Influence of Thickness and Sputtering Pressure on Electrical Resistivity and Elastic Wave Propagation in Oriented Columnar Tungsten Thin Films.

Tungsten films were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering using glancing angle deposition with a constant deposition angle α = 80°. A first series of films was obtained at a constant pressure of 4.0 × 10 mbar with the films' thickness increasing from 50 to 1000 nm.

Correlation between deposition parameters of periodic titanium metal/oxide nanometric multilayers and their chemical and structural properties investigated by STEM-EELS.

We analyze structure and composition of titanium-based metal/oxide periodic multilayers prepared by reactive sputtering. The reactive gas pulsing process is involved to periodically inject the oxygen gas during the multilayers deposition. This approach allows the growth of regular and tunable nanometric TiO/Ti periods with thicknesses ranging from 14 to 50nm.

Oxidation-Induced Surface Roughening of Aluminum Nanoparticles Formed in an Ablation Plume.

Nanoparticles formed within an ablation plume produced by the impact of a nanosecond laser pulse on the surface of an aluminum target have been directly measured using small-angle x-ray scattering. The target was immersed in an oxygen-nitrogen gas mixture at atmospheric pressure with the O_{2}/N_{2} ratio being precisely controlled. The results for an increasing oxygen content reveal remarkable effects on the morphology of the generated particles, which include a decrease in the particle volume but a marked increase in its surface ruggedness.

Growth and composition of nanostructured and nanoporous cerium oxide thin films on a graphite foil.

The morphology and composition of CeOx films prepared by r.f. magnetron sputtering on a graphite foil have been investigated mainly by using microscopy methods.

Maximum noble-metal efficiency in catalytic materials: atomically dispersed surface platinum.

Platinum is the most versatile element in catalysis, but it is rare and its high price limits large-scale applications, for example in fuel-cell technology. Still, conventional catalysts use only a small fraction of the Pt content, that is, those atoms located at the catalyst's surface. To maximize the noble-metal efficiency, the precious metal should be atomically dispersed and exclusively located within the outermost surface layer of the material.

Preparation of magnetron sputtered thin cerium oxide films with a large surface on silicon substrates using carbonaceous interlayers.

The study focuses on preparation of thin cerium oxide films with a porous structure prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on a silicon wafer substrate using amorphous carbon (a-C) and nitrogenated amorphous carbon films (CNx) as an interlayer. We show that the structure and morphology of the deposited layers depend on the oxygen concentration in working gas used for cerium oxide deposition. Considerable erosion of the carbonaceous interlayer accompanied by the formation of highly porous carbon/cerium oxide bilayer systems is reported.

Pt-CeO2 coating of carbon nanotubes grown on anode gas diffusion layer of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell.

The growing of carbon nanotubes on a gas diffusion layer (GDL) was investigated using electron microscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy. The 30 nm thick Pt doped CeO2 layers were deposited by (rf) magnetron sputtering using a CeO2-Pt target on a carbon diffusion layer overgrown by carbon nanotubes. The anode prepared in such a way was tested in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell.

Platinum-doped CeO2 thin film catalysts prepared by magnetron sputtering.

The interaction of Pt with CeO(2) layers was investigated by using photoelectron spectroscopy. The 30 nm thick Pt doped CeO(2) layers were deposited simultaneously by rf-magnetron sputtering on a Si(001) substrate, multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) supported by a carbon diffusion layer of a polymer membrane fuel cell and on CNTs grown on the silicon wafer by the CVD technique. The synchrotron radiation X-ray photoelectron spectra showed the formation of cerium oxide with completely ionized Pt(2+,4+) species, and with the Pt(2+)/Pt(4+) ratio strongly dependent on the substrate.

Elaboration and characterization of barium silicate thin films.

Room temperature depositions of barium on a thermal silicon oxide layer were performed in ultra high vacuum (UHV). In-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses were carried out as well after exposure to air as after subsequent annealings. These analyses were ex-situ completed by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) profiles and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) cross-sectional images.

[Analysis of the spectra of mutational damage of the 21-hydroxylase gene in patients with adreno-genital syndrome].

The spectrum of mutations in the steroid 21-hydroxylase gene (CYP21B) and the frequency of 11 mutations among 66 patients with different forms of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) were analyzed by means of PCR amplification. Each of the CAH forms was characterized by specific spectrum of diagnostically important mutations. The salt-losing (SL) form of the disease was most frequently associated with gene deletion (39%) and the 668-13C-G mutation in the second intron (23.

[Impulse secretion of gonadotropins in patients with various forms of amenorrhea].

Circahoral variations of gonadotropin secretion were investigated in 5 healthy women in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, in 8 patients with normogonadotropic amenorrhea, in 6 patients with hyperprolactinemic amenorrhea, in 4 patients with hypogonadotropic amenorrhea, and in 10 patients with amenorrhea associated with body mass deficiency. The levels of LH, FSH, prolactin, estradiol and progesterone were determined by radioimmunoassay every 20 min for 4 hours. The results suggest that the blood levels of gonadotropins in different types of amenorrhea are determined mainly by an amplitude of their impulses.

[Ovarian steroid synthesis in tissue culture after administration of hormones and epidermal growth factor].

The features of steroidogenesis of immature mouse ovaries in culture under the influence of follicle-stimulating hormones (FSH), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and insulin have been investigated during the period of reinitiation of meiosis in the oocytes. Secretion of progesterone is stimulated after addition of FSH, hCG and of insulin and EGF combination to the medium. EGF increases FSH-stimulated progesterone secretion and inhibits estradiol secretion.

[The clinico-pharmacological characteristics of anteovin].

The clinical and laboratory studies carried out on 160 women showed a high contraceptive effect and good tolerance of anteovine. The contraceptive effect of the biphasic drug is determined by its antiovulatory action concurrent with inhibition of the basal periovulatory secretion of gonadotropins and secretion of sex hormones.

[The therapeutic effect of parlodel in the polycystic ovary syndrome].

Parlodel (2.5-50 mg/day) has been given for 1 to 7 days to 33 patients with the polycystic ovary syndrome (POS). The ovulatory menstrual cycle returned in 10 (30%) patients and 4 of them conceived.

[The reaction of the hypophysis to thyroliberin and metoclopramide in women with hyperprolactinemia].

Functional tests with i.v. injection of metoclopramide (10 mg) and thyroliberin (200 micrograms) with a record of PRL and TSH levels for 120 min.

[Antigens of the HLA system in different types of diabetes mellitus].

HLA antigens (A, B, DR) of the tissues of 171 patients with different types of diabetes mellitus were investigated. Controls were 1867 healthy Leningrad residents (control I), not investigated with the GTT, and 38 pregnant women with the unchanged GTT during pregnancy (control II). Some features of the frequency of occurrence of individual antigens and their interlocular (HLA A, B) combinations in type I and type II diabetes mellitus and diabetes of pregnant women were established.

[Hypothyroidism and hyperprolactinemia].

Blood thyrotropic hormone, thyroxin, tri-iodothyronine, FSH, LH, estradiol and progesterone levels were examined in 14 patients with primary hypothyroidism and 11 normal women of reproductive age. All the women under study were subjected to functional tests with intravenous thyroliberin (TRH) and metoclopramide. All hypothyroid patients had anovulatory infertility.

[Effect of methergoline on impulse secretion of gonadotropins in women with hyperprolactinemic ovarian insufficiency].

The impact of methergoline, a serotonin antagonist, on the levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin, estradiol and progesterone was studied in the blood serum of 20 females with hyperprolactinemia-induced ovarian insufficiency who were under a ten-day course of its administration in a dose of 4-12 mg/day. Two patients were studied for gonadotrophin impulse secretion before and during methergoline treatment. It was revealed that the administration of the preparation led to a significant elevation of serum FSH and LH, estradiol and progesterone levels (up to the values characteristic of the preovulation phase) and enhancement of LH impulse secretion by the pituitary body.

[The effect of metoclopramide on the hypophyseo-ovarian relations in patients with amenorrhea resulting from body mass loss].

The levels of FSN, LH, prolactin, estradiol, and progesterone were investigated in the blood of 26 women with hypothalamic amenorrhea (in 17 of them it resulted from body mass deficiency) before and during metoclopramide therapy (the drug was administered at a daily dose of 20 mg for 1 = 9 mos). The administration of the drug per os in 3 h resulted in a considerable rise of the blood level of prolactin in patients with body mass deficiency. Regular administration of the drug in this group normalized the anovulatory cycle in 5 women and caused pregnancy in one woman.

[Gonadotropic insufficiency in men with disorders of spermatogenesis].

The results of the investigation of 111 male patients with azoospermia, oligozoospermia and asthenoteratozoospermia revealed gonadotropic insufficiency in 28 (25.2%). The mean level of LH in the peripheral blood of the patients (4.

[Pregnancy and diabetes mellitus].

The dynamics of the placental lactogenic hormone level, insulin requirements, and glycaemia during pregnancy was studied in diabetes I and II patients and diabetic pregnancies. Fructose amine and C-peptide levels in maternal and neonatal blood were measured in different diabetes types. The risk of diabetes I development in relation to the incidence of the HLA-system antigens was assessed.