Construction of a complete bovine growth hormone cDNA

The aim of the project was to construct a complete BGH cDNA under control of a plant promoter. This could then be transformed into plants to study its expression. The N and C-terminus of bGH cDNA were excised from two plasmids constructed by ICI (pBGH 17.2, pBGH 229 respectively), and fused together in PUC8 to obtain a complete cDNA. The complete bGH coding sequence can be excised from pUC8 by EcoRI + HindIII digestion and cloned into Bin19, together with a suitable promoter. In this work, a "complete" bGH cDNA clone was constructed but unfortunately, a potential small deletion at the N-terminus of the CDNA bGH clone was observed. This could subsequently affect correct expression of the gene. It is not certain wether this deletion occured in the course of this work or through previous manipulation during the construction of pBGH 17.2 at ICI. This question is currently being resolved by ICI

Learning Factory: The Path to Industry 4.0

Abstract Nowadays, there are plenty of studies that seek to determine which are the skills that should be met by an engineer. Communication and teamwork are some of the most recurrent ones associated with a knowledge of the engineering sciences. However, their application is not straight forward, due to the lack of educational approaches that contributes to develop experience-based knowledge. Learning Factories (LF) have shown to be effective for developing theoretical and practical knowledge in a real production environment. This article describes the transformation process of a training-addressed manufacturing workshop, in order to structure a Learning Factory for the production engineering program at EAFIT University. The proposed transformations were based on the definition of three pillars (didactic, integrative and engineering) for the development of an LF. We argue that a proper transformation process may contribute to ease the path towards new manufacturing trends such as industry 4.0 into an academic context that strengths the engineering training process

Exchange Effects in the Invar Hardening: Fe0.65Ni0.35Fe_{0.65}Ni_{0.35} as a test case

An increase of the critical resolved shear stress of Invar alloys (Invar hardening) with a lowering temperature is explained. The effect is caused by a growth of the exchange interaction between dangling $d$-electron states of dislocation cores and paramagnetic obstacles (e.g., Ni atoms in FeNi alloys) which occurs below the Curie temperature. The spins of the two electrons align along the magnetization due to the exchange interaction with the surrounding atoms of the ferromagnetic. The exchange interaction between the dislocations and obstacles is enhanced in Invars due to a strong growth of the magnetic moments of atoms under the action of elastic strains near the dislocation cores. Parameters characterizing the exchange interaction are determined for the case of the Fe$_{0.65}$Ni$_{0.35}$ Invar. The influence of the internal magnetic field on the dislocation detachment from the obstacles is taken into account. The obtained temperature dependence of the critical resolved shear stress in the Fe$_{0.65}$Ni$_{0.35}$ Invar agrees well with the available experimental data. Experiments facilitating a further check of the theoretical model are suggested.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Remove Debris Mission, From Concept to Orbit

The RemoveDebris mission will be the first European Active Debris Removal (ADR) missions to give an in orbit demonstration of the viability of a series of cost effective technologies that can be used to observe, capture and destroy space debris. RemoveDebris is a low cost mission performing key active debris removal (ADR) technology demonstrations including the use of a net, a harpoon, vision-based navigation (VBN) and a dragsail in a realistic space operational environment. For the purposes of the mission two CubeSats will be ejected and used as targets for experiments instead of real space debris, which is an important step towards a fully operational ADR mission. The craft has launched to the ISS on the 2nd of April 2018, on board a Dragon capsule (SpaceX CRS-14 ISS re-supply mission). From here the satellite is to be deployed via the NanoRacks Kaber system into an orbit of around 400 km. Aglietti 2 32nd Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites This paper examines the design of the mission from initial concepts through to manufacture, AIT, testing and up to launch, and apart from a general consideration of the mission, will focus on the elements of design & testing that differ from a conventional mission

The health and social care costs of a selection of health conditions and multi-morbidities

Background Multimorbidity (MM) is the presence of 2 or more long-term health conditions in a single individual. It impacts an individual’s quality of life, mental health and wellbeing, daily function, and often results in greater healthcare utilisation the more co-existing conditions they have (1-4). MM is a big challenge facing the NHS, especially given England’s ageing population, with an estimated two-thirds of individuals aged 65 and over having 2 or more long-term conditions (5-6). Yet, little is known about the resource use of these patients despite being the group with the largest impact on the NHS and with the worst health outcomes (7). Existing evidence focuses on specific health conditions and their interactions with other conditions using different methodologies, making comparisons across different conditions difficult. This work has empirically assessed the impact of multi-morbidity on NHS and social care costs. With the aim of answering the question: is the impact of developing a condition on health and social care costs greater for someone with no prior conditions, or for someone with an existing condition. If patients have multiple conditions, there may be some economies of scale involved with treatment, for example they may be able to discuss multiple queries during a single GP appointment, or in some cases the treatment provided will address multiple conditions. However, treating patients with multi-morbidities could theoretically also be more expensive than treating 2 conditions separately, as patients may be more likely to experience complications. Methodology This work considered the individual cost of 11 health conditions with high prevalence in the English population and their most common interactions. These were: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes (types 1 and 2), lung cancer, breast cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, hypertension, dementia, liver disease, depression and colorectal cancer. This project had 2 components: a literature review and an empirical estimation of the costs associated with MM. The literature review was used to inform and establish the methodology used in the empirical estimation. The empirical estimation used data on primary healthcare, secondary healthcare, and prescriptions usage from 2015 to estimate annual aggregated healthcare costs per patient. We assessed the cost impact of MM in a systematic way by applying advanced econometric methods to account for the specificities of the data distribution. Our methodology allowed us to attribute healthcare costs to specific conditions. For social care costs, we calculated the estimated costs using 2 different methodologies. For the first (preferred) methodology, we used Somerset Symphony data to calculate the 2014/15 social care costs of patients in South Somerset. This is a dataset that combines primary healthcare, secondary healthcare, and social care data. We thus applied the same methodology that was used to calculate primary and secondary healthcare costs. For the second methodology, we used the estimated health-related quality of life for patients with different conditions and combinations of conditions. We then used a regression (‘line of best fit’) to estimate their probability of requiring social care. Finally, we used unit cost estimates to arrive at estimated values for the costs of social care for individuals with different diseases. What this publication adds Average ‘cost per case’ estimates for individuals with single conditions or multimorbidities, each calculated based on the average age of patients with the condition or multi-morbidity of interest. These average ‘costs per case’ figures are always higher for individuals with multimorbidities than individuals with a single condition, as individuals with multi-morbidities tend to be older and additional conditions incur additional costs. We found that the cost of treating an individual with a multimorbidity is not statistically different than the additive cost of treating 2 individuals, each with one of the conditions, controlling for age and costs unrelated to the condition. As an illustrative example, if it costs £200 to treat a patient with depression and £200 to treat a patient with CHD, we did not find any evidence that it would cost more than £400 to treat a single patient with both depression and CHD (controlling for age and unrelated disease costs). In numerous cases, when considering healthcare costs, we have found that multimorbidity is associated with a reduction of the total individual cost compared to the sum of individual costs of patients. For example, a male patient with diabetes and CHD will cost between 77% and 78% (depending on the definition of sample prevalence) of the cost of treating 2 patients, one with diabetes and one with CHD, controlling for age and unrelated costs. Applying the same methodology for social care costs as for healthcare costs, we did not find any evidence that multi-morbidity is associated with either an increase or a reduction in total individual cost compared to the sum of individual costs of patient, for social care costs. This may be due to the relatively small sample size of the South Somerset data we used to estimate social care costs. Applying the alternative methodology for social care costs, which estimated social care need based on age and quality of life, we estimated higher social care costs than we found by analysing the South Somerset data. This implies that social care need may be greater than local authority social costs in South Somerset. This may be due to the relative affluence of South Somerset, which would limit the proportion of patients eligible for local authority-funded social care

Determinación de Boro y Zinc total en algunos Suelos de la Zona Bananera, pisos altitudinales de la Sierra Nevada y Suelos de la Universidad Tecnológica del Magdalena.

El presente trabajo se llevó a cabo en los pisos altitudinales de la Sierra Nevada, algunos suelos de la Zona Bananera y suelos de la Universidad del Departamento del Magdalena (Colombia) para determinar los contenidos de Boro y Zinc total y establecer algunas relaciones entre estos contenidos y otras características Como (pH, % M.0. y arcilla). Se utilizaron los resultados de pH, materia orgánica y % arcilla para los suelos de la Sierra Nevada determinados por Angulo y Cayon (2) quienes trabajaron en los mismos suelos. Para la Zona Bananera se tomaron de Raudales y Cuellar (33). Para la Granja de la Universidad del Magdalena de Acosta, Cisneros y Reyes (1). En seis perfiles de suelos de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, 12 series de la Zona Bananera y 5 series de la Universidad del Magdalena (Colombia). Siguiendo el método de la digestión completa para elementos menores de Ulrich citado por Santana (10). La determinación cuantitativa del Boro se efectuó utilizando un Fotocolorímetro con longitud de onda 580 mu. Para el Zinc se efectuó en un espectrofotómetro de absorción atómica Perkin-Elmer modelo 303 Antes de efectuar la medición cuantitativa de Zinc se aplicó Cloruro de Stroncio para eliminar la interferencia de otros elementos como K, Ca, Mg, Fe, etc. Además, se calcularon los coeficientes de correlación (r) comparando el Boro y el Zinc total en suelos con el contenido de M.O, pH y lo de arcilla. Se encontró un contenido de Boro total de 0,01 a 4,20 ppm con un promedio de 1.83 ppm para los suelos estudiados. Para el Zinc total del suelo se encontró un valor de 9 a 960 ppm, con un promedio de 293 ppm. En los análisis estadísticos presentaron significación Boro total de suelo con pH en la Zona Bananera y Zinc total del suelo con % de arcilla en la zona Bananera

Cost-effectiveness of bariatric surgery and non-surgical weight management programmes for adults with severe obesity : a decision analysis model

Acknowledgements We thank the REBALANCE Advisory Group for all their advice and support during this project: Margaret Watson, Lorna Van Lierop, Richard Clarke, Jennifer Logue, Laura Stewart, Richard Welbourn, Jamie Blackshaw, Su Sethi. +Current address HealthLumen, London. The REBALANCE team Elisabet Jacobsen1, Dwayne Boyers1, David Cooper3, Lise Retat2, Paul Aveyard4, Fiona Stewart3, Graeme MacLennan3, Laura Webber2, Emily Corbould2, Benshuai Xu2, Abbygail Jaccard2, Bonnie Boyle3, Eilidh Duncan3, Michal Shimonovich3, Cynthia Fraser3, Lara Kemp3, Clare Robertson3, Zoë Skea3, Marijn de Bruin6, Alison Avenell3 Funding The project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme (Project number: 15/09/04). See the HTA Programme website for further project information. The Health Economics and Health Services Research Units at the University of Aberdeen are core funded by the Chief Scientists Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate. Correction | Open Access | Published: 26 August 2021 Correction: Cost-effectiveness of bariatric surgery and non-surgical weight management programmes for adults with severe obesity: a decision analysis model. D. Boyers, L. Retat, E. Jacobsen, A. Avenell, P. Aveyard, E. Corbould, A. Jaccard, D. Cooper, C. Robertson, M. Aceves-Martins, B. Xu, Z. Skea, M. de Bruin & and the REBALANCE team. International Journal of Obesity (2021) The Original Article was published on 04 June 2021 Correction to: International Journal of Obesity https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00849-8Peer reviewedPublisher PD