227 research outputs found

    Об этике коммуникаций и этике ответственности

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    В данной статье на основе пяти принципов этики коммуникаций, выявленных американскими учеными, устанавливаются точки пересечения между основными принципами коммуникации и этикой ответственности субъекта. Осуществлен анализ понятия "этика коммуникаций" и выявлены особенности трансформации данного понятия в современных коммуникативных процессах. Подчеркивается, что ключевой фигурой в глобальности коммуникаций становится человек, создающий значения, определяющий многообразие форм знака в современном коммуникативном пространстве. Сделан вывод о том, что именно такой человек является связующим звеном между человеческими ценностями и основными принципами этики коммуникаций, что создает условия для развития ключевых положений этики ответственности

    Improving the batch-to-batch reproducibility in microbial cultures during recombinant protein production by guiding the process along a predefined total biomass profile

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    In industry Escherichia coli is the preferred host system for the heterologous biosynthesis of therapeutic proteins that do not need posttranslational modifications. In this report, the development of a robust high-cell-density fed-batch procedure for the efficient production of a therapeutic hormone is described. The strategy is to guide the process along a predefined profile of the total biomass that was derived from a given specific growth rate profile. This profile might have been built upon experience or derived from numerical process optimization. A surprisingly simple adaptive procedure correcting for deviations from the desired path was developed. In this way the batch-to-batch reproducibility can be drastically improved as compared to the process control strategies typically applied in industry. This applies not only to the biomass but, as the results clearly show, to the product titer also

    The effectiveness of a fertility awareness based method to avoid pregnancy in relation to a couple’s sexual behavior during the fertile time: a prospective longitudinal study

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    BACKGROUND: The efficacy of fertility awareness based (FAB) methods of family planning is critically reviewed. The objective was to investigate the efficacy and the acceptability of the symptothermal method (STM), a FAB method that uses two indicators of fertility, temperature and cervical secretions observation. This paper will recommend a more suitable approach to measure the efficacy. METHODS: Since 1985, an ongoing prospective observational longitudinal cohort study has been conducted in Germany. Women are asked to submit their menstrual cycle charts that record daily basal body temperature, cervical secretion observations and sexual behaviour. A cohort of 900 women contributed 17 638 cycles that met the inclusion criteria for the effectiveness study. The overall rates of unintended pregnancies and dropout rates have been estimated with survival curves according to the Kaplan-Meier method. In order to estimate the true method effectiveness, the pregnancy rates have been calculated in relation to sexual behaviour using the 'perfect/imperfect-use' model of Trussell and Grummer-Strawn. RESULTS: After 13 cycles, 1.8 per 100 women of the cohort experienced an unintended pregnancy; 9.2 per 100 women dropped out because of dissatisfaction with the method; the pregnancy rate was 0.6 per 100 women and per 13 cycles when there was no unprotected intercourse in the fertile time. CONCLUSIONS: The STM is a highly effective family planning method, provided the appropriate guidelines are consistently adhered to

    Die wirtschaftliche Lage Rußlands: Monetäre Orientierungslosigkeit und realwirtschaftlicher Aktionismus. Dritter Bericht

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    Die beteiligten Institute legen hiermit ihren dritten Bericht über die Wirtschaft Rußlands vor. Der Bericht ist in zwei Teile gegliedert. Im ersten Teil wird der aktuelle Stand der Wirtschaftsentwicklung und der Reformpolitik dargestellt. Seit der Fertigstellung des zweiten Berichts hat sich die politische und wirtschaftliche Lage in der Russischen Föderation nicht grundlegend geändert. Die politische Blockade zwischen Legislative und Exekutive lähmt weiterhin den Reformprozeß; eine Wende zum Besseren ist nicht zu erkennen. Der zweite Teil des Berichts beschäftigt sich schwerpunktmäßig mit der sozialen Lage der Bevölkerung. Gegenstand der Analyse sind die Entwicklung von Einkommen und Verbrauch, das System der sozialen Sicherung sowie das Angebotspotential für die Versorgung der Bevölkerung mit Gütern und Dienstleistungen. Nach wie vor werden die Analysen durch die unsichere politische Lage, den institutionellen Umbruch und das unzuverlässige Berichtssystem erheblich erschwert. Die statistische Berichterstattung hat sich im Zeitablauf sogar noch verschlechtert. Vor allem die Aktivitäten des sich neu entwickelnden privaten Sektors werden kaum erfaßt. Informationslücken konnten nur zu einem geringen Teil durch Befragung staatlicher Stellen und russischer Wissenschaftler vor Ort geschlossen werden, so daß erhebliche Unsicherheiten über den tatsächlichen Ablauf des Transformationsprozesses verbleiben. --

    Sorafenib Hepatobiliary Disposition: Mechanisms of Hepatic Uptake and Disposition of Generated Metabolites

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    Sorafenib is an orally active tyrosine kinase inhibitor used in the treatment of renal and hepatocellular carcinoma. This study was designed to establish whether transport proteins are involved in the hepatic uptake of sorafenib and to determine the extent of biliary excretion of sorafenib and its metabolites in human hepatocytes. Initial uptake was assessed in freshly isolated, suspended human hepatocytes in the presence of inhibitors and modulators. [14C]Sorafenib (1 µM) uptake at 4°C was reduced by about 61–63% of the uptake at 37°C, suggesting a high degree of passive diffusion. Hepatocyte uptake of [14C]sorafenib was not Na+ dependent or influenced by the organic anion transporter 2 inhibitor ketoprofen. However, initial [14C]sorafenib hepatocyte uptake was reduced by 46 and 30% compared with control values in the presence of the organic anion transporting polypeptide inhibitor rifamycin SV and the organic cation transporter (OCT) inhibitor decynium 22, respectively. [14C]Sorafenib (0.5–5 µM) uptake was significantly higher in hOCT1-transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells compared with mock cells, and inhibited by the general OCT inhibitor, 1-methyl-4-phenylpryidinium. OCT1-mediated uptake was saturable with a Michaelis-Menten constant of 3.80 ± 2.53 µM and a Vmax of 116 ± 42 pmol/mg/min. The biliary excretion index and in vitro biliary clearance of sorafenib (1 µM) in sandwich-cultured human hepatocytes were low (∼11% and 11 ml/min/kg, respectively). Results suggest that sorafenib uptake in human hepatocytes occurs via passive diffusion, by OCT1, and by organic anion transporting polypeptide(s). Sorafenib undergoes modest biliary excretion, predominantly as a glucuronide conjugate(s)

    Reaction rate reconstruction from biomass concentration measurement in bioreactors using modified second-order sliding mode algorithms

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    This paper deals with the estimation of unknown signals in bioreactors using sliding observers. Particular attention is drawn to estimate the specific growth rate of microorganisms from measurement of biomass concentration. In a recent article, notions of high-order sliding modes have been used to derive a growth rate observer for batch processes. In this paper we generalize and refine these preliminary results. We develop a new observer with a different error structure to cope with other types of processes. Furthermore, we show that these observers are equivalent, under coordinate transformations and time scaling, to the classical super-twisting differentiator algorithm, thus inheriting all its distinctive features. The new observers’ family achieves convergence to timevarying unknown signals in finite time, and presents the best attainable estimation error order in the presence of noise. In addition, the observers are robust to modeling and parameter uncertainties since they are based on minimal assumptions on bioprocess dynamics. In addition, they have interesting applications in fault detection and monitoring. The observers performance in batch, fed-batch and continuous bioreactors is assessed by experimental data obtained from the fermentation of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae on glucose.This work was supported by the National University of La Plata (Project 2012-2015), the Agency for the Promotion of Science and Technology ANPCyT (PICT2007-00535) and the National Research Council CONICET (PIP112-200801-01052) of Argentina; the Technical University of Valencia (PAID-02-09), the CICYT (DPI2005-01180) and AECID (A/024186/09) of Spain; and by the project FEDER of the European Union.De Battista, H.; Picó Marco, JA.; Garelli, F.; Navarro Herrero, JL. (2012). 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    Developing textile entrepreneurial inclination model by integrating experts mining and ISM-MICMAC

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    The Indian textile industry is lacking in an entrepreneurial inclination of a skilled young generation; because of this, the industry is facing a challenge to achieve sustainable development and growth. To overcome this problem, the goal of this work is to build an entrepreneurial inclination model in the context of the textile industry. For achieving this goal, a combined approach of an extensive literature review and experts mining has been used to establish the entrepreneurial inclination factors in phased of the study. In the second phase, an Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) with Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement (MICMAC) has been applied to build a structural model and to find the driving force factors and dependence power. The results show that effective entrepreneurship courses, institutional policy, training and internship, institutional corporation and the involvement of institutional heads play a very significant role in encouraging youth towards entrepreneurship. The outcomes of the study can help both the government and academic institutes to draw up effective policy and develop an entrepreneurial culture which can help to create more entrepreneurs in the textile field.N

    Cultural experience tourist motives dimensionality : a cross-cultural study

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    This empirical research of tourists&rsquo; cultural experiences aims to advance theory by developing a measurement model of tourists&rsquo; motives towards attending cultural experiences for samples of Western and Asian tourists visiting Melbourne, Australia. Drawing upon Iso-Ahola&rsquo;s (1989) seeking/avoiding dichotomy theory for tourist motivation dimensions, the hypothesized dimensions primarily included escape and seeking-related dimensions, and some hedonic dimensions because of their relevance to aesthetic products (Hirschman &amp; Holbrook, 1982; Holbrook &amp; Hirschman, 1982), which are the context for this study. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to crossvalidate the underlying dimensionality structure of cultural experience motives. A four-factor model was extracted from the EFA consistent with some theoretical formulations and was retained in the CFA. Specific cultural language group differences for the motive dimensions were also hypothesized between Western and Asian tourist samples, and within the Chinese- and Japanese-speaking Asian tourist samples, but not within the different cultural groups of English-speaking Western tourists. These cross-cultural hypotheses were tested for the motive dimension measurement model using invariance testing in CFA. The findings for the motive dimensions differing by cultural group were not as expected. Significant cultural differences between Western and Asian tourists were not found, but a new finding of this study was significant differences between English-speaking tourists in their motives for attending cultural experiences. Marketing implications of these findings are also presented.<br /
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