Has the time come for preprints in biology?

Preprints, non-peer-reviewed drafts of manuscripts available on the Internet, have been used in conjunction with peer review and publication in journals in the physical sciences for almost 25 years. Recently, more scientists have been discussing whether preprints can play a similar role in biological and biomedical research. Here, I discuss my excitement and concerns about the role that preprints can play in disseminating research findings in the life sciences

Internal conversion coefficients for M4 transition for tellurium

Internal conversion coefficients for M4 transition in telluriu

RNA Vaccine: novel approach for cancer treatment

Cancer is still an unsolved puzzle and a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the world. Today, about one in every thousand people is dying due to cancer. No effective agent has yet been found which can cure cancer in its metastatic stage. However, attempts in the shape of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and vaccines are made worldwide to find a remedy through a proper regimen. In continuation, tumor specific mRNA has been introduced as part of vaccines in recent days. It is mostly used in transfection with Dendritic Cells (DCs) for better effectiveness and safety. The DCs are selected for transfection because they are highly potent Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs) with the ability to take up & process tumor antigen in peripheral blood & tissues and can also migrate to the draining lymph nodes to present antigen to naïve T lymphocytes & induce the immune response.
Although initially the RNA vaccination was administered alone, due to its unstable and easily degradable nature, it was found to be quite less effective, which led it to be used in combination with some stability enhancers’ viz. RNA packaging in liposomes. They not only increased its stability, but even worked as active immune stimulators as well. RNA could remain stable. Although it showed significant promise in cancer treatment, immune suppression was noticed after vaccination. To enhance the effectiveness it is now being used in combination with few drugs viz. SUNITINIB which can reduce the suppressive effect of suppressor cells. It might be a good choice for combined therapy with RNA vaccine.
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Life after 100? A Leader’s Guide to Resilient Family Businesses

How many businesses survive more than a 100years? Of the businessesthat do survive,how many remain financially robust? If the lifespan of a company on the Standard and Poor’s (S&P)500 list is an indication of longevity,then evidence shows that ithas shrunk from 33 years in 1964 to 24 years by 2016.By 2027, itis forecast to shrink to just 12 years.1Put differently, at the current survival rate, more than 75%of thecompanies currently quoted on the S&P 500 woulddisappearin the next decade.Family-ownedbusinesses tend to mirror these survival patterns. Alargeproportion of family-ownedbusinesses struggle to survive beyond the second orthird generation.According to the Family Business Institute, only 30% of these organizations last into a second generation. Only 12% remain viable into a third anda miniscule3% continueinto the fourth generation or beyond.What have these 3% businesses and the familybusiness owners done differently that is likely to have contributed to their resilience? What can be learnt about the group that have livedbeyond 100

Manned flying systems /mfs/ cryogenic engine

Comparison of performance of cryogenic propulsion system with earth storable propulsion system for manned flying syste

Aspects of electron transport in zigzag graphene nanoribbons

We investigate the aspects of the electron transport in the zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) using the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism. The latter is an esoteric tool in mesoscopic physics and using this tool the analysis is performed by considering the potential well within the system. Within this potential well, the dependence of the transmission coefficient, local density of states (LDOS) and the electron transport properties on the number of atoms per unit cell is discussed. We observe that the electron and thermal conductance increases with the increase of the number of atoms. In addition to these, the figure of merit which depends on these transport properties has also been studied and we find that the electrons' contribution to enhance the figure of merit is important above the crossover temperature.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure