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The characteristics of the ion bombardment during ion assisted PVD on sharp convex substrates and their effect on the growing coating is analyzed. The conclusion states that the edge related effects can lead to significant changes in the coating performance in the crucial edge region, the unwanted effects can however be reduced by the optimization of the deposition parameters.

The ion surface interaction in case of sharp corners is examined. The findings suggested that 3D corner geometry was found to lead to enhancement of the edge related effects at the corners due to substantial increase in the ion flux density.

BACKGROUND: The concentration of total homocysteine (tHcy) is higher in newborns than in older children. Vitamin B-12 is the major determinant of tHcy in newborns. Maternal status of folate, vitamin B-12, and vitamin B-6 during pregnancy may affect the biochemical markers of these micronutrients in newborns. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to study the relation between concentrations of the metabolites and B vitamins in maternal sera and concentrations in the umbilical venous blood of the corresponding newborns. DESIGN: We studied healthy pregnant women at the time of labor who were expecting healthy, full-term, appropriate-birth-weight babies. Samples were available from 82 mother-infant pairs. RESULTS: Concentrations of B vitamins were higher in cord samples than in maternal blood (folate, 2-fold; vitamin B-12, 1.5-fold; and vitamin B-6, 6-fold). Concentrations of cystathionine and methylmalonic acid (MMA) were also higher in the infants than in the mothers (x +/- SD: cystathionine, 462 +/- 189 and 343 +/- 143 nmol/L; MMA, 353 +/- 144 and 233 +/- 110 nmol/L). No significant differences in tHcy concentrations were observed between fetal and maternal samples. Concentrations of vitamin B-12 did not differ significantly between mothers of infants from different quartiles of cord MMA. Higher fetal MMA concentrations were related to higher maternal MMA and vitamin B-12 concentrations and lower fetal concentrations of vitamin B-12. Fetal concentrations of cystathionine were predicted by maternal cystathionine, gestational age, fetal vitamin B-6, and fetal tHcy. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal concentrations of the metabolic markers of B vitamins predict values in fetal blood at delivery. Fetal tHcy concentrations were low but were predicted by the vitamin status of the mother. The effect of increasing maternal intake of vitamins B-12 and B-6 during pregnancy on the fetal concentrations of the metabolites should be investigated. Copyright © 2005 American Society for Clinical Nutrition [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cubic NaCI-B1 structured multilayer TiA1N/VN with a bi-layer thickness of approximately 3 nm and atomic ratios of (Ti+Al)/V = 0.98 to 1.15 and Ti/V = 0.55 to 0.61 were deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering at substrate bias voltages between -75 and -150 V. In this paper, detailed transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction revealed pronounced microstructure changes depending on the bias. At the bias -75 V, TiAlN/VN followed a layer growth model led by a strong (110) texture to form a T-type structure in the Thornton structure model of thin films, which resulted in a rough growth front, dense columnar structure with inter-column voids, and low compressive stress of -3.8 GPa. At higher biases, the coatings showed a typical Type-II structure following the strain energy growth model, characterized by the columnar structure, void-free column boundaries, smooth surface, a predominant (111) texture, and high residual stresses between -8 and -11.5 GPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]