Performance analysis of massive multiple input multiple output for high speed railway

This paper analytically reviews the performance of massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system for communication in highly mobility scenarios like high speed Railways. As popularity of high speed train increasing day by day, high data rate wireless communication system for high speed train is extremely required. 5G wireless communication systems must be designed to meet the requirement of high speed broadband services at speed of around 500 km/h, which is the expected speed achievable by HSR systems, at a data rate of 180 Mbps or higher. Significant challenges of high mobility communications are fast time-varying fading, channel estimation errors, doppler diversity, carrier frequency offset, inter carrier interference, high penetration loss and fast and frequent handovers. Therefore, crucial requirement to design high mobility communication channel models or systems prevails. Recently, massive MIMO techniques have been proposed to significantly improve the performance of wireless networks for upcoming 5G technology. Massive MIMO provide high throughput and high energy efficiency in wireless communication channel. In this paper, key findings, challenges and requirements to provide high speed wireless communication onboard the high speed train is pointed out after thorough literature review. In last, future research scope to bridge the research gap by designing efficient channel model by using massive MIMO and other optimization method is mentioned

Improving the Nutrition and Screen Time Environment through Self-assessment in Family Childcare Homes in Nebraska

Objective: To determine if family childcare homes (FCCH) in Nebraska meet best practices for nutrition and screen time, and if focusing on nutrition and screen time policies and practices improves the FCCH environment. Design: A pre–post evaluation was conducted using the Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Childcare (Go NAP SACC). Setting: FCCH in Nebraska, USA. Subjects: FCCH enrolled in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP; n 208) participated in a pre–post evaluation using Go NAP SACC. Results: At baseline, all FCCH met the minimum childcare standards for fifty-four of fifty-six practices in nutrition and screen time. After the intervention, FCCH demonstrated significant improvement in fourteen of the forty-four Child Nutrition items and eleven of the twelve Screen Time items. However, FCCH providers did not meet best practices at post-intervention. Lowest scores were found in serving meals family-style, promoting visible support for healthy eating, planned nutrition education and written policy on child nutrition. For screen time, lowest scores were reported on the availability of television, offering families education on screen time and having a written policy on screen time. Conclusions: FCCH in Nebraska were able to strengthen their policies and practices after utilizing Go NAP SACC. Continued professional development and participation in targeted interventions may assist programmes in sustaining improved practices and policies. Considering the varying standards and policies surrounding FCCH, future studies comparing the current findings with childcare centres and non-CACFP programmes are warranted

Efficacy and Safety of Daprodustat for Treatment of Anemia of Chronic Kidney Disease in Incident Dialysis Patients A Randomized Clinical Trial

Importance: Daprodustat, a hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor, is being evaluated as an oral alternative to conventional erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) therapy. Few studies of anemia treatment in an incident dialysis (ID) population have been reported. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of daprodustat vs darbepoetin alfa in treating anemia of chronic kidney disease in ID patients. Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective, randomized, open-label clinical trial was conducted from May 11, 2017, through September 24, 2020, in 90 centers across 14 countries. Patients with advanced CKD were eligible if they planned to start dialysis within 6 weeks from screening or had started and received hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) within 90 days before randomization, had a screening hemoglobin (Hb) concentration of 8.0 to 10.5 g/dL (to convert to grams per liter, multiply by 10) and a randomization Hb of 8.0 to 11.0 g/dL, were ESA-naive or had received limited ESA treatment, and were iron-replete. Interventions: Randomized 1:1 to daprodustat or darbepoetin alfa. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary analysis in the intent-to-treat population evaluated the mean change in Hb concentration from baseline to evaluation period (weeks 28-52) to assess noninferiority of daprodustat vs darbepoetin alfa (noninferiority margin, -0.75 g/dL). The mean monthly intravenous (IV) iron dose from baseline to week 52 was the principal secondary end point. Rates of treatment-emergent and serious adverse events (AEs) were also compared between treatment groups to assess safety and tolerability. Results: A total of 312 patients (median [IQR] age, 55 [45-65] years; 194 [62%] male) were randomized to either daprodustat (157 patients; median [IQR] age, 52.0 [45-63] years; 96 [61%] male) or darbepoetin alfa (155 patients; median [IQR] age, 56.0 [45-67] years; 98 [63%] male); 306 patients (98%) completed the trial. The mean (SD) Hb concentration during the evaluation period was 10.5 (1.0) g/dL for the daprodustat and 10.6 (0.9) g/dL for the darbepoetin alfa group, with an adjusted mean treatment difference of -0.10 g/dL (95% CI, -0.34 to 0.14 g/dL), indicating noninferiority. There was a reduction in mean monthly IV iron use from baseline to week 52 in both treatment groups; however, daprodustat was not superior compared with darbepoetin alfa in reducing monthly IV iron use (adjusted mean treatment difference, 19.4 mg [95% CI, -11.0 to 49.9 mg]). Adverse event rates were 76% for daprodustat vs 72% for darbepoetin alfa. Conclusions and Relevance: This randomized clinical trial found that daprodustat was noninferior to darbepoetin alfa in treating anemia of CKD and may represent a potential oral alternative to a conventional ESA in the ID population. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03029208

Low temperature crystallization of amorphous silicon by gold nanoparticle

Single crystalline Si thin film fabricated on glass substrate by a process called Solid Phase Crystallization (SPC) is highly desirable for the development of high efficiency and low cost thin film solar cells. However, the use of ordinary soda lime glass requires process temperatures higher than 600 degrees C. Crystallization of Si film at around this temperature takes place in extremely long time exceeding 20 h in most cases. In order to reduce this long process time, new crystallization techniques such as Metal Induced Crystallization (MIC) using thin metal films as a catalyst layer is attracting much attention. Instead of using continuous metal films, the use of metal nanoparticles offers some advantages. In this work, gold thin films were deposited on aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) coated glass and then annealed for nanoparticle formation. Amorphous silicon was then deposited by e-beam evaporation onto metal nanoparticles. Silicon films were annealed for crystallization at different temperatures between 500 degrees C and 600 degrees C. We showed that the crystallization occurs at lower temperatures and with higher rates with the inclusion of gold nanoparticles (AuNP). Raman and XRD results indicate that the crystallization starts at temperatures as low as 500 degrees C and an annealing at 600 degrees C for a short process time provides sufficiently good crystallinity. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.TUBITAK programmeTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [2218]; ODTU DOSAPMiddle East Technical UniversityThis work was supported by TUBITAK 2218 programme and ODTU DOSAP. Authors would like to thank Dr. M. Kulakci and E. Ozkol for their contribution at this research

PRP-1 significantly decreases the [ALDH.sup.high] cancer stem cell population and regulates the aberrant Wnt/[beta]-catenin pathway in human chondrosarcoma JJ012 cells

Chondrosarcomas are malignant bone tumors refractory to chemotherapy and radiation treatment; thus, novel therapeutic strategies are required. Proline-rich poly-peptide 1 (PRP-1) has previously demonstrated antitumor properties in chondrosarcoma. To further investigate the role of PRP-1 in chondrosarcoma cells, its effects on cancer stem cell (CSC) populations were determined by analyzing aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity, an established marker of CSCs, in association with regulation of the Wnt/[beta]-catenin signaling. A significant decrease in [ALDH.sup.high] CSCs was observed following treatment of chondrosarcoma JJ012 cells with PRP-1. For [RT.sup.2] profiler PCR array analysis of Wnt/[beta]-catenin signaling genes, cells were sorted into: i) Bulk JJ012 cells; ii) [ALDH.sup.high] cells sorted from untreated JJ012 cells ([ALDH.sup.high-untreated]); and iii) [ALDH.sup.low] cells sorted from PRP-1-treated JJ012 cells ([ALDH.sup.low-PRP-1]). The expression levels of Wnt/[beta]-catenin signaling genes were determined to be downregulated in the [ALDH.sup.high-untreated] cells and upregulated in [ALDH.sup.low-PRP-1] cells when compared to the bulk JJ012 cells. Additionally, two important oncogenes involved in this pathway, MMP7 and CCND2, were found to be down-regulated in the [ALDH.sup.low-PRP-1] cells. Immunocytochemistry demonstrated the localization of [beta]-catenin in the nuclei of the PRP-1-treated cells. Western blotting indicated increased [beta] -catenin expression in the [ALDH.sup.low-PRP-1] cells compared with the bulk JJ012 cells. Analysis of the cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions of cells treated with increasing concentrations of PRP-1 and [beta]-catenin nuclear translocation inhibitor CGP57380, suggested the nuclear translocation of [beta]-catenin following PRP-1 treatment. In addition, treatment of JJ012 cells with a specific ALDH inhibitor, diethylaminobenzaldehyde, and PRP-1 resulted in a significant decrease in cytoplasmic [beta]-catenin protein expression. This indicated that ALDH inactivation may be associated with the nuclear translocation of [beta]-catenin. Derivation of sarcomas from mesenchymal stem cells via inactivation of the Wnt pathway has been previously documented. The findings of the present study support the notion that Wnt/[beta]-catenin activation may serve a differential role in sarcomas, limiting tumor progression in association with decreased CSC activity.Academi

Solid phase epitaxial thickening of boron and phosphorus doped polycrystalline silicon thin films formed by aluminium induced crystallization technique on glass substrate

Aluminium induced crystallization (AIC) technique can be used to form the high-quality and large-grained polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films, which are with the thickness of similar to 200 nm and used as a seed layer, on silicon nitride coated glass substrate. Thanks to aluminium metal in AIC process, the natural doping of AIC thin films is p(+) type (similar to 2 x 10(18) cm(-3)). On the other hand, recombination of carriers can be controlled by partial doping through the defects that may have advantages to improve the thin film quality by the overdoping induced passivation. In this study, boron (B) and phosphorus (P) doped AIC seed layers were thicken to similar to 2 mu m by solid phase epitaxy (SPE) technique at 800 degrees C for 3 h under nitrogen flow in a tube furnace. During the crystallization annealing, exodiffusion of dopants was formed through the SPE film from the AIC seed layer. Optical microscope and electron back scattering diffraction technique (EBSD) were used to analyse the structural quality of the Si films. The poly-Si layer with an average grain size value of similar to 32 mu m was formed by AIC + SPE technique for P doped samples while EBSD analysis gave no results for B doped samples due to the quite deterioration on the surface of the films. AIC + SPE films were analyzed in terms of structural properties by using micro-Raman Spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction systems. The results showed that the crystallinity of compressive stress formed AIC + SPE films reached up to 98.55%. Additionally, the Raman analysis pointed out that no temperature-induced stress were generated in the AIC + SPE films while compressive stress was induced by increasing the annealing duration for doped AIC film. For all samples, the preferred orientation was , and the crystallite size up to 44.4 nm was formed by phosphorus doping of AIC films. The doping efficiency was determined by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy for doped samples. A graded n(+)n doping profile was obtained by exo-diffusion of phosphorus from the overdoped seed layer during the epitaxial thickening while boron doping of SPE film has failed with exo-diffusion of boron from AIC seed layer into SPE film. Finally, high-quality n(+)n type poly-Si films were fabricated on glass substrate by using AIC + SPE technique

Comparative evaluation of debris removal from root canal wall by using EndoVac and conventional needle irrigation: An in vitro study

Context: Microbial control is of paramount importance in Clinical Endodontics. Therefore, cleaning and disinfection of root canals are essential to achieve endodontic success. Aims: The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of EndoVac irrigation system and conventional needle (30 gauges side venting needle) irrigation for removal of debris from the root canal walls at coronal, middle and apical third by using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Settings and Design: An in vitro randomized control trial study. Materials and Methods: A total of 20 mandibular premolars with completely formed roots were selected and randomly divided into two groups - Group 1: Irrigation with the Conventional system and Group 2: EndoVac irrigation. After access opening and working length determination biomechanical preparation completed up to a rotary protaper F4 file. Groupwise irrigation with sodium hypochlorite and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid was done with each canal in between instrumentation. Then, the teeth were sectioned in buccolingual direction and the halves were sputter-coated with gold palladium and coronal, middle and apical third were examined by SEM at x2000 magnification. Statistical Analysis: Mann-Whitney test for comparison between methods, Kruskal-Wallis test for comparison among thirds and Miller test for individual comparisons. Results: The apical, middle and cervical root canal thirds were evaluated and the results were analyzed statistically by the Mann-Whitney test for comparison between methods, Kruskal-Wallis test for comparison among thirds and Miller test for individual comparisons. Conclusions: EndoVac group resulted in significantly less debris at apical third compared with the conventional needle irrigation group. There was no statistical significant difference found in debris removal at coronal and middle third of root canal wall between the EndoVac group and conventional needle irrigation group