(Photo) electrochemical investigations on spray deposited n-CdIn 2Se4 thin film/polysulphide/c photoelectrochemical solar cell1

Cadmium indium selenide (n-CdIn ₂Se₄) thin films have been synthesized by spraying the mixture of an equimolar solutions of cadmium chloride [CdCl₂], indium trichloride [InCl₃] and selenourea [(NH₂)₂CSe] in aqueous media onto preheated fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrates at optimized parameters of substrate temperature and solution concentration. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell configuration of n-CdIn₂Se/(l MNaOH + 1 MNa₂S + 1 M S)/C has been used for investigating the current—voltage (I–V) characteristics under dark and white light illumination, photovoltaic output, spectral response, photovoltaic rise and decay characteristics. The PEC study reveals the thin film of CdIn₂Se₄ exhibits n-type conductivity. The junction quality factor in dark (n _d) and light (n _l), series and shunt resistance (R _s and R _sh), fill factor (FF) and efficiency (η) for the cell have been estimated. The observed efficiency and FF of PEC solar cell is found to be 1.95 and 0.37% respectively. Mott-Schottky plot shows the flat-band potential (V _fb) of n-CdIn₂Se₄/(l M NaOH + 1 M Na₂S + 1 M S)/C cell to be—0.655 V/SCE.     

Predominance of slow acetylators of N-acetyltransferase in a Hmong population residing in the United States

Pharmacogenetics can be an important determinant of pharmacologic response. To learn more about interpopulation differences in drug metabolism between ethnically diverse populations of subjects cared for by an International Clinic, a study was conducted to describe the prevalence of fast or slow acetylators of N-acetyltransferase (NAT2) in a population of Hmong residing in Minnesota. Ninety-eight healthy Hmong refugees from Laos volunteered to take caffeine as an oral probe drug to establish acetylator phenotype. Participants were classified as either rapid or slow acetylators based on the urinary molar ratio of select metabolites of caffeine. Assignment of phenotype was based on results from analysis of urine collected subsequent to ingestion of caffeine. The ratio of 5-acetylamino-6-formylamino-3-methyluracil (AFMU) to the combined products of the 7-demethylation pathway of paraxanthine (AFMU, 1-methylxanthine (1X), and 1-methylurate (1U)] formed the basis for this determination. A probit plot of the data collected in our subjects qualified a metabolic ratio of 0.34 as an acceptable cut point for phenotype assignment. Participants with an AFMU/(AFMU + 1X + 1U) ratio of < 0.34 were classified as slow acetylators and all others as rapid acetylators. Analysis of the data suggested a bimodal distribution with an excess (74.5%) of slow acetylators in the population. The predominance of slow acetylators found in the Hmong contrast with the prevalence of slow acetylators seen in other ethnic groups. These findings may have important clinical implications given the large number of Hmong treated each year in our International Clinic and the increasing use of medications metabolized by NAT2 in this population.     

Nanoarchitectonics of hierarchical PbS material for all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Present article reports morphology controlled synthesis of lead sulfide (PbS) thin films using cost-effective chemical method. The...     

No evidence for linkage of a novel CA repeat polymorphism for apoptosis antigen 1 (APO-1 or fas) with type I diabetes in a Caucasian population

Abstract DNA typing of four tetrameric repeat loci (HUMVWA, HUMTH0I, D21SII and HPRT) was carried out in a Chinese Han population from Shanghai (East China) and one from Guangzhou (South-East China) using a quadruplex PCR amplification and detection of the fluorescent-labeled alleles on the ALF DNA sequencer. All loci were in accordance with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium except for D21S11 in the Guangzhou population. A test for population differentiation showed no statistical difference in the allele frequency distribution between the two populations. Comparison of the allele frequency data with other Chinese Han populations from North and South-West China for the STR loci HUMVWA and HUMTH01 revealed heterogeneity between Northern Chinese Han and Southern Chinese Han, which is in accordance with previous studies on the basis of protein markers.     

Preparation,dosimetric characterisation and investigation of related TSL defect centres in Li3Po4:Mg,Cu phosphor

L3PO4:Mg,Cu, a low effective atomic number and high sensitivity TSL phosphor, has been prepared. Its TSL glow curve shows a major peak around 360 degrees C with minor peaks around 110 degrees C and 230 degrees C. The optimum concentrations of the dopants are found to be 200 ppm each. Its gamma sensitivity is 1.2 times as compared to CaSO4:Dy (0.1 mol%). The optimum preirradiation annealing treatment is found to be 650 degrees C, 15 min. Its PL emission shows a band at 370 nm with excitation band at 250 nm. Dose to TSL response shows that its response is linear up to the gamma dose of 100 Gy for irradiations carried out at RT. An irradiated sample shows a distinct new ESR signal, which is tentatively assigned to an electron/hole localised on one of the oxygen(s) of the phosphate group. Step annealing experiments show decay of the defect centre around 340 degrees C. This correlates well with the TSL peak around 360 degrees C.     

Physical properties of sprayed antimony doped tin oxide thin films:The role of thickness

Transparent conducting antimony doped tin oxide（Sb:SnO₂） thin films have been deposited onto preheated glass substrates using a spray pyrolysis technique by varying the quantity of spraying solution.The structural, morphological,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,optical,photoluminescence and electrical properties of these films have been studied.It is found that the films are polycrystalline in nature with a tetragonal crystal structure having orientation along the（211） and（112） planes.Polyhedrons like grains appear in the FE-SEM images. The average grain size increases with increasing spraying quantity.The compositional analysis and electronic behaviour of Sb:SnO₂ thin films were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.The binding energy of Sn3d_5/2 for all samples shows the Sn⁴⁺ bonding state from SnO₂.An intensive violet luminescence peak near 395 nm is observed at room temperature due to oxygen vacancies or donor levels formed by Sb⁵⁺ ions.The film deposited with 20 cc solution shows 70%transmittance at 550 nm leading to the highest figure of merit(2.11×10^-3Ω^-1). The resistivity and carrier concentration vary over 1.22×10^-3 to 0.89×10^-3Ω·cm and 5.19×10²⁰ to 8.52×10²⁰ cm^-3,respectively.     

Structural analysis of Sm doped nanocrystalline Mg–Cd ferrites prepared by oxalate co-precipitation method

The structural properties of polycrystalline Sm³⁺ doped Mg_1 − xCd_x Fe₂O₄ (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0) have been investigated by oxalate co-precipitation method from high purity sulphates. The samples were sintered at 1050 °C for a duration of 5 h. The X-ray diffraction measurements confirmed the formation of a cubic spinel structure. The different parameters like lattice constant, X-ray density, physical density, porosity, crystallite size, site radii and bond length on tetrahedral and octahedral sites have been calculated. The lattice constant increases with an increase in Cd²⁺ content and shows non linear behavior. The crystallite size was calculated using Scherrer formula and varies from 28.69 to 32.05 nm. Physical densities were obtained by Archimedes principle. The surface morphology studied by scanning electron microscope shows that the grain size of the samples increases with an increase in Cd²⁺ content. The IR spectra show two strong absorption bands around 5.87 × 10⁴ m^− 1 and 4.27 × 10⁴ m^− 1 on the tetrahedral and octahedral sites respectively. IR spectra also show that Sm³⁺ occupies the octahedral B-site.     

Riboflavin-mediated delivery of a macromolecule into cultured human cells

The effects of perivascular nerve stimulation and phenylephrine on osmolyte release were studied in the intact perfused rat liver and isolated liver parenchymal cells (PC) and nonparenchymal cells. In the perfused liver, electrical stimulation of perivascular nerves (20 Hz/2 ms/20 V) led to a phentolamine-sensitive increase of cell hydration by 6.5% +/- 1.2% (n = 3) and a transient phentolamine-sensitive stimulation of taurine and inositol, but not betaine, release. These nerve effects were mimicked by phenylephrine, but not prostaglandin F2alpha, and were not affected by sodium nitroprusside (SNP) or ibuprofen. Nerve stimulation-induced taurine, but not inositol, release was inhibited by 4, 4'-di-isothiocyanatostilbene-2,2'-disulphonic acid (DIDS) (50 micromol/L). Single-cell fluorescence studies with isolated liver PC, Kupffer cells (KC), sinusoidal endothelial cells (SEC), and hepatic stellate cells (HSC) revealed that phenylephrine induced an increase in cytosolic free Ca2+ only in PC and HSC, but not in KC and SEC, whereas extracellular uridine triphosphate (UTP) produced Ca2+ transients/oscillations in all liver cell types studied. Phenylephrine had no effect on osmolyte release from isolated KC and SEC, but increased taurine (but not inositol) release from PC and inositol (but not taurine) efflux from HSC. The data suggest that: 1) liver cell hydration and-consecutively-osmolyte content are modulated by hepatic nerves via an alpha-adrenergic mechanism, which does not involve eicosanoids or hemodynamic changes; 2) that PC and HSC are the primary targets for nerve-dependent alpha-adrenergic activation, whereas 3) KC and SEC probably do not express alpha-adrenoceptors coupled to Ca2+ mobilization or osmolyte efflux.     

Developing a culture of lifelong learning in a library environment

Between 1995 and 1996, the Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) radically revised the model of service it provides to the VUMC community. An in-depth training program was developed for librarians, who began to migrate to clinical settings and establish clinical librarianship and information brokerage services beyond the library's walls. To ensure that excellent service would continue within the library, EBL's training program was adapted for library assistants, providing them with access to information about a wide variety of work roles and processes over a four to eight-month training period. Concurrently, customer service areas were reorganized so that any question--whether reference or circulation--could be answered at any of four service points, eliminating the practice of passing customers from person to person between the reference and circulation desks. To provide an incentive for highly trained library assistants to remain at EBL, management and library assistants worked together to redesign the career pathway based on defined stages of achievement, self-directed participation in library-wide projects, and demonstrated commitment to lifelong learning. Education and training were the fundamental principles at the center of all this activity.