Selective Calixarene Directed Synthesis of MXene Plates, Crumpled Sheets, Spheres and Scrolls

Fully exploiting the electronic and mechanical properties of 2D laminar materials not only requires efficient and effective means of their exfoliation into low dimensional layers, but also necessitates a means of changing their morphology so as to explore any enhancement that this may offer. MXenes are a rapidly emerging new class of such laminar materials with unique properties. However, access to other morphologies of MXenes has not yet been fully realised. To this end we have developed the synthesis of MXenes (Ti2C) as plates, crumpled sheets, spheres and scrolls, which involves selective intercalation of p-phosphonic calix[n]arenes, with control in morphology arising from the choice of the size of the macrocycle, n = 4, 5, 6 or 8. This opens up wider avenues of discovery/design for new morphologies from the wider family of MXenes beyond Ti2C, along with opportunities to exploit any new physico-chemical properties proffered

Price Discrimination in Practice: The Market for Drugs in Egypt and the U.S.

This paper attempts to analyze the medical and economical reasons that cause a difference in the price elasticity of patients' demand to drugs between Egypt and the United States of America. The study was based on two medicines produced by Pfizer (Lipitor and Viagra), with both of them available in Egypt as well as the United States. The result of this study reflected that Egyptians are more sensitive to the changes in price relative to Americans for both Lipitor and Viagra because of different economical and medical factors.Price Discrimination, Pharmaceutical Industry

Localization Transition in Incommensurate non-Hermitian Systems

A class of one-dimensional lattice models with incommensurate complex potential $V(\theta)=2[\lambda_r cos(\theta)+i \lambda_i sin(\theta)]$ is found to exhibit localization transition at $|\lambda_r|+|\lambda_i|=1$. This transition from extended to localized states manifests in the behavior of the complex eigenspectum. In the extended phase, states with real eigenenergies have finite measure and this measure goes to zero in the localized phase. Furthermore, all extended states exhibit real spectrum provided $|\lambda_r| \ge |\lambda_i|$. Another novel feature of the system is the fact that the imaginary part of the spectrum is sensitive to the boundary conditions {\it only at the onset to localization}

Portal vein thrombosis and arterioportal shunts : effects on tumor response after chemoembolization of hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM: To evaluate the effect of portal vein thrombosis and arterioportal shunts on local tumor response in advanced cases of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated by transarterial chemoembolization. METHODS: A retrospective study included 39 patients (mean age: 66.4 years, range: 45-79 years, SD: 7) with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who were treated with repetitive transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in the period between March 2006 and October 2009. The effect of portal vein thrombosis (PVT) (in 19 out of 39 patients), the presence of arterioportal shunt (APS) (in 7 out of 39), the underlying liver pathology, Child-Pugh score, initial tumor volume, number of tumors and tumor margin definition on imaging were correlated with the local tumor response after TACE. The initial and end therapy local tumor responses were evaluated according to the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) and magnetic resonance imaging volumetric measurements. RESULTS: The treatment protocols were well tolerated by all patients with no major complications. Local tumor response for all patients according to RECIST criteria were partial response in one patient (2.6%), stable disease in 34 patients (87.1%), and progressive disease in 4 patients (10.2%). The MR volumetric measurements showed that the PVT, APS, underlying liver pathology and tumor margin definition were statistically significant prognostic factors for the local tumor response (P = 0.018, P = 0.008, P = 0.034 and P = 0.001, respectively). The overall 6-, 12- and 18-mo survival rates from the initial TACE were 79.5%, 37.5% and 21%, respectively. CONCLUSION: TACE may be exploited safely for palliative tumor control in patients with advanced unresectable HCC; however, tumor response is significantly affected by the presence or absence of PVT and APS

p-adic number theory and its applications in a cryptographic form

Imperial Users onl

SUPPORTING PRODUCT INNOVATION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE AUDIT

Knowledge audit is considered as one of the first steps towards designing a knowledge management strategy for an organization. Knowledge audit opens up the eye of an organization in terms of understanding its current knowledge capabilities, future knowledge requirements and critical knowledge gaps.. This paper focuses on how various knowledge audit tools can be used as an effective mechanism for organizational innovation process, specially understanding market needs, assessing knowledge capability and partnerships with external knowledge networks thus contributing to the development of new products or services

Consumption dynamics of Latinos and Asians in the US

We document differences in the degree of partial insurance of consumption vs permanent income shocks between Caucasians, Latinos and Asians in the US. Caucasian and Asian individuals share a rather high degree of partial insurance, Asians being slightly more insured than the Caucasians. On the other hand, Latinos are the less insured group, with around 80% of a permanent income shock reverberating into their consumption

Did earnings mobility change after minimum wage introduction? Evidence from parametric and semi‐nonparametric methods in Germany

We analyze the evolution of earnings mobility in Germany between 2011 and 2018. We use transition matrices and parametric and semi-nonparametric copula models to assess the impact of the introduction of the national minimum wage on January 1, 2015, on individual positional persistence in the wage distribution. We find a drop in mobility at the bottom of the distribution. This is confirmed both by the parametric and the semi-nonparametric methods used. Prediction accuracy of the semi-nonparametric model is higher than that of the fully parametric model