Comparative study of natural terpenoid precursors in reactive plasmas for thin film deposition

If plasma polymer thin films are to be synthesised from sustainable and natural precursors of chemically heterogeneous composition, it is important to understand the extent to which this composition influences the mechanism of polymerisation. To this end, a well-studied monoterpene alcohol, terpinen-4-ol, has been targeted for a comparative study with the naturally occurring mix of terpenes (viz. Melaleuca alternifolia oil) from which it is commonly distilled. Positive ion mode mass spectra of both terpinen-4-ol and M. alternifolia oil showed a decrease in disparities between the type and abundance of cationic species formed in their respective plasma environments as applied plasma power was increased. Supplementary biological assay revealed the antibacterial action of both terpinen-4-ol and M. alternifolia derived coatings with respect to S. aureus bacteria, whilst cytocompatibility was demonstrated by comparable eukaryotic cell adhesion to both coatings. Elucidating the processes occurring within the reactive plasmas can enhance the economics of plasma polymer deposition by permitting use of the minimum power, time and precursor pre-processing required to control the extent of monomer fragmentation and fabricate a film of the desired thickness and functionality

Recent Advances in Deep Learning Techniques for Face Recognition

In recent years, researchers have proposed many deep learning (DL) methods for various tasks, and particularly face recognition (FR) made an enormous leap using these techniques. Deep FR systems benefit from the hierarchical architecture of the DL methods to learn discriminative face representation. Therefore, DL techniques significantly improve state-of-the-art performance on FR systems and encourage diverse and efficient real-world applications. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of various FR systems that leverage the different types of DL techniques, and for the study, we summarize 168 recent contributions from this area. We discuss the papers related to different algorithms, architectures, loss functions, activation functions, datasets, challenges, improvement ideas, current and future trends of DL-based FR systems. We provide a detailed discussion of various DL methods to understand the current state-of-the-art, and then we discuss various activation and loss functions for the methods. Additionally, we summarize different datasets used widely for FR tasks and discuss challenges related to illumination, expression, pose variations, and occlusion. Finally, we discuss improvement ideas, current and future trends of FR tasks.Comment: 32 pages and citation: M. T. H. Fuad et al., "Recent Advances in Deep Learning Techniques for Face Recognition," in IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 99112-99142, 2021, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.309613

Gender differences in child nutrition status of Bangladesh: a multinomial modeling approach

Purpose – Malnutrition is one of the serious public health problems especially for children and pregnant women in developing countries such as Bangladesh. This study aims to identify the risk factors associated with child nutrition for both male and female children in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – This study was conducted among 23,099 mothers or caretakers of children under five years of age from a nationally representative survey named Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 2019. This study used chi-square test statistic for bivariate analysis and multinomial logistic regression was used to evaluate the adjusted effects of those covariates on child nutritional status. Findings – The prevalence of severely malnourished, nourishment was higher for males than females (5.3% vs 5.1%, 77.4% vs 76.8%) while moderately malnourished were higher for females (18.1% vs 17.4%). The findings from the multinomial model insinuated that the mother’s education level, wealth index, region, early child development, mother’s functional difficulties, child disability, reading children's books and diarrhea had a highly significant effect on moderate and severe malnutrition for male children. For the female children model, factors such as mother’s education level, wealth index, fever, child disability, rural, diarrhea, early child development and reading less than three books were significant for moderate and severe malnutrition. Originality/value – There is a solution to any kind of problem and malnutrition is not an exceptional health problem. So, to overcome this problem, policymakers should take effective measures to improve maternal education level, wealth status, child health

Antibodies and antibody fragments are therapeutic tools in the treatment of type-II diabetes mellitus

Antibody fragments (FABs) are proteins that form part of the antigen recognition site. FABs are produced in genetically modified bacteriophages, bacteria, fungi, or plants and, consequently, can be produced in large quantities at a fraction of the cost of traditional antibodies. Antibody fragments are small and simple structure that today is highly regarded because of the many advantages they have over the use of whole antibodies. Single-domain antibodies are the smallest antigen-binding units of antibodies, consisting either only of one variable domain or one engineered constant domain that solely facilitates target binding. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a promising drug candidate for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Clinical use of recombinant fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and other disorders linked to obesity has been proposed; however, its clinical development has been challenging owing to its poor pharmacokinetics

Antibodies and Antibody Fragments Are Therapeutic Tools in the Treatment of Type-II Diabetes Mellitus

Antibody fragments (FABs) are proteins that form part of the antigen recognition site. FABs are produced in genetically modified bacteriophages, bacteria, fungi, or plants and, consequently, can be produced in large quantities at a fraction of the cost of traditional antibodies. Antibody fragments are small and simple structure that today is highly regarded because of the many advantages they have over the use of whole antibodies. Single-domain antibodies are the smallest antigen-binding units of antibodies, consisting either only of one variable domain or one engineered constant domain that solely facilitates target binding. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a promising drug candidate for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Clinical use of recombinant fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and other disorders linked to obesity has been proposed; however, its clinical development has been challenging owing to its poor pharmacokinetics