American Popular Culture\u27s View of the Soviet Militia: The End of the Police State?

The now-defunct Soviet Union and the term police state have been synonymous for many years, at least from the Stalinist era until, possibly, the Gorbachev era

The PRUCOL Proviso in Public Benefits Law: Alien Eligibility for Public Benefits

Alien eligibility for public benefits is a legal morass marked by wide inconsistency and topical controversy

In vitro models of biological barriers for nanomedical research

Nanoconstructs developed for biomedical purposes must overcome diverse biological barriers before reaching the target where playing their therapeutic or diagnostic function. In vivo models are very complex and unsuitable to distinguish the roles plaid by the multiple biological barriers on nanoparticle biodistribution and effect; in addition, they are costly, time-consuming and subject to strict ethical regulation. For these reasons, simplified in vitro models are preferred, at least for the earlier phases of the nanoconstruct development. Many in vitro models have therefore been set up. Each model has its own pros and cons: conventional 2D cell cultures are simple and cost-effective, but the information remains limited to single cells; cell monolayers allow the formation of cell-cell junctions and the assessment of nanoparticle translocation across structured barriers but they lack three-dimensionality; 3D cell culture systems are more appropriate to test in vitro nanoparticle biodistribution but they are static; finally, bioreactors and microfluidic devices can mimicking the physiological flow occurring in vivo thus providing in vitro biological barrier models suitable to reliably assess nanoparticles relocation. In this evolving context, the present review provides an overview of the most representative and performing in vitro models of biological barriers set up for nanomedical research

Pathways for Nutrient Loss to Water; Slurry and Fertilizer Spreading

End of project reportThere are almost 150,000 farms in Ireland and these contribute substantial quantities of N and P to inland and coastal waters. Some of these nutrients are carried from wet soils by overland flow and by leaching from dry soils. Farm practice can reduce the loss from farms by judicious management of nutrients. Improvements are required to diminish export of nutrients without impairing operations on the farm. Literature regarding nutrient loss from agriculture was reviewed in this project and maps were prepared to predict best slurry spreading times around Ireland. Two further maps were prepared to show slurry storage requirement on farms

Understanding the Characteristics of IT Capability in Delivering a Customer-Focused Strategy: The case of Saudi Bank

The rationale is to address the perceived gap in the existing literature by exploring the relationship between information technology capabilities (ITC) and customer-focused strategies (CFS). It is essential to explore how technologies enable organizations to implement strategies through a more interactive approach to their customers. Thus, the research objective seeks to improve the understanding of the relationship between ITC and the organizational goal of achieving a customer-focused strategy. Identifying the characteristics of ITC makes the organization focus on developing these characteristics, which may help to achieve an appropriate level of customer-focused strategies. The analysis of the data collected indicates five major characteristics of ITC.: 1) The fulfilment of business requirements on time, 2) the automation of business processes, 3) supporting business continuity, 4) the integration of multiple business systems and applications, and 5) the availability of timely and correct information. The conclusion summarizes these characteristics in the context of how they might affect a customer-focused strategy

Novel applications of long-established histochemical techniques to study nanoparticle-cell interactions at transmission electron microscopy

Alcian blue staining has been used to visualise nanoparticles at transmission electron microscop

Composite mirror facets for ground based gamma ray astronomy

Composite mirrors for gamma-ray astronomy have been developed to fulfill the specifications required for the next generation of Cherenkov telescopes represented by CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array). In addition to the basic requirements on focus and reflection efficiency, the mirrors have to be stiff, lightweight, durable and cost efficient. In this paper, the technology developed to produce such mirrors is described, as well as some tests that have been performed to validate them. It is shown that these mirrors comply with the needs of CTA, making them good candidates for use on a significant part of the array.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted to be published on NIM