Internalized stigma among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) is prevalent in Bangladesh. A better understanding of the effects of stigma on PLHA is required to reduce this and to minimize its harmful effects. This study employed a quantitative approach by conducting a survey with an aim to know the prevalence of internalized stigma and to identify the factors associated with internalized stigma among a sample of 238 PLHA (male=152 and female=86) in Bangladesh. The findings suggest that there is a significant difference between groups with the low and the high-internalized HIV/AIDS stigma in terms of both age and gender. The prevalence of internalized stigma varied according to the poverty status of PLHA. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) found 10 of 15 items loaded highly on the three factors labelled self-acceptance, self-exclusion, and social withdrawal. About 68% of the PLHA felt ashamed, and 54% felt guilty because of their HIV status. More than half (87.5% male and 19.8% female) of the PLHA blamed themselves for their HIV status while many of them (38.2% male and 8.1% female) felt that they should be punished. The male PLHA more frequently chose to withdraw themselves from family and social gatherings compared to the female PLHA. They also experienced a higher level of internalized stigma compared to the female PLHA. The results suggest that the prevalence of internalized stigma is high in Bangladesh, and much needs to be done by different organizations working for and with the PLHA to reduce internalized stigma among this vulnerable group.

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Nanocrystalline Magnesium ferrite has been prepared by chemical co-precipitation technique. Structural characterization has been performed by X-ray diffraction. Formation of ferrites has also been studied by using FTIR. Frequency dependence of real and imaginary part of initial permeability has been presented for the samples sintered at different temperatures. Real part of initial permeability, increases with the increase of grain growth. The loss component represented by imaginary part of initial permeability decreases with frequency up to the measured frequency of this study of 13 MHz. Curie temperatures have been determined from the temperature dependence of permeability. Curie temperatures for the samples of this composition do not vary significantly with the variation of sintering temperatures. B-H loop measurements have been carried out by B-H loop tracer. Transport property measurements haven been carried out by electrometer and impedance analyzer.

0.3-2-µm-thick In x Ga 1%x N (x > 0.3) films are grown at 650°C on AlN/Si(111) substrates by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. When the thickness of an epitaxial InGaN film exceeds >1 µm, peaks of GaN-rich InGaN(0002) and metallic In(101) appear in the X-ray diffraction profiles. The InN composition >0.03 in the GaN-rich InGaN film is in agreement with the solubility of InN in GaN at 650°C. The metallic In contains a small amount (>0.03 at. %) of Ga. These results clearly show that the epitaxial InGaN film is phase-separated into GaN-rich and InN-rich InGaN. The latter is changed into metallic In-Ga owing to its thermal instability at 650°C.

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Opto-electronic properties of boron phosphide–germanium carbide (BP/GeC), a new van der Walls hetero-bilayer (HBL) with all possible stacking patterns, are studied under the density functional theory originated first-principles. The dynamical and chemical stabilities of the hetero-bilayer are confirmed by phonon spectra and binding energy. Among the dynamically stable HBLs, HBL 1 has the lowest binding energy with the smallest interlayer spacing of about 3.442 Å. Both values and natures (indirect or direct) of the electronic band structure are highly responsive to the stacking patterns. We have found that HBL 1 is indirect, while HBL 2 and HBL 3 become a direct bandgap at the K high symmetry point. All HBLs show type-II band alignment. Both compressive and tensile biaxial strains on the electronic properties of HBLs have been considered. All the HBLs become a direct bandgap for the compressive strain at 4% and 6%. We have also presented the optical property calculations on the HBLs, namely, the complex dielectric function and absorption properties, showing unique optical properties with significant absorption (5 × 105 cm−1 in HBL 2) in the whole solar spectra compared with their comprising monolayers. Moreover, the strain-dependent optical absorption coefficients with varying photon wavelengths are calculated and the maximum value is attained to be about 6.5 × 105 cm−1 in HBL 2 at 4% compressive strain. Consequently, the optoelectronic properties we have explored in our proposed new hetero-bilayer systems can guide the experimental realization of the hetero-bilayers and effective use in the future photovoltaic applications.