Extremely non-equilibrium synthesis of luminescent zinc oxide nanoparticles through energetic ion condensation in a dense plasma focus device

Luminescent ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized on silicon and quartz substrates under extremely non-equilibrium conditions of energetic ion condensation during the post-focus phase in a dense plasma focus (DPF) device. Ar+, O+, Zn+ and ZnO+ ions are generated as a result of interaction of hot and dense argon plasma focus with the surfaces of ZnO pellets placed at the anode. It is found that the sizes, structural and photoluminescence (PL) properties of the ZnO nanoparticles appear to be quite different on Si(1 0 0) and quartz substrates. The results of x-ray diffractometry and atomic force microscopy show that the ZnO nanoparticles are crystalline and range in size from 5-7 nm on Si(1 0 0) substrates to 10-38 nm on quartz substrates. Room-temperature PL studies reveal strong peaks related to excitonic bands and defects for the ZnO nanoparticles deposited on Si (1 0 0), whereas the excitonic bands are not excited in the quartz substrate case. Raman studies indicate the presence of E2 (high) mode for ZnO nanoparticles deposited on Si(1 0 0).

Rapid, low-temperature synthesis of nc-Si in high-density, non-equilibrium plasmas : enabling nanocrystallinity at very low hydrogen dilution

Nanocrystalline silicon thin films were deposited on single-crystal silicon and glass substrates simultaneously by inductively coupled plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition from the reactive silane reactant gas diluted with hydrogen at a substrate temperature of 200 °C. The effect of hydrogen dilution ratio X (X is defined as the flow rate ratio of hydrogen to silane gas), ranging from 1 to 20, on the structural and optical properties of the deposited films, is extensively investigated by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy, UV/VIS spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Our experimental results reveal that, with the increase of the hydrogen dilution ratio X, the deposition rate Rd and hydrogen content CH are reduced while the crystalline fraction Fc, mean grain size δ and optical bandgap ETauc are increased. In comparison with other plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition methods of nanocrystalline silicon films where a very high hydrogen dilution ratio X is routinely required (e.g. X > 16), we have achieved nanocrystalline silicon films at a very low hydrogen dilution ratio of 1, featuring a high deposition rate of 1.57 nm/s, a high crystalline fraction of 67.1%, a very low hydrogen content of 4.4 at.%, an optical bandgap of 1.89 eV, and an almost vertically aligned columnar structure with a mean grain size of approximately 19 nm. We have also shown that a sufficient amount of atomic hydrogen on the growth surface essential for the formation of nanocrystalline silicon is obtained through highly-effective dissociation of silane and hydrogen molecules in the high-density inductively coupled plasmas. © 2009 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

iNOS expression and osteocyte apoptosis in idiopathic, non- traumatic osteonecrosis

Background and purpose Non-traumatic osteonecrosis is a progressive disease with multiple etiologies. It affects younger individuals more and more, often leading to total hip arthroplasty. We investigated whether there is a correlation between inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression and osteocyte apoptosis in non-traumatic osteonecrosis. Patients and methods We collected and studied 20 human idiopathic, non-traumatic osteonecrosis femoral heads. Subchondral bone samples in the non-sclerotic region (n = 30), collected from osteoarthritis patients, were used as controls. Spontaneously hypertensive rats were used as a model for osteonecrosis in the study. We used scanning electron microscopy, TUNEL assay, and immunohistochemical staining to study osteocyte changes and apoptosis. Results The morphology of osteocytes in the areas close to the necrotic region changed and the number of apoptotic osteocytes increased in comparison with the same region in control groups. The expression of iNOS and cytochrome C in osteocytes increased while Bax expression was not detectable in osteonecrosis samples. Using spontaneously hypertensive rats, we found a positive correlation between iNOS expression and osteocyte apoptosis in the osteonecrotic region. iNOS inhibitor (aminoguanidine) added to the drinking water for 5 weeks reduced the production of iNOS and osteonecrosis compared to a control group without aminoguanidine. Interpretation Our findings show that increased iNOS expression can lead to osteocyte apopotosis in idiopathic, non-traumatic osteonecrosis and that an iNOS inhibitor may prevent the progression of the disease.

Ge/Si quantum dot formation from non-uniform cluster fluxes

The controlled growth of ultra-small Ge/Si quantum dot (QD) nuclei (≈1 nm) suitable for the synthesis of uniform nanopatterns with high surface coverage, is simulated using atom-only and size non-uniform cluster fluxes. It is found that seed nuclei of more uniform sizes are formed when clusters of non-uniform size are deposited. This counter-intuitive result is explained via adatom-nanocluster interactions on Si(100) surfaces. Our results are supported by experimental data on the geometric characteristics of QD patterns synthesized by nanocluster deposition. This is followed by a description of the role of plasmas as non-uniform cluster sources and the impact on surface dynamics. The technique challenges conventional growth modes and is promising for deterministic synthesis of nanodot arrays.

A biomechanical analysis of growing rods used in the management of early onset scoliosis

INTRODUCTION Managing spinal deformities in young children is challenging, particularly early-onset scoliosis (EOS). Any progressive spinal deformity particularly in early life presents significant health risks for the child and a challenge for the treating surgeon. Surgical intervention is often required if EOS has been unresponsive to conservative treatment particularly with rapidly progressive curves. An emerging treatment option particularly for EOS is fusionless scoliosis surgery. Similar to bracing this surgical option potentially harnesses growth, motion and function of the spine along with correcting spinal deformity. Dual growing rods is one such fusionless treatment, which aims to modulate growth of the vertebrae. The aim of this study was to ascertain the extent to which semi-constrained growing rods (Medtronic, Memphis, TN) with a telescopic sleeve component, reduce rotational constraint on the spine compared with standard rigid rods and hence potentially provide a more physiological mechanical environment for the growing spine. METHODS Six 40-60kg English Large White porcine spines served as a model for the paediatric human spine. Each spine was dissected into 7 level thoracolumbar multi-segment unit (MSU) spines, removing all non-ligamentous soft tissues. Appropriately sized semi-constrained growing rods and rigid rods were secured by multi-axial screws (Medtronic) prior to testing in alternating sequences for each spine. Pure nondestructive moments of +/4Nm at a constant rotation rate of 8deg/s was applied to the mounted MSU spines. Displacement of each level was captured using an Optotrak (Northern Digital Inc, Waterloo, ON). The range of motion (ROM), neutral zone (NZ) size and stiffness (Nm/deg) were calculated from the Instron load-displacement data and intervertebral ROM was calculated through a MATLAB algorithm from Optotrak data. RESULTS Irrespective of sequence order rigid rods significantly reduced the total ROM (deg) than compared to semi-constrained rods (p<0.05) and resulted in a significantly stiffer (Nm/deg) spine for both left and right axial rotation testing (p<0.05). Analysing the intervertebral motion within the instrumented levels, rigid rods showed reduced ROM (Deg) than compared to semi-constrained growing rods and the un-instrumented (UN-IN) test sequences. CONCLUSION The semi-constrained growing rods maintained rotation similar to UN-IN spines while the rigid rods showed significantly reduced axial rotation across all instrumented levels. Clinically the effect of semi-constrained growing rods evaluated in this study is that they will allow growth via the telescopic rod components while maintaining the axial rotation ability of the spine, which may also reduce the occurrence of the crankshaft phenomenon.

A non-malleable group key exchange protocol robust against active insiders

In this paper we make progress towards solving an open problem posed by Katz and Yung at CRYPTO 2003. We propose the first protocol for key exchange among n ≥2k+1 parties which simultaneously achieves all of the following properties: 1. Key Privacy (including forward security) against active attacks by group outsiders, 2. Non-malleability — meaning in particular that no subset of up to k corrupted group insiders can ‘fix’ the agreed key to a desired value, and 3. Robustness against denial of service attacks by up to k corrupted group insiders. Our insider security properties above are achieved assuming the availability of a reliable broadcast channel.

Course experiences, satisfaction and career intent of final year pre-registration Australian pharmacy students

Background In Australia, the profession of pharmacy has undergone many changes to adapt to the needs of the community. In recent years, concerns have been raised with evidence emerging of workforce saturation in traditional pharmacy practice sectors. It is not known how current final year pharmacy students’ perceive the different pharmacy career paths in this changing environment. Hence investigating students’ current experiences with their pharmacy course, interaction with the profession and developing an understanding of their career intentions would be an important step, as these students would make up a large proportion of future pharmacy workforce Objective The objective of this study was thus to investigate final year students’ career perspectives and the reasons for choosing pharmacy, satisfaction with this choice of pharmacy as a tertiary course and a possible future career, factors affecting satisfaction and intention of future career paths. Methods A quantitative cross sectional survey of final year students from 3 Australian universities followed by a qualitative semi-structured interview of a convenience sample of final year students from the University of Sydney. Results ‘Interest in health and medicine’ was the most important reason for choosing pharmacy (n=238). The majority of students were ‘somewhat satisfied’ with the choice of pharmacy (35.7%) as a course and possible future career. Positive associations were found between satisfaction and reasons for joining pharmacy such as ‘felt pharmacy is a good profession’ (p=0.003) while negative associations included ‘joined pharmacy as a gateway to medicine or dentistry’ (p=0.001). Quantitate and qualitative results showed the most frequent perception of community pharmacy was ‘changing’ while hospital and pharmaceutical industry was described as ‘competitive’ and ‘research’ respectively. The highest career intention was community followed by hospital pharmacy. Conclusion Complex factors including university experiences are involved in shaping students’ satisfaction and perception of career. This may relate to challenges in the community pharmacy sector, job opportunities in hospital and limited understanding of the pharmaceutical industry. The results offer insight for the profession in terms of entry into various roles and also to pharmacy educators for their roles in shaping curricula and placement experiences that attract future graduates to defined career pathways in pharmacy.

Burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Nepal and the availability and affordability of NCD medicines

Background: Traditionally communicable diseases were the main causes of burden in developing countries like Nepal. In recent years non-communicable diseases (NCDs), mainly cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes mellitus, impose a larger disease burden compared to communicable diseases. Most elements of health and medicine policies in Nepal are still focused on communicable diseases. There is limited evidence about NCDs and NCD medicines in Nepal. Aim: To explore the gap between the burden of NCDs and the availability and affordability of NCD medicines in Nepal. Methods: Biomedical databases like Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and other online sources (including Global Burden of Diseases data) were searched for data on the burden of NCDs in term of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). The Essential Medicines List (EML) of Nepal was compared with World Health Organisation (EML) for inclusion of NCD medicines. Results: In Nepal, NCDs caused nearly 45% of the total 10.5 million DALYs in 2010. CVDs (15.2%), were the leading cause of NCDs burden followed by chronic respiratory diseases (14.7%), cancer (7.3%) and diabetes mellitus (3.2%). One hospital based national survey found that 37% of hospitalised patients had NCDs. Among them, 38% had heart disease followed by COPD (33%) , and diabetes (10%). Most (23 out of 28) non-cancer NCD medicines recommended in WHO-EML were present in Nepal's EML, theoretically indicating good availability. However, it is difficult to say whether they are accessible and affordable due to the lack of adequate data on access and pricing. Conclusion: This study gives some insight into the burden of NCDs. Although NCD medicines are available in Nepal, further research is required to determine whether they are accessible and affordable to the general population.

Is Australia ready for biosimilars?

The biosimilars market is potentially the single fastest growing pharmaceutical sector with an estimated worth of US$67bn in global sales by 2020. This market generally refers to larger molecule, biological, protein-based pharmaceuticals which have lost its patent. This has stimulated the emergence of non-conventional pharmaceutical investors such as Fujifilm and Samsung as well as host countries such as Brazil, Mexico, China, India, South Korea, Turkey and Russia, which view biosimilars as a key macroeconomic driver of growth. Internationally, the European Medicines Agency has led the regulation of the quality, safety and efficacy of biosimilars; however, many countries have developed their own biosimilar regulatory frameworks. Despite the similarity of these with European guidelines, differences do exist across jurisdictions and have implications for cross-jurisdictional registration and regulation. The consideration of biosimilar regulation, however, demands attention beyond quality, safety and efficacy. The potential implications of extended patent protection, international trade and globalisation require a congruent policy approach to their regulation. Notwithstanding the fact that Australia is a relatively small pharmaceutical market and that there are only 14 biosimilar products currently approved for use, Australia’s geographical proximity to pharm-emerging countries and its trade relation with the major pharmaceutical markets have positioned Australia in a unique position to influence international development and regulation of biosimilars. Australia’s National Medicines Policy (2000) potentially provides the foundation for a partnership approach to biosimilar regulation, minimise duplication of regulatory efforts while at the same time fostering a viable pharmaceutical industry.

A non-profit design-led innovation journey

Non-profit organisations in the aged care sector are currently under pressure from more than just a sheer increase of customers. A need to respond to changing legislative requirements, increased expectations from customers and increasing likelihood of shortage in appropriate experienced staff are also contributing to instability within the sector. This paper will present a longitudinal action research study of a non-profit organisation revisiting its core purpose of providing relevant services and attempting to build a customer-centric method for addressing the current and upcoming change drivers in an Australian aged care context. The study found Design- Led Innovation to be an effective methodology for capturing deep customer insights and conceptualising new business models which address the prevalent change drivers. This paper details a design-led approach to innovation, tailored to a non-profit organisation seeking to better understand its stakeholders and redefine its value offering.

Assembly and annotation of a non-model gastropod (Nerita melanotragus) transcriptome: a comparison of De novo assemblers

Background The sequencing, de novo assembly and annotation of transcriptome datasets generated with next generation sequencing (NGS) has enabled biologists to answer genomic questions in non-model species with unprecedented ease. Reliable and accurate de novo assembly and annotation of transcriptomes, however, is a critically important step for transcriptome assemblies generated from short read sequences. Typical benchmarks for assembly and annotation reliability have been performed with model species. To address the reliability and accuracy of de novo transcriptome assembly in non-model species, we generated an RNAseq dataset for an intertidal gastropod mollusc species, Nerita melanotragus, and compared the assembly produced by four different de novo transcriptome assemblers; Velvet, Oases, Geneious and Trinity, for a number of quality metrics and redundancy. Results Transcriptome sequencing on the Ion Torrent PGM™ produced 1,883,624 raw reads with a mean length of 133 base pairs (bp). Both the Trinity and Oases de novo assemblers produced the best assemblies based on all quality metrics including fewer contigs, increased N50 and average contig length and contigs of greater length. Overall the BLAST and annotation success of our assemblies was not high with only 15-19% of contigs assigned a putative function. Conclusions We believe that any improvement in annotation success of gastropod species will require more gastropod genome sequences, but in particular an increase in mollusc protein sequences in public databases. Overall, this paper demonstrates that reliable and accurate de novo transcriptome assemblies can be generated from short read sequencers with the right assembly algorithms. Keywords: Nerita melanotragus; De novo assembly; Transcriptome; Heat shock protein; Ion torrent

Assessment of cone beam CT registration for prostate radiation therapy : fiducial marker and soft tissue methods

Introduction This investigation aimed to assess the consistency and accuracy of radiation therapists (RTs) performing cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) alignment to fiducial markers (FMs) (CBCTFM) and the soft tissue prostate (CBCTST). Methods Six patients receiving prostate radiation therapy underwent daily CBCTs. Manual alignment of CBCTFM and CBCTST was performed by three RTs. Inter-observer agreement was assessed using a modified Bland–Altman analysis for each alignment method. Clinically acceptable 95% limits of agreement with the mean (LoAmean) were defined as ±2.0 mm for CBCTFM and ±3.0 mm for CBCTST. Differences between CBCTST alignment and the observer-averaged CBCTFM (AvCBCTFM) alignment were analysed. Clinically acceptable 95% LoA were defined as ±3.0 mm for the comparison of CBCTST and AvCBCTFM. Results CBCTFM and CBCTST alignments were performed for 185 images. The CBCTFM 95% LoAmean were within ±2.0 mm in all planes. CBCTST 95% LoAmean were within ±3.0 mm in all planes. Comparison of CBCTST with AvCBCTFM resulted in 95% LoA of −4.9 to 2.6, −1.6 to 2.5 and −4.7 to 1.9 mm in the superior–inferior, left–right and anterior–posterior planes, respectively. Conclusions Significant differences were found between soft tissue alignment and the predicted FM position. FMs are useful in reducing inter-observer variability compared with soft tissue alignment. Consideration needs to be given to margin design when using soft tissue matching due to increased inter-observer variability. This study highlights some of the complexities of soft tissue guidance for prostate radiation therapy.

Organic non-fullerene acceptors for organic photovoltaics

Heterojunction organic photovoltaics have been the subject of intensive academic interest over the past two decades, and significant commercial efforts have been directed towards this area with the vision of developing the next generation of low-cost solar cells. Materials development has played a vital role in the dramatic improvement of organic solar cell performance in recent years, and this is driven primarily by the advancement of p-type semiconductors as donor materials. With the highest performing solar cells today dominated by acceptors based on members of the fullerene family, much less attention has been devoted to other classes of n-type acceptors. In this review, we will provide an overview of the progress in the synthesis, characterization and implementation of the various classes of non-fullerenebased n-type organic acceptors for photovoltaic applications.

Biodiesel production from non-edible beauty leaf (Calophyllum Inophyllum) oil : process optimization using response surface methodology (RSM)

In recent years, the beauty leaf plant (Calophyllum Inophyllum) is being considered as a potential 2nd generation biodiesel source due to high seed oil content, high fruit production rate, simple cultivation and ability to grow in a wide range of climate conditions. However, however, due to the high free fatty acid (FFA) content in this oil, the potential of this biodiesel feedstock is still unrealized, and little research has been undertaken on it. In this study, transesterification of beauty leaf oil to produce biodiesel has been investigated. A two-step biodiesel conversion method consisting of acid catalysed pre-esterification and alkali catalysed transesterification has been utilized. The three main factors that drive the biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester (FAME)) conversion from vegetable oil (triglycerides) were studied using response surface methodology (RSM) based on a Box-Behnken experimental design. The factors considered in this study were catalyst concentration, methanol to oil molar ratio and reaction temperature. Linear and full quadratic regression models were developed to predict FFA and FAME concentration and to optimize the reaction conditions. The significance of these factors and their interaction in both stages was determined using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The reaction conditions for the largest reduction in FFA concentration for acid catalysed pre-esterification was 30:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 10% (w/w) sulfuric acid catalyst loading and 75 °C reaction temperature. In the alkali catalysed transesterification process 7.5:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 1% (w/w) sodium methoxide catalyst loading and 55 °C reaction temperature were found to result in the highest FAME conversion. The good agreement between model outputs and experimental results demonstrated that this methodology may be useful for industrial process optimization for biodiesel production from beauty leaf oil and possibly other industrial processes as well.