An investigation of the SNS Josephson junction as a three-terminal device

A particular phenomenon of the SNS Josephson junction was investigated; i.e., control by a current entering the normal region and leaving through one of the superconducting regions. The effect of the control current on the junction was found to be dependent upon the ration of the resistances of the two halves of the N layer. A low frequency, lumped, nonlinear model was proposed to describe the electrical characteristics of the device, and a method was developed to plot the dynamic junction resistance as a function of junction current. The effective thermal noise temperature of the sample was determined. Small signal linearized analysis of the device suggests its use as an impedance transformer, although geometric limitations must be overcome. Linear approximation indicates that it is reciprocal and no power gain is possible. It is felt that, with suitable metallurgical and geometrical improvements, the device has promise to become a superconducting transistor

ANALISIS PROKTIVITAS TENAGA KERJA PADA PEKERJAAN ATAP

Abstrak: Analisis Proktivitas Tenaga Kerja Pada Pekerjaan Atap. Tenaga kerja merupakan  salah satu sumber daya yang menjadi penentu keberhasilan suatu pekerjaan dan Produktivitas adalah  bagaimana menghasilkan atau meningkatkan hasil barang dan jasa setinggi mungkin dengan memanfaatkan sumber daya secara efisien. Pada penelitian ini dilakukan penyebaran kuisioner dan  menggunakan perhitungan metode statistik dengan bantuan komputer program SPSS dari hasil penelitian diperoleh kesimpulan terdapat 5 indikator tenaga kerja yang mempengaruhi antara lain (Disiplin, Pengalaman, Komunikasi,Upah Kerja Dan Usia) terhadap indikator dari produktivitas antara lain (Waktu Pekerjaan, Keserasian Dengan Target, Kesesuaian Dengan Perencana, Cuaca, Kesesuaian Keahlian).dan Dari hasil penelitian dan pengolahan data terdapat nilai dari hubungan indikator tenaga kerja terhadap produktivitas jika dilihat dari tabel Interpretasi koefisien korelasi Nilai r  diketahui bahwa nilai  0,643   berarti  nilai hubungan antara variabel tenaga kerja terhadap produktivitas yaitu dapat dinyatakan  KUAT. Berdasarkan hasil perhitungan nilai t hitung sebesar 4,338 Dari data tersebut dibandingkan dengan nilai dari t tabel sebesar = 2,052  didapat bahwa tenyata t hitung lebih besar dari t tabel atau dikonversikan dengan nilai 4,338 > 2,052 maka artinya ada hubungan yang signifikat antara tenaga kerja dan produktivitas Kata kunci: Pekerjaan Atap; Tenaga Kerja; Produktivitas Abstract: Labor Productivity Analysis on Roofing Work. Labors are the resources that determines the success of a job and Productivity is how to produce or increase the results of goods and services as high as possible by utilizing resources efficiently. The aim of this research is to find out what indicators affect labor productivity and what is the relationship of the indicators that have been obtained to labor productivity. In this study, questionnaires were distributed and statistical calculation methods were used with the help of the SPSS computer program. From the results of the study, it was concluded that there were 5 labor indicators that influenced, among others (Discipline, Experience, Communication, Wage and Age) on indicators of productivity, including (Time Occupation, Conformity with Targets, Conformity with Planners, Weather, Appropriate Skills). And From the results of research and data processing there is a value of the relationship between labor indicators and productivity when seen from the table. labor to productivity, which can be stated as STRONG, the value of the contribution of labor to productivity is 41.35% and the remaining 58.65% is determined by other variables such as (worker health, managerial, work area, assistive facilities , delays in tools and materials, large volumes worked). Based on the calculation results, the t count value is 4.338. From these data, compared with the value from t table = 2.052, it is found that t count is greater than t table or converted with a value of 4.338 > 2.052, meaning that there is a significant relationship between labor and productivity. Keyword: Roofing Work; Labors; Productivit

URGENSI PENGAWASAN KEPALA TATA USAHA DALAM MENINGKATKAN DISIPLIN KERJA PEGAWAI KEMENTRIAN AGAMA KABUPATEN ASAHAN

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui: pertama, pelaksanaan urgensi pengawasan kepala tata usaha dalam meningkatkan disiplin kerja pegawai Kementrian Agama Kabupaten Asahan. Kedua, faktor-faktor pendukung dan penghambat dalam pengawasan dan pembinaan pegawai Kementrian Agama Kabupaten Asahan. Metode penelitian ini adalah deskriptif kualitatif, penelitian ini termasuk penelitian lapangan, sifat penelitian ini adalah pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan notmatif. Teknik pengumpulan data pada penelitian ini yaitu wawancara, observasi dan dokumentasi. Hasil dari penelitian ini yaitu: pertama, pengawasan kepala tata usaha dan meningkatkan disiplin kerja pegawai di Kementrian Agama Kabupaten Asahan, dengan melakukan bimbingan keryawan kepala tata usaha sudah baik dengan adanya program�program yang telah di diskusikan oleh kepala Kementrian Agama Kabupaten Asahan. Dalam sistem pengawasan tentunya kepala tata usaha harus memiliki pengawasan yang baik dalam melakukan tinjauan kepada para pegawai dan memberikan pembinaan kepada pegawai agar melakukan kinerja lebih baik lagi. Faktor pendukung pegawai harus di pertanggung jawabkan agar kinerja pegawai lebih baik dan merincikan faktor penghambat yang terjadi

Changes in the peripheral blood gene expression profile induced by 3 Months of valproate treatment in patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy

Valproic acid (VPA) is a widely used antiepileptic drug with a broad range of effects and broad clinical efficacy. As a well-known histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, VPA regulates epigenetic programming by altering the expression of many genes. The aim of study was to analyze differences in gene expression profiles before and after the start of VPA treatment in patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy. RNA sequencing was used to compare whole-genome gene expression patterns of peripheral blood from nine patients with epilepsy before and 3 months after the start of treatment with VPA. Of the 23,099 analyzed genes, only 11 showed statistically significant differential expression with false discovery rate-adjusted p-values below 0.1. Functional annotation and network analyses showed activation of only one genetic network (enrichment score = 30), which included genes for cardiovascular system development and function, cell morphology, and hematological system development and function. The finding of such a small number of differently expressed genes between before and after the start of treatment suggests a lack of HDAC inhibition in these patients, which could be explained by the relatively low doses of VPA that were used. In conclusion, VPA at standard therapeutic dosages modulates the expression of a small number of genes. Therefore, to minimize the potential side effects of HDAC inhibition, it is recommended that the lowest effective dose of VPA be used for treating epilepsy

Aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage: effect of CRHR1 genotype on fatigue and depression

Background Emotional health disturbances are common after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) and their causes are largely unexplored. Corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRHR1) is a key factor in stress reactivity and development of mental health disturbances after adverse life-events. Methods We explore the effect of CRHR1 genotype on mental health after aSAH in a retrospective cohort study. One hundred twenty-five patients have been assessed using EST-Q mental health questionnaire. Genotyping of CRHR1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP-s) was performed (Rs7209436, Rs110402, Rs242924). Results Fatigue was present in almost half of aSAH patients, depression and anxiety in one-third. There was a high prevalence of insomnia and panic complaints. Rs110402 minor allele decreased the risk of depression (OR = 0.25, p = 0.027 for homozygotes). Depression was present in 14% vs 41% in minor and major allele homozygotes, respectively. Rs110402, Rs242924 and Rs7209436 minor alleles and TAT-haplotype, formed by them, were protective against fatigue. After Bonferroni correction only the association of Rs110402 with fatigue remained statistically significant (OR = 0.21, p = 0.006 for minor allele homozygotes). Results remained statistically significant when adjusted for gender, admission state, age and time from aSAH. In multiple regression analysis occurrence of fatigue was dependent on anxiety, modified Rankin score and Rs110402 genotype (R2 = 0.34, p <  0.001). Conclusions CRHR1 minor genotype was associated with a lower risk of fatigue and depression after aSAH. Genetic predisposition to mental health disturbances associated with negative life-events could be a risk factor for fatigue and depression after aSAH and selected patients might benefit from advanced counselling in the recovery phase

Mutational analysis of COL1A1 and COL1A2 genes among Estonian osteogenesis imperfecta patients

Background Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare bone disorder. In 90% of cases, OI is caused by mutations in the COL1A1/2 genes, which code procollagen α1 and α2 chains. The main aim of the current research was to identify the mutational spectrum of COL1A1/2 genes in Estonian patients. The small population size of Estonia provides a unique chance to explore the collagen I mutational profile of 100% of OI families in the country. Methods We performed mutational analysis of peripheral blood gDNA of 30 unrelated Estonian OI patients using Sanger sequencing of COL1A1 and COL1A2 genes, including all intron-exon junctions and 5′UTR and 3′UTR regions, to identify causative OI mutations. Results We identified COL1A1/2 mutations in 86.67% of patients (26/30). 76.92% of discovered mutations were located in the COL1A1 (n = 20) and 23.08% in the COL1A2 (n = 6) gene. Half of the COL1A1/2 mutations appeared to be novel. The percentage of quantitative COL1A1/2 mutations was 69.23%. Glycine substitution with serine was the most prevalent among missense mutations. All qualitative mutations were situated in the chain domain of pro-α1/2 chains. Conclusion Our study shows that among the Estonian OI population, the range of collagen I mutations is quite high, which agrees with other described OI cohorts of Northern Europe. The Estonian OI cohort differs due to the high number of quantitative variants and simple missense variants, which are mostly Gly to Ser substitutions and do not extend the chain domain of COL1A1/2 products

Transcriptional landscape of psoriasis identifies the involvement of IL36 and IL36RN

Background In present study we performed whole transcriptome analysis in plaque psoriasis patients and compared lesional skin with non-lesional skin and with the skin from healthy controls. We sequenced total RNA from 12 lesional (LP), 12 non-lesional (NLP) and from 12 normal (C) skin biopsies. Results Compared with previous gene expression profiling studies we had three groups under analysis - LP, NLP and C. Using NLP samples allows to see the transcriptome of visually normal skin from psoriasis patient. In LP skin S100A12, S100A7A, LCE3E, DEFB4A, IL19 were found up regulated. In addition to already these well-described genes, we also found several other genes related to psoriasis. Namely, KLK9, OAS2, OAS3, PLA2G, IL36G, IL36RN were found to be significantly and consistently related to the psoriatic lesions and this finding is supported also by previous studies. The genes up-regulated in the LP samples were related to the innate immunity, IL17 and IL10 networks. In NLP samples innate immunity and IL17 network were activated, but activation of IL10 network was not evident. The transcriptional changes characteristic in the NLP samples can be considered as a molecular signature of “dormant psoriasis”. Conclusions Taken together, our study described the transcriptome profile characteristic for LP and NLP psoriatic skin. RNA profile of the NLP skin is in between the lesional and healthy skin, with its own specific pattern. We found that both LP and NLP have up-regulated IL17 network, whereas LP skin has up regulated IL10 related cytokines (IL19, IL20, IL24). Moreover, IL36G and IL36RN were identified as strong regulators of skin pathology in both LP and NLP skin samples, with stronger influence in LP samples

Transcriptome analysis of osteosarcoma identifies suppression of wnt pathway and up-regulation of adiponectin as potential biomarker

Osteosarcoma (OS) is primary malignant bone tumour with complicated early diagnosis. There are no specific markers currently available for predicting the prognosis and chemosensitivity of OS. In present study we performed transcriptome profiling of single patient tumour tissue with RNA-seq technology. We analysed surgically removed sarcoma sample from single 16 years old male patient. Transciptome analysis was done with RNA-seq technology, bioinformatics with Lifescope and R Bioconductor. Validation experiments were done with quantitative real-time PCR (QRTPCR). After quality and coverage filtering, RNA-seq experiment resulted 29,311,899 mapped reads for sarcoma and 22,099,159 mapped reads for normal bone tissue. 65 genes were differentially expressed with FDR corrected statistical significance below 0.05. Seven genes were down-regulated and 58 genes were up-regulated in sarcoma. The most highly up-regulated gene in sarcoma was adiponectin, ADIPOQ (with adjusted p-value 5.5E-07, log2 fold change was 7.9). Many of the genes we found are related to the adipose tissue metabolism (ADIPOQ, PLIN1, FABP4) and to the Wnt signalling suppression (WIF1, SOST). We also found novel fusion transcript between the genes LMTK2 and ZSWIM5. LMTK2 is lemur tyrosine kinase 2, and it has been shown to be involved in NGF-TrkA signalling. Interestingly, studies support the involvement of LMTK2 in development of prostate cancer. ZSWIM5 is zinc finger SWIM domain protein 5 and its function is not known. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed positive staining for adiponectin in osteosarcoma. This paper is a good illustration how transcriptome analysis can find new biomarkers and targets for complex diseases

Transcriptional landscape analysis identifies differently expressed genes involved in follicle-stimulating hormone induced postmenopausal osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a disorder associated with bone tissue reorganization, bone mass, and mineral density. Osteoporosis can severely affect postmenopausal women, causing bone fragility and osteoporotic fractures. The aim of the current study was to compare blood mRNA profiles of postmenopausal women with and without osteoporosis, with the aim of finding different gene expressions and thus targets for future osteoporosis biomarker studies. Our study consisted of transcriptome analysis of whole blood serum from 12 elderly female osteoporotic patients and 12 non-osteoporotic elderly female controls. The transcriptome analysis was performed with RNA sequencing technology. For data analysis, the edgeR package of R Bioconductor was used. Two hundred and fourteen genes were expressed differently in osteoporotic compared with non-osteoporotic patients. Statistical analysis revealed 20 differently expressed genes with a false discovery rate of less than 1.47 × 10(−4) among osteoporotic patients. The expression of 10 genes were up-regulated and 10 down-regulated. Further statistical analysis identified a potential osteoporosis mRNA biomarker pattern consisting of six genes: CACNA1G, ALG13, SBK1, GGT7, MBNL3, and RIOK3. Functional ingenuity pathway analysis identified the strongest candidate genes with regard to potential involvement in a follicle-stimulating hormone activated network of increased osteoclast activity and hypogonadal bone loss. The differentially expressed genes identified in this study may contribute to future research of postmenopausal osteoporosis blood biomarkers

Whole-exome sequencing identifies de novo mutation in the COL1A1 gene to underlie the severe osteogenesis imperfecta

Background Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) comprises a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of connective tissue disorders, characterized by low bone mass, increased bone fragility, and blue-gray eye sclera. OI often results from missense mutations in one of the conserved glycine residues present in the Gly-X-Y sequence repeats of the triple helical region of the collagen type I α chain, which is encoded by the COL1A1 gene. The aim of the present study is to describe the phenotype of OI II patient and a novel mutation, causing current phenotype. Results We report an undescribed de novo COL1A1 mutation in a patient affected by severe OI. After performing the whole-exome sequencing in a case parent–child trio, we identified a novel heterozygous c.2317G > T missense mutation in the COL1A1 gene, which leads to p.Gly773Cys transversion in the triple helical domain of the collagen type I α chain. The presence of the missense mutation was confirmed with the Sanger sequencing. Conclusions Hereby, we report a novel mutation in the COL1A1 gene causing severe, life threatening OI and indicate the role of de novo mutation in the pathogenesis of rare familial diseases. Our study underlines the importance of exome sequencing in disease gene discovery for families where conventional genetic testing does not give conclusive evidence