20 research outputs found
Intrinsically Stretchable, Green Solvent-Processed, and Efficient Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Hydrophilic Flexible Spacer-Incorporating Polymer Donors
No full textIntrinsically-stretchable, non-halogenated solvent processed polymer solar cells enabled by hydrophilic flexible spacer-incorporated polymers
No full textIntrinsically Stretchable and Non‐Halogenated Solvent Processed Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Hydrophilic Spacer‐Incorporated Polymers
No full textBlends of polymer donors (P(D)s) and small molecule acceptors (SMAs) have afforded highly efficient polymer solar cells (PSCs). However, most of the efficient PSCs are processed using toxic halogenated solvents, and they are mechanically fragile. Here, a new series of P(D)s by incorporating a hydrophilic oligo(ethylene glycol) flexible spacer (OEG-FS) is developed, and efficient PSCs with a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.74% processed by a non-halogenated solvent are demonstrated. Importantly, the incorporation of these OEG-FSs into the P(D)s significantly increases the mechanical robustness and ductility of resulting PSCs, making them suitable for application as stretchable devices. The OEG-FS alleviates excessive backbone rigidity of the P(D)s while enhancing their pre-aggregation in the non-halogenated solvent. In addition, the OEG-FS in the P(D)s enhances P-D-SMA interfacial interactions and improves blend morphology, resulting in efficient charge generation and mechanical stress dissipation. The resulting PSCs demonstrate a superior PCE (17.74%) and high crack-onset strain (COS = 10.50%), outperforming the PSCs without OEG (PCE = 15.64% and COS = 2.99%). Importantly, intrinsically stretchable (IS) PSCs containing the P-D featuring OEG-FS exhibit a high PCE (12.05%) and stretchability (maintaining 80% of the initial PCE after 22% strain), demonstrating their viability for wearable applications.
Patterns Of Human Papillomavirus (hpv) Infection In Female Teenagers In Buri Ram And Udon Thani, Thailand: A Secondary Data Analysis
No full textBackground
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer with an age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) of 16.2/100000 person-year among Thailand women. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a necessary cause of cervical cancer, and HPV-related cancers have a substantial global burden accounting for approximately 5.2% of all cancers worldwide. Since the prevalence of HPV genotypes can be different by areas, it is critical to understand regional- and population-level HPV prevalence before establishing vaccination programs.
Methods
Data were obtained in August 2019 from the effectiveness study of a one vs. two doses of bivalent HPV vaccine in female teenagers in two provinces in Thailand. Female students were recruited from regular high schools for Grade 10 and Grade 12 (age 16-18 years) and vocational schools for Year 1 and Year 3 (age 16-18 years) corresponding to Grade 10 and 12 in each province. A urine sample was collected at school for HPV DNA PCR genotyping from all participants. HPV infection was determined in urine samples by PCR DNA assay and Cobas 4800 HPV test. The geospatial visualization was performed to compare the prevalence of overall HPV and HPV genotypes between districts in two provinces. To estimate differences in the prevalence of HPV infection and genotypes between the cohorts in each category (i.e. grade and school type), the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was performed.
Results
A total of 8,594 female students were recruited in the study. 4,205 were from Buri Ram, and 4,389 were from Udon Thani. In total, the overall HPV prevalence was 12.5%. The prevalence of HPV16, HPV18, and other HPV genotypes was 3.5%, 2.0%, and 7.6%, respectively. In Buri Ram, Chalermphrakiet district had the highest HPV prevalence (23.1%), and Cham Ni district had the lowest HPV prevalence (0.0%) out of 23 districts. In Udon Thani, Ban Dung district had the highest HPV prevalence (16.9%), and K. Ku Kaeo district had the lowest HPV prevalence (9.0%) out of 20 districts. The prevalence of overall HPV and HPV genotypes increased with grade and was higher in vocational school compared to regular school.
Conclusions
In conclusion, this secondary data analysis reports the prevalence of HPV genotypes in female teenagers in Buri Ram and Udon Thani provinces, Thailand. In both provinces, HPV prevalence was significantly different between grades and school types regardless of genotypes. HPV prevalence increased with grade and the vocational school had higher HPV prevalence than regular school type
EFFICIENT, GREEN-SOLVENT PROCESSED, AND MECHANICALLY ROBUST POLYMER SOLAR CELLS ENABLED BY HYDROPHILIC SPACER-INCORPORATED POLYMER DONORS
No full textINTRINSICALLY-STRETCHABLE AND NON-HALOGENATED SOLVENT PROCESSED POLYMER SOLAR CELLS ENABLED BY HYDROPHILIC FLEXIBLE SPACER-INCORPORATING POLYMERS
No full textLoss of PopZ <sub> <i>At</i> </sub> activity in <i>Agrobacterium tumefaciens</i> by Deletion or Depletion Leads to Multiple Growth Poles, Minicells, and Growth Defects
No full textABSTRACT
Agrobacterium tumefaciens
grows by addition of peptidoglycan (PG) at one pole of the bacterium. During the cell cycle, the cell needs to maintain two different developmental programs, one at the growth pole and another at the inert old pole. Proteins involved in this process are not yet well characterized. To further characterize the role of pole-organizing protein
A. tumefaciens
PopZ (PopZ
At
), we created deletions of the five PopZ
At
domains and assayed their localization. In addition, we created a
popZ
At
deletion strain (Δ
popZ
At
) that exhibited growth and cell division defects with ectopic growth poles and minicells, but the strain is unstable. To overcome the genetic instability, we created an inducible PopZ
At
strain by replacing the native ribosome binding site with a riboswitch. Cultivated in a medium without the inducer theophylline, the cells look like Δ
popZ
At
cells, with a branching and minicell phenotype. Adding theophylline restores the wild-type (WT) cell shape. Localization experiments in the depleted strain showed that the domain enriched in proline, aspartate, and glutamate likely functions in growth pole targeting. Helical domains H3 and H4 together also mediate polar localization, but only in the presence of the WT protein, suggesting that the H3 and H4 domains multimerize with WT PopZ
At
, to stabilize growth pole accumulation of PopZ
At
.
IMPORTANCE
Agrobacterium tumefaciens
is a rod-shaped bacterium that grows by addition of PG at only one pole. The factors involved in maintaining cell asymmetry during the cell cycle with an inert old pole and a growing new pole are not well understood. Here we investigate the role of PopZ
At
, a homologue of
Caulobacter crescentus
PopZ (PopZ
Cc
), a protein essential in many aspects of pole identity in
C. crescentus
. We report that the loss of PopZ
At
leads to the appearance of branching cells, minicells, and overall growth defects. As many plant and animal pathogens also employ polar growth, understanding this process in
A. tumefaciens
may lead to the development of new strategies to prevent the proliferation of these pathogens. In addition, studies of
A. tumefaciens
will provide new insights into the evolution of the genetic networks that regulate bacterial polar growth and cell division.
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Loss of PopZAt activity in Agrobacterium tumefaciens by Deletion or Depletion Leads to Multiple Growth Poles, Minicells, and Growth Defects
No full textAgrobacterium tumefaciens grows by addition of peptidoglycan (PG) at one pole of the bacterium. During the cell cycle, the cell needs to maintain two different developmental programs, one at the growth pole and another at the inert old pole. Proteins involved in this process are not yet well characterized. To further characterize the role of pole-organizing protein A. tumefaciens PopZ (PopZ At ), we created deletions of the five PopZ At domains and assayed their localization. In addition, we created a popZAt deletion strain (ΔpopZAt ) that exhibited growth and cell division defects with ectopic growth poles and minicells, but the strain is unstable. To overcome the genetic instability, we created an inducible PopZ At strain by replacing the native ribosome binding site with a riboswitch. Cultivated in a medium without the inducer theophylline, the cells look like ΔpopZAt cells, with a branching and minicell phenotype. Adding theophylline restores the wild-type (WT) cell shape. Localization experiments in the depleted strain showed that the domain enriched in proline, aspartate, and glutamate likely functions in growth pole targeting. Helical domains H3 and H4 together also mediate polar localization, but only in the presence of the WT protein, suggesting that the H3 and H4 domains multimerize with WT PopZ At , to stabilize growth pole accumulation of PopZ AtIMPORTANCEAgrobacterium tumefaciens is a rod-shaped bacterium that grows by addition of PG at only one pole. The factors involved in maintaining cell asymmetry during the cell cycle with an inert old pole and a growing new pole are not well understood. Here we investigate the role of PopZ At , a homologue of Caulobacter crescentus PopZ (PopZ Cc ), a protein essential in many aspects of pole identity in C. crescentus We report that the loss of PopZ At leads to the appearance of branching cells, minicells, and overall growth defects. As many plant and animal pathogens also employ polar growth, understanding this process in A. tumefaciens may lead to the development of new strategies to prevent the proliferation of these pathogens. In addition, studies of A. tumefaciens will provide new insights into the evolution of the genetic networks that regulate bacterial polar growth and cell division
Prediction of the Change Points in Stock Markets Using DAE-LSTM
No full textSince the creation of stock markets, there have been attempts to predict their movements, and new prediction methodologies have been devised. According to a recent study, when the Russell 2000 industry index starts to rise, stocks belonging to the corresponding industry in other countries also rise accordingly. Based on this empirical result, this study seeks to predict the start date of industry uptrends using the Russell 2000 industry index. The proposed model in this study predicts future stock prices using a denoising autoencoder (DAE) long short-term memory (LSTM) model and predicts the existence and timing of future change points in stock prices through Pettitt’s test. The results of the empirical analysis confirmed that this proposed model can find the change points in stock prices within 7 days prior to the start date of actual uptrends in selected industries. This study contributes to predicting a change point through a combination of statistical and deep learning models, and the methodology developed in this study could be applied to various financial time series data for various purposes
Infectious Disease Control and Management in Ethiopia: A Case Study of Cholera
No full textCholera remains a significant public health problem among the vulnerable populations living in many resource-limited settings with poor access to safe and clean water and hygiene practice. Around 2.86 million cholera cases and 95,000 deaths are estimated to occur in endemic countries. In Ethiopia, cholera has been one of the major epidemic diseases since 1634 when the first cholera outbreak was recorded in-country. Several cholera epidemics occurred with recent outbreaks in 2019-2021. Cholera has been often reported as acute watery diarrhea due to limited diagnostic capacity in remote areas in Ethiopia and sensitivities around cholera outbreaks. The government of Ethiopia has been executing several phases of multi-year health sector development plan in the past decades and has recently developed a national cholera control plan. Here, we aim to present the existing cholera control guidelines and health system in Ethiopia, including case detection and reporting, outbreak declaration, case management, and transmission control. Challenges and way forward on further research and public health interventions are also discussed to address the knowledge and health service gaps related to cholera control in Ethiopia.ope
