Structural and spectroscopic analysis of wurtzite (ZnO)1−x(Sb2O3)x composite semiconductor

Abstract The structural, vibrational and impedance analysis for (ZnO) 1− x (Sb 2 O 3 ) x composite synthesized by solid state reaction technique were carried out in the present investigation. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study showed that (ZnO) 1− x (Sb 2 O 3 ) x composite has hexagonal (wurtzite) crystal structure. Variation in lattice constants with Sb-doping indicated the proper incorporation of Sb dopant in ZnO host matrix. The results of Raman spectroscopy test suggested the signature of E 2 (high) and E 1 (TO) Raman modes, and verified the wurtzite structure of (ZnO) 1− x (Sb 2 O 3 ) x composite. Two additional phonon bands (671, 712) cm −1 appeared in Raman spectra of composite samples due to the existence of the lattice defects caused by Sb doping or may be other intrinsic lattice defects formed during the synthesis of (ZnO) 1− x (Sb 2 O 3 ) x composite. The frequency dependent on the electrical characteristics, such as, impedance ( Z ), dielectric constant ( e ) and AC conductivity ( σ ) have been studied in a range of frequencies for different Sb concentration at room temperature. The electrical measurement results showed that the impedance increased with Sb dopant concentration, while dielectric constant and AC conductivity decreased with Sb dopant concentration

Serum CRP level in day of ovum pickup and embryo transfer as a predictor for success in patients undergoing IVF/ ICSI

Background: This study was performed to determine the level of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) in day of ovum pickup and embryo transfer as a predictor for success in patients undergoing In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Intracytoplasmic Sperm injection (ICSI).Methods: This study was a cross sectional study (prospective) that was conducted in assisted reproduction unit in Al-Azhar University Hospital on 50 infertile patients who were candidate for IVF/ICSI, using standard long protocol, blood was drawn two times during cycle, in the day of ovum pick up and the day of embryo transfer.Results: In (70.6 %) the serum of CRP level was higher in day of embryo transfer than day of ovum pick up. The ratio of CRP level in the day of embryo transfer to the day of ovum pick up was heigher (1.54) in patients who became pregnant after ICSI, patients with less than this ratio have not been pregnant.Conclusions: Controlled ovarian hyper stimulation and puncture of ovaries can potentiate systemic stimulation so increasing serum CRP level in day of embryo transfer rather than day of ovum pick up can predict success in patients undergoing IVF/ICSI.

Environmental footprint assessment of a cleanup at hypothetical contaminated site

Contaminated site management is currently a critical problem area all over the world, which opens a wide discussion in the areas of policy, research and practice at national and international levels. Conventional site management and remediation techniques are often aimed at reducing the contaminant levels to an acceptable level in a short period of time at low cost. Owing to the fact that the conventional approach may not be sustainable as it overlooks many ancillary environmental effects, there is an immense need of “sustainable” or “green” approaches. Green approaches address environmental, social and economic impacts throughout the remediation process and are capable of conserving the natural resources and protecting air, water and soil quality through reduced emissions and other waste burdens. This paper presents a methodology to quantify the environmental footprint of a cleanup for a hypothetical contaminated site by using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Spreadsheet for Environmental Footprint Assessment (SEFA). The hypothetical contaminated site is selected from a metropolitan city of Pakistan and the environmental footprint of the cleanup is analyzed under three different scenarios: cleanup without any renewable energy sources at all, cleanup with a small share of renewable energy sources, and cleanup with a large share of renewable energy sources. It is concluded that integration of renewable energy sources into the remedial system design is a promising idea which can reduce CO2, NOx, SOx, PM and HAP emissions up to 68%

Insight into the impact of COVID-19 on Australian transportation sector : an economic and community-based perspective

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major virus outbreak of the 21st century. The Australian government and local authorities introduced some drastic strategies and policies to control the outspread of this virus. The policies related to lockdown, quarantine, social distancing, shut down of educational institute, work from home, and international and interstate travel bans significantly affect the lifestyle of citizens and, thus, influence their activity patterns. The transport system is, thus, severely affected due to the COVID-19 related restrictions. This paper analyses how the transport system is impacted because of the policies adopted by the Australian government for the containment of the COVID-19. Three main components of the transport sector are studied. These are air travel, public transport, and freight transport. Various official sources of data such as the official website of the Australian government, Google mobility trends, Apple Mobility trends, and Moovit were consulted along with recently published research articles on COVID-19 and its impacts. The secondary sources of data include databases, web articles, and interviews that were conducted with the stakeholders of transport sectors in Australia to analyse the relationship between COVID-19 prevention measures and the transport system. The results of this study showed reduced demand for transport with the adoption of COVID-19 prevention measures. Declines in revenues in the air, freight, and public transport sectors of the transport industry are also reported. The survey shows that transport sector in Australia is facing a serious financial downfall as the use of public transport has dropped by 80%, a 31.5% drop in revenues earned by International airlines in Australia has been predicted, and a 9.5% reduction in the freight transport by water is expected. The recovery of the transport sector to the pre-pandemic state is only possible with the relaxation of COVID-19 containment policies and financial support by the government

Localization of sound sources : a systematic review

Sound localization is a vast field of research and advancement which is used in many useful applications to facilitate communication, radars, medical aid, and speech enhancement to but name a few. Many different methods are presented in recent times in this field to gain benefits. Various types of microphone arrays serve the purpose of sensing the incoming sound. This paper presents an overview of the importance of using sound localization in different applications along with the use and limitations of ad-hoc microphones over other microphones. In order to overcome these limitations certain approaches are also presented. Detailed explanation of some of the existing methods that are used for sound localization using microphone arrays in the recent literature is given. Existing methods are studied in a comparative fashion along with the factors that influence the choice of one method over the others. This review is done in order to form a basis for choosing the best fit method for our use

A strong construction of S-box using Mandelbrot set an image encryption scheme

The substitution box (S-box) plays a vital role in creating confusion during the encryption process of digital data. The quality of encryption schemes depends upon the S-box. There have been several attempts to enhance the quality of the S-box by using fractal chaotic mechanisms. However, there is still weakness in the robustness against cryptanalysis of fractal-based S-boxes. Due to their chaotic behavior, fractals are frequently employed to achieve randomness by confusion and diffusion process. A complex number-based S-box and a chaotic map diffusion are proposed to achieve high nonlinearity and low correlation. This study proposed a Mandelbrot set S-box construction based on the complex number and Chen chaotic map for resisting cryptanalytic attacks by creating diffusion in our proposed algorithm. The cryptosystem was built on the idea of substitution permutation networks (SPN). The complex nature of the proposed S-box makes it more random than other chaotic maps. The robustness of the proposed system was analyzed by different analysis properties of the S-box, such as nonlinearity, strict avalanche criterion, Bit independent criterion, and differential and linear probability. Moreover, to check the strength of the proposed S-box against differential and brute force attacks, we performed image encryption with the proposed S-box. The security analysis was performed, including statistical attack analysis and NIST analysis. The analysis results show that the proposed system achieves high-security standards than existing schemes

A gabor filter-based protocol for automated image-based building detection

Detecting buildings from high-resolution satellite imagery is beneficial in mapping, environmental preparation, disaster management, military planning, urban planning and research purposes. Differentiating buildings from the images is possible however, it may be a time-consuming or complicated process. Therefore, the high-resolution imagery from satellites needs to be automated to detect the buildings. Additionally, buildings exhibit several different characteristics, and their appearance in these images is unplanned. Moreover, buildings in the metropolitan environment are typically crowded and complicated. Therefore, it is challenging to identify the building and hard tolocate them. To resolve this situation, a novel probabilistic method has been suggested using local features and probabilistic approaches. A local feature extraction technique was implemented, which was used to calculate the probability density function. The locations in the image were represented as joint probability distributions and were used to estimate their probability distribution function (pdf). The density of building locations in the image was extracted. Kernel density distribution was also used to find the density flow for different metropolitan cities such as Sydney (Australia), Tokyo (Japan), and Mumbai (India), which is useful for distribution intensity and pattern of facility point f interest (POI). The purpose system can detect buildings/rooftops and to test our system, we choose some crops with panchromatic high-resolution satellite images from Australia and our results looks promising with high efficiency and minimal computational time for feature extraction. We were able to detect buildings with shadows and building without shadows in 0.4468 (seconds) and 0.5126 (seconds) respectively

Challenges of Autism Spectrum Disorders Families Towards Oral Health Care in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practice regarding oral health care among parents of autistic children and also the challenges faced by them in providing dental care for their Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) children’s in four regions of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Material and Methods:  In total, 263 parents of autistic children participated in this cross-sectional study who were enrolled from 4 major regions of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A self-administered questionnaire formulated in simple Arabic was distributed to parents of children diagnosed with autism or any form of ASD. The questionnaires consisted of demographic questions and also to assess their knowledge on oral health, child’s oral hygiene practices and visits to their dentist, oral hygiene, experience and challenges in waiting room area before the dental treatment, acceptance of treatment or rejection, accessibility to find non-dental centers either government or private for treatment and their recommendations. Results: All the parents brushed their child’s teeth using a toothbrush and fluoridated toothpaste. A total of 29.7% of the parents informed that their child never brushes teeth. A total of 41.4% of the parents visit the dental clinic when the child complains about dental problems and 54% find difficulty in locating appropriate dental clinic to deal with their ASD children. Most parents reported taking their child to a private office (38.8%). Only 3.8% of parents reported that their children had seizures during dental procedures. Conclusion:  The knowledge toward oral health was found to be inadequate among the majority of the parents. Parents of ASD children need to be educated about the consequences of oral health neglect and the importance of regular check-ups

Revisiting the Factors Underlying Maxillary Midline Diastema

Aim. The aim of this study is to analyze the etiological factors underlying the presence of maxillary midline diastema in a sample of orthodontic patients. Materials and Methods. One hundred patients who fulfill the inclusion criteria were selected from 1355 patients seeking orthodontic treatment. The pretreatment orthodontic records were analyzed. The width of the maxillary midline diastema was measured clinically with a digital caliper at two levels: the mesioincisal angles of the central incisors and five millimeters from the incisal edge. The two measurements were averaged, and patients with diastema of more than 0.5 millimeter in width were enrolled. Results. Diastema is a multifactorial clinical finding with more than one underlying etiological cause. The interrelationship between the familial pattern of midline diastema and the microdontia, macroglossia, labial frenum, and alveolar cleft conforms was clear. The effect of a mesiodens and the upper lateral incisor whether bilaterally missing, unerupted, or peg shaped was minimal. Conclusion. Etiological factors underlying maxillary midline diastema are interconnected. Using a checklist as a guide during handling maxillary midline diastema is important in the different stages of treatment