Investment security of Ukraine: dynamics and forecast Инвестиционная безопасность Украины: динамика и прогноз

The article considers dichotomy of the notion of security in its terminological application to investment processes. The author uses comparison and critical analysis of existing generally accepted approaches for offering own definition of the “investment security” notion and own approach to its assessment, based on structural consideration of investment security through components of the investment climate (investment potential, investment activity, investment risks) and on application of the cluster analysis and rating. The article considers dynamics of investment security of Ukraine. It graphically traces influence of the state policy in the country upon dynamics of investment security and gives a forecast of development of the phenomenon for the next year.<br>Рассматривается дихотомия понятия безопасности в ее терминологическом применении к инвестиционным процессам. На основе сравнения и критического анализа существующих общепринятых подходов предложено авторское определение понятия «инвестиционная безопасность» и авторский подход к её оценке, основанный на структурном рассмотрении инвестиционной безопасности через составляющие инвестиционного климата (инвестиционный потенциал, инвестиционная активность, инвестиционные риски) и на применении кластерного анализа и рейтингирования. Рассмотрена динамика инвестиционной безопасности Украины. Графически прослежено влияние правительственной политики в стране на динамику инвестиционной безопасности. Сделан прогноз развития явления на ближайший год

Interface-templated crystal growth in sodium dodecyl sulfate solutions with NaCl

Many ionic surfactants, such as sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) crystallize out of solution if the temperature falls below the crystallization boundary. The crystallization temperature is impacted by solution properties, and can be decreased with the addition of salt. We have studied SDS crystallization a t the liquid/vapor interfaces from solutions at high ionic strength (sodium chloride). We show that the surfactant crystals at the surface grow from adsorbed SDS molecules, as evidenced by the preferential orientation of the crystals identified using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. We find a unique timescale f or the crystal growth from the evolution of structure, surface tension, and visual inspection, which can be controlled through varying the SDS or NaCl concentrations

Drug Tolerant Anti-drug Antibody Assay for Infliximab Treatment in Clinical Practice Identifies Positive Cases Earlier

Publisher's version (útgefin grein)A subgroup of patients treated with infliximab lose response to the treatment and one reason for this is the development of anti-drug antibodies (ADA). If used optimally, measuring drug and ADA level could lead to a more personalized and efficient treatment regime, and enable identification of ADA-positive patients before the underlying disease flares or allergic reactions occur. With the use of a drug-tolerant ADA assay which can detect ADA irrespective of drug levels in the sample, we determined the impact of ADA on treatment failure to infliximab. The aims of this study were to estimate the real-life optimal serum infliximab (sIFX) level and set a clinical threshold value for a drug-tolerant ADA assay. Trough levels of sIFX were measured with ELISA. Free ADA was measured with two drug-sensitive methods (ELISA and a bioassay) and one drug-tolerant method (PandA). Two real-life cohorts treated with infliximab were included; a cross-sectional cohort including patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (n = 270) and a prospective cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients (n = 73) followed for 1 year. Normal range of sIFX was estimated from the prospective cohort and an arbitrary optimal drug level was set to be between 1 and 6 μg/mL. Using this range, optimal sIFX was found in only 60% (163/270) of the patients in the cross-sectional cohort. These patients had significantly better treatment response than those with a drug level under 1 μg/mL, who had an ADA frequency of 34% (19/56) using the drug-tolerant method. In the prospective cohort, the drug-tolerant assay could identify 34% (53/155 samples) as ADA positive in samples with sIFX level >0.2 μg/mL. ADA were seldom detected in patients with >1 μg/mL sIFX, with three interesting exceptions. A clinically relevant ADA threshold was determined to be >3 RECL as measured with the drug-tolerant assay. In a real-life setting, there was a substantial number of patients with suboptimal drug levels and a proportion of these had ADA. Both too low and too high drug levels correlated with worse disease, but for different reasons. Adding a drug-tolerant assay enabled detection of ADA earlier and regardless of drug level at time of sampling.We would like to thank all patients for their participation in this study. We would also like to thank Consuelo Gomez, Pascual Gonzalez, Anna G. Mattsson, Arne St?hl, and Yousra Rehouma for excellent technical assistance. Funding. The research leading to these results has received support from Swelife, Stockholm County Council (ALF project) #20140333 and the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no. 115303, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and EFPIA companies' in kind contribution. This work was also supported by the grants from Aina (Ann) Wallstr?ms och Mary-Ann Sj?bloms Foundation for Medical Research, Professor Nanna Svartz Foundation, the Gothenburg Medical Society (GLS-889421 to RP), the Swedish Rheumatism Association (R-862061 and R-663511 to RP), Adlerbertska research Foundation and the Regional agreement on medical training and clinical research between the Western G?taland county council and the University of Gothenburg (ALFGBG-926621).Peer Reviewe

Sequence comparison of prefrontal cortical brain transcriptome from a tame and an aggressive silver fox (Vulpes vulpes)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Two strains of the silver fox (<it>Vulpes vulpes</it>), with markedly different behavioral phenotypes, have been developed by long-term selection for behavior. Foxes from the tame strain exhibit friendly behavior towards humans, paralleling the sociability of canine puppies, whereas foxes from the aggressive strain are defensive and exhibit aggression to humans. To understand the genetic differences underlying these behavioral phenotypes fox-specific genomic resources are needed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>cDNA from mRNA from pre-frontal cortex of a tame and an aggressive fox was sequenced using the Roche 454 FLX Titanium platform (> 2.5 million reads & 0.9 Gbase of tame fox sequence; >3.3 million reads & 1.2 Gbase of aggressive fox sequence). Over 80% of the fox reads were assembled into contigs. Mapping fox reads against the fox transcriptome assembly and the dog genome identified over 30,000 high confidence fox-specific SNPs. Fox transcripts for approximately 14,000 genes were identified using SwissProt and the dog RefSeq databases. An at least 2-fold expression difference between the two samples (p < 0.05) was observed for 335 genes, fewer than 3% of the total number of genes identified in the fox transcriptome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Transcriptome sequencing significantly expanded genomic resources available for the fox, a species without a sequenced genome. In a very cost efficient manner this yielded a large number of fox-specific SNP markers for genetic studies and provided significant insights into the gene expression profile of the fox pre-frontal cortex; expression differences between the two fox samples; and a catalogue of potentially important gene-specific sequence variants. This result demonstrates the utility of this approach for developing genomic resources in species with limited genomic information.</p

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements