Voltage driven, local, and efficient excitation of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond

Magnetic sensing technology has found widespread application in industries as diverse as transportation, medicine, and resource exploration. Such use cases often require highly sensitive instruments to measure the extremely small magnetic fields involved, relying on difficult to integrate Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) and Spin-Exchange Relaxation Free (SERF) magnetometers. A potential alternative, nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, has shown great potential as a high sensitivity and high resolution magnetic sensor capable of operating in an unshielded, room-temperature environment. Transitioning NV center based sensors into practical devices, however, is impeded by the need for high power RF excitation to manipulate them. Here we report an advance that combines two different physical phenomena to enable a highly efficient excitation of the NV centers: magnetoelastic drive of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and NV-magnon coupling. Our work demonstrates a new pathway to combine acoustics and magnonics that enables highly energy efficient and local excitation of NV centers without the need for any external RF excitation, and thus could lead to completely integrated, on-chip, atomic sensors.Comment: Fixed an issue with the display of figure

Genitourinary tuberculosis: A profile of 55 in-patients

Objective: To outline the pattern and trends in major cases of genito-urinary tuberculosis (GUTB) which require hospital treatment.Method: We retrospectively reviewed 55 patients with proven GUTB who were treated as in-patients in a major referral hospital in Pakistan.Results: The male/female ratio was 3:1. Prevailing symptoms were lower urinary tract symptoms, flank pain, gross hematuria and fever. A urine culture was positive for tuberculosis (TB) in 57%, bladder biopsies in 54%. For renal TB, intravenous urogram (IVU) and ultrasound were suggestive in about 50% of cases. Ultrasound was very helpful in the diagnosis of testicular TB. Patients underwent surgery in 36% of cases. In contrast to the general trend reported worldwide, surgery was mainly ablative rather than re-constructive. Patient compliance in clinical follow-up and drug therapy was poor.Conclusion: Surgery for GUTB in Pakistan is still mainly ablative, probably due to a high number of complicated and progressed cases. To date, therapy of GUTB is mainly based on anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy (ATT). However, huge efforts will be required to improve patient compliance without which every therapeutic approach will remain futile

Disain dan Simulasi Rangkaian Detektor Detak Jantung Janin Menggunakan Teknologi Cmos 0.35m

Rangkaian detektor detak jantung janin telah berhasil dirancang denganmenggunakan teknologi CMOS 0.35um. Hasil simulasi menunjukan bahwarangkaian detektor ini dapat mendeteksi frekuensi 2 sampai 3 hz. Rangkaian inisiap di realisasikan sebagai detektor detak jantung janin

Hiv-1 tat protein promotes neuroendocrine dysfunction concurrent with the potentiation of oxycodone’s psychomotor effects in female mice

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is associated with neuroendocrine dysfunction which may contribute to co-morbid stress-sensitive disorders. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) or-gonadal (HPG) axes are perturbed in up to 50% of HIV patients. The mechanisms are not known, but we have found the HIV-1 trans-activator of transcription (Tat) protein to recapitulate the clinical phenotype in male mice. We hypothesized that HPA and/or HPG dysregulation contrib-utes to Tat-mediated interactions with oxycodone, an opioid often prescribed to HIV patients, in females. Female mice that conditionally-expressed the Tat1–86 protein [Tat(+) mice] or their counter-parts that did not [Tat(−) control mice] were exposed to forced swim stress (or not) and behaviorally-assessed for motor and anxiety-like behavior. Some mice had glucocorticoid receptors (GR) or cor-ticotropin-releasing factor receptors (CRF-R) pharmacologically inhibited. Some mice were ovari-ectomized (OVX). As seen previously in males, Tat elevated basal corticosterone levels and poten-tiated oxycodone’s psychomotor activity in females. Unlike males, females did not demonstrate adrenal insufficiency and oxycodone potentiation was not regulated by GRs or CRF-Rs. Rather OVX attenuated Tat/oxycodone interactions. Either Tat or oxycodone increased anxiety-like behavior and their combination increased hypothalamic allopregnanolone. OVX increased basal hypothalamic allopregnanolone and obviated Tat or oxycodone-mediated fluctuations. Together, these data provide further evidence for Tat-mediated dysregulation of the HPA axis and reveal the importance of HPG axis regulation in females. HPA/HPG disruption may contribute vulnerability to affective and substance use disorders

Prototipe Sistem Parkir Bertingkat Otomatis Berbasis Programmable Logic Controller dan Scada-hmi

Kebutuhan manusia semakin lama semakin meningkat, berkembang dan bervariasi,untuk memenuhi alat transportasi. Jumlah penduduk yang semakin meningkatmenyebabkan kenaikan jumlah mobil pribadi. Penggunaan ruang parkir yang luassangat dibutuhkan tetapi tidak efektif. Sistem parkir bertingkat otomatis merupakanalat bantu yang sangat diperlukan dalam pengaturan dan penyusunan parkir mobil.PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) adalah suatu alat berbasis mikroprosesoryang dapat diprogram untuk mengontrol dan mengendalikan proses permesinansecara otomatis. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah merancang dan membuat prototipesistem parkir bertingkat otomatis dengan menggunakan kendali berbasisProgrammable Logic Controller (PLC) dan SCADA-Human Machine Interface (HMI).Bahasa pemrograman yang digunakan adalah diagram tangga dibuat menggunakanperangkat lunak CX-Program 9.0. Pembuatan prototipe tempat parkir bertingkatjumlah 16 ruang berbentuk kolom matrik 4 x 4, mekanisme lift pengangkat denganchain transmision, mekanisme roda penggerak dengan roda gigi lurus (spurs gears)dan mekanisme pemindah alat dengan pneumatik secara slider. Pembuatan programuntuk mengendalikan mobil masuk dan keluar tempat parkir yang sudah dibuatdengan menggunakan PLC tipe CPM1A 30 CDR berbentuk diagram tangga.Pembuatan sistem Human Machine Interface (HMI) menggunakan program SCADAsebagai interface atau tampilan penghubung antara manusia dengan mesin untukmenjalankan dan mengontrol alat yang sudah dibuat dan mengambil data analisa

Bicyclic Boronate β-Lactamase Inhibitors: The Present Hope against Deadly Bacterial Pathogens

The use of β-lactamase inhibitors in combination with β-lactam antibiotics is an emerging area in drug discovery. This strategy allows the restoration of the therapeutic efficacy of these antibiotics in clinical use against multiresistant bacteria. These pathogens are drug resistant because they express β-lactamase enzymes, which prevent the antibiotic therapeutic action by catalyzing the hydrolysis of the β-lactam ring. These enzymes are quite diverse in both their structural architecture and hydrolytic capability, as well as in the mechanism of action. The ever-increasing emergence of pathogens that are capable of coproducing different types of β-lactamases has triggered the search for ultrabroad-spectrum inhibitors capable of deactivating both serine- and metallo-β-lactamases. A recent breakthrough in this long-pursued and unmet need is the discovery of bicyclic boronate inhibitors, specifically taniborbactam, VNRX-7145, and QPX7728, which are currently under clinical development in combination with cefepime, ceftibuten, and QPX2014, respectively. The present article highlights the therapeutic potential of these inhibitors and their spectrum of efficacy is compared with those of other β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations recently approved by the food and drug administration. The molecular basis of the ultrabroad-spectrum of activity of boron-based inhibitors is also discussed, on the basis of the available crystal structures and the results of computational studiesinancial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness (SAF2016-75638-R, PID2019-105512RB-I00), the Xunta de Galicia [ED431B 2018/04 and Centro singular de investigación de Galicia accreditation 2019–2022 (ED431G 2019/03)], and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is gratefully acknowledgedS

A Sensitive Quantification of HHV-6B by Real-time PCR

Human herpesvirus (HHV)-6B is a pathogen causing latent infection in virtually all humans. Nevertheless, the interaction of HHV-6B with its host cells is poorly understood. Although HHV-6B is approximately 90% homologous to HHV-6A, it expresses certain B-specific genes. In order to quantify the amount of expressed viral mRNA we have developed a method using real-time PCR on a LightCycler instrument. Here we describe an assay for the detection of the HHV-6B B6 mRNA, but our approach can easily be extended to involve other mRNAs. This method is useful during the study of HHV-6B biology and offers reliable and reproducible, quantitative detection of viral mRNA below the attomol range

Making Radiomics More Reproducible across Scanner and Imaging Protocol Variations: A Review of Harmonization Methods

Radiomics converts medical images into mineable data via a high-throughput extraction of quantitative features used for clinical decision support. However, these radiomic features are susceptible to variation across scanners, acquisition protocols, and reconstruction settings. Various investigations have assessed the reproducibility and validation of radiomic features across these discrepancies. In this narrative review, we combine systematic keyword searches with prior domain knowledge to discuss various harmonization solutions to make the radiomic features more reproducible across various scanners and protocol settings. Different harmonization solutions are discussed and divided into two main categories: image domain and feature domain. The image domain category comprises methods such as the standardization of image acquisition, post-processing of raw sensor-level image data, data augmentation techniques, and style transfer. The feature domain category consists of methods such as the identification of reproducible features and normalization techniques such as statistical normalization, intensity harmonization, ComBat and its derivatives, and normalization using deep learning. We also reflect upon the importance of deep learning solutions for addressing variability across multi-centric radiomic studies especially using generative adversarial networks (GANs), neural style transfer (NST) techniques, or a combination of both. We cover a broader range of methods especially GANs and NST methods in more detail than previous reviews