Aluminium oxide prepared by UV/ozone exposure for low-voltage organic thin-film transistors

We have developed a gate dielectric for low-voltage organic thin-film transistors based on an inorganic/organic bi-layer with a total thickness of up to ~ 20 nm. The inorganic layer is aluminium oxide formed by UV/ozone treatment of aluminium layers. The organic layer is 1-octylphosphonic acid. The preparation of aluminium oxide was studied with respect to the threshold voltage of p-channel thin-film transistors based on thermally evaporated pentacene. The results demonstrate that the threshold voltage decreases with increasing UV/ozone exposure time. The threshold voltage varies by 0.7 V and the gate-source leakage current by a factor of 10 as a function of aluminium oxide preparation. The electrical breakdown field of the bi-layer gate dielectric is at least 5 MV/cm for all AlOx preparation conditions

Sports Dentistry: Dental Traumatology with Preventive Measures– A Review

In sports, dental trauma is the main link between sport and dentistry. Sports dentistry is the treatment of sporting oral / facial injuries and associated oral disorders and manifestations. Sporting practices have been found to be responsible for 13 per cent of total oral trauma in children. It is emphasized that from high schools to professional teams there is a great need for a "Team Dentist." In this review, we discuss the relationship between sport and dentistry, and the importance of educating parents, teachers, and children on sport-related injury prevention

Postpartum intrauterine contraceptive device: knowledge and factors affecting acceptance among postpartum women at tertiary care hospital in North-Western Rajasthan

Background: Intra-uterine contraceptive device (IUCD) insertion recommended within 10 min of placental delivery or within 48 hours of delivery is called postpartum IUCD according to WHO. Aim of the study was to evaluate the factors affecting knowledge and the likely acceptance of the postpartum intrauterine contraceptive device (PPIUCD).Methods: The present descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at S. P. Medical College and associated group of hospitals, Bikaner, Rajasthan, India from May 2020 to July 2020. Total 500 post-partum women were studied with the help of predesigned and pretested questionnaire. Knowledge of the women was summarized as proportion. Chi-square test was used to compare proportions and univariate analysis for the factors affecting knowledge and likely adoption of PPIUCD.Results: The 210 (42%) women out of 500 women had knowledge regarding PPIUCD. Multiparity (p=0.003), education above secondary level {OR=11.66 (95% CI=7.13-19.06), p=0.00}, upper middle and middle socioeconomic status {OR=6.77 (95% CI=4.44-10.16), p=0.00} and health worker counselling {OR=13.61(95% CI=8.78-21.10), p=0.00} were significantly associated with knowledge. Multiparous women (p=0.004), women who had discussed PPIUCD with their husband (p<0.0001), women with family support for their decision (p<0.00001), women without religious beliefs (p<0.0001) were more significantly associated with adoption of PPIUCD.Conclusions: The level of knowledge of our study population regarding PPIUCD is 42%. Our study has reported education and regular health care worker counselling as most important modifiable predictors to improve the knowledge regarding PPIUCD

Optimizing pentacene growth in low-voltage organic thin-film transistors prepared by dry fabrication techniques

We have studied the effect of pentacene purity and evaporation rate on low-voltage organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) prepared solely by dry fabrication techniques. The maximum field-effect mobility of 0.07 cm2/Vs was achieved for the highest pentacene evaporation rate of 0.32 Å/s and four-time purified pentacene. Four-time purified pentacene also led to the lowest threshold voltage of -1.1 V and inverse subthreshold slope of ~100 mV/decade. In addition, pentacene surface was imaged using atomic force microscopy, and the transistor channel and contact resistances for various pentacene evaporation rates were extracted and compared to field-effect mobilities

TACOS: Topology-Aware Collective Algorithm Synthesizer for Distributed Training

Collective communications are an indispensable part of distributed training. Running a topology-aware collective algorithm is crucial for optimizing communication performance by minimizing congestion. Today such algorithms only exist for a small set of simple topologies, limiting the topologies employed in training clusters and handling irregular topologies due to network failures. In this paper, we propose TACOS, an automated topology-aware collective synthesizer for arbitrary input network topologies. TACOS synthesized 3.73x faster All-Reduce algorithm over baselines, and synthesized collective algorithms for 512-NPU system in just 6.1 minutes

The double pendulum

Policy discourses posit an accountability deficit as an underlying cause of a “learning crisis” in many low-income countries. Many studies understand this perceived deficit from a principal-agent perspective, arguing that incentives facing teachers and schools often do not align to the interests of parents and students. Such perspectives underlie many randomized controlled trials, which associate interventions with outcomes, but which also produce varying or inconsistent results across contexts. This paper seeks to study the accountability of schools and teachers more directly, looking at how it varies across public and private schools and how it relates to students’ literacy and numeracy abilities. We report results from a mixed methods study conducted in Mumbai and Kathmandu. Our results show that there are some relationships between accountability and learning outcomes, but these appear to be specific to the context. Quantitative data also show that differences between public and private models of schooling are negligible when students’ social backgrounds and school composition are considered. Qualitative data show that accountability processes create a significant burden on staff time and embed complex power dynamics that are not always productive. Taken together, these results problematize policies that seek to improve learning through “demand-side” approaches such as privatization. They show that the dynamics of accountability are a complex system, like the motion of a “double pendulum,” and therefore simple conceptual approaches such as the principal-agent model are of limited academic and practical utility

Antioxidants Obtained from the Natural Sources: Importance in Human Health

Now a day the interest in natural and synthetic antioxidants is increasing very rapidly in functional food ingredients and dietary supplements. The differences between the number of free radicals and antioxidants are the main cause of the oxidative damage of lipids, proteins, and DNA. In this chapter, we are summarising the natural antioxidants which have been obtained from plants, animals, or microbial sources. Flavonoids are the most comprehensive antioxidant compounds which are obtained from natural sources. These flavonoids are reactive toward many radicals which are studied by many researchers under various experimental conditions and their structural activity relationships have been recognised. This chapter includes the various types of antioxidants obtained from natural sources and their impact on human health as pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and phytoceuticals as well as their use in the treatment of various diseases along with the mechanism of action