| 1. |
- Elhai, M, et al.
(författare)
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Outcomes of patients with systemic sclerosis treated with rituximab in contemporary practice: a prospective cohort study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Annals of the rheumatic diseases. - : BMJ. - 1468-2060 .- 0003-4967. ; 78:7, s. 979-987
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To assess the safety and efficacy of rituximab in systemic sclerosis (SSc) in clinical practice.MethodsWe performed a prospective study including patients with SSc from the European Scleroderma Trials and Research (EUSTAR) network treated with rituximab and matched with untreated patients with SSc. The main outcomes measures were adverse events, skin fibrosis improvement, lung fibrosis worsening and steroids use among propensity score-matched patients treated or not with rituximab.Results254 patients were treated with rituximab, in 58% for lung and in 32% for skin involvement. After a median follow-up of 2 years, about 70% of the patients had no side effect. Comparison of treated patients with 9575 propensity-score matched patients showed that patients treated with rituximab were more likely to have skin fibrosis improvement (22.7 vs 14.03 events per 100 person-years; OR: 2.79 [1.47–5.32]; p=0.002). Treated patients did not have significantly different rates of decrease in forced vital capacity (FVC)>10% (OR: 1.03 [0.55–1.94]; p=0.93) nor in carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO) decrease. Patients having received rituximab were more prone to stop or decrease steroids (OR: 2.34 [1.56–3.53], p<0.0001). Patients treated concomitantly with mycophenolate mofetil had a trend for better outcomes as compared with patients receiving rituximab alone (delta FVC: 5.22 [0.83–9.62]; p=0.019 as compared with controls vs 3 [0.66–5.35]; p=0.012).ConclusionRituximab use was associated with a good safety profile in this large SSc-cohort. Significant change was observed on skin fibrosis, but not on lung. However, the limitation is the observational design. The potential stabilisation of lung fibrosis by rituximab has to be addressed by a randomised trial.
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| 2. |
- Juslin, N., et al.
(författare)
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Analytical interatomic potential for modeling nonequilibrium processes in the W-C-H system
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 98:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A reactive interatomic potential based on an analytical bond-order scheme is developed for the ternary system W-C-H. The model combines Brenner's hydrocarbon potential with parameter sets for W-W, W-C, and W-H interactions and is adjusted to materials properties of reference structures with different local atomic coordinations including tungsten carbide, W-H molecules, as well as H dissolved in bulk W. The potential has been tested in various scenarios, such as surface, defect, and melting properties, none of which were considered in the fitting. The intended area of application is simulations of hydrogen and hydrocarbon interactions with tungsten, which have a crucial role in fusion reactor plasma-wall interactions. Furthermore, this study shows that the angular-dependent bond-order scheme can be extended to second nearest-neighbor interactions, which are relevant in body-centered-cubic metals. Moreover, it provides a possibly general route for modeling metal carbides.
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| 3. |
- Erhart, Paul, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Dopants and dopant-vacancy complexes in tetragonal lead titanate: A systematic first principles study
- 2015
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Ingår i: Computational Materials Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0927-0256. ; 103, s. 224-230
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A systematic investigation of dopants in tetragonal lead titanate is presented by screening elements from the third period including K, Ca and all 3d transition metals. Formation energies and equilibrium transition states are determined by means of density functional theory calculations for both cation sites in the perovskite lattice, which allows us to discriminate between donor and acceptor type behavior. The stability of defect dipoles is determined by calculating the binding energy of transition metal-vacancy complexes. The results reveal that the tendency to substitute the Pb-site rather than the Ti-site monotonically increases going from Ti to Zn. The transition from Ti to Pb substitution depends both on the chemical equilibrium conditions and the position of the Fermi energy. This is most evident for Sc and Zn dopants that in principle can occupy both Pb-and Ti-sites depending on preparation conditions. Except for V all acceptor dopants form defect complexes with oxygen vacancies and thus can form defect dipoles causing hardening as well as aging effects. Defect dipoles involving Pb substitution and oxygen vacancies are found to be unfavorable for all dopants considered here.
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| 4. |
- Erhart, Paul, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Formation and switching of defect dipoles in acceptor-doped lead titanate: A kinetic model based on first-principles calculations
- 2013
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Ingår i: Physical Review B. - 1098-0121. ; 88:2, s. artikel nr 024107-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The formation and field-induced switching of defect dipoles in acceptor doped lead titanate is described by a kinetic model representing an extension of the well established Arlt-Neumann model [Ferroelectrics 76, 303 (1987)]. Energy barriers for defect association and reorientation of oxygen vacancy-dopant (Cu and Fe) complexes are obtained from first-principles calculations and serve as input for kinetic coefficients of the rate equation model. The numerical solution of the model describes the time evolution of the oxygen vacancy distribution at different temperatures and dopant concentrations in the presence or absence of an alternating external field. We predict the characteristic time scale for the alignment of all defect dipoles with the spontaneous polarization of the surrounding matrix. In this state the defect dipoles act as obstacles for domain wall motion and contribute to the experimentally observed aging. Under cycling conditions the fully aligned configuration is perturbed and a dynamic equilibrium is established with defect dipoles in parallel and antiparallel orientation relative to the spontaneous polarization. This process can be related to the deaging behavior of piezoelectric ceramics.
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| 5. |
- Ghorbani, Elaheh, et al.
(författare)
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Self-consistent calculations of charge self-trapping energies: A comparative study of polaron formation and migration in PbTiO₃
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Review Materials. - 2475-9953. ; 6:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study presents a systematic assessment of the behavior of self-trapped electrons in PbTiO3, which is a prototypical ferroelectric material with a wide range of technological applications. Since modeling of polarons depends sensitively on the applied method, the goal of this work is to identify the parameters used in density functional theory (DFT), which allow to predict the properties of polarons with high accuracy. The DFT+U method is employed to benchmark how the choice of k-mesh grids, lattice parameters, and pseudopotential (PP) affects the polaron trapping energy. Then, the appropriate parameters were used to study polaron trapping energy and its optical transition using the HSE06 hybrid functional. It is shown that the magnitude of the trapping energy is highly sensitive to the choice of the PP and the applied lattice parameters. A comparison of polaron trapping energies using the two functionals indicates proximity of the DFT+U result to the HSE06 result. Finally, configuration coordinate diagrams for the polaron-associated absorption and luminescence peaks in PbTiO3 are presented and compared to experiments.
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| 6. |
- Klein, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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The Fermi energy as common parameter to describe charge compensation mechanisms: A path to Fermi level engineering of oxide electroceramics
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Electroceramics. - 1573-8663 .- 1385-3449.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Chemical substitution, which can be iso- or heterovalent, is the primary strategy to tailor material properties. There are various ways how a material can react to substitution. Isovalent substitution changes the density of states while heterovalent substitution, i.e. doping, can induce electronic compensation, ionic compensation, valence changes of cations or anions, or result in the segregation or neutralization of the dopant. While all these can, in principle, occur simultaneously, it is often desirable to select a certain mechanism in order to determine material properties. Being able to predict and control the individual compensation mechanism should therefore be a key target of materials science. This contribution outlines the perspective that this could be achieved by taking the Fermi energy as a common descriptor for the different compensation mechanisms. This generalization becomes possible since the formation enthalpies of the defects involved in the various compensation mechanisms do all depend on the Fermi energy. In order to control material properties, it is then necessary to adjust the formation enthalpies and charge transition levels of the involved defects. Understanding how these depend on material composition will open up a new path for the design of materials by Fermi level engineering.
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