Osteoblast and osteoclast activity is disrupted in post-menopausal osteoporosis. Thus, to fully address this imbalance, therapies should reduce bone resorption and promote bone formation. Dietary factors such as phyto-oestrogens and Zn have beneficial effects on osteoblast and osteoclast activity. However, the effect of combinations of these factors has not been widely studied. We therefore examined the effect of coumestrol, daidzein and genistein in the presence or absence of zinc sulphate (Zn) on osteoclast and osteoblast activity. Osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption were significantly reduced by coumestrol (10- 7 m), daidzein (10- 5 m) and genistein (10- 7 m); and this direct anti-osteoclastic action was unaffected by Zn (10-

The increasing drinking water demand in many countries leads to an increase in the use of desalination plants, which are considered a great solution for water treatment processes. Reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) systems are the most popular membrane processes used to desalinate water at high salinity. Both systems work by separating the ionic contaminates and disposing of them as a brine solution, but ED uses electrical current as a driving force while RO uses osmotic pressure. A direct comparison of reverse osmosis and electro-dialysis systems is needed to highlight process development similarities and variances. This work aims to provide an overview of previous studies on reverse osmosis and electro-dial

BaTiO3 thin films have been deposited on Si (111) and glass substrates by using pulsed laser deposition technique. The films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscope and optical transmission spectra. The films growth on Si after annealing at 873K showed a polycrystalline nature, and exhibited tetragonal structure, while on glass substrate no growth was noticed at that temperature. UV-VIS transmittance measurements showed that the films are highly transparent in the visible wavelength region and near-infrared region for sample annealing on glass substrate. The optical gap of the film were calculated from the curve of absorption coefficient (αhν) 2 vs. hν and was found tobe 3.6 eV at substrate temperature 5

This paper reports the effect of Mg doping on structural and optical properties of ZnO prepared by pulse laser deposition (PLD). The films deposited on glass substrate using Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) as the light source. The structure and optical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmittance measurements. The films grown have a polycrystalline wurtzite structure and high transmission in the UV-Vis (300-900) nm. The optical energy gap of ZnO:Mg thin films could be controlled between (3.2eV and 3.9eV). The refractive index of ZnO:Mg thin films decreases with Mg doping. The extinction coefficient and the complex dielectric constant were also investigate.

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanocrystalline thin films have been prepared by chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique on commercial glass substrates at 70ºC temperature. Cadmium chloride (CdCl₂) as a source of cadmium (Cd), thiourea (CS(NH₂)₂) as a source of sulfur and ammonia solution (NH₄OH) were added to maintain the pH value of the solution at 10. The characterization of thin films was carried out through the structural and optical properties by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-VIS spectroscopy. A UV-VIS optical spectroscopy study was carried out to determine the band gap of the nanocrystalline CdS thin film and it showed a blue shift with respect to the bulk value (from 3.9 - 2.4eV). In present w