727 research outputs found
Borrowed alleles and convergence in serpentine adaptation
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank members of the L.Y. and K.B. laboratories for helpful discussions. This work was supported through the European Research Council Grant StG CA629F04E (to L.Y.); a Harvard University Milton Fund Award (to K.B.); Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award 1 F32 GM096699 from the NIH (to L.Y.); National Science Foundation Grant IOS-1146465 (to K.B.); NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences Grant 2R01GM078536 (to D.E.S.); and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Grant BB/L000113/1 (to D.E.S.)Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Understanding the UK hospital supply chain in an era of patient choice
Author Posting © Westburn Publishers Ltd, 2011.  This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy-edit version of an article which has been published in its definitive form in the Journal of Marketing Management, and has been posted by permission of Westburn Publishers Ltd for personal use, not for redistribution. The article was published in Journal of Marketing Management, 27(3-4), 401 - 423, doi:10.1080/0267257X.2011.547084 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2011.547084The purpose of this paper is to investigate the UK hospital supply chain in light of recent government policy reform where patients will have, inter alia, greater choice of hospital for elective surgery. Subsequently, the hospital system should become far more competitive with supply chains having to react to these changes as patient demand becomes less predictable. Using a qualitative case study methodology, hospital managers are interviewed on a range of issues. Views on the development of the hospital supply chain in different phases are derived, and are used to develop a map of the current hospital chain. The findings show hospital managers anticipating some significant changes to the hospital supply chain and its workings as Patient Choice expands. The research also maps the various aspects of the hospital supply chain as it moves through different operational phases and highlights underlying challenges and complexities. The hospital supply chain, as discussed and mapped in this research, is original work given there are no examples in the literature that provide holistic representations of hospital activity. At the end, specific recommendations are provided that will be of interest to service to managers, researchers, and policymakers
Star Formation in Dwarf Galaxies of the Nearby Centaurus A Group
We present Halpha narrow-band imaging of 17 dwarf irregular galaxies (dIs) in
the nearby Centaurus A Group. Although all large galaxies of the group have a
current or recent enhanced star formation episode, the dIs have normal star
formation rates and do not contain a larger fraction of dwarf starbursts than
other nearby groups. Relative distances between dIs and larger galaxies of the
group can be computed in 3D since most of them have now fairly accurately known
distances. We find that the dI star formation rates do not depend on local
environment, and in particular they do not show any correlation with the
distance of the dI to the nearest large galaxy of the group. There is a clear
morphology-density relation in the Centaurus A Group, similarly to the Sculptor
and Local Groups, in the sense that dEs/dSphs tend to be at small distances
from the more massive galaxies of the group, while dIs are on average at larger
distances. We find four transition dwarfs in the Group, dwarfs that show
characteristics of both dE/dSphs and dIs, and which contain cold gas but no
current star formation. Interestingly the transition dwarfs have an average
distance to the more massive galaxies which is intermediate between those of
the dEs/dSphs and dIs, and which is quite large: 0.54 +- 0.31 Mpc. This large
distance poses some difficulty for the most popular scenarios proposed for
transforming a dI into a dE/dSph (ram-pressure with tidal stripping or galaxy
harassment). If the observed transition dwarfs are indeed missing links between
dIs and dE/dSphs, their relative isolation makes it less likely to have been
produced by these mechanisms. We propose that an inhomogeneous IGM containing
higher density clumps would be able to ram-pressure stripped the dIs at such
large distances.Comment: 57 pages, 10 fi5gure
Historic genetic structuring and paraphyly within the Great-tailed Grackle
The Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) and Boat-tailed Grackle (Q. major) are sister species that have expanded their ranges during historical times. This expansion has created an area of sympatry between these species in Texas and Louisiana, and between distinctive Great-tailed Grackle subspecies in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. We investigated the evolutionary histories of both species using mitochondrial DNA sequence data and modern phylogenetic methods. Our results reveal genetic structure within Great-tailed, but not Boat-tailed Grackles. Great-tailed Grackles are separated into two clades, but range expansion in the north has led to secondary contact between them. Boat-tailed Grackles are monophyletic and are embedded within the Great-tailed Grackle assemblage, rendering the latter paraphyletic. These results reveal a complex phylogeographic pattern caused by recent range expansion and secondary contact of once allopatric units
Restorative and orthodontic interdisciplinary management of an adult patient using modified Hawley appliance: a case report
This report presents a case of an adult female patient who had undergone orthodontic treatment to correct her malocclusion was referred to the Restorative Dentistry Clinic at the time when her brackets were due for debonding. The patient had presented with spacing of the anterior segments of both upper and lower arches with the upper canines in crossbite. At the end of the orthodontic correction of the occlusion the patient was referred to the restorative dentist for replacement of missing molars in the upper and lower arches. Fixed bridge prosthesis, implant-retained crowns or removable dentures were the treatment options for tooth replacement. Due to financial challenges the first two options were unavailable to the patient. The need to wear retainers made it impractical for the patient to be provided the third option of removable dentures. A modified design of Hawley retainers was then made for the patient that had pink acrylic bases and acrylic stock teeth to replace missing teeth. Thus, the functions of retainer and removable denture were combined in one appliance. The modified Hawley appliance designed for the patient in this study is a typical example of interdisciplinary management by the restorative dentist and the orthodontist to give appropriate care to the adult orthodontic patient
The relative orientation of the TM3 and TM4 domains varies between α1 and α3 glycine receptors
Glycine receptors (GlyRs) are anion-conducting members of the pentameric ligand-gated ion channel family. We previously showed that the dramatic difference in glycine efficacies of α1 and α3 GlyRs is largely attributable to their nonconserved TM4 domains. Because mutation of individual nonconserved TM4 residues had little effect, we concluded that the efficacy difference was a distributed effect of all nonconserved TM4 residues. We therefore hypothesized that the TM4 domains of α1 and α3 GlyRs differ in structure, membrane orientation, and/or molecular dynamic properties. Here we employed voltage-clamp fluorometry to test whether their TM4 domains interact differently with their respective TM3 domains. We found a rhodamine fluorophore covalently attached to a homologous TM4 residue in each receptor interacts differentially with a conserved TM3 residue. We conclude that the α1 and α3 GlyR TM4 domains are orientated differently relative to their TM3 domains. This may underlie their differential ability to influence glycine efficacy
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