Characterization of Cu3SbS3 thin films grown by thermally diffusing Cu2S and Sb2S3 layers

Copper antimony sulphide (Cu3SbS3) with a p-type conductivity and optical band gaps in the range of 1.38 to 1.84 eV is considered to be a promising solar harvesting material with non-toxic and economical elements. In this study, we reported the fabrication of Cu3SbS3 thin films using successive thermal evaporation of Cu2S and Sb2S3 layers followed by annealing in an argon atmosphere at a temperature range of 300-375°C. The structural and optical properties of the as-deposited and annealed films were investigated. The annealed films notably show the crystalline phase of the Cu3SbS3, identified from the X-ray diffraction analysis and endorsed by the Raman analysis as well. Whereas their chemical state of the constituent elements was characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The measured highest resistivity of the annealed film was found to be ~0.2 Ω-cm. Hence, our obtained results for the fabricated Cu3SbS3 thin films bring to light that Cu3SbS3would be a good absorber layer in solar cells due to their low resistivity, a higher value of the optical absorption coefficient (~105 cm-1), the low transmittance (<5%) and an optical direct band gap of 1.6 eV in the visible range of the solar spectrum

Crystallized InBiS3 thin films with enhanced optoelectronic properties

In this paper, a one-step thermal evaporation approach was used for fabrication of indium bismuth sulphide thin films, and the synergetic effects of co-evaporation of two sources (indium granules and Bi2S3 powders) were investigated using different characterization techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the crystalline orthorhombic structure for the postannealed samples. Surface roughness and crystal size of the obtained film samples were increased with increasing annealing temperatures. Analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed the formation of the InBiS3 structure for the obtained films, which is also confirmed by the XRD results. The optical absorption coefficient value of the annealed samples was found to be in the order of 10⁵cm-1 in the visible region of the solar spectrum. The optical band gap energy and electrical resistivity of the fabricated samples were observed to decrease (from 2.2 to 1.3 eV, and from 0.3 to 0.01 Ω-cm, respectively) with increasing annealing temperatures (from 200 to 350°C), indicating the suitability of the prepared InBiS3 thin films for solar cell applications

A pilot study of the primary care management of knee osteoarthritis in the Northern States of Malaysia

Introduction: Primary care management of knee osteoarthritis OA has received little attention in the scientific literature and the main reason of this survey is to study and explore the variations and patterns of primary care management and assess both conventional and complementary therapy usage in knee OA in the primary care setting. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey of 100 randomly selected general practitioners (GPs) in the northern states of Malaysia (Kedah, Perlis, Pulau Pinang) was undertaken using questionnaires. The GPs involved were asked about basic knowledge of OA in terms of diagnosis, investigation, and treatment of OA. They were also asked their usage of conventional and complementary medication. Results: 80 (80%) GPs responded to the questionnaires sent. 85% of GPs were in solo practice and 15% in group practice. Most of the GPs surveyed (69%) were in practice for more than 10 years, 21% in 5- 10 years and 10% were in practice for less than 5 years. 65% GPs surveyed see an average of more than 20 patients per week, 25% see about 10- 20 patients and 10% see less than 10 patients per week. 75% of GPs surveyed would arrange an X-ray. 65% of GPs surveyed will arrange a blood test, mostly serum uric acid, rheumatoid factor and ESR. Pharmacological management consists of first line treatment with analgesics (32%), NSAIDs (59%) or a combination of the two (4%). Non-pharmacological management consist of advise an exercise (37%), weight reduction (23%) and referral to physiotherapy (8%). 89% of GPs surveyed prescribed some form of complementary medications. 68% prescribed glucosamine sulphate, 29% chondroitin sulphate, 18% cod liver oil, 12% evening primrose oil. Only 5% of GPs surveyed perform intra- articular injection. Conclusion: The data suggest that in the primary care, majority of GP over investigate the diagnosis of OA. Pharmacological interventions largely concentrate on analgesic and NSAIDs. The use of physiotherapy and non drug approach were enormously under-utilized. There is a need to further educate GPs in the management of OA

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and associated healthcare resource consumption in the Middle East and North Africa: The BREATHE study

SummaryData on COPD-related healthcare resources use are rarely documented in developing countries. This article presents data on COPD-related healthcare resource consumption in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan and addresses the association of this variable with illness severity. A large survey of COPD was conducted in eleven countries of the region, namely Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi-Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, using a standardised methodology. A total of 62,086 subjects were screened. This identified 2,187 subjects fulfilling the “epidemiological” definition of COPD. A detailed questionnaire was administered to document data on COPD-related healthcare consumption. Symptom severity was assessed using the COPD Assessment Test (CAT). 1,392 subjects were analysable. Physician consultations were the most frequently used healthcare resource, ranging from 43,118 [95% CI: 755–85,548] consultations in UAE to 4,276,800 [95% CI: 2,320,164–6,230,763] in Pakistan, followed by emergency room visits, ranging from 15,917 [95% CI: 0–34,807] visits in UAE to 683,697 [95% CI: 496,993–869,737] in Turkey and hospitalisations, ranging from 15,563 [95% CI: 7,911–23,215] in UAE to 476,674 [95% CI: 301,258–652,090] in Turkey. The use of each resource increased proportionally with the GOLD 2011 severity groups and was significantly (p < 0.0001) higher in subjects with more symptoms compared to those with lower symptoms and in subjects with exacerbations to those without exacerbations. The occurrence of exacerbations and the CAT score were independently associated with use of each healthcare resource. In conclusion, the BREATHE study revealed that physician consultation is the most frequently COPD-related healthcare resource used in the region. It showed that the deterioration of COPD symptoms and the frequency of exacerbations raised healthcare resource consumption

Neoplastic growth of cerebral cavernous malformation presenting with impending cerebral herniation: A case report and review of the literature on de novo growth of cavernomas

Background: Cerebral cavernomas are rare vascular anomalies and their expansile growth has been considered to be mainly due to recurrent hemorrhages. They are not generally reported to show aggressive behavior.Case description: A 27-year-old male presented with headache, visual disturbances, and a 17-year history of seizures. He was known to have a temporal lobe lesion on CT scan, consistent with a diagnosis of cavernous malformation but with no relevant family history. Serial clinical and radiological follow-up revealed a progressive increase in the size of the lesion with formation of a growing cyst of 7 cm in diameter, which produced mass effect, resulting in the clinical picture of cerebral herniation. The patient underwent emergency surgical resection with symptomatic relief. There was no evidence of significant hemorrhage at surgery.Conclusion: Cavernous malformations can show expansile growth without any evidence of a presaging hemorrhagic event and, in the manner of a neoplastic lesion, present with raised intracranial pressure and cerebral herniation

The Development Assessment Instruments Reading Appreciation Primary School

The purpose of this study is to develop a reading assessment instrument that can be used by teachers to assess students' reading skills in learning Indonesian Language in elementary school. In addition, the developed instrument can also be used by teachers as a learning tool or learning strategy in reading. Among the instruments that were developed are reading appreciationassessment instruments. Reading the appreciation of this study refers to Barrett's Taxonomy of appreciation levels. The study was carried out using research and development methods. The review process consists of three phases, namely the needs analysis phase, the design and development phase, and the implementation and evaluation phase. The needs analysis phase was carried out in three elementary schools in Banda Aceh City area, involving both teachers and students from the schools. Based on the data from the needs analysis (phase 1), the study continues with the instrument design and development phase (phase 2), and after the developed instrument meets the validity and reliability’sprerequisite conditions set by theexpert and user assessments, the next phase is implementation and evaluation (phase 3). The third phase of the study was carried out in two stages, namely the implementation and evaluation of small groups/preliminary field testing (8 students) and the implementation and evaluation involving one class students/operational field testing (26 students). The results of the third phase indicate that the developed instrument of reading appreciation assessment is effective, right on the target, in accordance with the stage of students' reading ability, according to the needs of the teacher, and can be used by the teacher as an assessment instrument and reading learning strategy

A study on the extraction method and the stability of blue pigment from various natural source for food coloring / Muhammad Arshad Abdul Rashid

The demand for natural food colouration keep on increasing annually after the benefits of natural colour which are not only for food colouring but also have abundance of health effect have been revealed. However, there is a major factor that prevent these natural colour from being commercialize which is its stability. Natural colour such as anthocyanin have weakness in heat, light, storage time and many other external factors that usually done in industry. Therefore, this experiment was done to determine the better extraction method and to test the extracted pigment stability in food product. The natural colour sources come from Clitoria ternatea and Melastoma malabathricum, fruits which gives blue colour. The solvent used for the extraction are deionized water and ethanol. The stability test will be conducted on the encapsulated liquid, the encapsulated powder and on the muffins, that contain these encapsulated dye pigment. For the extraction procedure, the pigment that extract using solvent show higher absorbance compared to others. For the stability on encapsulated solution and on powder, higher temperature affects more on colour degradation compared to lower temperature while for storage time, longer time also would affect on colour degradation on powder also muffin. For C. ternatea, the solution extract with ethanol 20% have higher reading on spectrophotometer which is 2.807 compared when extract with deionize water which is 1.69 at 600nm. While for M. malabathricum, the solution extract with ethanol 20% also have higher reading on spectrophotometer which is 2.05 compared when extract with deionize water which is 1.706 at 800nm. In powder test, C. ternatea with water extract shows highest reading in chromameter for lightness test. For coordinate a*, M. malabathricum extract with ethanol 20% shows highest reading while coordinate b* M. malabathricum with deionize water extract have highest reading. The time for testing the sample are at days (0,7,14,21 and 28). The different temperature used are room temperature (25°C) and refrigerator (4°C) while the presence of light is tested by wrapping and unwrapping the sample using aluminum foil. Therefore, it is observed that temperature, storage time and light gives impact on the stability of anthocyanin blue colour

Catalogues of Efficient Minimal Weakly Balanced RMDs in Circular Periods of Three Different Sizes

In this article, efficient minimal circular weakly balanced RMDs are constructed for the situations where these designs cannot be constructed through generators. Catalogues of these efficient designs are compiled in periods of three different sizes. In the proposed designs, v/2 ordered pairs of distinct treatments do not appear as their preceded value while the remaining ones appear once, where v is number of treatments to be compared

Phytochemical and cytotoxic analysis of Pharthenium hysterophosis selected from District Bannu, Pakistan

Parthenium hysterophorus is a well known medicinal plant widely used traditionally in the treatment of various diseases and as a constituent of various drugs, and in phytotherapy. The current study was designed to investigate the phytochemical screening and cytotoxic capacity of methanolic and n-hexane extract of P. hysterophorus. Quantitative analysis of P. hysterophorus showed maximum quantity of flavonoids in methanolic extract of P. hysterophorus which turned down gradually in n-hexane extract of P. hysterophorus due to the decrease in organic solvents polarity. Similar results were also observed for saponins and tannins during this investigation. The highest quantity of alkaloids was recorded in the methanolic extract of P. hysterophorus when compared to n-hexane extract. The extracts also showed maximum cytotoxic potential in various concentrations of n-hexane and methanolic extract of P. hysterophorus. The results revealed that P. hysterophorus contains a remarkable cytotoxic activity due to the presence of bioactive constituents.Key words: Parthenium hysterophorus, cytotoxic, phytochemical screening