1,134 research outputs found
Therapeutic Delivery Technology and its Economic Impact
Therapeutic delivery technology is a current area of high interest in both university and industrial settings. These technologies are being developed in order to deliver therapeutic agents, such as genes, proteins, and drugs, to patients more efficiently. Nanoscale delivery vehicles have proven to be useful for these applications; these vehicles may either be naturally produced or chemically synthesized. The physical properties of these nanomaterials must be characterized correctly using instrumentation that evaluates their size, morphology, and potential for agglomeration. These technologies represent a high-growth economic area that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation. Because of this innovative spirit, research and economic interest will continue to be focused on therapeutic delivery technologies
Privatization and Prisons
Privatization means increased governmental reliance on the private sector, rather than on government agencies, to satisfy the needs of society. Since the word was first used in 1969,\u27 privatization has gained broad recognition and widespread acceptance, and,in recent years, a major trend toward privatization has developed in the United States and abroad. The reasons for this trend are both pragmatic and ideological. Pragmatists advocate privatization because it offers a more efficient way to provide goods and services. Ideological opponents of big government support privatization be-cause it reduces the role of government. Privatization is therefore an important movement in East and West, in developing and developed countries, in communist and capitalist nations. It has taken root even in China and the Soviet Union.Privatization in the United States has taken a different form than it has in other countries. Outside the United States, in both developing and developed countries, the principal form of privatization is denationalization-the divestment of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In the United States, which has relatively few SOEs, state and local governments are implementing privatization primarily through contracting and, to a lesser degree, vouchers,franchises, free-market arrangements, and voluntary efforts. Contracting, however, is the primary method governments use to privatize prisons
Transforming carbon nanotubes by silylation: An ab initio study
We use ab initio density functional calculations to study the chemical
functionalization of single-wall carbon nanotubes and graphene monolayers by
silyl (SiH3) radicals and hydrogen. We find that silyl radicals form strong
covalent bonds with graphene and nanotube walls, causing local structural
relaxations that enhance the sp3 character of these graphitic nanostructures.
Silylation transforms all carbon nanotubes into semiconductors, independent of
their chirality. Calculated vibrational spectra suggest that specific frequency
shifts can be used as a signature of successful silylation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Echocardiographic evaluation of left ventricular morphology and function in young male football players and runners
Background: Long-term physical exercise leads to left ventricular morphological adaptations,
which vary with the kind of sport and the intensity and extent of the training. Although
the echocardiographic changes related to exercise in athletes participating in various sports
have been well described, changes associated with football players have been less well documented.
The aim of this study was to investigate the morphological adaptations of the heart to
athletic training and to compare by means of echocardiography the left ventricular dimensions,
masses and systolic functions of runners and football players.
Methods: A total of 40 male football players, 18 male long and middle-distance runners and
25 sedentary males were enrolled to the study and M-mode and two-dimensional
echocardiograms with Doppler analysis were performed in all subjects.
Results: The runners and football players were shown to have significantly greater left ventricular
end-diastolic internal dimensions, left ventricular mass (corrected for body mass,
height and body surface area), end-diastolic interventricular septum thicknesses and ejection
fraction values than a control group. The present results show no significant difference between
the left ventricular adaptations of runners and football players except when the left
ventricular mass is indexed with body mass, the runners being thinner.
Conclusions: The present results show that the echocardiographic findings of left ventricular
adaptations in runners and football players are quite similar and lead to physiological enlargement
of the heart. (Cardiol J 2007; 14: 37–43
Lymphokine-activated killer cell susceptibility and adhesion molecule expression of multidrug resistant breast carcinoma
Reports showing susceptibility of multidrug resistant (MDR) cancer cells to immune effectors, together with P-glycoprotein (P-gp) expression in immune effector subsets, including immature natural killer (NK) cells, and some activated T cells, suggest P-gp or some changes associated with it, have implications in immune-mediated mechanisms. A series of experiments were done to determine the nature of alterations associated with susceptibility to immune effector cells of MDR tumor cells. A cell line isolated from the malignant pleural effusion of a breast cancer patient was transfected with human and murine MDR1 genes, and four variants with different levels of MDR were obtained. Lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) activity was measured by a (51)Chromium release, and conjugate formation assays. MDR1 transfectant P-gp(+ )breast carcinoma lines had increased LAK susceptibility compared to their parent line. Some part of the increased LAK susceptibility of drug-resistant cell lines was at the binding/recognition level as shown by conjugate formation assays. This suggests that differences may exist between paired cell lines with respect to the expression of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to CAMs and flow cytometry were used to quantitate these antigens. The CAMs studied were those previously found to be upregulated by stimulating NK cells with (interleukin-2) IL-2; ICAM-1 (CD54), LFA-3 (CD58), N-CAM (CD56), and the β chain of LFA-1 (CD18). Although no differences in these CAMs were found between the breast carcinoma line and its MDR1-transfected variants, the target susceptibility results given above suggest that IL-2 treatment could be effective in combination with current protocols using chemotherapeutics, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and stem cell transplantation
Low velocity quantum reflection of Bose-Einstein condensates
We studied quantum reflection of Bose-Einstein condensates at normal
incidence on a square array of silicon pillars. For incident velocities of
2.5-26 mm/s observations agreed with theoretical predictions that the
Casimir-Polder potential of a reduced density surface would reflect slow atoms
with much higher probability. At low velocities (0.5-2.5 mm/s), we observed
that the reflection probability saturated around 60% rather than increasing
towards unity. We present a simple model which explains this reduced
reflectivity as resulting from the combined effects of the Casimir-Polder plus
mean field potential and predicts the observed saturation. Furthermore, at low
incident velocities, the reflected condensates show collective excitations.Comment: 4 figure
Implementation costs of a multi-component program to increase human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in a network of pediatric clinics
Introduction: HPV vaccination is both a clinically and cost-effective way to prevent HPV-related cancers. Increased focus on preventing HPV infection and HPV-related cancers has motivated development of strategies to increase adolescent vaccination rates. This analysis estimates the average cost associated with implementing programs aimed at increasing HPV vaccination from the perspective of the clinic decision makers. As providers and healthcare organizations consider vaccination initiatives, it is important for them to understand the costs associated with implementing these programs.
Methods: Healthcare provider assessment and feedback, reminders, and education; and parent education/reminder strategies were implemented in a large pediatric clinic network between October 2015 and February 2018 to improve HPV vaccination rates. A micro-costing method was used in 2018 to prospectively estimate program implementation costs with the clinic as the unit of analysis. A sensitivity analysis assessed the effects of variability in levels of participation.
Results: Assessment and feedback reports and provider education were implemented among 51 clinics at average per clinic cost of 368 respectively. Electronic vaccination reminders were delivered to providers and parents at a per clinic cost of 2,126 per clinic.
Conclusion: The four complimentary HPV evidence-based strategies were delivered at a total cost of 4,749 per clinic, including staff training and participant recruitment, reaching 155,000 HPV vaccine eligible adolescents
Black Holes at the LHC
If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, the LHC will be producing one
black hole (BH) about every second. The BH decays into prompt, hard photons and
charged leptons is a clean signature with low background. The absence of
significant missing energy allows the reconstruction of the mass of the
decaying BH. The correlation between the BH mass and its temperature, deduced
from the energy spectrum of the decay products, can test experimentally the
higher dimensional Hawking evaporation law. It can also determine the number of
large new dimensions and the scale of quantum gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PRL. Results presented at the Les
Houches Workshop "Physics at the TeV Colliders" (May 30, 2001) and the
"Avatars of M-Theory" conference, ITP at Santa Barbara (June 7, 2001),
http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/mtheory_c01/dimopoulo
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