E-Commerce to Improve Homemaker Productivity (Women Entrepreneur Empowerment at Meruya Utara, Kembangan District, West Jakarta, Indonesia)

Saat ini banyak ibu rumah tangga memiliki bisnis sampingan yang sesuai dengan keterampilan dan hobi mereka. Adapun tujuan dari bisnis sampingan tersebut adalah untuk membantu kebutuhan keuangan rumah tangga mereka. Penelitian sebelumnya telah menunjukkan bahwa ibu rumah tangga yang juga pengusaha perempuan memiliki kontribusi yang signifikan terhadap kesejahteraan keluarga. Namun demikian, terdapat kesulitan dari ibu rumah tangga dalam memasarkan produk dan layanan mereka. Pengabdian ini melaksanakan sosialisasi terkait cara membuat akun e-commerce dan menggunakannya sebagai alternatif untuk menjual produk dan layanan mereka. Selain itu, hasil dari kegiatan layanan masyarakat Internasional ini adalah bahwa ibu rumah tangga dapat menjual produk dan layanan mereka melalui e-commerce. Menurut hasil survei pada kegiatan sosialisasi ini, diketahui bahwa hambatan bagi ibu rumah tangga adalah masih rendahnya pendidikan mereka dimana 65% dari mereka memiliki pendidikan sekolah menengah. Juga, kepemilikan aplikasi internet banking dan mobile banking masih rendah, yaitu 35%. Dengan demikian, kepemilikan yang rendah atas aplikasi internet banking dan mobile banking membuat mereka kesulitan untuk menjual produk dan layanannya melalui e-commerce. Semua peserta sosialisasi menyatakan bahwa kegiatan ini bermanfaat dan menambah pengetahuan mereka. Selanjutnya untuk dapat meningkatkan omset penjualan mereka adalah melalui perbaikan kemasan produk dan layanan mereka untuk membuatnya lebih menarik bagi pembeli.  Kata kunci: Ibu Rumah Tangga, Pengusaha Wanita, Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, E-Commerce. &nbsp

Reflection of electromagnetic waves from mixtures of plane gravitational and scalar waves

We consider colliding wave packets consisting of hybrid mixtures of electromagnetic, gravitational and scalar waves. Irrespective of the scalar field, the electromagnetic wave still reflects from the gravitational wave. Some reflection processes are given for different choice of packets in which the Coulomb-like component $\Psi_2$ vanishes. Exact solution for multiple reflection of an electromagnetic wave from successive impulsive gravitational waves is obtained in a closed form. It is shown that a succesive sign flip in the Maxwell spinor arises as a result of encountering with an impulsive train (i.e. the Dirac's comb curvature) of gravitational waves. Such an observable effect may be helpful in the detection of gravitational wave bursts.Comment: 20 pages, 3 ps figures, small typos corrected, published versio

Suppression of MOG- and PLP-Induced Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis Using a Novel Multivalent Bifunctional Peptide Inhibitor

Previously, bifunctional peptide inhibitors (BPI) with a single antigenic peptide have been shown to suppress experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in an antigen-specific manner. In this study, a multivalent BPI (MVBMOG/PLP) with two antigenic peptides derived from myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG38-50) and myelin proteolipid protein (PLP139-151) was evaluated in suppressing MOG38-50- and PLP139-151-induced EAE. MVBMOG/PLP significantly suppressed both models of EAE even when there was some evidence of epitope spreading in the MOG38-50-induced EAE model. In addition, MVBMOG/PLP was found to be more effective than PLP-BPI and MOG-BPI in suppressing MOG38-50-induced EAE. Thus, the development of MVB molecules with broader antigenic targets can lead to suppression of epitope spreading in EAE

Stress and distress in parents of neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for cardiac surgery

Background: Parents of infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at risk of psychological distress and NICU-related stress. However, parents of infants admitted to NICU for cardiac surgery are an under-researched population. Aims: Identify levels of NICU-related stress, and levels of psychological distress, reported by parents of infants admitted to the NICU for cardiac surgery. Study design: Observational study. Subjects: 69 parents of infants admitted to the NICU for cardiac surgery (cardiac group) and 142 parents of healthy infants (control group). Outcome measures: Questionnaire packs provided to parents prior to discharge (time-point 1), and at six and 12 months corrected age included: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and Family Support Scale. The Parental Stressor Scale:NICU was administered to the cardiac group at time-point 1. Results: The cardiac group reported (i) that parental role alteration was the most stressful aspect of the NICU and (ii) higher scores for anxiety and depression than the control group at all three time-points, with the highest levels reported during the NICU stay. Correlation analyses indicated (i) stress associated with the sights and sounds of the NICU, and the appearance and behaviour of the infant in the NICU, had a significant positive association with anxiety and depression, and (ii) a significant negative relationship between anxiety and task-focused coping. Conclusions: An individualised parent-targeted intervention aimed at reducing stress associated with the NICU and enhancing task-focused coping style may help to reduce levels of anxiety and depression within this group of parents

Artificial neural network to predict the effect of obesity on the risk of tuberculosis infection

Background: Body weight has been implicated as a risk factor for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and the active disease.Design and Methods: This study aimed to develop artificial neural network (ANN) models for predicting LTBI from body weight and other host-related disease risk factors. We used datasets from participants of the US-National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES; 2012; n=5,156; 514 with LTBI and 4,642 controls) to develop three ANNs employing body mass index (BMI, Network I), BMI and HbA1C (as a proxy for diabetes; Network II) and BMI, HbA1C and education (as a proxy for socioeconomic status; Network III). The models were trained on n=1018 age- and sex-matched subjects equally distributed between the control and LTBI groups. The endpoint was the prediction of LTBI.Results: When data was adjusted for age, sex, diabetes and level of education, odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for risk of LTBI with increased BMI was 0.85 (95%CI: 0.77 – 0.96, p=0.01). The three ANNs had a predictive accuracy varied from 75 to 80% with sensitivities ranged from 85% to 94% and specificities of approximately 70%. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were between 0.82 and 0.87. Optimal ANN performance was noted using BMI as a risk indicator.Conclusion: Body weight can be employed in developing artificial intelligence-based tool to predict LTBI. This can be useful in precise decision making in clinical and public health practices aiming to curb the burden of tuberculosis, e.g., in the management and monitoring of the tuberculosis prevention programs and to evaluate the impact of healthy weight on tuberculosis risk and burden

Vaccine-like and Prophylactic Treatments of EAE with Novel IDomain Antigen Conjugates (IDAC): Targeting Multiple Antigenic Peptides to APC

The objective of this work is to utilize novel I-domain antigenic-peptide conjugates (IDAC) for targeting antigenic peptides to antigen-presenting cells (APC) to simulate tolerance in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). IDAC-1 and IDAC-3 molecules are conjugates between the I-domain protein and PLP-Cys and Ac-PLP-Cys-NH2 peptides, respectively, tethered to N-terminus and Lys residues on the I-domain. The hypothesis is that the I-domain protein binds to ICAM-1 and PLP peptide binds to MHC-II on the surface of APC; this binding event inhibits the formation of the immunological synapse at the APC-T-cell interface to alter T-cell differentiation from inflammatory to regulatory phenotypes. Conjugation of peptides to the I-domain did not change the secondary structure of IDAC molecules as determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy. The efficacies of IDAC-1 and -3 were evaluated in EAE mice by administering i.v or s.c. injections of IDAC in a prophylactic or a vaccine-like dosing schedule. IDAC-3 was better than IDAC-1 in suppressing and delaying the onset of EAE when delivered in prophylactic and vaccine-like manners. IDAC-3 also suppressed subsequent relapse of the disease. The production of IL-17 was lowered in the IDAC-33 treated mice compared to those treated with PBS. In contrast, the production of IL-10 was increased, suggesting that there is a shift from inflammatory to regulatory T-cell populations in IDAC-33treated mice. In conclusion, the Idomain can effectively deliver antigenic peptides in a vaccine-like or prophylactic manner for inducing immunotolerance in the EAE mouse model

Effect of modification of the physicochemical properties of ICAM-1-derived peptides on internalization and intracellular distribution in the human leukemic cell line HL-60

The objective of this work is to test the hypothesis that increasing the hydrophilicity of DOX−peptide conjugates may modify their entry mechanisms into HL-60 cells from passive diffusion to receptor-mediated uptake. To test this hypothesis, the entry mechanisms and the intracellular disposition of DOX−cIBR7, DOX−PEGcIBR7, FITC−cIBR, and FITC−cIBR7 were evaluated in HL-60 cells. To increase the hydrophilicity of the peptide, the cIBR peptide (cyclo(1,12)PenPRGGSVLVTGC) was modified to cIBR7 peptide (cyclo(1,8)CPRGGSVC) by removing the hydrophobic residues at the C-terminus. DOX−cIBR7 conjugate, which has higher hydrophilicity than DOX−cIBR, was synthesized. Second, a hydrophilic linker (11-amino-3,6,9-trioxaundecanate linker) was incorporated between DOX and cIBR7 to generate DOX−PEGcIBR7 with higher hydrophilicity than DOX−cIBR7. As controls, FITC−cIBR and FITC−cIBR7 were used to check for any endocytic uptake process of the peptide. As previously found with DOX−cIBR, DOX−cIBR7, and DOX−PEGcIBR7, conjugates enter the cells via passive diffusion and not via the energy-dependent endocytic process. This result suggests that an increase in hydrophilicity does not influence the entry mechanism of the DOX−peptide conjugates. In contrast to the DOX−cIBR7 conjugate, the FITC−cIBR7 conjugate showed energy-dependent cellular entry into the cells and followed an endocytic pathway similar to that for dextran. Finally, the entry of DOX−cIBR7 and DOX−PEGcIBR into the cell cytosol was shown to be due to the properties of DOX and not to those of the peptide