Under the stressed condition, a complex feedback mechanism for stress is activated to maintain homeostasis of the body and secretes several stress hormones. But these stress hormones impair synthesis and secretion of the reproductive hormones, followed by suppression of ovarian function. Cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) plays a major role in metabolizing exogenous substances and endogenous hormones, and its expression is recently identified at not only the liver but also several organs with respect to the pancreas, lung and ovary. Although the expression of CYP1A2 can be also affected by several factors, understanding for the changed pattern of the ovarian CYP1A2 expression upon stress induction is still limited. Therefore, CYP1A2 expression in the ovaries from immobilization stress-induced rats were assessed in the present study. The stress-induced rats in the present study exhibited the physiological changes in terms of increased stress hormone level and decreased body weight gains. Under immunohistological observation, the ovarian CYP1A2 expression in both control and the stressed ovary was localized in the antral to pre-ovulatory follicles. However, its expression level was significantly (p < 0.01) higher in the stress-induced group than control group. In addition, stress-induced group presented more abundant CYP1A2-positive follicles (%) than control group. Since expression of the ovarian CYP1A2 was highly related with follicle atresia, increased expression of CYP1A2 in the stressed ovary might be associated with changes of the ovarian follicular dynamics due to stress induction. We hope that these findings have important implications in the fields of the reproductive biology.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) based transparent conducting oxides (TCO) thin films, are used in many applications such as solar cells, flat panel displays, and LEDs due to their wide bandgap nature and excellent electrical properties. In the present work, fluorine and aluminium-doped ZnO targets are prepared and thin films are deposited on soda-lime glass substrate using a RF magnetron sputtering unit. The aluminium concentration is fixed at 2 wt%, and the fluorine concentration is adjusted between 0 to 2.0 wt% with five different concentrations, namely, Al2ZnO98(AZO), F0.5AZO97.5(FAZO1), F1AZO97(FAZO2), F1.5AZO96.5(FAZO3), and F2AZO96(FAZO4). Thin films are deposited with an RF power of 40 W and working pressure of 5 m Torr at 270 oC. The morphological analysis performed for the thin film reveals that surface roughness decreases in FAZO1 and FAZO2 samples when doped with a small amount of fluorine. Further, optical and electrical properties measured for FAZO1 sample show average optical transmissions of over 89 % in the visible region and 82.5 % in the infrared region, followed by low resistivity and sheet resistance of 3.59 × 10−4 Ωcm and 5.52 Ω/sq, respectively. In future, these thin films with excellent optoelectronic properties can be used for thin-film solar cell and other optoelectronics applications.

We report on the one-step synthesis of luminescent carbon nanodots (C-dots) via an electrical discharge between two graphite electrodes submerged into organic solvent (octane). This is a simple approach for the fabrication of C-dots with tunable photoluminescence (PL) that differs from the other preparation methods, as no post-passivation step is required. The synthesized carbon nanoparticles are of spherical shape and their size is distributed in the range of 2–5 nm and exhibit luminescence sensitive to excitation wavelength.

Abstract Activated carbon from the shell of the cashew of Para (SCP) was produced by chemical activation with ZnCl using the ratio of SCP: ZnCl2 1.0:1.5 at 700 °C. The prepared activated carbon (SCP700) was used for the removal of two emerging contaminants, 4-bromophenol (4-BrPhOH) and 4-chloroaniline (4-ClPhNH2) that are primarily employed in the industry. Different analytical techniques were used to characterize the activated carbon. From the N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms were obtained the specific surface area of 1520 m2 g− 1 and total pore volume of 0.492 cm3 g−1. The functional groups were identified by the FTIR technique and quantified by modified Boehm titration. The results revealed the bearing of several functional groups on the SCP700 surface, which may utterly influence the removal of the emerging contaminants. The equilibrium experiments showed that the maximum uptaken capacities (Qmax) achieved at 45 °C were 488.2 (4-BrPhOH) and 552.5 mg g−1 (4-ClPhNH2). The thermodynamic parameters demonstrated that the processes of 4-BrPhOH and 4-ClPhNH2 adsorption are exothermic, spontaneous, energetically suitable, and the magnitude of ΔH° is compatible with physisorption. The mechanism of the adsorption of the emerging contaminants onto the carbon surface is dominated by microporous filling, hydrogen bonds, π-stacking interactions, and other Van der Waals interactions. The use of activated carbon for the treatment of industrial synthetic wastewater with several inorganic and organic molecules commonly found in industrial effluents showed a very high percentage of uptaking (up to 98.64%).

The Ozone Dynamics Investigation Nano-Satellite (ODIN) is a CubeSat design proposed by Chungnam National University as contribution to the CubeSat Competition 2019 sponsored by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The main objectives of ODIN are (1) to observe the polar ozone column density (latitude range of 60 to 80 in both hemispheres) and (2) to investigate the chemical dynamics between stratospheric ozone and ozone depleting substances (ODSs) through spectroscopy of the terrestrial atmosphere. For the operation of ODIN, a highly ecient power system designed for the specic orbit is required. We present the conceptual structural design of ODIN and an analysis of power generation in a sun synchronous orbit (SSO) using two dierent congurations of 3U solar panels (a deployed model and a non-deployed model). The deployed solar panel model generates 189.7 W through one day which consists of 14 orbit cycles, while the non-deployed solar panel model generates 152.6 W. Both models generate enough power for ODIN and the calculation suggests that the deployed solar panel model can generate slightly more power than the non-deployed solar panel model in a single orbit cycle. We eventually selected the non-deployed solar panel model for our design because of its robustness against vibration during the launch sequence and the capability of stable power generation through a whole day cycle.

Background/Aim: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) training requires varying degrees of staff assistance regarding operation of the fluoroscopy machine via a foot pedal. Efficiency is important to acquire during this training due to radiation risks. In this study, we evaluate the effect of controlling endoscopy and fluoroscopy unit on duct cannulation rates (CRs) and total fluoroscopy time (FT) for fellows in training. Methods: 204 patients undergoing ERCP were randomized to one of two groups: 1) “Endoscopist Driven” group in which the endoscopist controlled the foot pedal for fluoroscopy, and 2) “Assistant Driven” group in which attending or fellow controlled the foot pedal while the other team member controlled the endoscope. Various measures including selective duct CR and total FT were recorded. Results: There was no significant difference in mean procedure duration between the two groups (32 minutes vs. 33 minutes, p=0.70). There was also no statistically significant difference in CR (83.7% vs. 77.4%, p=0.25) or FT (3.27 minutes vs. 3.54 minutes, p=0.48). Conclusions: ERCP is a technically challenging procedure which requires extensive supervision. This study demonstrates that CR and FT are not affected by who controls the fluoroscopy.

In order to improve the thermal shock and ablation resistance of high thermal conductivity carbon/carbon composites, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were introduced by electrophoretic deposition. After modification, the flexural strength of the composites increases by 53.0% due to the greatly strengthened interfaces. During thermal shock between 1100 °C and room temperature for 30 times, the strength continues to increase, attributed to the weakened interfaces in favor of fiber and CNT pull-out. By introducing CNTs at interfaces, thermal conductivity of the composites along the fiber axial direction decreases and that along the fiber radial direction increases. As the thermal shock process prolongs, since the carbon structure integrity of CNT and matrix in the modified composites is improved, the conductivity increases whatever the orientation is, until the thermal stress causes too many defects. As for the anti-ablation performance, the mass ablation rates of the CNT-modified composites with fibers parallel to and vertical to the flame decrease by 69.6% and 43.9% respectively, and the difference in the mass ablation rate related with fiber orientations becomes much less. Such performance improvement could be ascribed to the reduced oxidative damage and the enhanced interfaces.