Understanding the market dynamics of biosimilars

Biosimilars represent an attractive market opportunity in the pharmaceutical industry. In order to understand the underlying market dynamics and to identify the success factors of the biosimilars market, a PEST (political, economic, social, technological) analysis was conducted based on desk research and expert interviews with market participants and stakeholders. The regulatory environment for biosimilars seems to be well established and both the required manufacturing technology and the necessary analytical capabilities for biosimilar development are available. The potential market is expected to grow due to the overall dynamics in the biologics market and the patent expiration of blockbuster drugs. The perspective of the scientific community towards biosimilars has changed from skeptical to rather positive in the last 10 years, probably reflecting the evolution of regulatory guidelines and technological progress. However, physicians, responsible for the prescription of drugs, are still rather skeptical about biosimilars and need to be better informed in order to increase the currently low market penetration of biosimilars. Taken together, the biosimilars industry is expected to step out of its infancy stage and now enter the growth phase

Measuring teacher noticing : A scoping review of standardized instruments

This scoping review provides an overview of standardized instruments used to measure teacher noticing. A systematic literature search identified 37 publications in English-language peer-reviewed journals describing 22 different test instruments. Regarding the underlying conceptualization of noticing, instruments commonly distinguish mental processes (e.g., attending and interpreting) using heterogeneous nomenclatures and focus on various aspects of teaching. Regarding the test design, the instruments are predominantly video-based and vary considerably with respect to measurement approach and test requirements. High test quality was demonstrated for established test instruments. However, on a general level, desiderata became apparent regarding construct and criterion-related validity

Isotopic constraints on genetic relationships among group IIIF iron meteorites, Fitzwater Pass, and the Zinder pallasite

Complex interelement trends among magmatic IIIF iron meteorites are difficult to explain by fractional crystallization and have raised uncertainty about their genetic relationships. Nucleosynthetic Mo isotope anomalies provide a powerful tool to assess if individual IIIF irons are related to each other. However, while trace-element data are available for all nine IIIF irons, Mo isotopic data are limited to three samples. We present Mo isotopic data for all but one IIIF irons that help assess the genetic relationships among these irons, together with new Mo and W isotopic data for Fitzwater Pass (classified IIIF), and the Zinder pallasite (for which a cogenetic link with IIIF irons has been proposed). After correction for cosmic-ray exposure, the Mo isotopic compositions of the IIIF irons are identical within uncertainty and confirm their belonging to carbonaceous chondrite-type (CC) meteorites. The mean Mo isotopic composition of Group IIIF overlaps those Groups IIF and IID, but a common parent body for these groups is ruled out based on distinct trace element systematics. The new Mo isotopic data do not argue against a single parent body for the IIIF irons, and suggest a close genetic link among these samples. By contrast, Fitzwater Pass has distinct Mo and W isotopic compositions, identical to those of some non-magmatic IAB irons. The Mo and W isotope data for Zinder indicate that this meteorite is not related to IIIF irons, but belongs to the non-carbonaceous (NC) type and has the same Mo and W isotopic composition as main-group pallasites.Comment: Accepted for publication in Meteoritics & Planetary Scienc

An assessment of fluidized bed dynamics with CPFD simulations

The computational particle fluid dynamic (CPFD) method has been used to simulate a laboratory-scale fluidized bed, which has been designed for plastic pyrolysis. The simulations have been performed under cold-mode condition, where only the fluidization of sand particles is considered. The objective of the work is to gain an in-depth understanding of the hydrodynamic behavior of the fluidized bed, which is of particular importance with regard to an efficient mixing and heating of the bed materials as well as the final product yield. The focus of the work is assessing the dynamic behavior of the fluidized bed in terms of the total kinetic energy of all sand particles KS and the bubble frequency fB. For validation of the numerical approach, the calculated pressure drop Δp shows good agreement with measured data. In accordance with measurement and theoretical analysis, Δp increases with the bed inventory mS and remains nearly constant with the bulk gas flow velocity uG. It has been shown that KS increases with uG, which is due to the increased gas flow momentum flux with uG, leading to a reinforced gas-to-solid momentum exchange. The same behavior has been found for the influence of the sand particle mass mS on KS, where KS increases with mS. uG has been found to have a subordinate effect on fB, whereas fB decreases with mS. An increase in the gas temperature TG has led to a decreased KS, while the bed height hB and Δp remain nearly constant. This is due to the decreased density or momentum flux of the gas flow at higher TG. While up-scaling the fluidized bed, KS and fB have found to be strongly increased, whereas uG, Δp and hB were kept constant. The results reveal that it is not sufficient to use solely the general “static” parameters, i.e., hB and Δp, for characterizing hydrodynamic properties of a fluidized bed. In this case, KS and fB represent measures for the available kinetic energy and its fluctuation frequency of the whole fluidized bed system, which are more suitable for assessing the hydrodynamic behavior of the fluidized bed under up-scaled and elevated temperature conditions

Spectroscopic perspective on the interplay between electronic and magnetic properties of magnetically doped topological insulators

We combine low energy muon spin rotation (LE-$\mu$SR) and soft-X-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (SX-ARPES) to study the magnetic and electronic properties of magnetically doped topological insulators, (Bi,Sb)$_2$Te$_3$. We find that one achieves a full magnetic volume fraction in samples of (V/Cr)$_x$(Bi,Sb)$_{2-x}$Te$_3$ at doping levels x $\gtrsim$ 0.16. The observed magnetic transition is not sharp in temperature indicating a gradual magnetic ordering. We find that the evolution of magnetic ordering is consistent with formation of ferromagnetic islands which increase in number and/or volume with decreasing temperature. Resonant ARPES at the V $L_3$ edge reveals a nondispersing impurity band close to the Fermi level as well as V weight integrated into the host band structure. Calculations within the coherent potential approximation of the V contribution to the spectral function confirm that this impurity band is caused by V in substitutional sites. The implications of our results on the observation of the quantum anomalous Hall effect at mK temperatures are discussed