Patient Satisfaction with Healthcare Services: Bangladesh Perspective

Patient satisfaction is a useful measure for providing a quality benchmark for healthcare services. Concern about the quality of healthcare services in Bangladesh has led to a loss of confidence in healthcare providers, low use of public health facilities and increased outflows of patients from Bangladesh to hospitals abroad. The key obstacles to access to health services are insufficient infrastructure and poor quality of existing facilities, lack of medical equipment, scarcity of doctors due to high patient load, long distance to the facilities and long waiting times until facilities have been reached, very short appointment hours, lack of empathy of health professionals, their generally callous and casual attitude, aggressive pursuit of monetary gains, poor levels of competence and, occasionally, disregard for the suffering that patients endure without being able to voice their concerns-all of these service failures are reported frequently in the print media. Such failures can play a powerful role in shaping patients\u27 negative attitudes and dissatisfaction with healthcare service providers and healthcare itself

Metal-insulator Transition (MIT) Materials for Biomedical Applications

Transitional metal oxides get considerable interest in electronics and other engineering applications over few decades. These materials show several orders of magnitude metal-insulator transition (MIT) triggered by external stimuli. Bio-sensing using Vanadium dioxide (VO2), a MIT material is largely unexplored. In this short article, we investigate the VO2 based thermal sensor performance for measuring the biomolecule concentration. Active sensing layer is chromium and niobium co-doped VO2 as it shows 11.9%/°C temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) with practically no thermal hysteresis. Our study demonstrated that VO2 based microsensors can be used to measure the biomolecule concentrations, which produce temperature changes in the mK range. For 1mK change in temperature, the maximum detection voltage is near 0.4V

Nematic Liquid Crystal Composite Materials for DC and RF Switching

Liquid Crystals (LCs) are widely used in display devices, electro-optic modulators, and optical switches. A field-induced electrical conductivity modulation in pure liquid crystals is very low which makes it less preferable for direct current (DC) and radio-frequency (RF) switching applications. According to the literature, a conductivity enhancement is possible by nanoparticle doping. Considering this aspect, we reviewed published works focused on an electric field-induced conductivity modulation in carbon nanotube-doped liquid crystal composites (LC-CNT composites). A two to four order of magnitude switching in electrical conductivity is observed by several groups. Both in-plane and out-of-plane device configurations are used. In plane configurations are preferable for micro-device fabrication. In this review article, we discussed published works reporting the elastic and molecular interaction of a carbon nanotube (CNT) with LC molecules, temperature and CNT concentration effects on electrical conductivity, local heating, and phase transition behavior during switching. Reversibility and switching speed are the two most important performance parameters of a switching device. It was found that dual frequency nematic liquid crystals (DFNLC) show a faster switching with a good reversibility, but the switching ratio is only two order of magnitudes. A better way to ensure reversibility with a large switching magnitude is to use two pairs of in-plane electrodes in a cross configuration. For completeness and comparison purposes, we briefly reviewed other nanoparticle- (i.e., Au and Ag) doped LC composite’s conductivity behavior as well. Finally, based on the reported works reviewed in this article on field induced conductivity modulation, we proposed a novel idea of RF switching by LC composite materials. To support the idea, we simulated an LC composite-based RF device considering a simple analytical model. Our RF analysis suggests that a device made with an LC-CNT composite could show an acceptable performance. Several technological challenges needed to be addressed for a physical realization and are also discussed briefly

Performance Comparison of Phase Change Materials and Metal-Insulator Transition Materials for Direct Current and Radio Frequency Switching Applications

Advanced understanding of the physics makes phase change materials (PCM) and metal-insulator transition (MIT) materials great candidates for direct current (DC) and radio frequency (RF) switching applications. In the literature, germanium telluride (GeTe), a PCM, and vanadium dioxide (VO2), an MIT material have been widely investigated for DC and RF switching applications due to their remarkable contrast in their OFF/ON state resistivity values. In this review, innovations in design, fabrication, and characterization associated with these PCM and MIT material-based RF switches, have been highlighted and critically reviewed from the early stage to the most recent works. We initially report on the growth of PCM and MIT materials and then discuss their DC characteristics. Afterwards, novel design approaches and notable fabrication processes; utilized to improve switching performance; are discussed and reviewed. Finally, a brief vis-á-vis comparison of resistivity, insertion loss, isolation loss, power consumption, RF power handling capability, switching speed, and reliability is provided to compare their performance to radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) switches; which helps to demonstrate the current state-of-the-art, as well as insight into their potential in future applications

Quantum-Hall activation gaps in graphene

We have measured the quantum-Hall activation gaps in graphene at filling factors $\nu=2$ and $\nu=6$ for magnetic fields up to 32 T and temperatures from 4 K to 300 K. The $\nu =6$ gap can be described by thermal excitation to broadened Landau levels with a width of 400 K. In contrast, the gap measured at $\nu=2$ is strongly temperature and field dependent and approaches the expected value for sharp Landau levels for fields $B > 20$ T and temperatures $T > 100$ K. We explain this surprising behavior by a narrowing of the lowest Landau level.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, updated version after review, accepted for PR

Testing Photovoltaic Pavers for Roadway Applications

Concrete and asphalt are the primary materials used to construct roadways for motor vehicles, bike paths for pedestrians and bicyclists, and runways for aircraft. Solar Roadways®, Inc. (SR) in Sandpoint, ID, proposed using robust, Solar Road Panels (SRPs) as an alternative roadway material due to the potential for creating a modular, multi-functional infrastructure product with cost-savings, user-safety, power-generation, and a better alternative in terms of environmental sustainability when compared to contemporary pavement materials. Typical roadway construction materials, on average, need to be replaced every 10-15 years while also requiring regular annual maintenance to maintain proper safety standards. SR’s novel roadway material is intended to extend roadway replacement timelines, lower annual maintenance costs, and provide energy to the power grid. In this study, we tested the mechanical properties of the “SR3” model prototype SRP and evaluated its suitability as a replacement roadway material with the added benefit of generating electric power. Specifically, we tested this unique pavement material in submerged water environments, under extreme temperature conditions, and under dynamic loading conditions

Belimumab : a technological advance for systemic lupus erythematosus patients? Report of a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: To undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate clinical effectiveness of belimumab for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and antinuclear and/or anti-double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) autoantibodies. Methods: We searched eight electronic databases and reference lists for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of belimumab against placebo or best supportive care. Quality assessment and random effects meta-analysis were undertaken. Design: A meta-analysis of RCTs. Participants: 2133 SLE patients. Primary and secondary outcome measures: SLE Responder Index (SRI) at week 52. Results: Three double-blind placebo-controlled RCTs (L02, BLISS-52 BLISS-76) investigated 2133 SLE patients. BLISS-52 and BLISS-76 trials recruited patients with antinuclear and/or anti-dsDNA autoantibodies and demonstrated belimumab effectiveness for the SRI at week 52. Ethnicity and geographical location of participants varied considerably between BLISS trials. Although tests for statistical heterogeneity were negative, BLISS-52 results were systematically more favourable for all measured outcomes. Meta-analysis of pooled 52-week SRI BLISS results showed benefit for belimumab (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.27 to 2.09). By week 76, the primary SRI outcome in BLISS-76 was not statistically significant (OR 1.31, 95% CI 0.919 to 1.855)

A Machine-Synesthetic Approach To DDoS Network Attack Detection

In the authors' opinion, anomaly detection systems, or ADS, seem to be the most perspective direction in the subject of attack detection, because these systems can detect, among others, the unknown (zero-day) attacks. To detect anomalies, the authors propose to use machine synesthesia. In this case, machine synesthesia is understood as an interface that allows using image classification algorithms in the problem of detecting network anomalies, making it possible to use non-specialized image detection methods that have recently been widely and actively developed. The proposed approach is that the network traffic data is "projected" into the image. It can be seen from the experimental results that the proposed method for detecting anomalies shows high results in the detection of attacks. On a large sample, the value of the complex efficiency indicator reaches 97%.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables. Accepted to the Intelligent Systems Conference (IntelliSys) 201

Influence of silver nitrate (ethylene inhibitor) on cucumber in vitro shoot regeneration

The effect of addition of silver nitrate (AgNO3) on organogenesis of proximal and distal cotyledon and hypocotyl explants of five cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivars was investigated. Distal cotyledon and hypocotyl were unresponsive while only poor shoot regeneration was observed in proximal cotyledon and hypocotyl explants of all cucumber cultivars. The addition of different concentrations of AgNO3 (10, 30 and 50 µM) to the medium, however, induced shoot regeneration in distal cotyledon except Suyo Long cultivar and effectively increased shoot regeneration response as well as the number of shoots per explant in proximal cotyledon and hypocotyl of all cucumber cultivars

A cohort study on the rate of progression of diabetic chronic kidney disease in different ethnic groups.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the rate of progression of diabetic chronic kidney disease in different ethnic groups. DESIGN: Prospective longitudinal observational study. PARTICIPANTS: All new patients attending a tertiary renal unit in east London with diabetic chronic kidney disease between 2000 and 2007 and followed up till 2009 were included. Patients presenting with acute end-stage kidney failure were excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was annual decline in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in different ethnic groups. Secondary end points were the number of patients developing end-stage kidney failure and total mortality during the study period. RESULTS: 329 patients (age 60±11.9 years, 208 men) were studied comprising 149 south Asian, 105 White and 75 Black patients. Mean follow-up was 6.0±2.3, 5.0±2.7 and 5.6±2.4 years for White, Black and south Asian patients, respectively. South Asian patients were younger and had a higher baseline eGFR, but both systolic and diastolic blood pressures were higher in Black patients (p<0.05). Baseline proteinuria was highest for the south Asian group followed by the White and Black groups. Adjusted linear regression analysis showed that an annual decline in eGFR was not significantly different between the three groups. The numbers of patients developing end-stage kidney failure and total mortality were also not significantly different between the three groups. ACE or angiotensin receptor blockers use, and glycated haemoglobin were similar at baseline and throughout the study period. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that ethnicity is not an independent factor in the rate of progression renal failure in patients with diabetic chronic kidney disease