A continuous compositional-spread technique based on pulsed-laser deposition and applied to the growth of epitaxial films

A novel continuous-compositional spread technique based on the non-uniformity of the deposition rate typically observed in Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) is introduced. The approach uses the spatial variations in the deposition-rate naturally occurring in PLD; therefore, there is no need for the masks typically used in combinatorial techniques. Consequently, combinatorial materials synthesis can be carried out under optimized film growth conditions (e.g. at high temperature). Additionally, lifting the need for post-annealing renders this method applicable to heat-sensitive materials and substrates (e.g. films of transparent oxides on polymer substrates). Composition determination across the sample and mapping of physical properties onto the ternary phase diagram is achieved via a simple algorithm using the parameters that describe the deposition-rate profiles. Results are shown for the high-temperature growth of crystalline perovskites (including (Ba,Sr)TiO3 and the formation of a metastable alloy between SrRuO3 and SrSnO3) and the room-temperature growth of transparent conducting oxides.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in Rev. Sci. Inst

Efficiency of letrozole loaded PLGA nanoparticles on sex reversal of Poecilia reticulata (Peters, 1859)

Males of Poecilia reticulata showed extreme diversity in color, particularly of their fins, while the females lack the bright colors and are largely whitish. Such extreme variability of color and finnage lead to demand of males in the markets. The aim of present work was to develop a new Letrozole (LTZ)-loaded PLGA nanoparticles for effective delivery of the masculinization drug, letrozole, as an alternative to commercially available masculinization agents. The LTZ-loaded PLGA NPs were prepared by solvent displacement technique. The particle size of LTZ-loaded PLGA NPs was analyzed using LICOMP particle size analyzer and was found to be in the range of 72 nm to 520 nm with average size of 221.5±63.3 nm. Zeta potential was estimated to be about 21.35 mV with loading efficiency of 43.63±4.63 %. In the present study, a series of experiments were carried out to induce masculinization using LTZ-loaded PLGA nanoparticles during the sex differentiation period. Guppy (P. reticulate) fry were treated with LTZ-loaded PLGA nanoparticles at dosages 5, 25, 50 and 100 ppm/kg diet for 10, 15 and 30 days. The gonopodium index and GSI showed increasing order in male and female respectively with dose of LTZ-loaded nanoparticles. The results indicated an increase in the proportion of males with dosage and duration of treatment. This has been done for the first time using nanotechnology efficiently which has shown an increase in the male population of Poecilia reticulata with lesser dose of nano-encapsulated Letrozole (LTZ)-loaded PLGA nanoparticles drug as compared with naked control Letrozole (LTZ) drug delivery

Effect of letrozole on masculinization of Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of letrozole (a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor) on masculinization of Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). Different doses of letrozole 50, 100, 150 and 200 ppm (mg/kg feed) were incorporated into diet and fed for periods of 30, 40 or 50 days. Immersion treatment of letrozole at selected doses (250, 500, 750 and 1,000?g/l) for 3 h each on third, fifth and eighth day-post-hatching (dph) (Trial 1) and fourth, sixth and eighth dph (Trial 2) was given.The oral administration of letrozole for 30, 40 or 50 days did not have any significant effect on the sex ratio of B. splendens. The immersion treatment of letrozole induced 100% masculinization at 500 and 1000?g/l in trial 1, while it yielded only 66.66 and 90% male population at 500 and 1000 ?g/l in Trial 2. The dietary administration of letrozole for 30 and 50 days caused tail deformities and/or rudimentary and absence of dorsal fin. The progeny testing of males from letrozole treated (both oral and immersion) groups indicate that the sex ratio of progenies of each of the males tested did not differ significantly from that of control, indicating that all those males carried XY genotype. Letrozole treatments suppressed ovarian development (atretic oocytes were common). However, the testicular development was unaffected. The study revealed that immersion treatment of letrozole was more effective in inducing masculinization of B. splendens than the oral administration of letrozole

Study on the Fecundity and Gonado somatic index of Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1817) of southern coast of Maharashtra, India

Investigation of fecundity and gonado somatic index (GSI) of Rastrelliger kanagurta were carried out from March 2011 to February 2012. Fecundity was determined at different length, weight and ovary ranges of different individual fishes. Study revealed that at 5% significant level significant average absolute fecundity was found to be 1,08,266 and relative fecundity ranged from 407 to 1499. The number of ova generally increased with increase in length and weight. However, variations in fecundity with respect to length and weight were also noticed. The gonado-somatic index (GSI) was calculated for each individual fish (592 numbers) and was averaged for each month. The average GSI values were plotted against each month to analysed monthly variations. GSI showed wide variations between sex and it was highest for both males and females during the month of April and September, showing occurrence of more ripe individuals. Analysis of regression showed that there were significant relationship between the fecundity with the fish length, body weight and ovary weight

Nanotechnological innovation for the production of daughter less Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The aim of present work was to develop a new Fadrozole (FDZ)-loaded Poly (D,L-lactide-co– glycolide) lactide:glycolide (50:50)(PLGA) nanoparticles for effective delivery of the masculinization drug, Fadrozole, as an alternative to commercially available masculinization agents like testosterone (dietary supplementation of 17 ?- methyltestosterone) which are steroids and banned in most EU countries. The FDZ-loaded PLGA NPs were pre-pared by solvent displacement technique. The particle size of FDZ-loaded PLGA NPs was analyzed using LICOMP particle size analyser. It was found to be in the range of 60±66.7 nm to 560±66.7 nm with average size of 201.4±66.7 nm, where the Zeta potential was estimated to be about -20.82 mV, a series of experiments were carried out to induce masculinization using FDZ-loaded PLGA nanoparticles during the sex differentiation period. Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus fry were treated with FTZ-loaded PLGA nanoparticles at dosages 5, 25, 50 and 100ppm/kg diet for 10, 15 and 30 days. The results indicated an increase in the proportion of males with dosage and duration of treatment. The male percentage was 92.35±0.86 for T7(50 ppm) at 10 days, 97.76±1.12 for T7 (100 ppm) at 15 days and 100 % for both T6 (50ppm) and T7 (100 ppm) at 30 days. This is first time done by using nanotechnology efficiently in Tilapia species which is very important Fresh water aquaculture species in present era. Which showed increase the male population with lesser dose of nano-encapsulated Fadrozole (FDZ) loaded PLGA nanoparticles drug as compared with naked control Fadrozole (FDZ) drug delivery

The prevalence of anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies in subclinica and clinical hypothyroid patients

Background: Subclinical hypothyroidism is a state of mild thyroid failure and is essentially a laboratory diagnosis with elevated serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and a normal free thyroxine (FT4) concentration. The main objective of study is to evaluate the prevalence of anti-thyroid peroxidise (anti-TPO) antibodies among patients with clinical and subclinical hypothyroidism.Methods: A prospective study was conducted involving 50 patients with biochemical evidence of hypothyroidism. Subclinical hypothyroidism was defined as thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) >5.0 µIU/ml with normal FT4 and clinical hypothyroidism as free thyroxine (FT4) and high TSH. A detailed history, clinical examination, and investigations comprising of complete haemogram, fasting plasma glucose, fasting FT4, TSH, anti-TPO antibodies and lipid profile were done for all the patients.Results: Out of 50 cases, 28 subjects had clinical hypothyroidism (25 females and 3 males) and 22 had subclinical hypothyroidism (14 females and 8males). Among the 50 subjects with clinical and subclinical hypothyroidism, 33 were anti-TPO positive. The corresponding percentage of anti-TPO positivity noted in the clinical hypothyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism groups were 80 % and 50% respectively.Conclusions: Serum TSH and anti-TPO analyses are essential in determining the etiology of hypothyroidism and risk of progression to overt hypothyroidism in patients with subclinical.

Overcoming data scarcity of Twitter: using tweets as bootstrap with application to autism-related topic content analysis

Notwithstanding recent work which has demonstrated the potential of using Twitter messages for content-specific data mining and analysis, the depth of such analysis is inherently limited by the scarcity of data imposed by the 140 character tweet limit. In this paper we describe a novel approach for targeted knowledge exploration which uses tweet content analysis as a preliminary step. This step is used to bootstrap more sophisticated data collection from directly related but much richer content sources. In particular we demonstrate that valuable information can be collected by following URLs included in tweets. We automatically extract content from the corresponding web pages and treating each web page as a document linked to the original tweet show how a temporal topic model based on a hierarchical Dirichlet process can be used to track the evolution of a complex topic structure of a Twitter community. Using autism-related tweets we demonstrate that our method is capable of capturing a much more meaningful picture of information exchange than user-chosen hashtags.Comment: IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, 201

Recent advances in pulsed-laser deposition of complex-oxides

Pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) is one of the most promising techniques for the formation of complex-oxide heterostructures, superlattices, and well-controlled interfaces. The first part of this paper presents a review of several useful modifications of the process, including methods inspired by combinatorial approaches. We then discuss detailed growth kinetics results, which illustrate that 'true' layer-by-layer (LBL) growth can only be approached, but not fully met, even though many characterization techniques reveal interfaces with unexpected sharpness. Time-resolved surface x-ray diffraction measurements show that crystallization and the majority of interlayer mass transport occur on time scales that are comparable to those of the plume/substrate interaction, providing direct experimental evidence that a growth regime exists in which non-thermal processes dominate PLD. This understanding shows how kinetic growth manipulation can bring PLD closer to ideal LBL than any other growth method available today.Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures. Revie