1,721,092 research outputs found
Comparative Effectiveness of Intralesional Therapy for Peyronie's Disease in Controlled Clinical Studies: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis
No full textIntroduction: Medical treatment of Peyronie's disease (PD) in terms of intralesional therapy is still a matter of debate. Aim: To compare the efficacy of different classes of intralesional therapy with a network meta-analysis (NMA) method. Methods: The search was conducted using documents published in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases until September 30, 2017. We included randomized controlled trials comparing at least 1 intralesional therapy with a placebo therapy or with another drug for the treatment of PD. All intralesional therapies have been considered: collagenase Clostridium histolyticum (CCH), hyaluronic acid, verapamil, and interferon α-2b. Main Outcome Measure: Outcomes of the study are the mean change in penile curvature (PC) and in erectile function (EF) assessed with the International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire. Results: In total, 8 comparisons matched with the inclusion criteria, which includes 1,050 patients. With regard to PC (degree) improvement, hyaluronic acid and verapamil showed worse outcomes when compared with CCH (−6.66 and −2.30) and interferon α-2b (−6.75 and −2.38). When considering improvement in EF, hyaluronic acid, verapamil and interferon α-2b showed a slight increase in mean change when compared with CCH (+2.39, +1.77, and +0.65). Moreover, verapamil and interferon α-2b showed slightly worse mean change in comparison to hyaluronic acid (+0.62 and +1.74), whereas interferon α-2b was worse than verapamil (−1.12). Clinical Implications: Based on this NMA, empirical therapy for PD should be avoided to offer the patients the best treatment in terms of level of evidence. Strengths & Limitations: In this NMA, we have provided, for the first time, evidence of the efficacy between different intralesional therapies for the treatment of PD. We were not able to compare all specific outcomes (ie, pain, plaque size, patient satisfaction) of PD, because of the lack of homogeneity across relevant studies. Moreover, because of the few included studies, a meta-regression analysis of predictive factors of treatment response was not calculated. Conclusion: This is the first meta-analysis comparing all available intralesional treatments for PD. CCH and interferon α-2b showed the best outcome in terms of PC, whereas hyaluronic acid was most efficient in relation to EF. Russo GI, Cacciamani G, Cocci A, et al. Comparative Effectiveness of Intralesional Therapy for Peyronie's Disease in Controlled Clinical Studies: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. J Sex Med 2019;16:289–299
The 500 °C Isothermal Section of the Al-Fe-Pr Ternary System
No full textPhases and equilibria involved in the isothermal section at 500 degrees C of the ternary Al-Fe-Pr system have been here investigated in the whole composition range by means of X-ray diffraction, optical and scanning electron microscopy, and electron probe microanalysis. Phase equilibria are characterised by the formation of two binary solid solutions, Pr2(FexAl1-x)17 with 0.34 <= x <= 1.00 (hR57-Th2Zn17) and Pr(FexAl1-x)2 with 0 <= x <= 0.20 (cF24-Cu2Mg), and four ternary compounds, tau 1-PrFe2Al10 (oS52-YbFe2Al10), tau 2-PrFe2Al8 (oP44-CeFe2Al8), tau 3-Pr(FexAl1-x)12 with 0.28 <= x <= 0.44 (tI26-ThMn12) and tau 4-Pr6(FexAl1-x)14 with 0.63 <= x <= 0.81 (tI80-La6Co11Ga3), which have been confirmed. The solid solubility ranges of the binary and ternary compounds have been considered and trends of their lattice parameters studied. The complete isothermal section has been obtained and the general features of the section are discussed and compared with those of other ternary systems of light R (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm) with Al and Fe
Liquid AlCoCrFeNi and AlCoCrFeNiX (X = Mo, Ta) High-Entropy Alloys on Graphite: Wetting, reactivity and CALPHAD modelling
No full textEffect of cooling rate on phase transformation in 6–8 wt% YSZ APS TBCs
No full textIn properly produced as-sprayed thermal barrier coatings of yttria partially stabilized zirconia (7YSZ) the only phase that can be found is the metastable tetragonal prime structure, t′. Even though t′is sometimes called “not transformable”, because it behaves as practically stable up to rather high temperature, long term exposure above 1200 ◦C produces its transformation in tetragonal, t, and cubic, c, phases. During cooling down to room tem-perature the t phase will transform in monoclinic, m, one. Although it is considered a martensitic transformation, high cooling rate, after prolonged high temperature exposure (over 1300 ◦C), can avoid or limit the evolution from t to m structure. The effect of the cooling rate on this transformation has been investigated in free standing TBCs both with porous microstructure and dense vertically cracked one, exposed at 1400 ◦C for 100 h. The samples have been analyzed by XRD and subsequent Rietveld refinement analysis to quantify the phase content: the results highlight that different cooling rates give different monoclinic contents, confirming the cooling rate effect on this transformation. Nevertheless, if the equilibrium, prevented by fast cooling, is restored, the trans-formation to m occurs; in fact it is sufficient to put in a furnace at low temperature for short duration the samples fast cooled down from 1400 ◦C in order to delete or weaken the cooling rate effect
Combined experimental and CALPHAD investigation of equimolar AlCoCrFeNiX (X=Mo,Ta,W) High-Entropy Alloys
No full textAiming to evaluate the effect of refractory metal additions to a quinary AlCoCrFeNi High-Entropy Alloy (HEA), three novel equimolar AlCoCrFeNi-X (X = Mo, Ta, W) HEAs were designed, arc-melted, annealed, and characterized by SEM-EDS, XRD and microhardness measurements. CALPHAD thermodynamic calculations were exploited to design compositions and thermal treatments of the selected HEAs as well as to predict constitution and interpret microstructure of the samples. On the other hand, the experimental results contributed to the validation of the in-house built GHEA thermodynamic database (including the Al, Co, Cr, Fe, Ni, Mo, Ta, W elements) used for the calculations. No TCP intermetallic was found to form in the quinary AlCoCrFeNi alloy. However, the formation of sigma, Laves-C14 and mu phases was observed in the samples containing Mo, Ta, and W, respectively, in agreement with the most accepted VEC-based phases stabilization criteria. The addition of the refractory metals led to a microhardness increase for all the investigated alloys. Overall, good agreement was observed between experiments and calculations, especially for compositional trends and phase amounts, allowing the database validation and supporting its applicability to phase equilibria simulation in the sixcomponent HEAs belonging to the Al-Co-Cr-Fe-Ni-X (X = Mo, Ta, W) systems
Thermodynamics of glass-formation in Cu-based alloys
No full textA thermodynamic analysis of glass-formation in binary Cu-Mg and Cu-Zr alloys has been carried out. To this purpose, the thermodynamic assessment of binary systems has been reviewed and suitable thermodynamic models for undercooled liquid alloys and for glass transition have been selected. Various binary Cu-Mg compositions have been prepared and amorphous samples have been obtained by rapid solidification. Experimental results both on equilibrium and non-equilibrium phases have been used in the assessment procedure. New parameters have been introduced in order to describe the liquid/amorphous phase. The agreement between calculated thermodynamic quantities and corresponding experimental data has been significantly improved. From calculated thermodynamic functions of Cu-Mg and Cu-Zr systems, driving forces for nucleation of various intermetallic phases have been estimated as a function of temperature and composition
The 500 °C Isothermal Section of the Al-Co-Nd Ternary System
No full textThe Al-Co-Nd isothermal section at 500 degrees C has been investigated in the whole composition range by means of x-ray diffraction, optical and scanning electron microscopy and electron probe microanalysis. The following ternary phases have been identified or confirmed: tau(1)-Nd4CoAl (cF96-Gd4RhIn), tau(2)-NdCo2Al8 (oP44-CeFe2Al8), tau(3)-NdCo3Al11 (unknown), tau(4)-Nd2Co3Al9 (oS56-Y2Co3Ga9) tau(5)-Nd5Co2Al2 (unknown), tau(6)-Nd2Co6Al19 (mS108 U2Co6Al19), tau(7)-Nd7Co6Al7 (tP40-Pr7Co6Al7), tau(8)-Nd2Co2Al (oI10-W2CoB2), tau(9)-Nd13Co14-xAl4+x (0 <= x <= 0.7, oS28-W3CoB3). The complex system of phase equilibria linking the large number of binary and ternary Al-Co-Nd phases at 500 degrees C has been completely determined. The general characteristics of the section have been discussed in comparison with those of other Al-Co-R systems
Thermodynamic and Kinetic Simulation of the Brazing Process Applied to Ni-Base Superalloys
No full textA combination of thermodynamic and kinetic modeling, in the framework of the CALPHAD approach, has been used to simulate the brazing process applied to the joining of a René 80 superalloy by a Df4b filler. For thermodynamic equilibrium calculations the ThermoCalc software has been used, equipped with the TCNI8 database, while diffusion simulations have been obtained using the DICTRA software. As a result, elemental as well as phase precipitation profiles in the joining area have been obtained as a function of the distance and as a function of time, during the heat treatment adopted for the brazing process. Then, calculation results have been compared to experimental observations of a real joining obtained by applying the same heat treatment of the simulation. As a conclusion the simulation procedure was validated by experiments
Thermodynamic analysis of the undercooled liquid and glass transition in the Cu-Mg-Y system
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