Dielectric properties of high-purity (4N degree) rutile TiO 2 ceramics were investigated over a wide temperature (100-1073 K) and frequency (20 Hz-10 MHz) ranges. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy measurement revealed the sample possesses mixed-valent states of Ti 3+ /Ti 4+ . Four thermally activated relaxations were observed. The lowest temperature relaxation (R1) features two Arrhenius segments with activation energy of 30 and 80 meV for the low-and high-temperature segments, respectively. This relaxation was argued to be a polaron relaxation due to electrons hopping between Ti 3+ and Ti 4+ ions. The second relaxation (R2) appears around room temperature showing activation energy of 0.68 eV is believed to be a Maxwell-Wagner relaxation. The high-temperature relaxations R3 and R4 with activation energy of 0.84 and 1.26 eV were ascribed to the conduction process due to the hopping motions of singly and doubly charged oxygen vacancies, respectively. N. Alford-contributing editor Manuscript No. 34785.

To estimate the associations between vitamin D status and Parkinson's disease (PD). We searched electronic databases of the human literature in PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library up to February, 2014 using the following keywords: 'vitamin D' or '25(OH)D' and 'status' or 'deficiency' or 'insufficiency' and 'Parkinson's disease'. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted on observational studies that reported the association between blood vitamin D levels and PD. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. 1,008 patients and 4,536 controls were included. Results of our meta-analysis show that PD patients had lower mean levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] than healthy controls [weighted mean difference (MD), -16.9, 95 % confidence interval (CI)], -33.5 to -0.2). Patients with vitamin D insufficiency [25(OH)D level <75 nmol/l] had an increased risk of PD (OR 1.5, 95 % CI 1.1-2.0). Patients with vitamin D deficiency [25(OH)D level <50 nmol/l] experienced a twofold increased risk of PD (OR 2.2, 95 % CI 1.5-3.4). Low vitamin D levels are associated with an increased risk of PD.

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