University of Patras

About: University of Patras is a education organization based out in Pátrai, Greece. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 13372 authors who have published 31263 publications receiving 677159 citations. The organization is also known as: Panepistímio Patrón.

Pure versus metal-ion-doped nanocrystalline titania for photocatalysis

Abstract: Thin films of pure or doped nanocrystalline titania have been deposited on glass slides by using a sol–gel procedure, in the presence of surfactant Triton X-100, which acts as template of the nanostructure. Fe3+, Cr3+ and Co2+ were used as dopants while the doping extended in a broad domain from very low to very high levels. The photocatalytic efficiency of pure or doped titania was tested for discoloration of an aqueous solution of Basic Blue 41. The presence of dopants resulted in a progressive loss of total crystallinity, some transition from anatase into rutile and, in the case of Co2+, formation of the mixed oxide cobalt titanate. Loss of anatase had dramatic consequences on photocatalytic efficiency by UV–vis excitation, which decreased fast with increasing dopant concentration. Selected visible excitation of the doped titania could lead to photodegradation of the dye but to a far lesser degree than UV–vis excitation. Photosensitization by absorption of light by the dye itself loses its importance in the presence of the dopant. Thus the doped material is a visible-light photocatalyst but substantial photodegradation efficiency is achieved only at very high doping levels, for example, 20 at.% for Fe3+ doping. In any case, direct UV excitation of pure titania is a more efficient photocatalytic process than visible excitation of the doped semiconductor.

The use of statins alone, or in combination with pioglitazone and other drugs, for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and related cardiovascular risk. An Expert Panel Statement.

Abstract: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common liver disease, is characterized by accumulation of fat (>5% of the liver tissue), in the absence of alcohol abuse or other chronic liver diseases. It is closely related to the epidemic of obesity, metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). NAFLD can cause liver inflammation and progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, cirrhosis or hepatocellular cancer (HCC). Nevertheless, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common cause of death in NAFLD/NASH patients. Current guidelines suggest the use of pioglitazone both in patients with T2DM and in those without. The use of statins, though considered safe by the guidelines, have very limited use; only 10% in high CVD risk patients are on statins by tertiary centers in the US. There are data from several animal studies, 5 post hoc analyses of prospective long-term survival studies, and 5 rather small biopsy proven NASH studies, one at baseline and on at the end of the study. All these studies provide data for biochemical and histological improvement of NAFLD/NASH with statins and in the clinical studies large reductions in CVD events in comparison with those also on statins and normal liver. Ezetimibe was also reported to improve NAFLD. Drugs currently in clinical trials seem to have potential for slowing down the evolution of NAFLD and for reducing liver- and CVD-related morbidity and mortality, but it will take time before they are ready to be used in everyday clinical practice. The suggestion of this Expert Panel is that, pending forthcoming randomized clinical trials, physicians should consider using a PPARgamma agonist, such as pioglitazone, or, statin use in those with NAFLD/NASH at high CVD or HCC risk, alone and/or preferably in combination with each other or with ezetimibe, for the primary or secondary prevention of CVD, and the avoidance of cirrhosis, liver transplantation or HCC, bearing in mind that CVD is the main cause of death in NAFLD/NASH patients.

Closed-form statistics for the sum of squared Nakagami-m variates and its applications

Abstract: We present closed-form expressions for the probability density function (PDF) and the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the sum of non-identical squared Nakagami-m random variables (RVs) with integer-order fading parameters. As it is shown, they can be written as a weighted sum of Erlang PDFs and CDFs, respectively, while the analysis includes both independent and correlated sums of RVs. The proposed formulation significantly improves previously published results, which are either in the form of infinite sums or higher order derivatives of the fading parameter m. The obtained formulas can be applied to the performance analysis of diversity combining receivers operating over Nakagami-m fading channels