Microscale application of column theory for high resolution force and displacement sensing

We present the design, fabrication and experimental validation of a novel device that exploits the amplification of displacement and attenuation of structural stiffness in the post-buckling deformation of slender columns to obtain pico-Newton force and nanometer displacement resolution even under an optical microscope. The extremely small size, purely mechanical sensing scheme and vacuum compatibility of the instrument makes it compatible with existing visualization tools of nanotechnology. The instrument has a wide variety of potential applications ranging from electro-mechanical characterization of one dimensional solids to single biological cells

Three-loop HTLpt thermodynamics at finite temperature and chemical potential

In this proceedings we present a state-of-the-art method of calculating thermodynamic potential at finite temperature and finite chemical potential, using Hard Thermal Loop perturbation theory (HTLpt) up to next-to-next-leading-order (NNLO). The resulting thermodynamic potential enables us to evaluate different thermodynamic quantities including pressure and various quark number susceptibilities (QNS). Comparison between our analytic results for those thermodynamic quantities with the available lattice data shows a good agreement.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, conference proceedings of XXI DAE-BRNS HEP Symposium, IIT Guwahati, December 2014; to appear in 'Springer Proceedings in Physics Series

Hypoxic Culture Conditions as a Solution for Mesenchymal Stem Cell Based Regenerative Therapy

Cell-based regenerative therapies, based on in vitro propagation of stem cells, offer tremendous hope to many individuals suffering from degenerative diseases that were previously deemed untreatable. Due to the self-renewal capacity, multilineage potential, and immunosuppressive property, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered as an attractive source of stem cells for regenerative therapies. However, poor growth kinetics, early senescence, and genetic instability during in vitro expansion and poor engraftment after transplantation are considered to be among the major disadvantages of MSC-based regenerative therapies. A number of complex inter-and intracellular interactive signaling systems control growth, multiplication, and differentiation of MSCs in their niche. Common laboratory conditions for stem cell culture involve ambient O-2 concentration (20%) in contrast to their niche where they usually reside in 2-9% O-2. Notably, O-2 plays an important role in maintaining stem cell fate in terms of proliferation and differentiation, by regulating hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) mediated expression of different genes. This paper aims to describe and compare the role of normoxia (20% O-2) and hypoxia (2-9% O-2) on the biology of MSCs. Finally it is concluded that a hypoxic environment can greatly improve growth kinetics, genetic stability, and expression of chemokine receptors during in vitro expansion and eventually can increase efficiency of MSC-based regenerative therapies.Article Link: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2013/632972

The prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus (hbv) infection in a large multi-ethnic haemodialysis cohort.

Haemodialysis patients are at increased risk of exposure to blood borne viruses. To reduce transmission in the UK, all haemodialysis patients are regularly screened, and if susceptible to Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, vaccinated

Religiosity, ethnocentrism end corporate image towards the perception of young muslim consumers: structural equation modelling approach

The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between religiosity, ethnocentrism and corporate image towards the perception of purchasing foreign goods by the young Muslim consumers in Malaysia. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed for measuring the relationship from young Muslim consumers in Klang Valley area. Finally, 230 questionnaires became validated and tested for further statistical analysis through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied for testing the hypotheses of the study. Among all the variables, corporate image and ethnocentrism behavior plays the most significant on the perception of young Muslim consumer’s before purchasing foreign made products. The added value of this paper is to link between theory and practice, and explore the religiosity and ethnocentrism behavior on young Muslim consumer’s purchase decisions of foreign products. Few researches have conducted over the years under the young Muslim consumers that investigated the relationship between religiosity and ethnocentrism perspective. Moreover, this relatively new issue remains largely undiscovered by researchers under various market environments

Factors affecting the attractiveness of medical tourism destination: an empirical study on India

Abstract Background: In this edge, medical tourism is not a new idea. Medical treatment is one of the essential demands of human beings and it requires high quality and intensive care. Beside western world, few developing countries are playing key roles as medical tourism destinations. India is one of the leading names among these countries. The purpose of the paper is to find the factors influencing the attractiveness of India as a health tourism destination. Methods: The study has found the major contributing factors and their relative importance in the attractiveness of the health tourism destination that is India from consumers‟ perspectives by conducting survey with an application of structural equation modelling approach. Results: In Indian context, medical tourists consider service quality and cost mostly to select any medical destination. In addition they also give value to the destination competitiveness but tourist attitude is less important in comparison with other factors affecting their destination choice. Since the study has used structural equation modelling approach to test the hypothesis and figure out the relative importance of the factors, the fundamental indices such as Normed Chi square(less than 3), RMSEA (less than 0.08) and CFI (more than 0.90) values show the overall model fit of the proposed model. Conclusion: In order to transform a country such as India as an attractive and competitive medical tourist destination in this time of globalization, a step should be taken to control cost ensuring the quality of services. Keywords: Medical tourism, Destination competitiveness, Factors, Indi

Islamic banking in Malaysia: a study of attitudinal differences of Malaysian customers

This research emphasizes attitudinal difference of Malaysian customers about Islamic banking services. The banking service providers can gain excellent benefit from Islamic banking practices upon identification of these differences. A structured questionnaire was constructed to collect the necessary data to answer the research questions as being framed on related affective factors of attitudinal differences of consumers’ in Malaysia. In this research we have employed independent sample ‘t’ test and ANOVA to test the hypotheses. Results showed that Malaysian consumers have positive attitude toward Islamic banking. Results of ‘t’ test showed significant attitudinal differences between males and females. In addition, the results of ANOVA showed significant attitudinal difference existed only between Malay and Chinese and between Chinese and Indian, while the overall attitudes of all three races were positive toward Islamic banking. One potential limitation of this study was the size and composition of the group which participated in the study. Therefore, a generalization about the entire population of Malaysian banking customers of banking sector is inappropriate. In addition, this research could not incorporate all levels of diverse attributes of Islamic banking that might influence customers’ behavior. The results of this study can facilitate the Islamic banking service providers to introduce new, innovative service offerings based on attitudinal differences and of course, in accordance with Islamic rules and regulation

Factors influencing in selection of online banking products: a conceptual paper on Bangladeshi customer

Abstract The study has been led to research the components that impact the clients of electronic banking services to utilize internet banking in Bangladesh. In this study there has been utilizing diverse compelling components that has an extraordinary effect to rouse or impact the internet banking client in determination of their web based banking framework in Bangladesh will be examine and with different analytical procedures. It has been seen from the result of the literature that, the ease of usefulness is the most critical component that impacts the client in choice of internet banking. Different questions will be asked to determine the most influencing term under use of usefulness. On perception, a proper policy may go a long way to increase the ease use online banking system with the improvement of other related facilities which will help the online banking system to attract the new clients. Keywords: Ease of usefulness, online bank, Security and Privacy, Customer satisfactio