Association between Doppler assessment and secondary cesarean delivery for intrapartum fetal compromise in small-for-gestational-age fetuses.

PURPOSE: To elucidate the association between arterial and venous Doppler ultrasound parameters and the risk of secondary cesarean delivery for intrapartum fetal compromise (IFC) and neonatal acidosis in small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetuses. METHODS: This single-center, prospective, blinded, cohort study included singleton pregnancies with an estimated fetal weight (EFW) < 10th centile above 36 gestational weeks. Upon study inclusion, all women underwent Doppler ultrasound, including umbilical artery (UA) pulsatility index (PI), middle cerebral artery (MCA) PI, fetal aortic isthmus (AoI) PI, umbilical vein blood flow (UVBF), and modified myocardial performance index (mod-MPI). Primary outcome was defined as secondary cesarean section due to IFC. RESULTS: In total, 87 SGA pregnancies were included, 16% of which required a cesarean section for IFC. Those fetuses revealed lower UVBF corrected for abdominal circumference (AC) (5.2 (4.5-6.3) vs 7.2 (5.5-8.3), p = 0.001). There was no difference when comparing AoI PI, UA PI, ACM PI, or mod-MPI. No association was found for neonatal acidosis. After multivariate logistic regression, UVBF/AC remained independently associated with cesarean section due to IFC (aOR 0.61 [0.37; 0.91], p = 0.03) and yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.67-0.89). A cut-off value set at the 50th centile of UVBF/AC reached a sensitivity of 86% and specificity of 58% for the occurrence of cesarean section due to IFC (OR 8.1; 95% CI, 1.7-37.8, p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Low levels of umbilical vein blood flow (UVBF/AC) were associated with an increased risk among SGA fetuses to be delivered by cesarean section for IFC.

Black goes green: single-step solvent exchange for sol-gel synthesis of carbon spherogels as high-performance supercapacitor electrodes.

Nanoporous carbon materials with customized structural features enable sustainable and electrochemical applications through improved performance and efficiency. Carbon spherogels (highly porous carbon aerogel materials consisting of an assembly of hollow carbon nanosphere units with uniform diameters) are desirable candidates as they combine exceptional electrical conductivity, bespoke shell porosity, tunability of the shell thickness, and a high surface area. Herein, we introduce a novel and more environmentally friendly sol-gel synthesis of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) templated by polystyrene spheres, forming carbon spherogels in an organic solvent. By tailoring the molar ratio of resorcinol to isopropyl alcohol (R/IPA) and the concentration of polystyrene, the appropriate synthesis conditions were identified to produce carbon spherogels with adjustable wall thicknesses. A single-step solvent exchange process from deionized water to isopropyl alcohol reduces surface tension within the porous gel network, making this approach significantly time and cost-effective. The lower surface tension of IPA enables solvent extraction under ambient conditions, allowing for direct carbonization of RF gels while maintaining a specific surface area loss of less than 20% compared to supercritically dried counterparts. The specific surface areas obtained after physical activation with carbon dioxide are 2300-3600 m2 g-1. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy verify the uniform, hollow carbon sphere network morphology. Specifically, those carbon spherogels are high-performing electrodes for energy storage in a supercapacitor setup featuring a specific capacitance of up to 204 F g-1 at 200 mA g-1 using 1 M potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution as the electrolyte.

High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries with High Stability Derived from Titanium-Oxide- and Sulfur-Loaded Carbon Spherogels.

This study presents a novel approach to developing high-performance lithium-ion battery electrodes by loading titania-carbon hybrid spherogels with sulfur. The resulting hybrid materials combine high charge storage capacity, electrical conductivity, and core-shell morphology, enabling the development of next-generation battery electrodes. We obtained homogeneous carbon spheres caging crystalline titania particles and sulfur using a template-assisted sol-gel route and carefully treated the titania-loaded carbon spherogels with hydrogen sulfide. The carbon shells maintain their microporous hollow sphere morphology, allowing for efficient sulfur deposition while protecting the titania crystals. By adjusting the sulfur impregnation of the carbon sphere and varying the titania loading, we achieved excellent lithium storage properties by successfully cycling encapsulated sulfur in the sphere while benefiting from the lithiation of titania particles. Without adding a conductive component, the optimized material provided after 150 cycles at a specific current of 250 mA g-1 a specific capacity of 825 mAh g-1 with a Coulombic efficiency of 98%.

Hybrid carbon spherogels: carbon encapsulation of nano-titania.

Extraordinarily homogeneous, freestanding titania-loaded carbon spherogels can be obtained using Ti(acac)2(OiPr)2 in the polystyrene sphere templated resorcinol-formaldehyde gelation. Thereby, a distinct, crystalline titania layer is achieved inside every hollow sphere building unit. These hybrid carbon spherogels allow capitalizing on carbon's electrical conductivity and the lithium-ion intercalation capacity of titania.

A Facile One-Pot Synthesis of Hierarchically Organized Carbon/TiO2 Monoliths with Ordered Mesopores.

Sol-gel processing combined with soft templating and gelation-induced phase separation is very sensitive to the precursor sol composition. In this work we present a straightforward synthesis towards hierarchically structured, macroporous carbon/titania monoliths with ordered mesopores derived from resorcinol/formaldehyde monoliths and a glycolated titanium precursor. We demonstrate the influence of various reaction solvents, where diol-based media and the proportion of the catalyst seem to be essential in controlling spinodal decomposition, obtaining similar monolithic structures under different synthesis conditions. Based on these observations, we further homogeneously incorporated TiO2 into the carbon structure by an in situ synthesis approach, obtaining structural features similar to pure carbon materials with surface areas of about 400 m2 g-1 , periodically arranged mesopores with a mean distance of 10-11 nm and cellular macroporosity.

Tannin-Based Nanoscale Carbon Spherogels as Electrodes for Electrochemical Applications.

A promising route to monolithic, hollow sphere carbon assemblies based on sustainable precursors with a tailored nanostructure is presented. These carbon assemblies, recently termed carbon spherogels, are generated via a polystyrene sphere template-based sol-gel process of mimosa tannin and biomass-derived 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural. By completely replacing petroleum-based precursors (especially toxic formaldehyde) highly porous, nanoscale carbon monoliths are obtained, which are investigated as state-of-the-art, sustainable electrode materials for energy storage. This study defines the required synthesis parameters, in particular the highly acidic initial pH and a tannin/water ratio of at least 0.05 or lower, for a successful and homogeneous generation of these biobased carbon spherogels.

Hierarchically Organized and Anisotropic Porous Carbon Monoliths.

Anisotropy is a key factor regarding mechanical or transport properties and thus the functionality of porous materials. However, the ability to deliberately design the pore structure of hierarchically organized porous networks toward anisotropic features is limited. Here, we report two straightforward routes toward hierarchically structured porous carbon monoliths with an anisotropic alignment of the microstructure on the level of macro- and mesopores. One approach is based on nanocasting (NC) of carbon precursors into hierarchical and anisotropic silica hard templates. The second route, a direct synthesis approach based on soft templating (ST), makes use of the flexibility of hierarchically structured resorcinol-formaldehyde gels, which are compressed and simultaneously carbonized in the deformed state. We present structural data of both types of carbon monoliths obtained by electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption analysis, and SAXS measurements. In addition, we demonstrate how the degree of anisotropy can easily be controlled via the ST route.

Synthesis of amorphous and graphitized porous nitrogen-doped carbon spheres as oxygen reduction reaction catalysts.

Amorphous and graphitized nitrogen-doped (N-doped) carbon spheres are investigated as structurally well-defined model systems to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between synthesis, structure, and their activity in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). N-doped carbon spheres were synthesized by hydrothermal treatment of a glucose solution yielding carbon spheres with sizes of 330 ± 50 nm, followed by nitrogen doping via heat treatment in ammonia atmosphere. The influence of a) varying the nitrogen doping temperature (550-1000 °C) and b) of a catalytic graphitization prior to nitrogen doping on the carbon sphere morphology, structure, elemental composition, N bonding configuration as well as porosity is investigated in detail. For the N-doped carbon spheres, the maximum nitrogen content was found at a doping temperature of 700 °C, with a decrease of the N content for higher temperatures. The overall nitrogen content of the graphitized N-doped carbon spheres is lower than that of the amorphous carbon spheres, however, also the microporosity decreases strongly with graphitization. Comparison with the electrocatalytic behavior in the ORR shows that in addition to the N-doping, the microporosity of the materials is critical for an efficient ORR.

Furfuryl Alcohol and Lactic Acid Blends: Homo- or Co-Polymerization?

Furfuryl alcohol (FA) and lactic acid (LA) are two of the most interesting biomolecules, easily obtainable from sugars and hence extremely attractive for green chemistry solutions. These substances undergo homopolymerization and they have been rarely considered for copolymerization. Typically, FA homopolymerizes exothermically in an acid environment producing inhomogeneous porous materials, but recent studies have shown that this reaction can be controlled and therefore we have implemented this process to trigger the copolymerization with LA. The mechanical tests have shown that the blend containing small amount of FA were rigid and the fracture showed patterns more similar to the one of neat polyfurfuryl alcohol (PFA). This LA-rich blend exhibited higher chloroform and water resistances, while thermal analyses (TG and DSC) also indicated a higher furanic character than expected. These observations suggested an intimate interconnection between precursors which was highlighted by the presence of a small band in the ester region of the solid state 13C-NMR, even if the FT-IR did not evidence any new signal. These studies show that these bioplastics are basically constituted of PLA and PFA homopolymers with some small portion of covalent bonds between the two moieties.

Carbon aerogels with improved flexibility by sphere templating.

Mechanically reversible compressible resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) aerogels can be converted into mechanically reversible compressible carbon aerogels (CA) by carbonization in an inert atmosphere. By incorporation of polystyrene spheres into the RF gels as a sacrificial template, it is possible to create macropores with controlled size within the carbon framework during carbonization. The resulting templated carbon aerogel shows enhanced mechanical flexibility during compression compared to pristine samples. In addition, the presence of hierarchical porosity provides a porous architecture attractive for energy storage applications, such as supercapacitors.

Setting Directions: Anisotropy in Hierarchically Organized Porous Silica.

Structural hierarchy, porosity, and isotropy/anisotropy are highly relevant factors for mechanical properties and thereby the functionality of porous materials. However, even though anisotropic and hierarchically organized, porous materials are well known in nature, such as bone or wood, producing the synthetic counterparts in the laboratory is difficult. We report for the first time a straightforward combination of sol-gel processing and shear-induced alignment to create hierarchical silica monoliths exhibiting anisotropy on the levels of both, meso- and macropores. The resulting material consists of an anisotropic macroporous network of struts comprising 2D hexagonally organized cylindrical mesopores. While the anisotropy of the mesopores is an inherent feature of the pores formed by liquid crystal templating, the anisotropy of the macropores is induced by shearing of the network. Scanning electron microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering show that the majority of network forming struts is oriented towards the shearing direction; a quantitative analysis of scattering data confirms that roughly 40% of the strut volume exhibits a preferred orientation. The anisotropy of the material's macroporosity is also reflected in its mechanical properties; i.e., the Young's modulus differs by nearly a factor of 2 between the directions of shear application and perpendicular to it. Unexpectedly, the adsorption-induced strain of the material exhibits little to no anisotropy.

Maternal anxiety and its correlation with pain experience during chorion villus sampling and amniocentesis.

PURPOSE: Invasive prenatal diagnostic procedures, such as chorion villus sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis (AC), are routinely performed to exclude or diagnose fetal chromosomal abnormalities. The aim of this study was to investigate anxiety-dependent pain experience during CVS and AC and the potential factors that increase anxiety and pain levels. PATIENTS AND METHODS: During a 2-year period, women undergoing invasive procedures in three specialist centers were asked to participate in the study. Anxiety was evaluated before the procedure using the Spielberger State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory, and pain was evaluated directly after the procedure using a verbal rating scale. RESULTS: Among the women, 348/480 (73%) underwent AC, while 131/480 (27%) underwent CVS. There was a significant correlation between state and trait anxiety (p<0.0001). A positive correlation existed between the degree of anxiety and the level of pain experienced (p=0.01). There was a positive correlation for trait anxiety (p=0.0283) as well as for state anxiety (p=0.0001) and pain perception (p=0.0061) when invasive procedure was performed owing to abnormal ultrasound finding or to a history of fetal aneuploidy. Maternal age was found to be another influencing factor for the experienced pain (p=0.0016). Furthermore, the analysis showed a significant negative correlation between maternal age and anxiety. That applies for trait anxiety (p=0.0001) as well as for state anxiety (p=0.0001). The older the woman, the less anxious the reported feeling was in both groups. The main indication for undergoing CVS was abnormal ultrasound results (45%), and the main reason for undergoing AC was maternal age (58%). CONCLUSION: Procedure-related pain intensity is highly dependent on the degree of anxiety before the invasive procedure. In addition, the indication has a significant impact on the emerging anxiety and consequential pain experiences. These influencing factors should therefore be considered during counseling and performance.

Confined Etching within 2D and 3D Colloidal Crystals for Tunable Nanostructured Templates: Local Environment Matters.

We report the isotropic etching of 2D and 3D polystyrene (PS) nanosphere hcp arrays using a benchtop O2 radio frequency plasma cleaner. Unexpectedly, this slow isotropic etching allows tuning of both particle diameter and shape. Due to a suppressed etching rate at the point of contact between the PS particles originating from their arrangement in 2D and 3D crystals, the spherical PS templates are converted into polyhedral structures with well-defined hexagonal cross sections in directions parallel and normal to the crystal c-axis. Additionally, we found that particles located at the edge (surface) of the hcp 2D (3D) crystals showed increased etch rates compared to those of the particles within the crystals. This indicates that 2D and 3D order affect how nanostructures chemically interact with their surroundings. This work also shows that the morphology of nanostructures periodically arranged in 2D and 3D supercrystals can be modified via gas-phase etching and programmed by the superlattice symmetry. To show the potential applications of this approach, we demonstrate the lithographic transfer of the PS template hexagonal cross section into Si substrates to generate Si nanowires with well-defined hexagonal cross sections using a combination of nanosphere lithography and metal-assisted chemical etching.

Chemical phase separation strategies towards silica monoliths with hierarchical porosity.

In this tutorial review the preparation of monolithic silica materials with hierarchical porosity by the competing processes of sol-gel transition and chemical phase separation is summarized. Four principally different routes will be discussed in detail, including multiple micellar as well as high internal phase emulsion templating routes. Special emphasis is given to polymer-induced phase separation strategies either based on the deliberate choice of the polymer that is mixed into the gelling system or by the application of specifically designed hydrophilic silane precursors.

Reversibility and isotope effect of the calorimetric glass --> liquid transition of low-density amorphous ice.

We here report differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) scans recorded by repeatedly heating the H(2)O (D(2)O) low density amorph (LDA) which was made by isothermal decompression of very high-density amorphous ice (VHDA) at 140 K from 1.1 to 0.006 GPa. These DSC scans show a glass --> liquid transition endotherm with an onset temperature (T(g)) of approximately 137 (140) K at a heating rate of 30 K min(-1) accompanied by an increase in heat capacity of approximately 1.7 (1.5) J K(-1) mol(-1). We establish the reversibility of this effect by thermally cycling between its glassy state below 137 K and its highly viscous liquid state at 149 K. All calorimetric signatures, including H/D isotope effect, are highly similar to the signatures in hyperquenched glassy water (HGW). We argue that the observation of almost identical calorimetric traces for HGW and LDA implies that there is no need to reassign HGWs T(g) to higher temperatures provided that the viscous liquid state connected to both LDA and HGW behaves as an ideally "strong" liquid in the Angell classification. We furthermore show that LDA prepared by isothermal decompression of VHDA is more crystallization-resistant than LDA made from high-density amorphous ice (HDA) by isobaric warming. We suggest that the former route via VHDA removes "nanocrystalline remnants" in LDA which are still present in the latter after pressure-amorphization of hexagonal ice to HDA at 77 K.

Water polyamorphism: reversibility and (dis)continuity.

An understanding of water's anomalies is closely linked to an understanding of the phase diagram of water's metastable noncrystalline states. Despite the considerable effort, such an understanding has remained elusive and many puzzles regarding phase transitions in supercooled liquid water and their possible amorphous proxies at low temperatures remain. Here, decompression of very high density amorphous ice (VHDA) from 1.1 to 0.02 GPa at 140 K is studied by means of dilatometry and powder x-ray diffraction of quench-recovered states. It is shown that the three amorphous states of ice are reversibly connected to each other, i.e., LDA<-->e-HDA<-->VHDA. However, while the downstroke VHDA-->e-HDA transition takes place in the pressure range of 0.06 GPaLDA transition takes place quasi-discontinuously at p approximately 0.06 GPa. That is, two amorphous-amorphous transitions of a distinct nature are observed for the first time in a one-component system-a first-order-like transition (e-HDA-->LDA) and a transition which is not first-order like but possibly of higher order (VHDA-->e-HDA). VHDA and e-HDA are established as the most stable and limiting states in the course of the transition. We interpret this as evidence disfavoring the hypothesis of multiple first-order liquid-liquid transitions (and the option of a third critical point), but favoring a single first-order liquid-liquid transition (and the option of a second critical point).

Novel method to detect the volumetric glass --> liquid transition at high pressures: glycerol as a test case.

We report a novel method of detecting the glass --> liquid transition at high pressures, which comprises measuring the relative volume change incurred upon heating glassy samples into the liquid state. We show data on glycerol in the pressure range 0.050-1.00 GPa to demonstrate the viability of the method. The reversible glass --> liquid transition is observed by means of a kink in the relative volume change on heating the sample isobarically, which is attributed to the glass --> liquid transition temperature Tg. This kink can only be observed in the second and subsequent heating cycles since it is superposed by a compaction in the first heating cycle. The isobaric thermal expansivity beta, which is closely related to the first derivative of this curve, shows the features expected for a glass --> liquid transition, including a sharp rise of beta(glass) in a narrow temperature interval to beta(viscous liquid) and an accompanying overshoot effect. Both Tg and the size of the overshoot effect vary in accordance with theory upon changing the ratio of cooling to heating rates. From the shape of this curve the onset, inflection, overshoot peak, and endpoint of the glass --> liquid transition can be extracted, which can be employed to calculate the reduced glass transition width as a measure for the fragility of the liquid. Comparison with literature data allows quantifying the accuracy of the liquid's thermal expansivity beta to be at least +/-10%, while the error in beta is significantly larger for the expansivity of the glassy state. The reproducibility of the glass --> liquid transition temperature Tg is better than +/-2 K. Our glycerol data confirms literature studies showing a nonlinear increase of Tg with increasing pressure (approximately 35 K/GPa on average), which is accompanied by an increase in fragility.