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Hemorrhage secondary to rupture of a brain arteriovenous malformations (AVM) is one of the initial manifestations, and the main cause of, morbidity and mortality in patients with this condition. Current treatment strategies include endovascular embolization with the goal of AVM obliteration and neurological preservation. In the transvenous endovascular embolization procedure, adenosine is the preferred agent to induce temporary hypotension and allow adequate AVM embolization. We describe the intraoperative management of an adenosine-resistant 38 year-old male who underwent a successful intracranial AVM embolization after concomitant administration of gradually increasing doses of nitroglycerin. This report suggests that nitroglycerin infusion can be combined with adenosine boluses to create a pronounced and dose-dependent hypotension in patients partially unresponsive to adenosine alone.

The Ediacaran-Cambrian transition is marked by the diversification of metazoans in the marine realm. However, this is not recorded by the Ediacaran-Cambrian Bambuí Group of the São Francisco basin, Brazil. Containing the sedimentary record of a partially confined foreland basin system, the Bambuí strata bear rare metazoan remnants and a major carbon isotope positive excursion decoupled from the global record. This has been explained by changes in the paleogeography of the basin, which became a restricted epicontinental sea in the core of the Gondwana supercontinent, promoting episodes of shallow water anoxia. Here, we report new δ15Nbulk data from the two lowermost second-order transgressive-regressive sequences of the Bambuí Group. The results show a rise of δ15N values from +2 to +5‰ in the transgressive system tract of the basal sequence, which was deposited when the basin was connected to other marginal seas. Such excursion is interpreted as an oxygenation event in the Bambuí sea. Above, in the regressive systems tract, δ15N values vary from +2 to +5‰, pointing to instabilities in the N-cyle that are concomitant with the onset of basin restrictions, higher sedimentary supply/accommodation ratios, and the episodic anoxia. In the transgressive systems tract, the δ15N values stabilise at ∼+3.5‰, pointing to the establishment of an appreciable nitrate pool in shallow waters in spite of the basin full restriction as marked by the onset of a positive carbon isotope excursion. In sum, our data show that the N-cycle and its fluctuations were associated with variations in sedimentary supply/accommodation ratios induced by tectonically-related paleogeographic changes. The instability of the N-cycle and redox conditions plus the scarcity of nitrate along regression episodes might have hindered the development of early benthic metazoans within the Bambuí seawater and probably within other epicontinental seas during the late Ediacaran-Cambrian transition.

Abstract Lead-free piezoceramics based on the (Ba, Ca)(Zr, Ti)O3 (BCZT) system exhibit excellent electromechanical properties for low-temperature actuation applications, but suffer from relatively high processing temperatures. Here we demonstrate an approach for the reduction of the sintering temperature and simultaneous increase of the electromechanical strain response of (Ba, Ca)(Zr, Ti)O3 piezoceramics by aliovalent doping with Ce. The samples were prepared by solid state synthesis and their crystallographic structure, dielectric, ferroelectric, and electromechanical properties were investigated. The highest d*33 value of 1189 pm/V was obtained for the sample with 0.05 mol% Ce, substituted on the A-site of the perovskite lattice. The results indicate a large potential of these materials for off-resonance piezoelectric actuators.

The affiliation of author “Raziye HAYATI” in the original version of this article was unfortunately wrongly written on page 186, instead of Semiconductor Division, Materials and Energy Research Center, Karaj 31787/316, Iran It should read Department of Materials Engineering, Yasouj University, Yasouj, 75918-74934, Iran

The influence of the uniaxial preload on the off-resonance actuation performance of piezoelectric ceramics was investigated for compressive preload values up to  −80 MPa. The study was performed on soft-type lead zirconate titanate (PZT), being the most widely used piezoelectric material. The samples were analysed using the proportional loading method, which enables the simultaneous application of electrical and mechanical loads, thereby mimicking the real operation conditions over the full stress–strain range. An increase of the blocking stress and the longitudinal piezoelectric stress coefficient was observed for all the applied preload values. The optimum properties, a blocking stress of  −56 MPa and a free strain of 0.23%, were obtained at a preload value of  −40 MPa and electric field of 2 kV mm  −  1. This represents an increase of 16% and 20%, respectively, as compared to the values obtained at the smallest preload. In addition, the maximum work output was increased by about 28%. Finally, the results obtained at the lowest preload of  −4 MPa using the proportional loading method were compared to the operational ranges determined by other methods. The comparison revealed large discrepancies between the methods, originating from the different order of the application of electrical and mechanical fields and the inherent nonlinearity of ferroelectric materials. This discrepancy results in decreased actuator performance due to impedance mismatching, demonstrating the need for accurate determination of the actuator’s operational range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]