High-Mobility Pentacene-Based Thin-Film Transistors With a Solution-Processed Barium Titanate Insulator

Abstract—Pentacene-based organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) with solution-processed barium titanate (Ba1.2Ti0.8O3) as a gate insulator are demonstrated. The electrical properties of pentacene-based TFTs show a high field-effect mobility of 8.85 cm2 · V−1 · s−1, a low threshold voltage of −1.89 V, and a low subthreshold slope swing of 310 mV/decade. The chemical composition and binding energy of solution-processed barium titanate thin films are analyzed through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The matching surface energy on the surface of the barium titanate thin film is 43.12 mJ · m−2, which leads to Stranski–Krastanov mode growth, and thus, high mobility is exhibited in pentacene-based TFTs. Index Terms—Barium titanate, high field-effect mobility, high permittivity, organic thin-filmtransistor (OTFT), solution process

Factors associated with the utilization of antenatal care services among pregnant women in Eswatini - A cross-sectional study

The study aimed to assess the utilization of antenatal care services and its associated factors among pregnant women in Eswatini. A cross-sectional study was adopted. Convenience sampling was conducted in a public referral hospital in central Eswatini from 1st of August to the 30 of September 2021. A total of 400 newly delivered women who met the inclusion criteria were recruited. SPSS version 22.0 was used to analyze data including descriptive and bivariate analysis. Results indicated that only 13% of pregnant women booked their first ANC in the first trimester and 24.8% of them attended less than four ANC visits. Maternal education, gestational age, gravity, pregnant-related complications, medical history, and maternal health literacy were significantly associated with the utilization of ANC services (p< .05). To increase the utilization of ANC service, healthcare professionals should pay special attention to pregnant women with tertiary education, gave birth below 38 weeks, multi-gravities, medical history, and poor maternal health literacy. (Afr J Reprod Health 2022; 26[12]: 67-77). L'étude visait à évaluer l'utilisation des services de soins prénatals et ses facteurs associés chez les femmes enceintes en Eswatini. Une étude transversale a été retenue. Un échantillonnage de commodité a été effectué dans un hôpital public de référence du centre d'Eswatini du 1er août au 30 septembre 2021. Un total de 400 femmes nouvellement accouchées qui répondaient aux critères d'inclusion ont été recrutées. La version SPSS 22.0 a été utilisée pour analyser les données, y compris l'analyse descriptive et bivariée. Les résultats ont indiqué que seulement 13 % des femmes enceintes ont réservé leur première CPN au cours du premier trimestre et 24,8 % d'entre elles ont assisté à moins de quatre visites CPN. L'éducation de la mère, l'âge gestationnel, la gravité, les complications liées à la grossesse, les antécédents médicaux et les connaissances en matière de santé maternelle étaient significativement associés à l'utilisation des services de soins prénatals (p < 0,05). Pour accroître l'utilisation des services de soins prénatals, les professionnels de la santé doivent accorder une attention particulière aux femmes enceintes ayant fait des études supérieures, ayant accouché à moins de 38 semaines, multigravités, ayant des antécédents médicaux et une faible littératie en matière de santé maternelle. (Afr J Reprod Health 2022; 26[12]: 67-77)

A Network Stability Monitoring Mechanism of Cluster-Oriented Wireless Sensor Network

In wireless sensor network (WSN), every sensor node could active dynamically. Therefore, those sensor nodes will affect the stability of network topology because of clustering and de-clustering, and continuously make reconfiguration for the clusters of wireless sensor network, all that will influence the overall function of network. It is an important issue that how to elect a cluster manager (CM) to keep the stability of network topology. In addition, large amount of events maybe flood suddenly in a local area. Such the case might raise the overload of CM, even lead CM to fail or crash and the WSN topology maybe self-organized. However, a mechanism needs to be considered that allows coping with the additional loads and can balance the workload of CM. In this study, a preventable and supportable monitor mechanism to avoid CM overload cause network unstable and to reduce load imbalance problem is proposed. Hence, it can prolong lifetime of network and raise performance of network efficiently

An Extended Analytic Solution of Combined Refraction and Diffraction of Long Waves Propagating over Circular Island

An analytic solution of long waves scattering by a cylindrical island mounted on a permeable circular shoal was obtained by solving the linear long wave equation (LWE). The solution is in terms of the Bessel function expressed by complex variables. The present solution is suitable for arbitrary bottom configurations described by a power function with two independent parameters. For the case of the paraboloidal shoal, there exists a singular point (α=2) which can be removed using Frobenius series, where α is a real constant. The present solution is reduced to Yu and Zhang’s (2003) solution for impermeable circular shoal. The numerical results show some special features of the combined effect of wave refraction and diffraction caused by a porous circular island. The effect of key parameters of the island dimension, the shoal slope, and permeability on wave scattering was discussed based on the analytic solution

Noninvasive prediction of Blood Lactate through a machine learning-based approach.

We hypothesized that blood lactate concentration([Lac]blood) is a function of cardiopulmonary variables, exercise intensity and some anthropometric elements during aerobic exercise. This investigation aimed to establish a mathematical model to estimate [Lac]blood noninvasively during constant work rate (CWR) exercise of various intensities. 31 healthy participants were recruited and each underwent 4 cardiopulmonary exercise tests: one incremental and three CWR tests (low: 35% of peak work rate for 15 min, moderate: 60% 10 min and high: 90% 4 min). At the end of each CWR test, venous blood was sampled to determine [Lac]blood. 31 trios of CWR tests were employed to construct the mathematical model, which utilized exponential regression combined with Taylor expansion. Good fitting was achieved when the conditions of low and moderate intensity were put in one model; high-intensity in another. Standard deviation of fitting error in the former condition is 0.52; in the latter is 1.82 mmol/liter. Weighting analysis demonstrated that, besides heart rate, respiratory variables are required in the estimation of [Lac]blood in the model of low/moderate intensity. In conclusion, by measuring noninvasive cardio-respiratory parameters, [Lac]blood during CWR exercise can be determined with good accuracy. This should have application in endurance training and future exercise industry

Discussion on the Relevance of Old Low-lying Land Reclamation and Soil Liquefaction

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Testing the light scalar meson as a non-qqˉq\bar q state in semileptonic DD decays

To distinguish between the normal $q\bar q$ and exotic diquark-antidiqark ($q^2\bar q^2$) contents of the lowest-lying scalar meson ($S_0$), we investigate the semileptonic $D\to S_0 e^+\nu_e, S_0\to M_1 M_2$ decays, where $M_{1(2)}$ represents a pseudoscalar meson. With the form factors extracted from the current data, we calculate ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \sigma_0 e^+\nu_e,\sigma_0\to\pi^0\pi^0) =(12.9^{+6.3}_{-4.9})\times 10^{-4}$ and $(0.8^{+1.2}_{-0.7})\times 10^{-4}$ for the $q\bar q$ and $q^2\bar q^2$ quark structures, respectively, and compare them to the experimental upper limit: $6.4\times 10^{-4}$. It is clearly seen that $S_0$ prefers to be the $q^2\bar q^2$ bound state. Particularly, ${\cal B}_{q\bar q}(D_s^+\to \sigma_0 e^+\nu_e,\sigma_0\to\pi^+\pi^-) =(25.8^{+12.5}_{-\;\,9.8})\times 10^{-4}$ and ${\cal B}_{q^2\bar q^2}(D_s^+\to \sigma_0 e^+\nu_e,\sigma_0\to\pi^+\pi^-) =(1.5^{+2.4}_{-1.3})\times 10^{-4}$ are predicted to deviate far from each other, useful for a clear experimental investigation.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

Inhibition of Serine Protease Activity Protects Against High Fat Diet-Induced Inflammation and Insulin Resistance.

Recent evidence suggests that enhanced protease-mediated inflammation may promote insulin resistance and result in diabetes. This study tested the hypothesis that serine protease plays a pivotal role in type 2 diabetes, and inhibition of serine protease activity prevents hyperglycemia in diabetic animals by modulating insulin signaling pathway. We conducted a single-center, cross-sectional study with 30 healthy controls and 57 patients with type 2 diabetes to compare plasma protease activities and inflammation marker between groups. Correlations of plasma total and serine protease activities with variables were calculated. In an in-vivo study, LDLR-/- mice were divided into normal chow diet, high-fat diet (HFD), and HFD with selective serine protease inhibition groups to examine the differences of obesity, blood glucose level, insulin resistance and serine protease activity among groups. Compared with controls, diabetic patients had significantly increased plasma total protease, serine protease activities, and also elevated inflammatory cytokines. Plasma serine protease activity was positively correlated with body mass index, hemoglobin A1c, homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), tumor necrosis factor-α, and negatively with adiponectin concentration. In the animal study, administration of HFD progressively increased body weight, fasting glucose level, HOMA-IR, and upregulated serine protease activity. Furthermore, in-vivo serine protease inhibition significantly suppressed systemic inflammation, reduced fasting glucose level, and improved insulin resistance, and these effects probably mediated by modulating insulin receptor and cytokine expression in visceral adipose tissue. Our findings support the serine protease may play an important role in type 2 diabetes and suggest a rationale for a therapeutic strategy targeting serine protease for clinical prevention of type 2 diabetes

The effectiveness of different health education strategies in people with pre-diabetes: A randomized controlled trial

Background. People with pre-diabetes often lack knowledge of their risks of developing diabetes. In one of our previous study, Multi-Approach Health Education was shown evidence to be effective on health behavior of reducing risks of developing diabetes. However, which one approach is really effective and efficient need further investigation. Purpose. To examine the effects of different intervention strategies on diabetes prevention knowledge, exercise, dietary behavior, and physiological indicators for people with pre-diabetes. Methods. This was a randomly controlled trial. People who received health examination and were found fasting blood glucose higher than normal, between 100 - 125 mg/dl in 2011 were recruited. Three types of intervention were randomly assigned to 3 groups respectively. The control group (n=51) received a health education lecture. One experimental group (n=48) received the identical lecture plus telephone encouragement. The second experimental group (n=41) received the identical lecture plus a health reminder poster in their daily life. The outcomes were evaluated for the change in knowledge of diabetes prevention, exercise behavior, dietary behavior, and physiological outcomes at 6 and 12 weeks after the lecture of three groups, respectively. Results. Three intervention strategies were equally efficacious at inducing positive behavioral changes but overall the magnitudes of physiological changes were the same. In general, the maximum change in parameters was achieved after 6 weeks and maintained in the second 6 weeks of the study. Conclusions. Educating people with pre-diabetes about their condition can have a positive effect upon their health behaviors. However, education lecture coupled with a telephone follow up or plus educational posters were found no more effective than lecture alone. The lecture alone of health education may be enough for people with pre-diabetes, but the long term effect needs further investigation