Reflectivity and Elastic Modulus of Nano-Aluminum Films on Silicon Crystal Substrates

In this work, effect of film thickness on optical reflection and elastic modulus of the metal film at very low size was studied. We choose Aluminium as a reflective surface where it mostly used as a typical material for micro mirror device due to its high reflectivity. The effect of film thickness on the reflectivity had been performed at the range of 400-700 nm wavelengths for thin film thickness between 10 - 125 nm. The mirror fabricated by depositing the Al films on single crystal silicon (100) substrates using E beam evaporation deposition machine to get optimum flatness that is desired in the mirror fabrication. After that, reflection of the mirrors was measured using UV 2200 Spectrophotometer. Reflection also simulated using a powerful simulation tool, Opti-FDTD finite element package and the results were compared. Both of grain size and surface roughness of the films were measured using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM, tapping mode), respectively, to study the reason of deviation between the simulated and experimental results of reflection. In addition, elastic modulus of the films was measured using nanoindentation method using AFM (Contact mode) and the results compared to bulk value. General increasing in the reflection as the film thickness increased and decrease in the reflection as the wavelength increased was observed. At lower film thickness, 10 nm, the film had very low reflection compared to other films. After comparison between the experiments and the simulation results, it appears that deviation between them increase as the film thickness decrease and the topography of the metal surface is the reason behind that. Finally, elastic modulus of the films were determined and it shows that there is decrease in the films modulus and sharp decrease at 50 nm film thick

The Role of Gold-Graphene Hybrid Nanostructure on Promoting Localized Surface Plasmonic Resonance Sensor Performance

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensors have a wide range of applications, from medical diagnostics to environmental monitoring. In addition, the simplicity of the excitation method leads to simplicity in the sensor setup, which is helpful for device minimization, and may also help in system cost reduction. Generally, LSPR sensors suffer from low performance, which limits their commercialization. In earlier decades, researchers attempted various methods to overcome this problem; however, recently, the integration of plasmonic material, “gold”, with a 2D material, “graphene”, has been found to be a promising way to enhance light-matter interaction, and hence promote LSPR sensor performance. In this work, four different novel gold (Au)-graphene (G) hybrid nanostructure schemes are proposed and their sensing performance, as a plasmonic sensor, is studied and evaluated numerically using the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. The first gold-graphene hybrid nanostructure studied in this project is a periodic array of Au-G spherical core-shell hybrid nanoparticles (NP) placed on top of a quartz substrate. The second is formed by embedding the medium between Au NPs in an array with multilayers of graphene sheets. Third, is direct deposition of a graphene film on top of a Au NP array and finally, spin-coating graphene flakes on top and between a Au NP array. Based on numerical work, the maximum value of sensitivity and the figure of merit of the LSPR sensor achieved here are 4380 nm/RIU and 857.9, respectively, which is very high and competitive with other studies, and presents the Au-G hybrid LSPR sensor as a promising sensor in a variety of applications such as bio-sensing, thereby enhancing its commercialization. At the end of this work, near-field characterization using a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) is applied to the fabricated Au NP array to study light-Au NP interaction and to illustrate how the structure can be utilized as an LSPR sensor

Assessing the Impact of Virtual Health Communities and Environmental Characteristics of Chronic Pain Mobile Health Apps on Users’ Privacy Decisions: A Multilevel Perspective

Chronic pain has been identified as one of the most widespread health-related problems. Potential chronic pain apps users seek health communities for current and previous reviews to assess the quality of the apps and make a decision regarding disclosing their information to these apps. In this study, we present a multilevel perspective on how virtual health communities and environmental characteristics of chronic pain mobile health apps impact users’ privacy decisions. We used Exploratory Data Analysis and Machine Learning (ML) to operationalize the Theory of Multilevel Information Privacy. The results revealed that the most influential factors affecting users’ cost-benefit analysis are Chronic Pain MHA’s characteristics related to user’s information privacy. The ML results indicate that the existence of information privacy policy can be predicted through the ways the apps use to Collect Data, App\u27s Category, Country, and Store Type, which in turn affect users\u27 decisions

Association of mutation and expression of the brother of the regulator of imprinted sites (BORIS) gene with breast cancer progression

INTRODUCTION: The BORIS, 11 zinc-finger transcription factors, is a member of the cancer-testis antigen (CTA) family. It is mapped to chromosome number 20q13.2 and this region is genetically linked to the early onset of breast cancer. The current study analyzed the correlation between BORIS mutations and the expression of the protein in breast cancer cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A population-based study including a total of 155 breast cancer tissue samples and an equal number of normal adjacent tissues from Indian female breast cancer patients was carried out. Mutations of the BORIS gene were detected by polymerase chain reaction-single standard confirmation polymorphisms (PCR-SSCP) and automated DNA sequencing and by immunohistochemistry for BORIS protein expression were performed. The observed findings were correlated with several clinicopathological parameters to find out the clinical relevance of associations. RESULTS: Of all the cases 16.12% (25/155) showed mutations in the BORIS gene. The observed mutations present on codon 329 are missense, leading to Val\u3e Ile (G\u3eA) change on exon 5 of the BORIS gene. A significant association was observed between mutations of the BORIS gene and some clinicopathological features like nodal status (p = 0.013), estrogen receptor (ER) expression (p = 0.008), progesterone receptor (PR) expression (p = 0.039), clinical stage (p = 0.010) and menopausal status (p = 0.023). The protein expression analysis showed 20.64% (32/155) samples showing low or no expression (+), 34.19% (53/155) with moderate expression (++), and 45.17% (70/155) showing high expression (+++) of BORIS protein. A significant association was observed between the expression of BORIS protein and clinicopathological features like clinical stage (p = 0.013), nodal status (p = 0.049), ER expression (p = 0.039), and PR expression (p = 0.027). When mutation and protein expression were correlated in combination with clinicopathological parameters a significant association was observed in the category of high (+++) level of BORIS protein expression (p = 0.017). CONCLUSION: The BORIS mutations and high protein expression occur frequently in carcinoma of the breast suggesting their association with the onset and progression of breast carcinoma. Further, the BORIS has the potential to be used as a biomarker

Analysis of Gyrobianisotropic Media Effect on the Input Impedance, Field Distribution and Mutual Coupling of a Printed Dipole Antenna

Yesn this paper, we present an analytical study for the investigation of the effects of the magnetoelectric elements of a reciprocal and nonreciprocal bianisotropic grounded substrate on the input impedance, resonant length of a dipole antenna as well as on the mutual coupling between two element printed dipole array in three configuration geometries: broadside, collinear and echelon printed on the same material. This study examines also the effect of the considered bianisotropic medium on the electric and magnetic field distributions that has been less addressed in the literature for antenna structures. Computations are based on the numerical resolution, using the spectral method of moments, of the integral equation developed through the mathematical derivation of the appropriate spectral Green’s functions of the studied dipole configuration. Original results, for chiral, achiral, Tellegen and general bi-anisotropic media, are obtained and discussed with the electric and magnetic field distributions for a better understanding and interpretation. These interesting results can serve as a stepping stone for further works to attract more attention to the reciprocal and non-reciprocal Tellgen media in-depth studies

Masader Plus: A New Interface for Exploring +500 Arabic NLP Datasets

Masader (Alyafeai et al., 2021) created a metadata structure to be used for cataloguing Arabic NLP datasets. However, developing an easy way to explore such a catalogue is a challenging task. In order to give the optimal experience for users and researchers exploring the catalogue, several design and user experience challenges must be resolved. Furthermore, user interactions with the website may provide an easy approach to improve the catalogue. In this paper, we introduce Masader Plus, a web interface for users to browse Masader. We demonstrate data exploration, filtration, and a simple API that allows users to examine datasets from the backend. Masader Plus can be explored using this link https://arbml.github.io/masader. A video recording explaining the interface can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEtdlSeqchk

Humoral Immunogenicity and Efficacy of a Single Dose of ChAdOx1 MERS Vaccine Candidate in Dromedary Camels

MERS-CoV seronegative and seropositive camels received a single intramuscular dose of ChAdOx1 MERS, a replication-deficient adenoviral vectored vaccine expressing MERS-CoV spike protein, with further groups receiving control vaccinations. Infectious camels with active naturally acquired MERS-CoV infection, were co-housed with the vaccinated camels at a ratio of 1:2 (infected:vaccinated); nasal discharge and virus titres were monitored for 14 days. Overall, the vaccination reduced virus shedding and nasal discharge (p = 0.0059 and p = 0.0274, respectively). Antibody responses in seropositive camels were enhancedby the vaccine; these camels had a higher average age than seronegative. Older seronegative camels responded more strongly to vaccination than younger animals; and neutralising antibodies were detected in nasal swabs. Further work is required to optimise vaccine regimens for younger seronegative camels

Au-Graphene Hybrid Plasmonic Nanostructure Sensor Based on Intensity Shift

Integrating plasmonic materials, like gold with a two-dimensional material (e.g., graphene) enhances the light-material interaction and, hence, plasmonic properties of the metallic nanostructure. A localized surface plasmon resonance sensor is an effective platform for biomarker detection. They offer a better bulk surface (local) sensitivity than a regular surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor; however, they suffer from a lower figure of merit compared to that one in a propagating surface plasmon resonance sensors. In this work, a decorated multilayer graphene film with an Au nanostructures was proposed as a liquid sensor. The results showed a significant improvement in the figure of merit compared with other reported localized surface plasmon resonance sensors. The maximum figure of merit and intensity sensitivity of 240 and 55 RIU−1 (refractive index unit) at refractive index change of 0.001 were achieved which indicate the capability of the proposed sensor to detect a small change in concentration of liquids in the ng/mL level which is essential in early-stage cancer disease detection

Factors Influencing Smes Performance In Saudi Arabia: Moderating Effect Of Access To Finance

In response to the challenges facing SMEs, including a lack of access to finance, a lack of management competency, and manager characteristics, this study aims to fill the literature gaps by proposing and validating the SMEs’ performance model based on the Resource-Based View theory (RBV). Drawing upon this theory, this study examines the moderating role of access to finance on the link between age, education, experience, training, Islamic religiosity, financial knowledge, and management competency on SMEs’ performance in Saudi Arabia. The current study adopted a quantitative method and rely on the cluster sampling method of data collection to divide the three regions into three clusters