A Model of Regulatory Burden in Technology Diffusion: The Case of Plant-Derived Vaccines.

Plant-derived vaccines may soon displace conventional vaccines. Assuming there are no major technological barriers undermining the feasibility of this innovative technology, it is worthwhile to generate quantitative models of regulatory burden of producing and diffusing plant-derived vaccines in industrialized and developing countries. A dynamic simulation model of technology diffusion—and the data to populate it—has been generated for studying regulatory barriers in the diffusion of plant-derived vaccines. The role of regulatory burden is evaluated for a variety of scenarios in which plant-derived vaccines are produced and diffused. This model relates the innovative and conventional vaccine technologies and the effects of the impact of the uptake of the innovative technology on mortality and morbidity. This case study demonstrates how dynamic simulation models can be used to assess the long-term potential impact of novel technologies in terms of a variety of socio-economic indicators.dynamic simulation model; plant-derived vaccines; regulatory burden; technology transfer; vaccines;

Aging and cosmetic enhancement

Obsession with a youthful appearance has become commonplace in modern society and has resulted in an upswing in cosmetic procedures trying to reverse the aging process. We selectively review the literature on aging and cosmetic surgery, with particular regard for the aging face. We pay attention to psychosocial aspects of response to such cosmetic procedures, both in terms of outcome and with respect to risk factors for a poor outcome

2019 National Data Services Framework Summit

Opening remarks for the National Data Services Framework Summit 2019

Optical Control of Microtubule Dynamics in Time and Space

Small molecule inhibitors of microtubule dynamics are widely used as cell biology research tools and clinically as cancer chemotherapeutics. By slight modification to the chemical structure of a known microtubule inhibitor, combretastatin A-4, Borowiak et al. develop a photoswitchable derivative that can be turned “on” and “off” with low-intensity light to spatially and temporally control microtubule dynamics

Parallel Deterministic and Stochastic Global Minimization of Functions with Very Many Minima

The optimization of three problems with high dimensionality and many local minima are investigated under five different optimization algorithms: DIRECT, simulated annealing, Spall’s SPSA algorithm, the KNITRO package, and QNSTOP, a new algorithm developed at Indiana University