The Exomars Climate Sounder (EMCS) Investigation

The ExoMars Climate Sounder (EMCS) investigation is developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Principal Investigator J. T. Schofield) in collaboration with an international scientific team from France, the United Kingdom and the USA. EMCS plans to map daily, global, pole-to-pole profiles of temperature, dust, water and CO2 ices, and water vapor from the proposed 2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (EMTGO). These profiles are to be assimilated into Mars General Circulation Models (MGCMs) to generate global, interpolated fields of measured and derived parameters such as wind

A Multi-Server Retrial Queueing Inventory System With Asynchronous Multiple Vacations

This article deals with asynchronous server vacation and customer retrial facility in a multi-server queueing-inventory system. The Poisson process governs the arrival of a customer. The system is comprised of c identical servers, a finite-size waiting area, and a storage area containing S items. The service time is distributed exponentially. If each server finds that there are an insufficient number of customers and items in the system after the busy period, they start a vacation. Once the servers vacation is over and it recognizes there is no chance of getting busy, it goes into an idle state if the number of customers or items is not sufficient, otherwise, it will take another vacation. Furthermore, each server's vacation period occurs independently of the other servers. The system accepts a (s, Q) control policy for inventory replenishment. For the steady state analysis, the Marcel F Neuts and B Madhu Rao matrix geometric approximation approach is used owing to the structure of an infinitesimal generator matrix. The necessary stability condition and R matrix are to be computed and presented. After calculating the sufficient system performance measures, an expected total cost of the system is to be constructed and numerically incorporated with the parameters. Additionally, numerical analyses will be conducted to examine the waiting time of customers in the queue and in orbit, as well as the expected rate of customer loss.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, 5 table

SOLID DISPERSION TECHNIQUE TO ENHANCE THE SOLUBILITY AND DISSOLUTION OF FEBUXOSTAT AN BCS CLASS II DRUG

Objective: The present study was aimed to enhance the solubility of poorly water-soluble drug (BCS Class II) Febuxostat using water-soluble polymers.Methods: Pre-formulation studies like drug excipient compatibility studies by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopyDifferential scanning calorimetry and determination of saturation solubility of drug individually in various media like distilled water and pH 7.4 phosphate buffer. Solid dispersions of Febuxostat was prepared using Polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) (fusion method) and Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP K30) (solvent evaporation method) in various ratios like 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 separately. The formulated solid dispersions were evaluated for percentage yield, drug content and in vitro dissolution studies.Results: From the results of pre-formulation studies it was revealed that there was no interaction between drug and excipients and the pure drug was poorly soluble in water. The percentage yield of all formulations was in the range of 54-78 %, and drug content was in the range of 43-78 mg. The solid dispersion containing polyvinylpyrrolidone K 30 in 1:4 ratio showed the highest amount of drug release at the end of 30 min than other formulations.Conclusion: Finally it was concluded that solid dispersion prepared with PVP K-30 in 1:4 ratio by solvent evaporation method was more soluble than by fusion method

Prevalence of Cataract Surgery and Visual Outcomes in Indian Immigrants in Singapore: The Singapore Indian Eye Study

10.1371/journal.pone.0075584PLoS ONE810-POLN

Specific protease activity indicates the degree of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in chronic infected wounds

Chronic non-healing wounds are a major health problem with resident bacteria strongly implicated in their impaired healing. A rapid-screen to provide detailed knowledge of wound bacterial populations would therefore be of value and help prevent unnecessary and indiscriminate use of antibiotics—a process associated with promoting antibiotic resistance. We analysed chronic wound fluid samples, which had been assessed for microbial content, using 20 different fluorescent labelled peptide substrates to determine whether protease activity correlated with the bacterial load. Eight of the peptide substrates showed significant release of fluorescence after reaction with some of the wound samples. Comparison of wound fluid protease activities with the microbiological data indicated that there was no correlation between bacterial counts and enzyme activity for most of the substrates tested. However, two of the peptide substrates produced a signal corresponding with the microbial data revealing a strong positive correlation with Pseudomonas aeruginosa numbers. This demonstrated that short fluorescent labelled peptides can be used to detect protease activity in chronic wound fluid samples. The finding that two peptides were specific indicators for the presence of P. aeruginosa may be the basis for a diagnostic test to determine wound colonisation by this organism

Acquisition experience over performance: Directorship prestige following M&As

Corporate governance research documents that outside directors are not penalised in the director labour market for engaging in value-destroying acquisitions (M&A) as they obtain additional directorships regardless of M&A performance. This result is puzzling as it suggests that the director labour market does not provide sufficient ex post settling-up incentives for outside directors to mitigate agency concerns in the M&A context. We further investigate this issue by examining the prestige of directorships received by independent directors after engaging in an M&A. Using US data, we find that acquiring firm directors are awarded more prestigious directorships, regardless of whether the acquisition resulted in value destruction or value creation. Overall, our findings reinforce the notion that, in the director labour market, acquisition experience holds more value than acquisition ability

Current and Future Prospects of Nitro-compounds as Drugs for Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis

Interest in nitroheterocyclic drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases has undergone a resurgence in recent years. Here we review the current status of monocyclic and bicyclic nitroheterocyclic compounds as existing or potential new treatments for visceral leishmaniasis, Chagas' disease and human African trypanosomiasis. Both monocyclic (nifurtimox, benznidazole and fexinidazole) and bicyclic (pretomanid (PA-824) and delamanid (OPC-67683)) nitro-compounds are prodrugs, requiring enzymatic activation to exert their parasite toxicity. Current understanding of the nitroreductases involved in activation and possible mechanisms by which parasites develop resistance is discussed along with a description of the pharmacokinetic / pharmacodynamic behaviour and chemical structure-activity relationships of drugs and experimental compounds.</p