Double crystal x-ray diffraction simulations of diffusion in semiconductor microstructures

Diffusion in group IV, III-V and II-VI semiconductors is an interesting problem not only from a fundamental physics viewpoint but also in practical terms, since it could determine the useful lifetime of a device. Any attempt to control the amount of diffusion in a semiconductor device, whether it be a quantum well structure or not, requires an accurate determination of the diffusion coefficient. The present theoretical study shows that this could be achieved via x-ray diffraction studies in quantum well structures. It is demonstrated that the rocking curves of single quantum wells are not sensitive to diffusion. However the intensity of the first order satellite, which is characteristic of superlattice rocking curves, is strongly dependent upon diffusion and it is proposed that this technique could be used to measure the diffusion coefficient D. © 1998 American Institute of Physics

Konsep Pengelolaan Sampah Berbasis Teologi

Konsep pengelolaan sampah berbasis teologi yang disebut dengan shodaqohsampah adalah modifikasi dari pengelolaan sampah berbasis 3 R (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle)dengan menambahkan unsur pendekatan teologi didalamnya. Tujuan penelitian ini adalahuntuk mengetahui fenomena yang terjadi, serta mengidentifikasi permasalahan dalampengelolaan sampah berbasis teologi di Desa Potorono, Kabupaten Bantul, DaerahIstimewa Yogyakarta.Jenis penelitian ini adalah deskriptif kualitatif yaitu penelitian yang menekankanpada penafsiran pada fenomena yang muncul di masyarakat yang menjadi objek kemudiandianalisa dan diinterpretasikan. Pendekatan yang digunakan untuk menganalisa penelitianini adalah fenomenologi. Pendekatan fenomenologi berusaha masuk dalam duniakonseptual subjek agar dapat memahami bagaimana dan apa makna yang disusun subjektersebut dalam kehidupan sehari-harinyaHasil dari penelitian dapat disimpulkan sebagai berikut, munculnya fenomenaperubahan paradigma dari masyarakat dari bershodaqoh sampah ke jual beli sampah.Manajemen pemilahan, penjualan, dan pelaporan berjalan cukup baik meskipun adakendala teknis dilapangan seperti tidak maksimalnya masyarakat dalam memanfaatkanwadah sak yang telah disediakan pangurus dan masih enggannya masyarakat untukmemilah sampah dari sumbernya, sehingga petugas pengambil sampah harus memilahulang karena sampah yang tercampur. Adanya kendala finansial dikarenakan masyarakatmulai bergeser paradigmanya dari menshodaqohkan sampah menuju jual beli sampah,mengakibatkan tersendatnya operasionalisasi shodaqoh sampah.Berdasarkan penelitian yang telah dilakukan terdapat saran dan rekomendasisebagai berikut : Memberikan sentuhan teologis untuk memantapkan hati dalambershodaqoh sebagai wujud implementasi amal soleh yang diajarkan oleh agama semisaldengan meminta pengurus MLH (Majelis Lingkungan Hidup) Muhammadiyah untukmemberikan ceramah agama tentang manfaat dan pahala dari bershodaqoh salah satunyaadalah shodaqoh sampah. Perlu adanya komunikasi yang lebih intensif antara pengurusBMS (Bersih Menuju Sehat) dan masyarakat untuk memberikan pemahaman akan manfaatshodaqoh sampah untuk kemaslahatan bersama (masyarakat)

Performance Evaluation of Power Efficient Mechanisms on Multimedia over LTE-A Networks

Power optimization is a critical challenge in multimedia services over cellular communication systems. Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) has been developed for higher bandwidth access for accommodating today’s heavy data applications to provide better performance. Idle mode permits cellularstations to manipulate power and sources with the aid of limiting its activity for discrete periods and this eliminates the lively requirement for handover and other ordinary operations. Also, provides a periodical method for the cell station for pending downlink traffic directed to the cellularstation and as a result gets rid network handover traffic from basically inactive cellular stations. Discontinuous Reception (DRX) has been carried out to decrease the power intake of the consumer device, and transmission of big quantity of data. At data transfer, mobile device and the network phases negotiation occur. During other times, the device turns its receiver off and enters a low power state. Thereby similarly assisting numerous services and big quantities of information transmissions. This study prepossession of a massive quantity of data. Also proposes the two-power optimization modes idle mode and DRX mode parameters to achieve maximum possible power saving with the higher quality of multimedia services. Furthermore, the effectiveness of using DRX short cycles and DRX long cycles on multimedia services and the overall performance. Using OPNET Simulator 17.5, it concluded that DRX mechanism is preferred to operate compared with the Idle mechanism, also resulted that the DRX long cycles are a very good choice for all multimedia services and the overall network performance

Inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 by cdk inhibitors

Current therapy for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection relies primarily on the administration of anti-retroviral nucleoside analogues, either alone or in combination with HIV-protease inhibitors. Although these drugs have a clinical benefit, continuous therapy with the drugs leads to drug-resistant strains of the virus. Recently, significant progress has been made towards the development of natural and synthetic agents that can directly inhibit HIV-1 replication or its essential enzymes. We previously reported on the pharmacological cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (PCI) r-roscovitine as a potential inhibitor of HIV-1 replication. PCIs are among the most promising novel antiviral agents to emerge over the past few years. Potent activity on viral replication combined with proliferation inhibition without the emergence of resistant viruses, which are normally observed in HAART patients; make PCIs ideal candidates for HIV-1 inhibition. To this end we evaluated twenty four cdk inhibitors for their effect on HIV-1 replication in vitro. Screening of these compounds identified alsterpaullone as the most potent inhibitor of HIV-1 with activity at 150 nM. We found that alsterpaullone effectively inhibits cdk2 activity in HIV-1 infected cells with a low IC50 compared to control uninfected cells. The effects of alsterpaullone were associated with suppression of cdk2 and cyclin expression. Combining both alsterpaullone and r-roscovitine (cyc202) in treatment exhibited even stronger inhibitory activities in HIV-1 infected PBMCs

Untangling the ATR-CHEK1 network for prognostication, prediction and therapeutic target validation in breast cancer

Background: ATR-Chk1 signalling network is critical for genomic stability. ATR-Chk1 may be deregulated in breast cancer and have prognostic, predictive and therapeutic significance. Patients and methods: We investigated ATR and phosphorylated CHK1Ser345 protein (pChk1) expression in 1712 breast cancers (Nottingham Tenovus series). ATR and Chk1 mRNA were evaluated in 1950 breast cancers (METABRIC cohort). Pre-clinically, biological consequences of ATR gene knockdown or ATR inhibition by small molecule inhibitor (VE-821) were investigated in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines and in non-tumorigenic breast epithelial cells (MCF10A). Results: High ATR and high cytoplasmic pChk1 expression was significantly associated with higher tumour stage, higher mitotic index, pleomorphism and lymphovascular invasion. In univariate analysis, high ATR and high cytoplasmic pChk1 protein expression was associated with shorter breast cancer specific survival (BCSS). In multivariate analysis, high ATR remains an independent predictor of adverse outcome. At the mRNA level, high Chk1 remains associated with aggressive phenotypes including lymph node positivity, high grade, Her-2 overexpression, triple-negative phenotype and molecular classes associated with aggressive behaviour and shorter survival.. Pre-clinically, Chk1 phosphorylation at serine 345 following replication stress (induced by gemcitabine or hydroxyurea treatment) was impaired in ATR knockdown and in VE-821 treated breast cancer cells. Doxycycline inducible knockdown of ATR suppressed growth, which was restored when ATR was re-expressed. Similarly, VE-821 treatment resulted in a dose dependent suppression of cancer cell growth and survival (MCF7 and MDA-MB-231) but had no effect on non-tumorigenic breast epithelial cells (MCF10A). Conclusions: We provides evidence that ATR and Chk1 are promising biomarkers and rational drug target for personalized therapy in breast cancer

Cloning and analysis of QTL linked to blast disease resistance in Malaysian rice variety Pongsu seribu 2

Blast, caused by Magnoporthe oryzae, is considered to be a global rice disease around the world including Malaysia. Limited information is available on the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and linked markers associated with blast resistance within local rice varieties e.g. Pongsu Seribu 2. Partial resistance against blast disease is widely observed in this variety with mapping of QTLs linked to resistance genes. However, knowledge about the blast resistance genes on chromosome 3 is very limited and no specific blast resistance gene have been identified on chromosome 3 in rice genome of Pongsu Seribu 2. In order to find the similarity of sequence, QTL qRBr-3.1 located on chromosome 3 in Pongsu Seribu 2 was cloned and compared with identified blast resistant genes from other varieties. Sequence analysis of cloned fragment revealed a tandem of (CA)23 repeats. The similarity of sequence was searched in Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), which expressed similarity with different clones of rice located on chromosome 3. The cloned QTL fragment also expressed the similarity of 46% with Pi-b, 52% with Pi-kh, 23% with Pi-9 and 38% with Pi-zt, blast resistance genes located at different chromosomes in rice. The QTL fragment produced none of distribution of leucine rich repeats (LRRs) and nucleotide binding site (NBS-LRR). However, the domain contains maximum distribution of leucine amino acid which is responsible for the pathogen recognition in host-plant interaction and play important role in resistance mechanism against diseases. This result concluded that Pongsu Seribu 2 has homology to other resistant genes which are allelic to Pi-b, Pi9, Pi-zt and Pi-kh at different chromosomes

HAGE (DDX43) is a biomarker for poor prognosis and a predictor of chemotherapy response in breast cancer

Background: HAGE protein is a known immunogenic cancer-specific antigen. Methods: The biological, prognostic and predictive values of HAGE expression was studied using immunohistochemistry in three cohorts of patients with BC (n=2147): early primary (EP-BC; n=1676); primary oestrogen receptor-negative (PER-BC; n=275) treated with adjuvant anthracycline-combination therapies (Adjuvant-ACT); and primary locally advanced disease (PLA-BC) who received neo-adjuvant anthracycline-combination therapies (Neo-adjuvant-ACT; n=196). The relationship between HAGE expression and the tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in matched prechemotherapy and postchemotherapy samples were investigated. Results: Eight percent of patients with EP-BC exhibited high HAGE expression (HAGEþ) and was associated with aggressive clinico-pathological features (Ps<0.01). Furthermore, HAGEþexpression was associated with poor prognosis in both univariate and multivariate analysis (Ps<0.001). Patients with HAGE+ did not benefit from hormonal therapy in high-risk ER-positive disease. HAGE+ and TILs were found to be independent predictors for pathological complete response to neoadjuvant-ACT; P<0.001. A statistically significant loss of HAGE expression following neoadjuvant-ACT was found (P=0.000001), and progression-free survival was worse in those patients who had HAGE+ residual disease (P=0.0003). Conclusions: This is the first report to show HAGE to be a potential prognostic marker and a predictor of response to ACT in patients with BC

Impact of family structure and sociodemographic characteristics on parents headed families in Ramadi City, Iraq

Background: Several factors in the family profile contribute significantly to determining the effective policy when heading the family. This study aims to evaluate the sociodemographic and economic burdens on parents-headed families in Ramadi City, west of Iraq. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional household-based survey was conducted from 1st to 28th February 2019 among Iraqi people residents in Ramadi city, Anbar province. A multistage sampling technique was recruited to identify the eligible sample. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview (face-to-face) the respondents. Data from 267 households have undergone univariate and bivariate analyses. Multiple logistic regression, odds ratio (OR), and confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to explore the predicting variables. The statistically significant is considered at less than 0.05. Results: The mean age of respondents was 43.88 (± 12.1) years (range: 25 to 69 years). Out of the total surveyed people, 52.8% were young (less than 44 years), male-headed families (59.6%), low educated level (65.5%), unemployed (52.4%), married (67.4%) and headed big families of seven members and above (43.1%). History of chronic diseases and smoking habits was positive among 46.4% and 45.7% of respondents, respectively. Findings of the binary logistic regressions showed that history of smoking (OR = 7.201, 95% CI: 3.254 to15.936), families of 7 members and above (OR = 6.239, 95% CI: 2.938 to 13.250), unhappy (OR = 5.237, 95% CI: 2.140 to 12.818), aged 44 years and above (OR = 3.518, 95% CI: 1.581 to 7.829), being single (unmarried, divorced, widow) (OR = 2.697, 95% CI: 1.230 to 5.914), and had a monthly income of less than USD400 (OR = 2.333, 95% CI: 1.112 to 4.859) are significantly associated with female-headed family. Conclusion: Priority must be given to some elements such as genetic, physical differences, biopsychosocial factors, and the economic situation when discussing parents' behavior in heading the family

Design and Fabrication a W-Shape Form Dual-Band Flexible Antenna For Biomedical Applications

This study suggests a dual band flexible antenna for use at 900 and 2450 MHz. With a footprint of 0.23 o, 0.120 o, and 0.0007 o, where o is the lowest resonance wavelength, the antenna is relatively tiny. The antenna is built from a straightforward geometrical structure consisting of a W-shaped serpentine structure supplied by a microstrip line and a partial ground plane utilizing the Defected Ground Structure (DGS) technology in order to achieve wide operational bandwidth. In order to boost resonance, an additional capacitor was inserted between the slots, creating a portable dual-band antenna. Several performance metrics\u27 findings and the ones that had been measured were compared. The antenna\u27s potential for rigid and flexible electronics is increased by its good size, bandwidth, gain, and radiation pattern