BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and stressful life events in melancholic childhood-onset depression

INTRODUCTION: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) polymorphisms have been examined for their contribution toward depression with equivocal results. More homogeneous phenotypes might be used to improve our understanding of genetic liability to depression. The aim of our study was to (a) test for an association between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and childhood-onset melancholic depression and (b) to examine the interactive effects of stressful life events (SLE) and the Val66Met polymorphism on the risk of childhood-onset melancholic depression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 583 depressed probands were involved in this study (162 of the melancholic subtype). Diagnoses were derived through the Interview Schedule for Children and Adolescents - Diagnostic Version and life event data were collected using an Intake General Information Sheet. RESULTS: Overall, 27.8% of the participants fulfilled the criteria for melancholy. In the melancholic group, the proportion of females was higher (53.1%), although there were more males in the overall depressed sample. We detected no significant differences in genotype or allele frequency between the melancholic and the nonmelancholic depressed group. The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and SLE interaction was not significantly associated with the melancholy outcome. CONCLUSION: In our study, females were more prone to developing the early-onset melancholic phenotype. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the differentiating effect of the genotype and the GxE interaction on the melancholic phenotype in a large sample of depressed young patients. We did not find an association between the melancholic subtype of major depression and the BDNF genotype and SLE interaction in this sample, which is representative of the Hungarian clinic-referred population of depressed youths

Együtt-párologtatott négykomponensű félvezető vékonyréteg fotovoltaikus célra = Co-evaporated four-component semiconductor thin films for photovoltaics

A CIGS PV szerkezet kutatásának célja az együtt-párologtatásos előállításnál fellépő folyamatok megismerése; és az n-típusú puffer-réteg létrehozása vákuumtechnikailag zárt ciklusba rendezhető módon. Utóbbit az atomi réteg-leválasztási technika hazai bevezetésével oldottuk meg. Kb. 200 ciklusban Zn-és 2 at% Al prekurzor-technikával Al-mal adalékolt ZnO-rétegek üveg hordozón T= 210-220°C-on reprodukálhatóan kialakíthatók n=1,2•1021cm-3 adalékkoncentrációval, µ= 0.7 cm2/Vs mozgékonysággal ill. ρ≈2 mΩcm (1 ill. 7 mΩcm laterális és normális) vezetőképességgel. A CIGS rétegnövesztést ún. flash-párologtatásos módszerrel és utólagos szelenizációval vizsgáltuk. Ampullában, együttes párologtatással (T=500°C, t=15min) csak kalkopirit összetevők mutathatók ki, a hőkezelés csak a Ga-tartalmat befolyásolja. Az ideális CuIn0,8Ga0,2Se2 összetétel 10-15 perces hőkezeléssel beállítható a szokásos morfológiával, amit konformálisan fed be a kb. 40nm ALD pufferréteg . Üvegen, Mo-elektródra párologtatott (In, Ga) és porlasztott (Cu) fémösszetevők rétegsorrendjének szerepe döntő utólagosan szelenizált rétegszerkezeten. Felpárologtatott Se-forrás hőkezelésével (változó gőznyomáson) vákuumban a szelenizáció nem sikeres, de konstans gőznyomáson (ampullában) tökéletes, ha a fémrétegek sorrendje In, Ga, Cu. | The research on CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) thin film PV structures aimed at understanding of fundamental phenomena at the co-evaporation of the absorber layer; and the development of n-type buffer-layer by an integrable vacuum-method. Latter problem was solved by the adoption of the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technique. In ca. 200 cycles of alternating Zn and ca. 2at% Al precursor pulses Al-doped ZnO layers on glass substrates could be formed reliably at T= 210-220°C with n=1,2•1021cm-3 doping concentration, µ= 0.7 cm2/Vs mobility and ρ≈2 mΩcm (1 vs. 7 mΩcm lateral and normal) resistivity. CIGS layer growth by the "flash-evaporation" method and with the post-selenisation of the metallic precursors was studied. Co-evaporation at T=500°C, t=15min results in solely chalcopyrite components, annealing time affects only the Ga-content in the layer. The composition CuIn0,8Ga0,2Se2 ideal for PV application can be set by an annealing for 10-15 min with the usual morphology, to be covered conformally by the ca. 40nm ALD buffer. The influence of the sequence of evaporated (In, Ga) and sputtered (Cu) metallic components on Mo-coated glass was studied by structural analyses on post-selenized d= 800…1200 nm layers. By the annealing of evaporated Se-source on top in vacuum (i.e. at varying Se vapour pressure) selenization was not successful. At constant vapour pressure (ampoule method) with a metal-layer order of In, Ga, Cu selenization is perfect

Microwave-assisted one-pot synthesis of steroid–quinoline hybrids and an evaluation of their antiproliferative activities on gynecological cancer cell lines

Steroidal and nonsteroidal ring-fused quinolines were efficiently synthesized under microwave conditions and their antiproliferative activities were investigated.</p

Homogeneous transparent conductive ZnO:Ga by ALD for large LED wafers

Highly conductive and uniform Ga doped ZnO (GZO) films were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) as transparent conductive layers for InGaN/GaN LEDs. The optimal Ga doping concentration was found to be 3 at%. Even for 4" wafers, the TCO layer shows excellent homogeneity of film resistivity (0.8 %) according to Eddy current and spectroscopic ellipsometry mapping. This makes ALD a favourable technique over concurrent methods like MBE and PLD where the up-scaling is problematic. In agreement with previous studies, it was found that by an annealing treatment the quality of the GZO/p-GaN interface can be improved, although it causes the degradation of TCO conductivity. Therefore, a two-step ALD deposition technique was proposed and demonstrated: a "buffer layer" deposited and annealed first was followed by a second deposition step to maintain the high conductivity of the top layer. © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V