Shining a light on the evidence for hydroxychloroquine in SARS-CoV-2

Background The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has stunned the world, financial markets, and healthcare systems. Researchers are rushing to identify effective treatments while maintaining rigorous adherence to the scientific method. Clinicians are doing their best to provide evidence-based care in a setting of very little good evidence. To date, no effective treatments exist for COVID-19 management. Unfortunately, traditional and social media coupled with world leader commentary have led some to believe hydroxychloroquine offers a bona fide cure and even prevention. The purpose of this commentary is to review the medical literature related to hydroxychloroquine building on knowledge over the past 17 years since the 2003 SARS-CoV epidemic

Retailing in the United Kingdom - a synopsis

This paper illustrates the structure of, and trends in, the retail market of the United Kingdom (UK). This industry analysis describes the retail environment compared to continental Europe and considers the regulatory issues which have helped form this retail environment. By using secondary data we describe concentration and consolidation tendencies and explain specific features of the UK retail market. Major trends are identified and discussed, concluding with an outlook on future developments

Socially impaired robots: Human social disorders and robots’ socio-emotional intelligence

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014. Social robots need intelligence in order to safely coexist and interact with humans. Robots without functional abilities in understanding others and unable to empathise might be a societal risk and they may lead to a society of socially impaired robots. In this work we provide a survey of three relevant human social disorders, namely autism, psychopathy and schizophrenia, as a means to gain a better understanding of social robots’ future capability requirements.We provide evidence supporting the idea that social robots will require a combination of emotional intelligence and social intelligence, namely socio-emotional intelligence. We argue that a robot with a simple socio-emotional process requires a simulation-driven model of intelligence. Finally, we provide some critical guidelines for designing future socio-emotional robots

magma mixing history and dynamics of an eruption trigger

The most violent and catastrophic volcanic eruptions on Earth have been triggered by the refilling of a felsic volcanic magma chamber by a hotter more mafic magma. Examples include Vesuvius 79 AD, Krakatau 1883, Pinatubo 1991, and Eyjafjallajokull 2010. Since the first hypothesis, plenty of evidence of magma mixing processes, in all tectonic environments, has accumulated in the literature allowing this natural process to be defined as fundamental petrological processes playing a role in triggering volcanic eruptions, and in the generation of the compositional variability of igneous rocks. Combined with petrographic, mineral chemistry and geochemical investigations, isotopic analyses on volcanic rocks have revealed compositional variations at different length scales pointing to a complex interplay of fractional crystallization, mixing/mingling and crustal contamination during the evolution of several magmatic feeding systems. But to fully understand the dynamics of mixing and mingling processes, that are impossible to observe directly, at a realistically large scale, it is necessary to resort to numerical simulations of the complex interaction dynamics between chemically different magmas

X-ray microprobe characterization of materials: the case for undulators on advanced storage rings

The unique properties of X rays offer many advantages over electrons and other charged particles for the microcharacterization of materials. X rays are more efficient in exciting characteristic X-ray fluorescence and produce higher fluorescent signals to backgrounds than obtained with electrons. Detectable limits for X rays are a few parts per billion and are 10/sup -3/ to 10/sup -5/ less than for electrons. Energy deposition in the sample by X rays is 10/sup -3/ to 10/sup -4/ less than for electrons for the same detectable concentration. High-brightness storage rings, especially in the 6 GeV class with undulators, will be approximately 10/sup 3/ brighter in the X-ray energy range from 5 keV to 35 keV than existing storage rings and provide for X-ray microprobes that are as bright as the most advanced electron probes. Such X-ray microprobes will produce unprecedented low levels of detection in diffraction, EXAFS, Auger, and photoelectron spectroscopies for both chemical characterization and elemental identification. These major improvements in microcharacterization capabilities will have wide-ranging ramifications not only in materials science but also in physics, chemistry, geochemistry, biology, and medicine

Materials science with synchrotron radiation: the case for a superprobe

The mechanical strength, ductility, diffusion, corrosion, and electrical properties of materials are profoundly modified by defects (both structural and impurity) about which we need microcharacterization. An x-ray microprobe is the next leap forward in microcharacterization. Undulators on a 6 GeV storage ring will provide for an x-ray microprobe of extraordinary sensitivity

A simple cantilevered mirror for focussing synchrotron radiation

A large cantilevered mirror was constructed to focus the vertical divergence from a synchrotron radiation source. The advantages of this mirror are its compactness, simple bending device, simplicity of construction, and good thermal contact to structures outside the vacuum. The central portion of the mirror is supported with variable loading springs to reduce gravitational sag. The figure and thermal stability of the mirror have proven to be excellent, though the focusing is limited by the roughness of the mirror-surface. This paper describes the design, construction, and performance of the mirror

X-ray fluorescence with synchrotron radiation

An experimental set-up for x-ray fluorescence analysis with synchrotron radiation was built and installed at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project. X-ray spectra were taken from numerous and varied samples in order to assess the potential of synchrotron radiation as an excitation source for multielement x-ray fluorescence analysis. For many applications, the synchrotron radiation technique is shown to be superior to other x-ray fluorescence methods, especially those employing electrons and protons as excitation sources