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Background: Hormonal oral contraceptive pills (OCP) may increase the risk of carcinoma cervix by changing the susceptibility of cervical cells to persistent infection with high-risk human papilloma virus. There is a causal and promoting association with long-term use of these pills for more than 5 years of use, and the association is diminished 10 years after last use. Aims and Objectives: In this study, retrospective data were collected to analyze the risk of association of carcinoma cervix with hormonal contraceptive pill use. Materials and Methods: Interview-based retrospective observational study to enquire about the history of hormonal OCP use and duration of intake in all diagnosed cases of cervical carcinoma attending gynecology and oncology outpatient departments over the period of 2 years in two medical colleges in suburban West Bengal. Results: Of the total 401 subjects, 119 have a history of intake of hormonal OCPs, and 198 have a history of other methods of contraception. Among the subjects, 67.58% had squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 31.67% had adenocarcinoma of the cervix, and 0.75% had other varieties. There is no correlation between the duration of hormonal OCP use and SCC cervix (P=0.269), whereas there is a significant correlation between adenocarcinoma of the cervix and duration of intake of hormonal OCP (P=0.002). Conclusion: Studies have shown that women who have used OCPs for 5 or more years have a higher risk of cervical cancer than women who have never used oral contraceptives. This study reported a statistically significant increase in the relative risk of adenoca of the cervix but not of the SCC of the cervix, even after long-term use of hormonal OCPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital down converter (DDC) is one of the crucial components in digital radio receiver. The working function of DDC is to convert the frequency translation from Intermediate Frequency (IF) band to baseband signal. This paper briefs a hardware efficient DDC architecture which is made of COordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) processor act as a digital oscillator followed by multi-stage Cascaded Integrator Comb (CIC) performs as a high rate decimation filter and then Multi-channel Systolic Finite Impulse Response (MSFIR) decimation filter allows perfect output. All of these components of the proposed DDC architecture have been designed in Xilinx ISE 14.7 simulator using optimization techniques and targeted to the Xilinx Kintex-7 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device. Implementation of DDC on FPGA provides high flexibility, moderate cost and customizability. The result analysis of the proposed DDC model is superior to the similar design with regard to area, operating speed and power consumption. The implemented DDC design is used to transform input bandwidth from about 70 MHz to 137 kHz, matching in Software Defined Radio (SDR) system requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Control of particle size of chemically synthesized ZnSnO 3 by high energy ball milling. • Frequency and temperature dependent ac conductivity/dielectric studies in ZnSnO 3 nanomaterial. • Non-Debye type relaxation; contribution of grain and grain boundary to conductivity. • Inflexion in particle size and band gap beyond a certain milling span. • ac conductivity increases with decreasing particle size upto inflexion. In this work, we have reported the electrical impedance, frequency dependent ac conductivity and dielectric properties of zinc stannate (ZnSnO 3) nanoparticles synthesized by facile co-precipitation method followed by ball milling for different time span to control particle size. Particle size shows decreasing nature upto a certain span of milling time (2 h) followed by an increase and opposite trend is reflected in band gap. Complex impedance analysis depicts presence of non-Debye type or multiple relaxations and depressed semicircles due to grain and grain boundary. Frequency dependent electrical conductivity analysis shows highest conductivity for two hour milled sample followed by a decrease beyond this. Both real and imaginary component of dielectric constant is also maximum for two hour milled sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterizing cellular diversity at different levels of biological organization and across data modalities is a prerequisite to understanding the function of cell types in the brain. Classification of neurons is also essential to manipulate cell types in controlled ways and to understand their variation and vulnerability in brain disorders. The BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) is an integrated network of data-generating centers, data archives, and data standards developers, with the goal of systematic multimodal brain cell type profiling and characterization. Emphasis of the BICCN is on the whole mouse brain with demonstration of prototype feasibility for human and nonhuman primate (NHP) brains. Here, we provide a guide to the cellular and spatial approaches employed by the BICCN, and to accessing and using these data and extensive resources, including the BRAIN Cell Data Center (BCDC), which serves to manage and integrate data across the ecosystem. We illustrate the power of the BICCN data ecosystem through vignettes highlighting several BICCN analysis and visualization tools. Finally, we present emerging standards that have been developed or adopted toward Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) neuroscience. The combined BICCN ecosystem provides a comprehensive resource for the exploration and analysis of cell types in the brain. Characterizing cellular diversity is necessary to understand the function of different cell types in the brain. This Consensus View provides a guide to the cellular and spatial approaches used in cell type surveys by the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN), as well as information on accessing and using the BICCN data and its extensive resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fano resonance exhibiting characteristic asymmetric spectral line shape is a universal phenomenon, observed in diverse systems and is widely studied for its numerous potential applications. Here, we demonstrate a simple approach for high-sensitive arsenite detection using the changes in the spectral asymmetry of optical Fano resonance in precisely designed metamaterials, namely waveguided plasmonic crystals. For this purpose, we exploit selective binding of the toxic arsenite (As(III)) ions with optimized concentration of fluorescein-derived phenyl isothiocyanate molecules that are coated on top of a waveguided plasmonic crystal sample comprising of one dimensional periodic plasmonic gold grating on indium tin oxide waveguiding layer. The scattering spectra from the plasmonic crystal system with transverse magnetic (TM) polarization excitation show systematic changes in the Fano asymmetry parameter q with increasing concentration of arsenite, which is exploited for sensing arsenite down to a concentration of 1 ppm. Based on these results, we propose a robust plasmonic crystal metadevice that uses the polarized scattered intensities at two optimized wavelengths for high sensitive arsenite detection in natural aqueous environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hybrid synthesis of different spinel structured rare-earth doped ZnCo 2 O 4 nanomaterials. • Detailed microstructural characterization of the prepared cobaltite systems. • Analysis of electrical conduction mechanism using Mott's VRH model. • Electrical property correlation with dopant radii dependent structural properties. • Highest conductivity obtained for ZCO-Y (1.151 × 10−3 Ω−1 cm−1 at 433 K). [Display omitted] This work reports how microstructural and electrical property varies with different rare-earth (Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy and Y) incorporation in spinel structured ZnCo 2 O 4 nano-cobaltite. These materials have been synthesized using a combination of both chemical and physical methods. Host spinel material was prepared through chemical co-precipitation method and mechanical milling was used to reinforce the rare earth oxides into the spinel structure. Structural, microstructural, elemental and optical characterization has been carried out using XRD, FTIR, FESEM, EDX and UV-Vis spectroscopy. XRD confirms the formation of the nanocrystalline materials. Different microstructural parameters like lattice parameters, microstrain, crystallite size and x-ray density have been estimated from Rietveld analysis, which shows particle size of the doped samples depends on size of the dopant rare earth. Positions of different bonds have been confirmed from FT-IR analysis. FESEM micrographs confirm particle dimensions of the agglomerated spherical grains are in good agreement with Rietveld output. Optical band gap increases with decreasing dopant radii from 3.48 eV to 3.99 eV. Impedance plots show highest conductivity achieved was 1.151 × 10−3 Ω−1cm−1 at 433 K for Yttrium doped ZnCo 2 O 4 nano-composition with lowest activation energy of 0.34 eV. Temperature dependent frequency exponent explains small polaron hopping transaction. Impedance master curves obey time-temperature superposition principle. Motts VRH model applied to electrical properties to get an insight about electrical conduction mechanism of the prepared samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imaging large volume human brains at cellular resolution involve histological methods that cause structural changes. A reference point prior to sectioning is needed to quantify these changes and is achieved by serial block face imaging (BFI) methods that have been applied to small volume tissue (∼1 cm3). We have developed a BFI uniquely designed for large volume tissues (∼1300 cm3) with a very large field of view (20 × 20 cm) at a resolution of 70 µm/pixel under deep ultraviolet (UV-C) illumination which highlights key features. The UV-C imaging ensures high contrast imaging of the brain tissue and highlights salient features of the brain. The system is designed to provide uniform and stable illumination across the entire surface area of the tissue and to work at low temperatures, which are required during cryosectioning. Most importantly, it has been designed to maintain its optical focus over the large depth of tissue and over long periods of time, without readjustments. The BFI was installed within a cryomacrotome, and was used to image a large cryoblock of an adult human cerebellum and brainstem (∼6 cm depth resulting in 2995 serial images) with precise optical focus and no loss during continuous serial acquisition. The deep UV-C induced BFI highlights several large fibre tracts within the brain including the cerebellar peduncles, and the corticospinal tract providing important advantage over white light BFI. The 3D reconstructed serial BFI images can assist in the registration and alignment of the microscopic high-resolution histological tissue sections. • Large field of view block face imaging of human brain. • Deep ultraviolet induced fluorescence of the brain highlights important structures prior to cryosectioning. • Robust reference volume for high throughput high resolution histology pipeline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]