Dendrimers as anti-inflammatory agents

Dendrimers constitute an intriguing class of macromolecules which find applications in a variety of areas including biology. These hyperbranched macromolecules with tailored backbone and surface groups have been extensively investigated as nanocarriers for gene and drug delivery, by molecular encapsulation or covalent conjugation. Dendrimers have provided an excellent platform to develop multivalent and multifunctional nanoconjugates incorporating a variety of functional groups including drugs which are known to be anti-inflammatory agents. Recently, dendrimers have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory properties themselves. This unexpected and intriguing discovery has provided an additional impetus in designing novel active pharmaceutical agents. In this review, we highlight some of the recent developments in the field of dendrimers as nanoscale anti-inflammatory agents

The Ability to Pay for Long-Term Care in the Netherlands: A Life-cycle Perspective

This paper uses synthetic life-cycle paths at the individual level to analyze the distribution of long-term care expenditures in the Netherlands. Using a comprehensive set of administrative data 20,000 synthetic life-cycle paths of household income and long-term care costs are constructed using the nearest neighbor resampling method. We show that the distribution of these costs is less skewed when measured over the life-cycle than on a cross-sectional basis. This may provide an argument for self-insurance by smoothing these costs over the life-cycle. Yet costs are concentrated at older ages, which limits the scope for self-insurance. Furthermore, the paper investigates the relation between long-term care expenditures, household composition, and income over the life-cycle. The expenditures on a lifetime basis from the age of 65 are higher for low income households, and (single) women

Using eye tracking to evaluate alternative search results interfaces. In: proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics society, September 26-30 2005

Surveys have shown that 75 % of users get frustrated with search engines and only 21 % find relevant information. Inability to find relevant results can be partially attributed to cluttered results pages and failure in constructing Boolean queries. This research used sixteen subjects to evaluate two types of search results interfaces using four tasks while measuring performance and studying their ocular behavior using a Tobii 1750 eye-tracker. The two interfaces used were list interface, commonly seen on many search engines and a tabular interface presenting information in discrete categories or elements of the result’s abstract. Quantitative comparisons of two interfaces are made on performance metrics such as time and errors, process metrics such as fixation durations, number of fixations, and eye movement transitions from one element or category of the abstract. Subjective data was collected through post-task and post-test questionnaires. The results did not show any significant difference in performance between the two interfaces, however, eye movements analysis provide some insights into importance of search result’s abstract elements such as title, summary, and URL of the interface while searching