Ingår i: Wear. - : Elsevier BV. - 0043-1648 .- 1873-2577. ; 270:9-10, s. 555-566
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ceramic nanocomposite coatings in the Ti-Ni-C were deposited using PVD and studied with respect to tribological properties and contact resistance. It was shown that coatings could be deposited combining of a low contact resistance and a low friction coefficient against silver, making them suitable for use in high performance electrical contacts.Nine coatings with different amounts of C and Ni were deposited. Coatings on flat Ni plated copper substrates were tested in a tribological ball-on-disc setup against ball bearing steel balls. Depending on primarily the amount of carbon the coatings showed very different friction coefficient and wear rate. The coatings were also deposited on cylindrical Ni plated copper substrates. Using geometrically identical silver plated cylinders as counter surface these were evaluated in a test setup better resembling a real life electrical contact. For most coatings a low electrical contact resistance was measured. The evolution of friction coefficient and contact resistance was correlated to wear marks and contact tracks, with their generated tribofilms, as examined after testing using electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
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| 6. |
- André, Benny
(författare)
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Nanocomposites for Use in Sliding Electrical Contacts
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis nanocomposite materials for use in high performance electrical contacts are tested. Self mating silver as coatings on cupper substrates are the most used material combination in power connectors today. In this work two new concepts were tested. The first one was to change one of the mating surfaces to a hard thin coating and keep the other surface made of silver. Tested coatings were nanocomposites with hard carbides in a matrix of amorphous carbon. TiC/a-C and Ti-Ni-C/a-C were tested both electrically and tribologically. The total amount of carbon and the amount of carbon matrix was important, both for the electrical and the tribological properties. The Ti-Ni-C coating also showed that substituting Ti in TiC with the weak carbide former Ni changed the stability of the carbides. The substitution resulted in more a-C matrix and less C in the carbides. Thin coatings of nc-TiC/a-C and Ti-Ni-C/a-C showed high potential as material candidates for use in electrical contacts. The other tested concept was to modify the used silver instead of replacing it. This was done by embedding nanoparticles of solid lubricant IF-WS2 in the silver. The results from reciprocating sliding displayed low friction and high wear resistance. The modified silver surfaces lasted for 8000 strokes with a friction of about 0.3 while at the same time allowing for a low contact resistance. The results for surfaces of pure silver coating displayed a friction of 0.8-1.2 and that the silver was worn through already after 300 strokes. A new method to investigate inherent hardness and residual stress of thin coatings, on complex geometries or in small areas, was also developed. An ion beam was used to create stress free coating as free standing micro pillars. Hardness measured on the pillars and on as-deposited coating were then used to calculate the residual stress in the coatings.
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| 8. |
- Andre, Benny, et al.
(författare)
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Nanoindentation on micro pillars for determination of intrinsic hardness and residual stress in coatings deposited on complex geometries
- 2012
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Ingår i: Tribologia. - 0780-2285. ; 31:1-2, s. 22-31
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this work a procedure to assess the local residual stress in coatings deposited on complex substrate geometries is described. A focused ion beam (FIB) is used to mill structures small enough to relax from residual stress. Nanoindentation is used to measure the change in mechanical properties, most importantly the hardness, in relaxed coating and in as-deposited coating. This change is then related to the residual stress in the coating. This relationship can then be used to calculate the residual stresses, at other positions or at other components, from changes in hardness as measured as before. The procedure is demonstrated on two different PVD coatings; one TiN coating and one nanocomposite TiNiC coating. On a large high speed steel substrate the TiN was measured to a hardness of 28 GPa using conventional techniques. Using this procedure, this could be divided into 23 GPa of intrinsic hardness and an extra 5 GPa induced by the known compressive residual stress of 3.9 GPa. When the same coating was deposited on a thin wire the full procedure allowed the residual stress to be determined to 3.5 GPa in compression.
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| 10. |
- André, Benny, et al.
(författare)
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Performance and Tribofilm Formation of a Low-Friction Coating Incorporating Inorganic Fullerene Like Nano-Particles
- 2009
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A new tribological coating with potential as a coating for components for low-friction applications is tested and compared to three, state of the art, commercial low-friction PVD coatings. The new coating is an electrodeposited coating composed by a Ni-P matrix incorporating fullerene like nanoparticles of WS2. The performance of the new coating is compared with three reference coatings in a ball-on-disc setup. The tribological tests involved ball bearing steel balls slid on coated discs, under different conditions of humidity and also with or without oil lubrication. Both mating surfaces were closely investigated in a scanning electron microscope and the low-friction tribofilms formed were further analysed. The correlations found between coefficient of friction, surface roughness of the wear scar, tribofilm formation and contact conditions are discussed. The new coating exhibits a very low coefficient of friction at low humidity, a behaviour closely resembling that of the MoS2-based commercial reference, whereas the carbon based PVD coatings tested exhibit the reversed dependence of humidity. The low-friction behaviour of the new coating is correlated to the formation of a WS2 tribofilm with a superficial alignment of the basal planes parallel to the sliding direction. When lubricated with a base oil, the beneficial tribofilm is not formed and the coefficient of friction is much higher. The results show that even though the coating is an electrodeposited coating it can compete with state of the art commercial PVD coatings.
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