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Maternal migraine may contribute to mental heath problems in offspring but empirical evidence has been available only for bipolar disorders. Our objective was to examine the association between maternal migraine and the risk of any and specific psychiatric disorders in offspring.
Methods
This population-based cohort study used individual-level linked Danish national health registers. Participants were all live-born singletons in Denmark during 1978–2012 (n = 2 069 785). Follow-up began at birth and continued until the onset of a psychiatric disorder, death, emigration or 31 December 2016, whichever came first. Cox proportional hazards model was employed to calculate the hazard ratios (HRs) of psychiatric disorders.
Results
Maternal migraine was associated with a 26% increased risk of any psychiatric disorders in offspring [HR, 1.26; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.22–1.30]. Increased rates of psychiatric disorders were seen in all age groups from childhood to early adulthood. Increased rates were also observed for most of the specific psychiatric disorders, in particular, mood disorders (HR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.39–1.67), neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (HR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.37–1.52) and specific personality disorders (HR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.27–1.70), but not for intellectual disability (HR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.71–1.00) or eating disorders (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.93–1.29). The highest risk was seen in the offspring of mothers with migraine and comorbid psychiatric disorders (HR, 2.13; 95% CI, 1.99–2.28).
Conclusions
Maternal migraine was associated with increased risks of a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders in offspring. Given the high prevalence of migraine, our findings highlight the importance of better management of maternal migraine at childbearing ages for early prevention of psychiatric disorders in offspring.
Gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars encode information about nuclear matter at extreme densities, inaccessible by laboratory experiments. The late inspiral is influenced by the presence of tides, which depend on the neutron star equation of state. Neutron star mergers are expected to often produce rapidly rotating remnant neutron stars that emit gravitational waves. These will provide clues to the extremely hot post-merger environment. This signature of nuclear matter in gravitational waves contains most information in the 2–4 kHz frequency band, which is outside of the most sensitive band of current detectors. We present the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimised to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars. The concept uses high-circulating laser power, quantum squeezing, and a detector topology specifically designed to achieve the high-frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves. Above 1 kHz, the proposed strain sensitivity is comparable to full third-generation detectors at a fraction of the cost. Such sensitivity changes expected event rates for detection of post-merger remnants from approximately one per few decades with two A+ detectors to a few per year and potentially allow for the first gravitational-wave observations of supernovae, isolated neutron stars, and other exotica.
In support of the ICRF experiments planned on the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator, i.e. fast ion generation, wall conditioning, target plasma production and heating, a first experimental study on plasma production has been made in the Uragan-2M (U-2M) stellarator using W7-X-like two-strap antenna. In all the experiments, antenna monopole phasing was used. The W7-X-like antenna operation with launched radiofrequency power of ~100 kW have been performed in helium (p = (4–14) × 10−2 Pa) with the vacuum vessel walls pre-loaded with hydrogen. Production of plasma with a density higher than 1012 cm−3 was observed near the first harmonic of the hydrogen cyclotron frequency. Operation at first hydrogen harmonic is feasible in W7-X future ICRF experiments.
Delayed presentation to the emergency department influences acute stroke care and can result in worse outcomes. Despite public health messaging, many young adults consider stroke as a disease of older people. We determined the differences in ambulance utilization and delays to hospital presentation between women and men as well as younger (18–44 years) versus older (≥45 years) patients with stroke.
Methods:
We conducted a population-based retrospective study using national administrative health data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information databases and examined data between 2003 and 2016 to compare ambulance utilization and time to hospital presentation across sex and age.
Results:
Young adults account for 3.9% of 463,310 stroke/transient ischemic attack/hemorrhage admissions. They have a higher proportion of hemorrhage (37% vs. 15%) and fewer ischemic events (50% vs. 68%) compared with older patients. Younger patients are less likely to arrive by ambulance (62% vs. 66%, p < 0.001), with younger women least likely to use ambulance services (61%) and older women most likely (68%). Median stroke onset to hospital arrival times were 7 h for older patients and younger men, but 9 h in younger women. There has been no improvement among young women in ambulance utilization since 2003, whereas ambulance use increased in all other groups.
Conclusions:
Younger adults, especially younger women, are less likely to use ambulance services, take longer to get to hospital, and have not improved in utilization of emergency services for stroke over 13 years. Targeted public health messaging is required to ensure younger adults seek emergency stroke care.
In this paper, the generation of relativistic electron mirrors (REM) and the reflection of an ultra-short laser off the mirrors are discussed, applying two-dimension particle-in-cell simulations. REMs with ultra-high acceleration and expanding velocity can be produced from a solid nanofoil illuminated normally by an ultra-intense femtosecond laser pulse with a sharp rising edge. Chirped attosecond pulse can be produced through the reflection of a counter-propagating probe laser off the accelerating REM. In the electron moving frame, the plasma frequency of the REM keeps decreasing due to its rapid expansion. The laser frequency, on the contrary, keeps increasing due to the acceleration of REM and the relativistic Doppler shift from the lab frame to the electron moving frame. Within an ultra-short time interval, the two frequencies will be equal in the electron moving frame, which leads to the resonance between laser and REM. The reflected radiation near this interval and corresponding spectra will be amplified due to the resonance. Through adjusting the arriving time of the probe laser, a certain part of the reflected field could be selectively amplified or depressed, leading to the selective adjustment of the corresponding spectra.
Endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) is effective in reducing disability in selected patients with stroke and large vessel occlusion (LVO), but access to this treatment is suboptimal.
Aim:
We examined the proportion of patients with LVO who did not receive EVT, the reasons for non-treatment, and the association between time from onset and probability of treatment.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients with acute stroke and LVO presenting between January 2017 and June 2018. We used multivariable log-binomial models to determine the association between time and probability of treatment with and without adjustment for age, sex, dementia, active cancer, baseline disability, stroke severity, and evidence of ischemia on computerized tomography.
Results:
We identified 256 patients (51% female, median age 74 [interquartile range, IQR 63.5, 82.5]), of whom 59% did not receive EVT. The main reasons for not treating with EVT were related to occlusion characteristics or infarct size. The median time from onset to EVT center arrival was longer among non-treated patients (218 minutes [142, 302]) than those who were treated (180 minutes [104, 265], p = 0.03). Among patients presenting within 6 hours of onset, the relative risk (RR) of receiving EVT decreased by 3% with every 10-minute delay in arrival to EVT center (adjusted RR 0.97 CI95 [0.95, 0.99]). This association was not found in the overall cohort.
Conclusions:
The proportion of patients with acute stroke and confirmed LVO who do not undergo EVT is substantial. Minimizing delays in arrival to EVT center may optimize the delivery of this treatment.
Introduction: As the availability of Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA) to rule out pulmonary embolism (PE) increases, so too does its utilization, and consequent overutilization. A variety of evidence-based algorithms and decision rules using clinical criteria and D-Dimer testing have been proposed as instruments to allow physicians to safely rule out a PE in low-risk patients. However, studies have shown mixed results with respect to both physician uptake of these decision rules and their impact on improving ordering practices among physicians. The objective of this study is to describe the prevalence of D-Dimer utilization among ED physicians and its impact on positive yield rates of CTPAs in a community setting. Methods: Data was collected on all CTPA studies ordered by ED physicians at two very high-volume community hospitals and an affiliated urgent care centre during the 2-year period between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017. For each CTPA, we determined if 1) a D-Dimer had been ordered prior to CTPA, if 2) the D-Dimer was positive, and if 3) the CTPA was positive for a PE. Using a chi-square test, we compared the diagnostic yield for those patients who had a D-Dimer prior to their CTPA and those who did not. Results: A total of 2,811 CTPAs were included in the analysis. Of these, 964 CTPAs (34.3%) were ordered without a D-Dimer. Of those 1,847 patients who underwent D-Dimer testing prior to the CTPA, 343 (18.7%) underwent a CTPA despite a negative D-Dimer. When compared as a group, those CTPAs preceded by a D-Dimer showed no significant difference in positive yields when compared to those CTPAs ordered without a prior D-Dimer (9.9% versus 11.3%, p = 0.26). Conclusion: The findings of this study present a complicated picture of the impact of D-Dimer utilization on CTPA ordering patterns. There is evidence of suboptimal uptake of routine D-Dimer ordering, and adherence to guidelines in terms of forgoing CTPAs in low-risk patients with negative D-Dimers. While this study design leaves unanswered the question of how many CTPAs were avoided as a result of a negative D-Dimer, the finding of a similar positive yield among those patients who had a D-Dimer ordered versus those who did not is interesting, and illustrative of the issues arising from the high false-positive rates associated with D-Dimer screening.
Previous studies have shown that the polymorphisms in COMT gene and environmental factors affect the risk of drug dependence, but there’s no research shown in relapse of heroin dependence, and the mechanism underlying remains uncertain.
Objective
Examine the interaction between allelic variants of the catechol-O- methlytransferase (COMT) gene and environmental factors (encountering drug-related environmental situations, social support) in contribution to relapse in heroin dependence.
Aims
Construct the gene-environment interaction model in order to understand the mechanism for relapse in heroin dependence.
Methods
The 249 heroin dependent subjects who followed up at one year after abstinent by using the natural history interview (NHI), social support rateing Scale (SSRS), and other questionnaires were genotyped for eight tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) on the COMT gene. General Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (GMDR) was used to construct the gene-environment interaction model which impacting relapse in heroin dependence.
Results
The relapse group had higher frequencies of encountering drug-related environment (EDE) and G allele and GG genotype frequencies on COMT gene rs4680 locus and less Social Support Scale scores than that in the abstinence group. Logistic regression analysis showed that encountering more drug-related environment and GG genotype carriers were the risk factors for relapse in heroin dependence. GMDR analysis showed that the COMT gene was interact with the frequency of EDE and social support level to impact the relapse in heroin dependence.
Conclusions
Gene-environment interaction between COMT gene and the frequency of EDE and social support were related to heroin dependence relapse.
We aimed to investigate the heterogeneity of seasonal suicide patterns among multiple geographically, demographically and socioeconomically diverse populations.
Methods
Weekly time-series data of suicide counts for 354 communities in 12 countries during 1986–2016 were analysed. Two-stage analysis was performed. In the first stage, a generalised linear model, including cyclic splines, was used to estimate seasonal patterns of suicide for each community. In the second stage, the community-specific seasonal patterns were combined for each country using meta-regression. In addition, the community-specific seasonal patterns were regressed onto community-level socioeconomic, demographic and environmental indicators using meta-regression.
Results
We observed seasonal patterns in suicide, with the counts peaking in spring and declining to a trough in winter in most of the countries. However, the shape of seasonal patterns varied among countries from bimodal to unimodal seasonality. The amplitude of seasonal patterns (i.e. the peak/trough relative risk) also varied from 1.47 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.33–1.62) to 1.05 (95% CI: 1.01–1.1) among 12 countries. The subgroup difference in the seasonal pattern also varied over countries. In some countries, larger amplitude was shown for females and for the elderly population (≥65 years of age) than for males and for younger people, respectively. The subperiod difference also varied; some countries showed increasing seasonality while others showed a decrease or little change. Finally, the amplitude was larger for communities with colder climates, higher proportions of elderly people and lower unemployment rates (p-values < 0.05).
Conclusions
Despite the common features of a spring peak and a winter trough, seasonal suicide patterns were largely heterogeneous in shape, amplitude, subgroup differences and temporal changes among different populations, as influenced by climate, demographic and socioeconomic conditions. Our findings may help elucidate the underlying mechanisms of seasonal suicide patterns and aid in improving the design of population-specific suicide prevention programmes based on these patterns.
The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural–geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.
Sodium and chloride are the key factors maintaining normal osmotic pressure (OSM) and volume of the extracellular fluid, and influencing the acid–base balance of body fluids. The experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary Na+ and Cl− level on growth performance, excreta moisture, blood biochemical parameters, intestinal Na+–glucose transporter 1 (SGLT1) messenger RNA (mRNA), and Na+–H+ exchanger 2 (NHE2) mRNA, and to estimate the optimal dietary sodium and chlorine level for yellow-feathered chickens from 22 to 42days. A total of 900 22-day-old Lingnan yellow-feathered male chickens were randomly allotted to five treatments, each of which included six replicates of 30 chickens per floor pen. The basal control diet was based on corn and soybean meal (without added NaCl and NaHCO3). Treatments 2 to 5 consisted of the basal diet supplemented with equal weights of Na+ and Cl−, constituting 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4% of the diets. Supplemental dietary Na+ and Cl− improved the growth performance (P<0.05). Average daily gain (ADG) showed a quadratic broken-line regression to increasing dietary Na+ and Cl− (R2=0.979, P<0.001), and reached a plateau at 0.1%. Supplemental Na+ and Cl− increased (P<0.05) serum Na+ and OSM in serum and showed a quadratic broken-line regression (R2=0.997, P=0.004) at 0.11%. However, supplemental Na+ and Cl− decreased (P<0.05) serum levels of K+, glucose (GLU) and triglyceride. Higher levels of Na+and Cl− decreased duodenal NHE2 transcripts (P<0.05), but had no effect on ileal SGLT1 transcripts. The activity of Na+ /K+-ATPase in the duodenum decreased (P<0.05) with higher levels of dietary Na+ and Cl−. In conclusion, the optimal dietary Na+ and Cl− requirements for yellow-feathered chickens in the grower phase, from 22 to 42 days of age, to optimize ADG, serum Na+, OSM, K+ and GLU were 0.10%, 0.11%, 0.11%,0.17% and 0.16%, respectively, by regression analysis.
Diet, obesity and adipokines play important roles in diabetes and CVD; yet, limited studies have assessed the relationship between diet and multiple adipokines. This cross-sectional study assessed associations between diet, adiposity and adipokines in Mexican Americans. The cohort included 1128 participants (age 34·7±8·2 years, BMI 29·5±5·9 kg/m2, 73·2 % female). Dietary intake was assessed by 12-month food frequency questionnaire. Adiposity was measured by BMI, total percentage body fat and percentage trunk fat using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Adiponectin, apelin, C-reactive protein (CRP), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-IV), IL-1β, IL-1ra, IL-6, IL-18, leptin, lipocalin, monocyte chemo-attractant protein-1 (MCP-1), resistin, secreted frizzled protein 4 (SFRP-4), SFRP-5, TNF-α and visfatin were assayed with multiplex kits or ELISA. Joint multivariate associations between diet, adiposity and adipokines were analysed using canonical correlations adjusted for age, sex, energy intake and kinship. The median (interquartile range) energy intake was 9514 (7314, 11912) kJ/d. Overall, 55 % of total intake was accounted for by carbohydrates (24 % from sugar). A total of 66 % of the shared variation between diet and adiposity, and 34 % of diet and adipokines were explained by the top canonical correlation. The diet component was most represented by sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), fruit and vegetables. Participants consuming a diet high in SSB and low in fruits and vegetables had higher adiposity, CRP, leptin, and MCP-1, but lower SFRP-5 than participants with high fruit and vegetable and low SSB intake. In Mexican Americans, diets high in SSB but low in fruits and vegetables contribute to adiposity and a pro-inflammatory adipokine profile.
Recent studies indicate that early postnatal period is a critical window for gut microbiota manipulation to optimise the immunity and body growth. This study investigated the effects of maternal faecal microbiota orally administered to neonatal piglets after birth on growth performance, selected microbial populations, intestinal permeability and the development of intestinal mucosal immune system. In total, 12 litters of crossbred newborn piglets were selected in this study. Litter size was standardised to 10 piglets. On day 1, 10 piglets in each litter were randomly allotted to the faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and control groups. Piglets in the FMT group were orally administrated with 2ml faecal suspension of their nursing sow per day from the age of 1 to 3 days; piglets in the control group were treated with the same dose of a placebo (0.1M potassium phosphate buffer containing 10% glycerol (vol/vol)) inoculant. The experiment lasted 21 days. On days 7, 14 and 21, plasma and faecal samples were collected for the analysis of growth-related hormones and cytokines in plasma and lipocalin-2, secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA), selected microbiota and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in faeces. Faecal microbiota transplantation increased the average daily gain of piglets during week 3 and the whole experiment period. Compared with the control group, the FMT group had increased concentrations of plasma growth hormone and IGF-1 on days 14 and 21. Faecal microbiota transplantation also reduced the incidence of diarrhoea during weeks 1 and 3 and plasma concentrations of zonulin, endotoxin and diamine oxidase activities in piglets on days 7 and 14. The populations of Lactobacillus spp. and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and the concentrations of faecal and plasma acetate, butyrate and total SCFAs in FMT group were higher than those in the control group on day 21. Moreover, the FMT piglets have higher concentrations of plasma transforming growth factor-β and immunoglobulin G, and faecal sIgA than the control piglets on day 21. These findings indicate that early intervention with maternal faecal microbiota improves growth performance, decreases intestinal permeability, stimulates sIgA secretion, and modulates gut microbiota composition and metabolism in suckling piglets.
In ovo feeding (IOF) of l-arginine (Arg) can affect growth performance of broilers, but the response of IOF of Arg on breast muscle growth is unclear, and the mechanism involved in protein deposition remains unknown. Hense, this experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of IOF of Arg on breast muscle growth and protein-deposited signalling in post-hatch broilers. A total of 720 fertile eggs were collected from 34-week-old Arbor Acres breeder hens and distributed to three treatments: (1) non-injected control group; (2) 7.5 g/l (w/v) NaCl diluent-injected control group; (3) 0.6 mg Arg/egg solution-injected group. At 17.5 days of incubation, fertile eggs were injected 0.6 ml solutions into the amnion of the injected groups. Upon hatching, 80 male chicks were randomly assigned to eight replicates of 10 birds each and fed ad libitum for 21 days. The results indicated that IOF of Arg increased relative breast muscle weight compared with those of control groups at hatch, 3-, 7- and 21-day post-hatch (P<0.05). In the Arg-injected group, the plasma total protein and albumen concentrations were higher at 7- and 21-day post-hatch than those of control groups (P<0.05). The alanine aminotransferase activity in Arg group was higher at hatch than that of control groups (P<0.05). The levels of triiodothyronine at four time points and thyroxine hormones at hatch, 7- and 21-day post-hatch in Arg group were higher than those of control groups (P<0.05). In addition, IOF of Arg increased the amino acid concentrations of breast muscle at hatch, 7- and 21-day post-hatch (P<0.05). In ovo feeding of Arg also enhanced mammalian target of rapamycin, ribosomal protein S6 kinase-1 and eIF4E-bindingprotein-1 messenger RNA expression levels at hatch compared with those of control groups (P<0.05). It was concluded that IOF of Arg treatment improved breast muscle growth, which might be associated with the enhancement of protein deposition.
Little is known about the combined use of benzodiazepines and antidepressants in older psychiatric patients. This study examined the prescription pattern of concurrent benzodiazepines in older adults treated with antidepressants in Asia, and explored its demographic and clinical correlates.
Methods:
The data of 955 older adults with any type of psychiatric disorders were extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD) project. Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure. Both univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed.
Results:
The proportion of benzodiazepine and antidepressant combination in this cohort was 44.3%. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that higher doses of antidepressants, younger age (<65 years), inpatients, public hospital, major comorbid medical conditions, antidepressant types, and country/territory were significantly associated with more frequent co-prescription of benzodiazepines and antidepressants.
Conclusions:
Nearly, half of the older adults treated with antidepressants in Asia are prescribed concurrent benzodiazepines. Given the potentially adverse effects of benzodiazepines, the rationale of benzodiazepines and antidepressants co-prescription needs to be revisited.
The effects of in ovo feeding (IOF) of creatine pyruvate (CrPyr) on the hatchability, growth performance and energy status of embryos and broilers (Arbor Acres) were investigated. Five treatments were arranged as non-injected treatment (Control), 0.6 ml physiological saline (0.75%) injected treatment (Saline), and IOF treatments injected with 0.6 ml physiological saline (0.75%) containing 3, 6 or 12 mg CrPyr (CrPyr3, CrPyr6 or CrPyr12) into the amnion per fertile egg on day 17.5 of incubation. After hatching, 80 male chicks from each treatment with similar weight close to the average BW of their pooled group were selected and randomly assigned into eight replicates of 10 chicks each. The results showed that the hatchability was not affected among groups, whereas the hatching weight of broilers in CrPyr12 was significantly higher than the control and saline groups (P<0.05). At 21 day post-hatch, the BWs of broilers in CrPyr6 and CrPyr12 were increased relative to the control and saline groups (P<0.05). Chickens in CrPyr6 and CrPyr12 exhibited higher BW gain and feed intake than the control and saline groups during 8 to 21 days post-hatch and the entire experiment period (P<0.05). Compared with the control and saline groups, the total and relative weight of pectoral muscle of embryos or chickens were greater in CrPyr6 and CrPyr12 at 19th day of incubation (19 E), hatch, 3 and 21 days post-hatch (P<0.05). The concentrations of glucose and glycogen in liver were increased in CrPyr6 and CrPyr12 at 19 E and hatch (P<0.05). Neither glycogen nor glucose concentration in pectoral muscle was altered among treatments (P>0.05). Irrespective of dosage, the concentrations of creatine and phosphocreatine, and activities of creatine kinase in embryos were enhanced in CrPyr treatments at 19 E when compared with the control and saline groups (P<0.05). The activities of glucose-6-phosphatase in liver in CrPyr6 and CrPyr12 treatments were higher than the control and saline groups at 19 E (P<0.05). In conclusion, these results indicated that IOF of CrPyr, especially at the level of 12 mg/egg, could improve energy status of embryos and hatchlings, which was useful for enhancing hatching weight, BW and pectoral muscle weight until the end of the experiments at 21 days post-hatch in broilers.
A new lab-based aerosol jet fog (ajFOG) deposition system with an atomizer consisting of two opposing jets located within the deposition chamber is introduced and its capabilities are examined. The unique opposing configuration of the atomizer enables the formation of a highly uniform fog even from low volatility precursors. Aluminum oxide phosphate (AlPO) thin films were deposited onto Si wafers at room temperature and sub-atmospheric pressure by using an aqueous precursor. Films were characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry, x-ray diffraction and reflectivity, scanning electron microscopy, and metal/oxide/semiconductor (MOS) capacitor electrical measurements. Film thickness uniformity, density, surface roughness, and charge transport mechanisms were found to be comparable to spin-coated thin films deposited using the same precursor, demonstrating the effectiveness of this aerosol technique. A process model was developed to predict film thickness as a function of precursor concentration, exposure time, fog settling time, and number of exposures.
The Universe is permeated by hot, turbulent, magnetized plasmas. Turbulent plasma is a major constituent of active galactic nuclei, supernova remnants, the intergalactic and interstellar medium, the solar corona, the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere, just to mention a few examples. Energy dissipation of turbulent fluctuations plays a key role in plasma heating and energization, yet we still do not understand the underlying physical mechanisms involved. THOR is a mission designed to answer the questions of how turbulent plasma is heated and particles accelerated, how the dissipated energy is partitioned and how dissipation operates in different regimes of turbulence. THOR is a single-spacecraft mission with an orbit tuned to maximize data return from regions in near-Earth space – magnetosheath, shock, foreshock and pristine solar wind – featuring different kinds of turbulence. Here we summarize the THOR proposal submitted on 15 January 2015 to the ‘Call for a Medium-size mission opportunity in ESAs Science Programme for a launch in 2025 (M4)’. THOR has been selected by European Space Agency (ESA) for the study phase.