A 12-month prospective real-life study of opicapone efficacy and tolerability in Emirati and non-White subjects with Parkinson's disease based in United Arab Emirates

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, and the condition is complicated by the emergence of wearing off/motor fluctuations with levodopa treatment after a variable period. COMT inhibitors when used as adjunct therapy to levodopa tend to smoothen out these wearing off fluctuations by enhancing delivery of levodopa and increasing its bioavailability to the brain. The study was conducted to investigate the motor and nonmotor effect, safety and tolerability of the third generation once-daily COMT inhibitor (opicapone), as add-on, adjuvant therapy to levodopa and at 6 and 12 months follow-up in a real-life cohort of consecutive Emirati and non-White PD patients. A real-life observational analysis using tolerability parameters as used previously by Rizos et al. and Shulman et al. based on clinical database of cases rat Kings College Hospital Dubai Parkinson care database. This was a prospective, single-arm follow-up clinical evaluation study that evaluated the effectiveness of opicapone 50 mg once-daily regime in 50 patients diagnosed with idiopathic neurodegenerative disorder. All patients were assessed with scales used in clinical pathway and include motor Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), nonmotor symptom scale (NMSS), quality of life (PDQ8) Parkinson's fatigue scale (PFS16) and King's Parkinson's Pain Scale (KIPS). Out of 50 patients treated with opicapone (72% male, mean age 66.9 years (SD 9.9, range 41-82 years) and mean duration of disease 5.7 years (SD 2.5 range (2-11), there was significant statistical improvements shown in motor function-UPDRS part 3: baseline 40.64 ± 2.7, at 6 months 32.12 ± 3.14 and after 12 months 33.72 ± 3.76. Nonmotor burden NMSS: 107.00 ± 21.86, at 6 months 100.78 ± 17.28 and 12 months 96.88 ± 16.11. Reduction in dyskinesias (UPDRS part 4): baseline 8.78 ± 1.07, at 6 months 7.4 ± 0.81 and 12 months 6.82 ± 0.75. Opicapone provides beneficial motor and nonmotor effects in Emirati and other non-White Parkinson's patients, resident in UAE, proving its efficacy across different racial groups as COMT activity may vary between races.S

In2Se3 Visible/Near-IR Photodetector With Observation of Band-Edge in Spectral Response

We report on the demonstration of visible/near-IR high-performance photodetector based on exfoliated beta-Indium selenide (In2Se3) on sapphire with a clear signature of band edge in spectral responsivity at a wavelength of similar to 850-900 nm. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements also indicated a peak at similar to 900 nm confirming the band-edge. Devices with inter-digitated metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) geometry exhibited a responsivity of 3.8 A/W (normalized to device area). A low dark current of 0.80 nA and a photo to dark current ratio of similar to 52 were measured when illuminated with 650 nm A specific detectivity of 1 x 10(10) cm Hz(0.5) W-1 at 650 nm and 6 x 10(8) cm Hz(0.5) W-1 at the band-edge of 900 nm were estimated. These results indicate the promise of beta-(In2Se3) for visible/near-IR detector applications

Gain mechanism and carrier transport in high responsivity AlGaN-based solar blind metal semiconductor metal photodetectors

We report on the highest responsivity for III-nitride Metal Semiconductor Metal solar-blind photodetectors on sapphire. Devices on unintentionally doped AlGaN epilayers grown by Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition exhibited sharp absorption cut-off in the range of 245-290 nm. Very high responsivity >5 A/W at 10V bias was achieved with visible rejection exceeding three orders of magnitude for front illumination. Compared to the responsivity values reported in the literature for state-of-the-art solar-blind photodetectors, this work presents the highest values of responsivity at a given bias and up to sub-250 nm detection threshold. The high responsivity is attributed to an internal gain mechanism operating on these devices. The reverse-bias leakage current across these samples was found to be dominated by thermionic field emission at low biases and Poole-Frenkel emission from a deep trap level (0.7 eV from the conduction band-edge for Al0.50Ga0.50N) at high biases. Published by AIP Publishing

Trap Assisted Avalanche Instability and Safe Operating Area Concerns in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

This work reports the very first systematic study on the physics of avalanche instability and SOA concerns in AlGaN/GaN HEMT using sub-mu s pulse characterization, post stress degradation analysis, well calibrated TCAD simulations and failure analysis by SEM and TEM. Impact of electrical, as well as thermal effects on SOA boundary and avalanche instability are investigated. Trap assisted cumulative nature of degradation is studied in detail, which was discovered to be the root cause for avalanche instability in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Post failure SEM/TEM analysis reveal distinct failure modes in presence and absence of carrier trapping