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Pietro Bargagli (2 August 1844, Siena – November 1918 Florence) was an Italian entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera. His collection is in La Specola and the Istituto Sperimentale per la Zooogia Agraria.He was a member of La Società Entomologica Italiana Partial list. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12560822 |
Quantum dimer models were introduced to model the physics of resonating valence bond (RVB) states in lattice spin systems. The only degrees of freedom retained from the motivating spin systems are the valence bonds, represented as dimers which live on the lattice bonds. In typical dimer models, the dimers do not overlap ("hardcore constraint"). Typical phases of quantum dimer models tend to be valence bond crystals. However, on non-bipartite lattices, RVB liquid phases possessing topological order and fractionalized spinons also appear. The discovery of topological order in quantum dimer models (more than a decade after the models were introduced) has led to new interest in these models. Classical dimer models have been studied previously in statistical physics, in particular by P. W. Kasteleyn (1961) and M. E. Fisher (1961). Exact solution for classical dimer models on planar graphs: Introduction of model; early literature: Topological order in quantum dimer model on non-bipartite lattices: Topological order in quantum spin model on non-bipartite lattices: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12561056 |
Stephen Robert Nockolds Stephen Robert Nockolds, FRS (10 May 1909 – 7 February 1990) was a geochemist, petrologist and winner of the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London. Robert Nockolds was born at St Columb Major, Cornwall, the son of Dr Stephen Nockolds, a surgeon of Brighton, and his wife Hilda Tomlinson. He was educated at Ascham St Vincent's School, Eastbourne and at Felsted School where his interest in rocks already manifested itself. He then went to Manchester University and then took a PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a Fellow of Trinity College, and lectured in petrology at Cambridge. In 1957 he became Reader in Geochemistry at Cambridge, and Emeritus Reader. In 1959 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was also an Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of India. In 1972 he retired from Cambridge and was awarded the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society. He published a leading work on petrology and a large number of papers in various journals as shown below. In 1932 he married Hilda Jackson (1909–1976) and subsequently after she died in 1976 he married Patricia Horsley (1923 – 10 July 2013) He was known to his friends as Nocky or Bob and whilst he didn't have children of his own he was affectionately embraced by Patricia's large family. In his retirement he devoted himself to his immaculate garden. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12567092 |
Self-limiting (biology) In biology, a self-limiting organism or colony of organisms limits its own growth by its actions. For example, a single organism may have a maximum size determined by genetics, or a colony of organisms may release waste which is ultimately toxic to the colony once it exceeds a certain population. In some cases, the self-limiting nature of a colony may be advantageous to the continued survival of the colony, such as in the case of parasites. If their numbers became too high, they would kill the host, and thus themselves. In other cases, self-limitation restricts the viability of predators, thus ensuring the long-term survival of rare species. In medicine, the term may imply that a condition would run its course without the need of external influence, especially any medical treatment. However, the fact that a condition may be self-limiting does not mean that medical treatment would not bring the condition or its symptoms to an end more quickly, or that such medical attention would be unnecessary in severe cases. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12590700 |
Quaternary science is an inter-disciplinary field of study focusing on the Quaternary period, which encompasses the last 2.6 million years. The field studies the current ice age and the recent interstadial, between numerous glaciations, the Holocene, and uses proxy evidence to reconstruct the past environments during this period to infer the climatic and environmental changes that have occurred. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12591925 |
Tandem mass tag A tandem mass tag (TMT) is a chemical label used for mass spectrometry (MS)-based quantification and identification of biological macromolecules such as proteins, peptides and nucleic acids. TMT belongs to a family of reagents referred to as isobaric mass tags. They provide an alternative to gel- or antibody-based quantification but may also be used in combination with these and other methods. In addition to aiding in protein quantification, TMT tags can also increase the detection sensitivity of certain highly hydrophilic analytes, such as phosphopeptides, in RPLC-MS analyses. There are currently six varieties of TMT available: TMTzero, a non-isotopically substituted core structure; TMTduplex, an isobaric pair of mass tags with a single isotopic substitution; TMTsixplex, an isobaric set of six mass tags with five isotopic substitutions; TMT 10-plex - a set of 10 isotopic mass tags which use the TMTsixplex reporter region, but use different elemental isotope to create a mass difference of 0.0063 Da, TMTpro a 16 plex version with a different reporter and mass normalizer than the original TMT, and TMTpro Zero. The tags contain four regions, namely a mass reporter region (M), a cleavable linker region (F), a mass normalization region (N) and a protein reactive group (R). The chemical structures of all the tags are identical but each contains isotopes substituted at various positions, such that the mass reporter and mass normalization regions have different molecular masses in each tag | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12594118 |
Tandem mass tag The combined M-F-N-R regions of the tags have the same total molecular weights and structure so that during chromatographic or electrophoretic separation and in single MS mode, molecules labelled with different tags are indistinguishable. Upon fragmentation in MS/MS mode, sequence information is obtained from fragmentation of the peptide back bone and quantification data are simultaneously obtained from fragmentation of the tags, giving rise to mass reporter ions. The structures of TMT tags are publicly available through the unimod database at unimod.org and hence, mass spectrometry software such as Mascot are able to account for the tag masses. Additionally, as of version 2.2, Mascot has the capability to quantify using TMT and other isobaric mass tags without the use of additional software. Intuitively, the trust associated with a protein measurement depends on the similarity of ratios from different peptides and the signal level of these measurements. A mathematically rigorous approach called BACIQ, that integrates peptide intensities and peptide-measurement agreement into confidence intervals for protein ratios has emerged. The TKO standard can be used to assess interference | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12594118 |
Michael E. Phelps Michael Epic Phelps (born August 24, 1939) is a professor and an American biophysicist. He is known for being one of the fathers of positron emission tomography (PET). Phelps was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio. He spent his early life as a boxer. However, at age 19, he was severely injured in a car crash, leaving him in a coma for several days and effectively ending his boxing career. Phelps went on to earn his B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Western Washington University in 1965, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis, in 1970. He joined the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine in 1970. From 1975-1976, Phelps was a member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1976, he moved to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA where he is the Norton Simon Professor & Chairman of the Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology and Director of two institutes, the Institute for Molecular Medicine and the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging. He has been awarded some of science's highest honors: the Massry Prize from the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California in 2007; an Enrico Fermi Award and an appointment to the National Academy of Science. Michael Phelps currently resides in Los Angeles with wife, Dr. Patricia Phelps, who is a professor of Physiological Sciences at UCLA. They have two children: Patrick Phelps and Katy Phelps. http://www.ibp.ucla.edu/faculty.php | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12632957 |
Peter Eriksson (neuroscientist) Peter Eriksson (June 5, 1959 – August 2, 2007) was a Swedish stem cell neuroscientist. Eriksson was a frequently cited scientist who made ground-breaking research on the neurogenesis in hippocampus in the adult human brain. In 1998 he demonstrated the creation of nerve cells in the adult human hippocampus.. He showed that new brain cells are created throughout the whole human lifespan, and that the integration of the new brain cells to the brain depended on the stimuli that the environment offered, thus offering an insight that could enhance the treatment of neuro damaged patients. He also showed the mechanism for neurogenesis, giving hope for a future cure to a range of neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12640115 |
Superose is a trade name for a collection of FPLC columns which are used in the automated separation of biological molecules. The different columns provided can separate a variety of macromolecules, ranging from small peptides and polysaccharides to DNA strands and entire viruses. The material inside the column is agarose based, meaning that it consists of sugars that are crosslinked to form a gel-like mass. The pores in this material have different sizes, and if a molecule is too big, it does not fit into the pores, meaning that it follows a shorter way to the end of the column. See also size exclusion. The columns are placed in a holder, and a computerized pumping system pumps a watery solution, often a buffer through the column. A special injection loop allows the injection of the desired sample. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12642142 |
NAVAREA NAVAREAs are the maritime geographic areas in which various governments are responsible for navigation and weather warnings. NAVAREAs are mentioned in International Maritime Organization Assembly Resolution A.706(17) adopted 6 November 1991. The International Hydrographic Organization publication S-53 has a document entitled "Worldwide Navigational Warnings Service - Guidance Document" which is related to NAVAREAs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12651309 |
George F. Sternberg George Fryer Sternberg (1883–1969) was a paleontologist best known for his discovery in Gove County, Kansas of the "fish-within-a-fish" of "Xiphactinus audax" with a recently eaten "Gillicus arcuatus" within its stomach. He was the son of Charles Hazelius Sternberg and nephew of Brigadier General George M. Sternberg (1838–1915). The Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas is named for him and other members of his fossil collecting family like his father Charles Hazelius Sternberg (1850–1943), or his brother Charles Mortram Sternberg (1885–1981). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12654604 |
Paul Boltwood (1943- September 25, 2017) was a Canadian amateur astronomer. He was engaged in developing hardware and software for deep sky imaging and in research of brightness variations in active galactic nuclei. He was also acknowledged for his studies of near-nucleus activity in Comet Hyakutake. Boltwood died September 25, 2017 in Stittsville, Ontario. was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1943. He first became interested in astronomy around age 12 and had built his own telescope by age 15. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of British Columbia in 1966. He pursued a career in computer software and systems design, with an emphasis on signal and image processing. Bolton founded Boltwood Systems Corporation in 1980, which manufactured cloud sensors for amateur astronomers. In the early 1990s, he constructed an observatory in his backyard near Ottawa, Ontario, with a CCD camera of his own design. He used the observatory to perform long-term monitoring of several blazars (active galactic nuclei with relativistic jets), including the objects OJ 287 and 3C 66A. His observations were used professional astronomers and he is listed as the co-author of several scientific journal articles. He made a series of images of the nucleus of the comet Hyakutake, which were released as part of the short film "Comet Odyssey". In 1998, Bolton won the "Sky & Telescope" magazine Deep Field Challenge | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12658744 |
Paul Boltwood The contest, proposed by professional astronomer Bradley Schaefer, challenged amateur astronomers to take the deepest image of a designed patch of the sky in the constellation Serpens. Using 20 hours of exposure time on his 16-inch telescope and custom software to add the resulting 767 images together, Bolton achieved a limiting magnitude of 24.1, a result comparable with those seen in professional observatories. His photo was featured as the Astronomy Picture of the Day in April 14, 1999. In 1995 he was awarded the Chant Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. This medal is awarded, not more than once a year, to an amateur astronomer resident in Canada on the basis of the value of the work carried out in astronomy and closely allied fields of the original investigation. In 2000 he was awarded with the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Asteroid 8785 Boltwood was named in his honour. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12658744 |
Laplace limit In mathematics, the is the maximum value of the eccentricity for which a solution to Kepler's equation, in terms of a power series in the eccentricity, converges. It is approximately Kepler's equation "M" = "E" − ε sin "E" relates the mean anomaly "M" with the eccentric anomaly "E" for a body moving in an ellipse with eccentricity ε. This equation cannot be solved for "E" in terms of elementary functions, but the Lagrange reversion theorem gives the solution as a power series in ε: or in general Laplace realized that this series converges for small values of the eccentricity, but diverges for any value of "M" other than a multiple of π if the eccentricity exceeds a certain value that does not depend on "M". The is this value. It is the radius of convergence of the power series. It is given by the solution to the equation: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12663171 |
Low field nuclear magnetic resonance Low field NMR spans a range of different nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) modalities, going from NMR conducted in permanent magnets, supporting magnetic fields of a few T, all the way down to zero field NMR, where the Earth's field is carefully shielded such that magnetic fields of nT are achieved where nuclear spin precession is close to zero. In a broad sense, "Low-field NMR" is the branch of nuclear magnetic resonance that is NOT conducted in superconducting high-field magnets. Low field NMR also includes Earth's field NMR where simply the Earth's field is exploited to cause nuclear spin-precession which is detected. With magnetic fields on the order of μT and below magnetometers such as SQUIDs or atomic magnetometers (among others) are used as detectors. "Normal" high field NMR relies on the detection of spin-precession with inductive detection with a simple coil. However, this detection modality becomes less sensitive as the magnetic field and the associated frequencies decrease. Hence the push toward alternative detection methods at very low fields. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12669224 |
Lambda point refrigerator A lambda point refrigerator is a device used to cool liquid helium, typically around a superconducting magnet or for low temperature measurements, from approximately 4.2 K to temperatures near the lambda point of helium (approximately 2.17 K), the temperature at which normal fluid helium (helium I) transitions to the superfluid helium II. Cooling is achieved by pumping the liquid helium in the bath through a cooling coil via a needle valve and vacuum pump. The reduced pressure in the coil causes some of the helium to evaporate, creating a two-phase system within the cooling coil. The heat removed via evaporation lowers the temperature of the cooling coil closer to the lambda point. Since the cooling coil is immersed in the liquid helium bath, liquid surrounding the coil is also cooled. The colder, higher density liquid sinks away from the coil toward the bottom of the bath while the warmer, lower density liquid helium rises to the top. Liquid helium typically has poor thermal conductivity, so convective currents associated with a temperature gradient in the bath provide a constant flow of this colder liquid helium toward the bottom of the bath, allowing temperatures below 4.2 K to be realized in the helium bath, typically close to 2.2 K. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12681180 |
Zonal and poloidal In magnetic confinement fusion the zonal direction primarily connotes the poloidal direction (i.e. the short way around the torus), the corresponding coordinate being denoted by "y" in the slab approximation or "θ" in magnetic coordinates. However, in the fusion context, usage is restricted to the context of zonal plasma flows and there will in general be a toroidal component in such flows as well. Thus, although the term zonal has come into use in plasma physics to emphasize an analogy with zonal flows in geophysics, it does not uniquely identify the direction of flow, unlike the case in geophysics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12687690 |
KASCADE was a European physics experiment started in 1996 at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany (now Karlsruher Institut für Technologie), an extensive air shower experiment array to study the cosmic ray primary composition and the hadronic interactions in the energy range of 10–10 eV, measuring simultaneously the electronic, muonic and hadronic components. KASCADE-Grande was a further extension of the previous project by reassembling 37 detectors of the former EAS-TOP experiment running between 1987 and 2000 at Campo Imperatore, Gran Sasso Laboratories, Italy. The experiment contributed significantly to the development of the CORSIKA simulation program which is use heavily in astroparticle physics. Co-located with KASCADE-Grande is the LOPES experiment. LOPES consists of radio antennas and measures the radio emission of extensive air showers. (including all extensions) stopped operation in 2013, but a part of the detectors is still used in other experiments for cosmic-ray air showers, e.g., LOFAR or Tunka. studied heavier components of cosmic rays, finding a "knee" near 80 PeV in 2011, and extending the spectrum measurements to 200PeV. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12690112 |
CORSIKA (COsmic Ray SImulations for KAscade) is a physics computer software for simulation of extensive air showers induced by high energy cosmic rays, i.e. protons and atomic nuclei, as well as Gamma rays (photons), electrons, and neutrinos. It may be used up to and beyond the highest energies of 100 EeV. In the current version the program utilizes the hadronic interaction models EPOS, QGSJET, and DPMJET, which are based on Gribov-Regge theory, and SIBYLL based on a minijet model for high energies. Hadronic interactions at lower energies are described either by the GHEISHA module, by FLUKA, or by the UrQMD model. Electromagnetic interactions are treated by an adapted version of the EGS4 code, customized by including the Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal effect relevant at higher energies. It can be used to simulate the generation of Cherenkov radiation, radio emission (Askaryan radiation), and atmospheric neutrinos. A complete rewrite of in C++ named 8 is currently work in progress. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12690339 |
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Shmuk () ( in Moscow - January 22, 1945, Moscow) was a Soviet biochemist and recipient of the Stalin Prize in 1942. In 1913 Shmuk finished his studies at the Moscow Agricultural Academy. Between 1923 and 1937 he worked at the All-Union Institute of Tobacco and Low-Grade Tobacco while simultaneously holding a professorship at the Kuban Institute of Agriculture. He studied the biochemistry of tobacco and won (in 1942) the Stalin Prize for his work deriving nicotine, citric acid, and malic acid from low-grade tobacco (makhorka). He is known primarily for his three volume work "The Chemistry and Technology of Tobacco" and for his development of a tobacco quality index which is calculated as the ratio between soluble carbohydrates and proteins. In 1935 he became a member of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Union. He finished his career at the Soviet Academy of Science's Institute of Biochemistry. Shmuk, A., “State Institute Tobacco Investigations”, Krasnodar (U.S.S.R.) Bull., 69, 15 (1930)<br> Shmuk, A., Vscsoyus. Inst. Tabach. i. Makhoroch Prom. No. 139, 3 (1937)<br> Shmuk, A., Bull. Acad. Sci. USSR, 6 (1937)<br> Shmuk, A., Papers, Acad. Sci. USSR, 2 (1940)<br> Shmuk A., Smirnov A., Ilyin G. "Formation of nicotine in plants grafted on tobacco" CR (Doklady) Acad. Sci. URSS. (1941)<br> Shmuk, A., Papers, V. I. Lenin, All-Union Academy of Agricultural Science, 1, 2 and 3 (1945)<br> Shmuk, A | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12694997 |
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Shmuk , The Chemistry and Technology of Tobacco, Vols 1,2,3 Pishchepromizdat, Moscow, 1953) Note: Shmuk appears in the English-language literature various as Schmuck, Shmuck, and Shmuk. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12694997 |
VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study The VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Studies (VOCALS) is an international field experiment started in 2006 designed by World Climate Research Programme's core project CLIVAR to better understand physical and chemical processes central to the climate system of the Southeast Pacific region. The experiment is organized in two parts: the VOCALS Regional Experiment (VOCALS-Rex) , and the VOCALS Numerical Modeling (VOCALS-Mod). VOCALS-REx occurred in October and November of 2008. It makes up a great deal of the CLIVAR program, (VOCALS) was designed to promote scientific enterprises in the Southeastern Pacific, in order to better understand coupled ocean-atmosphere-land system on diurnal to interannual timescales. VOCALS-REx will also provide datasets for the evaluation and development of large scale numerical models. VOCALS-REx is in five research aircraft, two ships and two surface sites in Northern Chile. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12696229 |
Interior radiation control coating Interior Radiation Control Coating Systems (IRCCS), sometimes referred to as radiant barrier coatings, are paints designed to provide thermal insulation to buildings. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the Reflective Insulation Manufacturer's Association (RIMA) have established an industry standard for evaluating paints claiming to have insulating characteristics. The energy conserving property has been defined as thermal emittance (the ability of a surface to release radiant energy that it has absorbed). Those coatings qualified as Interior Radiation Control Coatings must show a thermal emittance of 0.25 or less. This means that an IRCCS will block 75% or more of the radiant heat transfer. These low "E" coatings were originally developed in 1978 at the Solar Energy Corporation (SOLEC) in Princeton, New Jersey for use in tubular evacuated solar collectors. The developer, Robert Aresty, designed them to be used as low emissivity surfaces on glass to replace vacuum deposited surfaces. While SOLEC was doing collaborative work with the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), Phillip Fairey, research director at FSEC and world-renowned researcher in radiant barriers discovered the availability of these coatings in the SOLEC labs. He immediately grasped that they might be used as a replacement for foil radiant barriers, and proceeded to perform experiments verifying their viability for this use | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12696436 |
Interior radiation control coating In 1986 these coatings were applied for the first commercial application in homes built by Centex Corporation. Uses of IRCCS includes residential and commercial building insulation, as well as industrial and automotive applications. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12696436 |
Gas composition The of any gas can be characterised by listing the pure substances it contains, and stating for each substance its proportion of the gas mixture's molecule count. To give a familiar example, air has a composition of: Standard Dry Air is the agreed-upon gas composition for air from which all water vapour has been removed. There are various standards bodies which publish documents that define a dry air gas composition. Each standard provides a list of constituent concentrations, a gas density at standard conditions and a molar mass. It is extremely unlikely that the actual composition of any specific sample of air will completely agree with any definition for standard dry air. While the various definitions for standard dry air all attempt to provide realistic information about the constituents of air, the definitions are important in and of themselves because they establish a standard which can be cited in legal contracts and publications documenting measurement calculation methodologies or equations of state. The standards below are two examples of commonly used and cited publications that provide a composition for standard dry air: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12703710 |
Flow conditions In fluid measurement, the fluid's flow conditions (or flowing conditions) refer to quantities like temperature and static pressure of the metered substance. The flowing conditions are required data in order to calculate the density of the fluid at flowing conditions. The flowing density is in turn required in order to compensate the measured volume to quantity at base conditions. The density of a gas is calculated using the ideal gas law and an equation of state calculation such as the one described in AGA Report No. 8. There are broad general methodologies used to calculate the density of a liquid at specific conditions. In order to discuss a specific methodology, one must choose a liquid that holds sufficient interest to warrant a calculation specific to it. EOS 87.3 is a density calculation for seawater; API chapter 11 specifies calculations pertaining to oil, fuels and natural gas liquids. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12704285 |
Aircraft specific energy Aircraft-specific energy is a form of specific energy applied to aircraft and missile trajectory analysis. It represents the combined kinetic and potential energy of the vehicle at any given time. It is the total energy of the vehicle (relative to the Earth's surface) per unit weight of the vehicle and being independent of the mass of the vehicle provides a powerful tool for the design of optimal trajectories. Aircraft-specific energy is very similar to specific orbital energy except that it is expressed as a positive quantity. A zero value of aircraft-specific energy represents an aircraft at rest on the Earth's surface, and increases as speed and altitude increases. Orbital specific energy is zero at infinite altitude and decreases as one approaches the surface of the earth. As with other forms of specific energy, aircraft-specific energy is an intensive property and is represented in units of length since it is independent of the mass of the vehicle. The field of trajectory optimization has made use of the concept since the 1950s in the form of energy analysis. In this approach, the specific energy is defined as one of the dynamic states of the problem and is the slowest varying state. All other states such as altitude and flight path angle are approximated as infinitely fast compared to the specific energy dynamics. This assumption allow the solution of optimal trajectories in a relatively simple form | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12706857 |
Aircraft specific energy The specific energy is computed by the total energy (as defined above relative the Earth's surface) divided by the mass of the vehicle. It is a key element in performance of aircraft and rockets. For a rocket flying vertically (in a vacuum), it is the apogee that the rocket would obtain. It is used extensively in Energy–maneuverability theory that is used to determine the optimal paths for aircraft in dogfights. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12706857 |
2005 Melbourne thunderstorm The 2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm was a severe weather event that occurred between 2 February and 3 February 2005 which produced 120 mm (or about 4.7 inches) of rain in Melbourne, the highest total since records began. Every suburb in Melbourne, parts of eastern Victoria and the Geelong/Bellarine Peninsula were affected by the storm. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12707954 |
Hibernaculum (botany) Hibernaculum (plural "hibernacula") is the term often applied to a winter bud of certain aquatic plants, such as the bladderworts ("Utricularia"). The buds are heavier than water, and, being developed at the approach of cold weather, they become detached, sink to the bottom of the pond, and thus survive the winter. In the spring, they enlarge, developing air spaces, rise to the surface, and reproduce their species. Certain terrestrial plants also form hibernacula. These include some temperate sundews ("Drosera") such as "D. anglica", "D. filiformis", "D. intermedia", "D. rotundifolia"; and some temperate butterworts ("Pinguicula") such as "P. balcanica", "P. grandiflora", "P. longifolia", and "P. vulgaris". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12711369 |
Gert Korthof is a Dutch biologist who was trained at Utrecht University. He has reviewed various books of evolution, creationism, and intelligent design, including Michael Behe's "The Edge of Evolution". He contributed to "Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12720295 |
Proteolix Proteolix, Inc., was a private biotechnology company with headquarters in South San Francisco, California. was founded in 2003 based on technology developed by co-founders Dr. Craig Crews (Yale University) and Dr. Raymond J. Deshaies (California Institute of Technology). Drs. Susan Molineaux and Phil Whitcome (deceased) joined Drs. Crews and Deshaies as co-founders. was launched based on an $18.2 million A round comprising investments by Latterell Venture Partners, US Venture Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, and The Vertical Group. focused primarily on the proteasome as a therapeutic target. Its lead product candidate, carfilzomib (PR-171), is a tetrapeptide epoxyketone. At the time of its sale (see below), the company had two earlier-stage programs, an orally-bioavailable proteasome inhibitor for oncology (PR-047), and an agent preferentially targeting the immuno form of the proteasome (PR-957), with potential utility in areas such as rheumatoid arthritis. At the time of sale, Carfilzomib's route of administration was intravenous, and the company was exploring its potential utility in multiple myeloma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and other cancers. was acquired by Onyx Pharmaceuticals in 2009 for $810 million (nominal value). Onyx renamed PR-047 to "ONX 0912" and PR-957 to "ONX 0914". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12721713 |
Peter Francis Williams is an amateur astronomer from New South Wales, Australia. He specializes in early detection of declines in R Coronae Borealis-type stars and the long-term monitoring of several southern Mira variables and eclipsing binary stars. He was the first person who detected the naked-eye Nova known as V382 Velorum in 1999 and seven years later he discovered the Nova Ophiuchi 2006. Both discoveries brought him the Nova/Supernova Award of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. In 2007 he received the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He is a life member of the Sutherland Astronomical Society. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12728519 |
Older Peron The was the name for a period identified in 1961 as an episode of a global sea-level (i.e. eustatic) high-stand during the Holocene Epoch. Modern understanding of the various factors involved in quantifying eustatic sea level, particularly processes relating to ocean siphoning and glacio-hydro-isostatic adjustment, claim that such previous instances of purported high-stands were not globally coherent, and do not constitute episodes of eustatic sea level higher than present. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12732637 |
Ken Hill (botanist) Kenneth D. Hill (6 August 1948 – 4 August 2010) was an Australian botanist, notable for his work on eucalypts, the systematics, evolution and conservation of the genus "Cycas", as well as on botanical informatics. He was born in Armidale, New South Wales. He worked with the National Herbarium of New South Wales from 1983 until retiring in 2004. He was also a senior research scientist with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12736965 |
Reull Vallis is a valley on Mars that appears to have been carved by water. It runs westward into Hellas Planitia. It is named after the Gaelic word for planet. It is found in the Hellas quadrangle. On the floors of some channels are features called lineated floor deposits. They are ridged and grooved materials that seem to deflect around obstacles. They are believed to be ice-rich. Some glaciers on the Earth show such features. Lineated floor deposits may be related to lobate debris aprons, which have been proven to contain large amounts of ice. Reull Vallis, as pictured below, displays these deposits. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12743643 |
Middle World Middle World, a term coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, is used to describe the realm generally experienced by humans that lies between the microscopic world of quarks and atoms and the cosmic world of stars and galaxies. It also refers to the lack of appreciation humans generally have for the spectrum of time, from picoseconds to billions of years, because people generally refer to time in units of minutes or hours or weeks and live for only a portion of a century. This term is used as an explanation of oddity at both extreme levels of existence. We have a lack of understanding of the quantum and molecular parts of the universe, because the human mind has evolved to understand best that which it routinely encounters. Dawkins discusses our limitations in perceiving and contemplating the micro and macro realms outside of our "middle world" in his 2005 TED talk entitled "Queerer than we can suppose: the strangeness of science". He again uses the term later in his 2006 book, "The God Delusion", writing, "...the way we see the world, and the reason why we find some things intuitively easy to grasp and others hard, is that "our brains themselves are evolved organs": on-board computers, evolved to help us survive in a world — I shall use the name — where the objects that mattered to our survival were neither very large nor very small; a world where things either stood still or moved slowly compared with the speed of light; and where the very improbable could be safely treated as impossible." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12748155 |
Island of inversion An island of inversion is a region of the chart of nuclides that contains isotopes with a non-standard ordering of single particle levels in the nuclear shell model. Such an area was first described in 1975 by French physicists carrying out spectroscopic mass measurements of exotic isotopes of lithium and sodium. Since then further studies have shown that neutron-rich isotopes of five elements, Li, Na, Mg, Si, and Ca belong to one such region. Because there are 5 known islands of inversion, physicists have suggested renaming the phenomenon as an "archipelago of islands of shell breaking". Studies with the purpose of defining the edges of this region are still ongoing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12752120 |
Nonthermal surface reaction In the field of physical chemistry, a nonthermal surface reaction refers to an elementary reaction between a thermally accommodated adsorbed surface species and a reactant which has not yet thermally accommodated to the surface. The two main mechanisms classified as nonthermal are the Eley-Rideal and hot atom mediated mechanisms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12753475 |
Mousterian Pluvial The was a prehistoric wet and rainy (pluvial) period in North Africa. It occurred during the Upper Paleolithic, toward the latter part of the Mousterian era. That is, it began around 50,000 years before the present (B.P), lasted roughly 20,000 years, and ended ca. 30,000 B.P. During the Mousterian Pluvial, the now-desiccated regions of northern Africa were well-watered, bearing lakes, swamps, and river systems that no longer exist. What is now the Sahara desert supported typical African wildlife of grassland and woodland environments: herbivores from gazelle to giraffe to ostrich, predators from lion to jackal, even hippopotamus and crocodile, as well as extinct forms like the Pleistocene camel. In these respects the resembled the earlier Abbassia Pluvial; the later Neolithic Subpluvial was a weaker re-iteration of the same pattern. The was caused by large-scale climatic changes during the last ice age. By 50 kybp (thousand years before present), the Wisconsin glaciation ("Würm glaciation" in Europe) was well-advanced; growing ice sheets in North America and Europe displaced the standard climatic zones of the northern hemisphere southward. The temperate zones of Europe and North America acquired an Arctic or tundra climate, and the rain bands typical of the temperate zones dropped to the latitudes of northern Africa. Curiously, the same influences that created the also appear to have brought it to a close. In the period of its fullest development, c | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12758957 |
Mousterian Pluvial 30 to 18 kybp, the Laurentide Ice Sheet not only covered an enormous geographic area, but increased its altitude to 1750 meters (more than 1 mile). It generated its own long term weather patterns, which affected the jet stream passing over the North American continent. The jet stream effectively split in two, creating a new dominant weather pattern over the northern hemisphere that brought harsher conditions to several regions (including parts of Central Asia and the Middle East) — changes that included an end to the and a return to a more arid climate in northern Africa. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12758957 |
Compaction (geology) In sedimentology, compaction is the process by which a sediment progressively loses its porosity due to the effects of pressure from loading. This forms part of the process of lithification. When a layer of sediment is originally deposited, it contains an open framework of particles with the pore space being usually filled with water. As more sediment is deposited above the layer, the effect of the increased loading is to increase the particle-to-particle stresses resulting in porosity reduction primarily through a more efficient packing of the particles and to a lesser extent through elastic compression and pressure solution. The initial porosity of a sediment depends on its lithology. Mudstones start with porosities of >60%, sandstones typically ~40% and carbonates sometimes as high as 70%. Results from hydrocarbon exploration wells show clear porosity reduction trends with depth. In sediments compacted under self-weight, especially in sedimentary basins, the porosity profiles often show an exponential decrease, called Athy's law as first shown by Athy in 1930. A mathematical analytical solution was obtained by Fowler and Yang to show the theoretical basis for Athy's law. This process can be easily observed in experiments and used as a good approximation to many real data. If there is a variation in thickness and compactability of a sequence, loading by later deposits will give rise to spatially varying amounts of compaction. This form of compaction is a function of the lithology of the base sediment | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12763440 |
Compaction (geology) Both the thickness and structure of the later sequence will be controlled by the underlying geology in the absence of any active tectonics. Buried tilted fault blocks in a rift basin often produce large anticlinal closures in the post-rift section that may form traps for hydrocarbons e.g. the Daqing Field, the largest oil field in the People's Republic of China, in the Songliao Basin. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12763440 |
Electrostatic spray-assisted vapour deposition (ESAVD) is a technique (developed by a company called IMPT) to deposit both thin and thick layers of a coating onto various substrates. In simple terms chemical precursors are sprayed across an electrostatic field towards a heated substrate, the chemicals undergo a controlled chemical reaction and are deposited on the substrate as the required coating. Electrostatic spraying techniques were developed in the 1950s for the spraying of ionised particles on to charged or heated substrates. ESAVD (branded by IMPT as Layatec) is used for many applications in many markets including: The process has advantages over other techniques for layer deposition (Plasma, Electron-Beam) in that it does not require the use of any vacuum, electron beam or plasma so reduces the manufacturing costs. It also uses less power and raw materials making it more environmentally friendly. Also the use of the electrostatic field means that the process can coat complex 3D parts easily. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12765046 |
Sinus (botany) In botany, a sinus is a space or indentation between two lobes or teeth, usually on a leaf. The term is also used in mycology. For example, one of the defining characteristics of North American species in the "Morchella elata" clade of morels is the presence of a sinus where the cap attaches to the stipe. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12765060 |
Metabolic imprinting refers to the epigenetic programming of metabolism during the pre-natal and neo-natal periods, which can have significant consequences later on in an organism's life. Studies in both humans and animals have shown that the events during gestation and early post-natal stages may have long term consequences for health. Fetal under-nutrition is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, type II diabetes and hypertension, amongst other diseases. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12765883 |
Kiyoo Wadati Kiyoo Wadati | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12766287 |
Nearby Supernova Factory The (SNfactory) is a collaborative experiment led by Greg Aldering, designed to collect data on more Type Ia supernovae than have ever been studied in a single project before, and by studying them, to increase understanding of the expanding universe and dark energy. The project began as an outgrowth of the Supernova Cosmology Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, but while the SCP focused on supernovae with redshifts of approximately 1.2, corresponding to a distance of 8.7 billion light years, SNfactory searches for nearby supernovae with redshifts of 0.03 to 0.08, corresponding to a distance of only 400 million to 1.1 billion light years. SNfactory uses a highly automated "pipeline" in which survey images from NASA's Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking project are processed by a supercomputing cluster to find promising candidates, which are then observed using the project's Supernova Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS) on the University of Hawaii telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Results from the project will also be used in refining the planned Supernova/Acceleration Probe. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12776863 |
American Society of Plant Taxonomists The (ASPT) is a botanical organization formed in 1935 to "foster, encourage, and promote education and research in the field of plant taxonomy, to include those areas and fields of study that contribute to and bear upon taxonomy and herbaria", according to its bylaws. It is incorporated in the state of Wyoming, and its office is at the University of Wyoming, Department of Botany. The ASPT publishes a quarterly botanical journal, "Systematic Botany", and the irregular series "Systematic Botany Monographs". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12795884 |
Jaramillo reversal The was a reversal and excursion of the Earth's magnetic field that occurred approximately one million years ago. In the geological time scale it was a "short-term" positive reversal in the then-dominant Matuyama reversed magnetic chronozone; its beginning is widely dated to 990,000 years before the present (BP), and its end to 950,000 BP (though an alternative date of 1.07 million years ago to 990,000 is also found in the scientific literature). The causes and mechanisms of short-term reversals and excursions like the Jaramillo, as well as the major field reversals like the Brunhes–Matuyama reversal, are subjects of study and dispute among researchers. One theory associates the Jaramillo with the Bosumtwi impact event, as evidenced by a tektite strewnfield in the Ivory Coast, though this hypothesis has been claimed as "highly speculative" and "refuted". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12804696 |
Mu problem In theoretical physics, the μ problem is a problem of supersymmetric theories, concerned with understanding the parameters of the theory. The supersymmetric Higgs mass parameter μ appears as the following term in the superpotential: μHH. It is necessary to provide a mass for the fermionic superpartners of the Higgs bosons, i.e. the higgsinos, and it enters as well the scalar potential of the Higgs bosons. To ensure that H and H get a non-zero vacuum expectation value after electroweak symmetry breaking, μ should be of the order of magnitude of the electroweak scale, many orders of magnitude smaller than the Planck scale, which is the natural cutoff scale. This brings about a problem of naturalness: why is that scale so much smaller than the cutoff scale? And why, if the μ term in the superpotential has different physical origins, do the corresponding scale happen to fall so close to each other? Before LHC, it was thought that the soft supersymmetry breaking terms should also be of the same order of magnitude as the electroweak scale. This was refused by Higgs mass measurements and limits on supersymmetry models. One proposed solution, known as the Giudice-Masiero mechanism, is that this term does not appear explicitly in the Lagrangian, because it violates some global symmetry, and can therefore be created only via spontaneous breaking of this symmetry | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12807714 |
Mu problem This is proposed to happen together with F-term supersymmetry breaking, with a spurious field X that parameterizes the hidden supersymmetry-breaking sector of the theory (meaning that F is the non-zero F-term). Let us assume that the Kahler potential includes a term of the form formula_1 times some dimensionless coefficient which is naturally of order one where M is Planck mass. Then as supersymmetry breaks, F gets a non-zero vacuum expectation value ⟨F⟩ and the following effective term is added to the superpotential: formula_2, which gives a measured formula_3. On the other hand, soft supersymmetry breaking terms are similarly created and also have a natural scale of formula_4. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12807714 |
David Officer David Leslie Officer is a New Zealand organic chemist and materials scientist. He completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 1982 under the direction of Professor Brian Halton, before undertaking postdoctoral positions at the Australian National University, and the University of Cologne (as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow). Officer returned to New Zealand and took up his first academic post at Massey University in 1986, rising through the ranks to full professor. In 2005, Officer was appointed as a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and moved to the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Officer is also currently listed as a professorial fellow with the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and Department of Chemistry at the University of Wollongong, Australia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12809337 |
Natalia Dubrovinskaia (born 18 February 1961) is a Swedish geologist of Russian origin. In 2005, she led a team of researchers from the University of Bayreuth who were reported to have produced aggregated diamond nanorods from fullerene under high temperatures and pressures. Two years earlier large samples of nanodiamond were produced in a cheaper way (from graphite) and discovered to be harder than diamond by Japanese researchers. Dubrovinskaia currently works at the University of Heidelberg in Germany as a "Privatdozent" and Senior Scientist. Dubrovinskaia is married to Leonid Dubrovinsky, a geoscientist at University of Bayreuth . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12811972 |
René Lavocat was a French paleontologist who described several genera of African dinosaurs including the sauropod "Rebbachisaurus", as well as several extinct mammals such as the family Kenyamyidae. The mammal "Lavocatia", the Notosuchian "Lavocatchampsa" and phorusrhacid "Lavocatavis" are named after him. Eager to try paleontological research in Africa to find Oligocene mammals, Lavocat was strongly endorsed by Camille Arambourg. In 1947, he obtained leadership of a research mission in the Algerian-Moroccan desert. He did not find any Oligocene mammals, but instead came across a rich fauna of Cretaceous vertebrates. His first notes on this subject were made in 1948 entitled "les Comptes Rendus Sommaires de la Société géologique de France" ("English: Report Summary to the Geological Society of France") in which Lavocat explains the discovery of a large number of Cretaceous reptiles (dinosaurs and crocodiles) and fish in the bedrock of the desert. A year later, a second note appeared in the same journal and extends his discoveries to the southwestern Kem Kem. In 1954, Lavocat described a new species of sauropod, Rebbachisaurus, discovered in the region. In addition, in 1955 he described a new genus of theropod, Majungasaurus. In 1960, Lavocat returned to Africa and described a second species of Rebbachisaurus, "R. tamesnensis". In 1973, Lavocat discovered two genera and three species of Miocene rodent, which he placed in the family Kenyamyidae. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12818849 |
Philippe Taquet (b. April 25, 1940 Saint-Quentin, Aisne) is a French paleontologist who specializes in dinosaur systematics of finds primarily in northern Africa. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences since November 30, 2004, president since 2012. He has studied and described a number of new dinosaur species from Africa, especially from the Aptian site of Gadoufaoua in Niger (such as "Ouranosaurus"). He also researches the Lower Cretaceous stratigraphic relationship between western Africa and Brazil by reconstructing the paleobiology from fossil floras and faunas. He was president of the French National Museum of Natural History from 1985 to 1990. He received the Sue Tyler Friedman Medal in 2009 for work in the history of geology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12818948 |
InHour is a unit of reactivity of a nuclear reactor. It stands for the inverse of an hour. It is equal to the inverse of the period in hours. One is the amount of reactivity needed to increase the reaction from critical to where the power will increase by a factor of e in one hour. The unit is abbreviated ih or inhr, and is usually measured with a reactimeter. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12830079 |
Julian Goldsmith Julian Royce Goldsmith (1918–1999) was a mineralogist and geochemist at the University of Chicago (Moore, 1971). Goldsmith, along with colleague Fritz Laves, first defined the crystallographic polymorphism of alkali feldspar (Newton, 1989). Goldsmith also experimented on the temperature dependence of the solid solution between calcite and dolomite (Newton, 1989). Goldsmith’s research also led him to experiment with the determination of the stability of intermediate structural states of albite (Newton, 1989). For his outstanding contributions to the study of mineralogy and geochemistry, Goldsmith was awarded the prestigious Roebling Medal by the Mineralogical Society of America in 1988 (Newton, 1989). The mineral julgoldite was named for him. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12835493 |
Pseudoplankton Pseudoplanktonic organisms are those that attach themselves to planktonic organisms or other floating objects, such as drifting wood, buoyant shells of organisms such as "Spirula", or man-made flotsam. Examples include goose barnacles and the bryozoan "Jellyella". By themselves these animals cannot float, which contrasts them with true planktonic organisms, such as "Velella" and the Portuguese Man o' War, which are buoyant. are often found in the guts of filtering zooplankters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12891586 |
Sackett self-selection circus The is an apparatus used in experimental psychology with non-human primates. It is a space divided into compartments containing objects; the time an animal spends with each object is measured, indicating any amount of fear of or anxiety from those objects. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12908866 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy The United States National Academy of Sciences' (STEP) is a board of the United States National Academy of Sciences. The mandate of the Board is to integrate understanding of scientific, technological, and economic elements in the formulation of national policies affecting the economic well-being of the United States. The program’s focus is on the dynamics of the macroeconomic and microeconomic variables, their relationship to the industrial structure of the economy, effect on high-technology manufacturing and service sectors, and influence on U.S. scientific and technological advancement through examination of trade, human resources, fiscal, research and development, intellectual property and other policies. Policymakers responsible for these areas in the executive branch and Congress are the audience for the STEP Board’s work in the form of consensus reports, conferences, and workshops. The current Executive Director is Stephen A. Merrill, Ph.D. and the Board Chair is Paul Joskow, president of the Sloan Foundation. The Academies began to address issues of U.S. competitiveness and innovation in the late 1970s and early 1980s through a series of industry studies by the NAE and broad policy studies by the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy A leading NAS economist, Dale Jorgenson, and NAE industrialists Ralph Landau and George Hatsopoulos were concerned that this work, and national innovation policy more broadly, did not sufficiently reflect the contributions economics could make to understanding of trends and policy prescriptions to improve outcomes. They proposed to the National Research Council (NRC) Governing Board of Directors of the NAS to create a new standing committee as a forum for dialogue among economists, technologists, and industrial managers to those ends. The (STEP) was established in 1991, originally as an independent board with funding from the NRC and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Subsequently, it was combined with COSEPUP and Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) in the Policy Division, at which time the Academy and Institute presidents were made ex-officio members to make the three units more similar in structure. In composing the first slate of members, the Academies added a fourth category of expertise and experience – finance and investment – and took care to ensure that among the members were people with high-level public policy experience | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy Over the past 16 years the membership has included leading industrialists (Rube Mettler, Don Peterson, Bill Spencer), three Nobel Laureates (Mike Spence, Joe Stiglitz, and Jim Heckman) among many leading microeconomists, prominent venture capitalists (Burton McMurtry, Kathy Behrens, and David Morgenthaler), scientists and engineers from the Academies (George Whitesides and Vint Cerf), former policymakers (James Lynn, Mary Good, and Alan Wolff), and people whose careers have bridged the corporate and nonprofit sectors (Edward Penhoet) or industry and elective politics (Amo Houghton, Jr.). In STEP’s first decade the majority of industrialists represented heavy manufacturing and information technology. In recent years there has been an effort to recruit more senior managers from life science-based industries and services. Not coincidentally, concern about Japanese competition and fear of a progressive decline in the U.S. manufacturing base was peaking at the time STEP was created. Indeed, the perception that Japan enjoyed a broad and enduring competitive advantage from a substantially lower cost of capital was a motivating factor in establishing the Board and became the subject of its first conference and report. In the late 1990s, of course, pessimism gave way to extreme confidence in the economy, lasting until the dot-com collapse. The contemporary policy environment is again one of concern if not alarm about U.S. economic performance, although vis-à-vis different sources of competition | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy In this fluctuating environment, STEP’s focus has not shifted away from the U.S. position in the global economy. Investing for Productivity and Prosperity was followed by a series of projects examining development of international technical standards and testing certification, technology policy as a source of trade friction among the industrialized countries, tax policy affecting the location of foreign direct investment and R&D performance, evaluation of U.S. and foreign government interventions in support of commercial technology development, and the effects of foreign government conditions on aerospace sales and investment. A major focus since the late 1990s has been on the reasons for the improved competitiveness of many U.S. industries and the resurgence in productivity growth, the extent to which these are accurately measured and reflected in the national economic accounts, and how they can be sustained. Nevertheless, the STEP portfolio has become more diversified, with projects on the economics of K-12 education reform, impact of technology on jobs and wages, supply of IT workers, quality of innovation-related statistics, functioning of the patent system, impact of intellectual property on research, shifts in the federal research portfolio by field, financing of entrepreneurship, prizes as a tool of innovation policy, and aeronautics R&D at NASA | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy This diversification has been a key to STEP’s success and endurance, but the board is mindful that global competition and its effects on Americans’ employment and welfare remain the principal driver of its agenda. When, as now, public and political concern is ascendant, other institutions and others in the Academy are quickly drawn into this policy arena to compete for many of the same sources of financial support. Within the past 3 or 4 years alone nominally similar programs have been launched at the Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, Center for Strategic and International Studies, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and spun off from the Progressive Policy Institute. Since nearly all of STEP’s work is microeconomic, other ways to parse STEP’s portfolio are by industrial sector and by microeconomic policy. On the first dimension, STEP has focused intensively on semiconductors, software, computing (and its component technologies), and biotechnology and given considerable attention also to aviation, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, telecommunications, metal fabrication, and finance. At the same time, STEP has done significant although by no means exhaustive work on the following microeconomic policies – tax, trade, standards, K-12 and graduate education, workforce training, intellectual property, economic statistics, and, of course, direct and indirect research and development support | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy Areas that have received little attention to date are agriculture, energy and power, and environmental regulation. Although these are the domains of other standing NRC units that, of course, does not preclude STEP from undertaking projects in those areas tailored to its strengths nor does it preclude collaborations. Discussions have in fact occurred with each of those units (BANR, BEES, and BEST) and led to formal collaborative proposals, but unfortunately those proposals have not attracted sponsors. Encouraging cross-disciplinary, cross-sector dialogue on issues of competitiveness and innovation was a major theme of the NRC discussions leading to the creation of STEP. The Board itself has sustained this dialogue across many changes in membership notably including the departure recently of the last original member, Dale Jorgenson. Meetings are well attended and members frequently remark on the high caliber of discussion and learning across disciplines and sectors. STEP has extended this form of dialogue to the many ad hoc committees under its oversight. Normally, STEP study committees include 2 or 3 STEP members – a testament to the fact that many (perhaps most) projects are conceived in board discussions and members become committed to helping carry them through to fruition | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy In addition, an effort is made to ensure that study committee rosters recommended to the Division Chair and the President include a mix of expertise and experience similar to that on the board itself – industrial technologists, economists, financial executives, academic scientists, and former policymakers STEP has also contributed to dialogue within the NRC. Staff are frequently asked to suggest committee members and other resources for studies in other units. Formal collaborations have involved the Science, Technology, and Law Committee, Committee on National Statistics, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, Board on Higher Education and the Workforce, Board on Testing and Assessment, National Cancer Policy Board, and Board on Health Care Services (of the National Academies). STEP has benefited from and exploited the microeconomic field of technology and productivity analysis that is the fairly recent legacy of Griliches, Jorgenson, Solow, Mansfield, and others as well as the work of international trade economists. But the fact is that in many of the specific policy areas of STEP work – intellectual property, standards, program evaluation, etc. – there is a serious deficit of empirical research. Rather than rely on anecdote and judgment, the Board has when possible taken the step – unusual for the Academy – of supporting small-scale original research projects, often surveys | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy This was done in studies of the patent system, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, Advanced Technology Program (ATP), and biomedical researchers’ experience with intellectual property. In all of these cases, the research results strongly influenced study committees’ findings and recommendations. That, in turn, has encouraged more research. In the case of the patent study, the Board in 2002 issued an RFP, received 80-odd proposals, and selected 9 projects for full or co-funding. This undoubtedly contributed to the subsequent flowering of empirical research on intellectual property systems and policies. More typical of the Academy, STEP work has helped shape the agendas of investigators and research sponsors. A prime example is the 2001 workshop, Using Human Resource Data to Track Innovation, whose premise was that studying the qualifications, career paths, and activities of industrial scientists, engineers, and other professionals could reveal a great deal about innovation processes, especially those beyond the R&D stage. The workshop has shaped the subsequent work of Paula Stephan, who was commissioned to write the principal paper for the meeting, and led directly to a series of NSF workshops, other research initiatives, and efforts to improve the utility of data from the NSF surveys of PhD-holders. A community of investigators is exploring ways to match publication and patent data with NSF human resource data. Stephan attributes all of this activity directly to the seminal STEP workshop | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy STEP reports have had a demonstrable impact on public policy discussions and outcomes. Examples include: "A Patent System for the 21st Century" (2004). In April 2004 a STEP committee chaired by Yale President Richard Levin and former Xerox CTO Mark Myers issued a final report of a broad study of how well the U.S. patent system is fulfilling its purpose of encouraging research, innovation, and the dissemination of knowledge and how it is adapting to rapid technological and economic changes. It found that while the system has shown admirable flexibility in accommodating new technologies, there is reason to be concerned about the quality of issued patents, the resources available to the US Patent and Trademark Office to keep up with the pace of technological change and volume of applications, features of U.S. law that inhibit the dissemination of information contained in patents and that raise the cost and uncertainty of litigation over patent validity and infringement, access to patented research technologies for basic non-commercial research, and redundancies and inconsistencies among national patent systems that raise the cost of global intellectual property protection. With dedicated dissemination funds provided by the NRC, a private foundation, and several companies and law firms, a very extensive outreach effort, involving public meetings across the country, was undertaken. The committee co-chairs were lead-off witnesses in Senate and House patent reform hearings in the spring of 2005 and again in 2007 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy Five of the report’s seven recommendations are core provisions of legislation introduced by the committee chairs in the 109th Congress and expected to be re-introduced in the 110th. In part through the Board’s outreach efforts and in part because of interest abroad in the contributions of federal and state government policy to U.S. economic performance, there is a growing international audience for STEP’s work, evidenced by the high volume of visits to the website and invitations for presentations to international organizations (e.g., various committees of the OECD, parts of the European Commission, World Intellectual Property Organization, and European Patent Office), and national government officials and international academic gatherings too numerous to list. Originally confined to the industrial countries this interest has extended to the governments of and academics in the emerging economies – China, India, Brazil, Vietnam, and the former Soviet republics. STEP has received project support from the OECD, European Commission, Industry Canada, and Embassy of the United Kingdom. A formal collaboration with two of the German economic research institutes yielded two reports, and in 1995 STEP was asked to host an international conference on technology and jobs preparatory to the G-7 Summit meeting. Congress is a principal consumer of STEP work, and the Board has conducted or is conducting three congressionally mandated projects | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy A fourth mandate – the ongoing evaluation of 5 agencies’ SBIR programs – followed STEP work on SBIR but has been carried out under separate oversight. Discussion is underway with members of Congress of a major study of the role of intangible assets (R&D, intellectual property, software, worker training, and organizational competence) in economic growth. Nevertheless, what will appear in final legislation or bill report language is always highly uncertain; and agency compliance with congressional study mandates is not assured. STEP has twice negotiated language with congressional sponsors for studies that were eventually included in enacted legislation and developed proposals to the executive agencies directed to contract with the Academies, but the mandates were not executed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12911652 |
Sodium sesquicarbonate (systematic name: trisodium hydrogendicarbonate) NaH(CO) is a double salt of sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate (NaHCO · NaCO), and has a needle-like crystal structure. However, the term is also applied to an equimolar mixture of those two salts, with whatever water of hydration the sodium carbonate includes, supplied as a powder. The dihydrate, NaH(CO) · 2HO, occurs in nature as the evaporite mineral trona. Due to concerns about the toxicity of borax which was withdrawn as a cleaning and laundry product, sodium sesquicarbonate is sold in the European Union (EU) as "Borax substitute". It is also known as one of the E number food additives E500. is used in bath salts, swimming pools, as an alkalinity source for water treatment, and as a phosphate-free product replacing the trisodium phosphate for heavy duty cleaning. is used in the conservation of copper and copper alloy artifacts that corrode due to contact with salt (called "bronze disease" due to its effect on bronze). The chloride from salt forms copper(I) chloride. In the presence of oxygen and water, even the small amount of moisture in the atmosphere, the cuprous chloride forms copper(II) chloride and hydrochloric acid, the latter of which dissolves the metal and forms more cuprous chloride in a self-sustaining reaction that leads to the entire destruction of the object. Treatment with sodium sesquicarbonate removes copper(II) chlorides from the corroded layer | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12912325 |
Sodium sesquicarbonate It is also used as a precipitating water softener, which combines with hard water minerals (calcium- and magnesium-based minerals) to form an insoluble precipitate, removing these hardness minerals from the water. It is the carbonate moiety which forms the precipitate, the bicarbonate being included to moderate the material's alkalinity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12912325 |
Supernova Legacy Survey The Program is a project designed to investigate dark energy, by detecting and monitoring approximately 2000 high-redshift supernovae between 2003 and 2008, using MegaPrime, a large CCD mosaic at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. It also carries out detailed spectroscopy of a subsample of distant supernovae. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12918089 |
Smart ligand Smart ligands are affinity ligands selected with pre-defined equilibrium (formula_1), kinetic (formula_2, formula_3) and thermodynamic (ΔH, ΔS) parameters of biomolecular interaction. Ligands with desired parameters can be selected from large combinatorial libraries of biopolymers using instrumental separation techniques with well-described kinetic behaviour, such as kinetic capillary electrophoresis (KCE), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), microscale thermophoresis (MST), etc. Known examples of smart ligands include DNA smart aptamers; however, RNA and peptide smart aptamers can also be developed. Smart ligands can find a set of unique applications in biomedical research, drug discovery and proteomic studies. For example, a panel of DNA smart aptamers has been recently used to develop affinity analysis of proteins with ultra-wide dynamic range of measured concentrations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12918117 |
Biosimilar A biosimilar is a biologic medical product (also known as biologic) highly similar to another already approved biological medicine (the 'reference medicine'). Biosimilars are approved according to the same standards of pharmaceutical quality, safety and efficacy that apply to all biological medicines. Biosimilars are officially approved versions of original "innovator" products and can be manufactured when the original product's patent expires. Reference to the innovator product is an integral component of the approval. Unlike with generic drugs of the more common small-molecule type, biologics generally exhibit high molecular complexity and may be quite sensitive to changes in manufacturing processes. Despite that heterogeneity, all biopharmaceuticals, including biosimilars, must maintain consistent quality and clinical performance throughout their lifecycle. A biosimilar is not regarded as a generic of a biological medicine. This is mostly because the natural variability and more complex manufacturing of biological medicines do not allow an exact replication of the molecular micro-heterogeneity. Drug-related authorities such as the EU's European Medicines Agency (EMA), the US's Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Health Products and Food Branch of Health Canada hold their own guidance on requirements for demonstration of the similar nature of two biological products in terms of safety and efficacy | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar According to them, analytical studies demonstrate that the biological product is highly similar to the reference product, despite minor differences in clinically inactive components, animal studies (including the assessment of toxicity), and a clinical study or studies (including the assessment of immunogenicity and pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics). They are sufficient to demonstrate safety, purity, and potency in one or more appropriate conditions of use for which the reference product is licensed and is intended to be used and for which licensure is sought for the biological product. The World Health Organization (WHO) published its "Guidelines for the evaluation of similar biotherapeutic products (SBPs)" in 2009. The purpose of this guideline is to provide an international norm for evaluating biosimilars with a high degree of similarity with an already licensed, reference biotherapeutic medicine. The European Union was the first region in the world to develop a legal, regulatory, and scientific framework for approving biosimilar medicines. The EMA has granted a marketing authorization for more than 50 biosimilars since 2006 (first approved biosimilar Somatropin(Growth hormone)). The first monoclonal antibody that was approved in 2013, was infliximab, putting the EU at the forefront of biologics regulatory science. Meanwhile, on March 6, 2015, the FDA approved the United States's first biosimilar product, the biosimilar of filgrastim called filgrastim-sndz (trade name Zarxio) by Sandoz | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar Approval of medicines in the EU relies on a solid legal framework, which in 2004, introduced a dedicated route for the approval of biosimilars. The EU has pioneered the regulation of biosimilars since the approval of the first one (the growth hormone somatropin) in 2006. Since then, the EU has approved the highest number of biosimilars worldwide, and consequently has the most extensive experience of their use and safety. All medicines produced using biotechnology and those for specific indications (e.g. for cancer, neurodegeneration and auto-immune diseases) must be approved in the EU through the EMA (via the so-called 'centralised procedure'). Nearly all biosimilars approved for use in the EU have been approved centrally, as they use biotechnology for their production. Some biosimilars may be approved at national level, such as some low-molecular weight heparins derived from porcine intestinal mucosa. When a company applies for marketing authorization at EMA, data are evaluated by EMA's scientific committees on human medicines and on safety (the CHMP and PRAC), as well as by EU experts on biological medicines (Biologics Working Party) and specialists in biosimilars (Working Party). The review by EMA results in a scientific opinion, which is then sent to the European Commission, which ultimately grants an EU-wide marketing authorization | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held that new legislation was required to enable them to approve biosimilars to those biologics originally approved through the PHS Act pathway. Additional Congressional hearings have been held. On March 17, 2009, the Pathway for Biosimilars Act was introduced in the House. See the Library of Congress website and search H.R. 1548 in 111th Congress Session. Since 2004 the FDA has held a series of public meetings on biosimilars. The FDA gained the authority to approve biosimilars (including interchangeables that are substitutable with their reference product) as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. The FDA has previously approved biologic products using comparability, for example, Omnitrope in May 2006, but this like Enoxaparin was also to a reference product, Genotropin, originally approved as a biologic drug under the FD&C Act. On March 6, 2015, Zarxio obtained the first approval of FDA. Sandoz's Zarxio is biosimilar to Amgen's Neupogen (filgrastim), which was originally licensed in 1991. This is the first product to be passed under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCI Act), which was passed as part of the Affordable Healthcare Act. But Zarxio was approved as a biosimilar, not as an interchangeable product, the FDA notes | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar And under the BPCI Act, only a biologic that has been approved as an "interchangeable" may be substituted for the reference product without the intervention of the health care provider who prescribed the reference product. The FDA said its approval of Zarxio is based on review of evidence that included structural and functional characterization, animal study data, human pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics data, clinical immunogenicity data and other clinical safety and effectiveness data that demonstrates Zarxio is biosimilar to Neupogen. In March 2020, most protein products that were approved as drug products (including every insulin currently on the market ) are scheduled to open up to biosimilar and interchangeable competition in the United States. However, "chemically synthesized polypeptides" are excluded from this transition, which means that a product that falls within this category won't be able to come to market as a biosimilar or interchangeable product, but will have to come to the market under a different pathway. Cloning of human genetic material and development of in vitro biological production systems has allowed the production of virtually any recombinant DNA based biological substance for eventual development of a drug. Monoclonal antibody technology combined with recombinant DNA technology has paved the way for tailor-made and targeted medicines. Gene- and cell-based therapies are emerging as new approaches | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar Recombinant therapeutic proteins are of a complex nature (composed of a long chain of amino acids, modified amino acids, derivatized by sugar moieties, folded by complex mechanisms). These proteins are made in living cells (bacteria, yeast, animal or human cell lines). The ultimate characteristics of a drug containing a recombinant therapeutic protein are to a large part determined by the process through which they are produced: choice of the cell type, development of the genetically modified cell for production, production process, purification process, formulation of the therapeutic protein into a drug. After the expiry of the patent of approved recombinant drugs (e.g., insulin, human growth hormone, interferons, erythropoietin, monoclonal antibodies and more) any other biotech company can develop and market these biologics (thus called biosimilars). Every biological (or biopharmaceutical products) displays a certain degree of variability, even between different batches of the same product, which is due to the inherent variability of the biological expression system and the manufacturing process. Any kind of reference product has undergone numerous changes in its manufacturing processes, and such changes in the manufacturing process (ranging from a change in the supplier of cell culture media to new purification methods or new manufacturing sites) was substantiated with appropriate data and was approved by the EMA | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar In contrast, it is mandatory for biosimilars to take a both non-clinical and clinical test that the most sensitive clinical models are asked to show to enable detection of differences between the two products in terms of human pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD), efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity. The current concept of development of biosimilar mAbs follows the principle that an extensive state of the art physicochemical, analytical and functional comparison of the molecules is complemented by comparative non-clinical and clinical data that establish equivalent efficacy and safety in a clinical "model" indication that is most sensitive to detect any minor differences (if these exist) between biosimilar and its reference mAb also at the clinical level. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recognized this fact, which has resulted in the establishment of the term "biosimilar" in recognition that, whilst biosimilar products are similar to the original product, they are not exactly the same. Every biological displays a certain degree of variability. However, provided that structure and function(s), pharmacokinetic profiles and pharmacodynamic effect(s) and/or efficacy can be shown to be comparable for the biosimilar and the reference product, those adverse drug reactions which are related to exaggerated pharmacological effects can also be expected at similar frequencies | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar Originally the complexity of biological molecules led to requests for substantial efficacy and safety data for a biosimilar approval. This has been progressively replaced with a greater dependence on assays, from quality through to clinical, that show assay sensitivity sufficient to detect any significant difference in dose. However, the safe application of biologics depends on an informed and appropriate use by healthcare professionals and patients. Introduction of biosimilars also requires a specifically designed pharmacovigilance plan. It is difficult and costly to recreate biologics because the complex proteins are derived from living organisms that are genetically modified. In contrast, small molecule drugs made up of a chemically based compound can be easily replicated and are considerably less expensive to reproduce. In order to be released to the public, biosimilars must be shown to be as close to identical to the parent innovator biologic product based on data compiled through clinical, animal, analytical studies and conformational status. Generally, once a drug is released in the market by the FDA, it has to be re-evaluated for its safety and efficacy once every six months for the first and second years. Afterward, re-evaluations are conducted yearly, and the result of the assessment should be reported to authorities such as FDA. Biosimilars are required to undergo pharmacovigilance (PVG) regulations as its reference product | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar Thus biosimilars approved by the EMA (European Medicines Agency) are required to submit a risk management plan (RMP) along with the marketing application and have to provide regular safety update reports after the product is in the market. The RMP includes the safety profile of the drug and proposes the prospective pharmacovigilance studies. Several PK studies, such as studies conducted by Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), have been conducted under various ranges of conditions; Antibodies from an originator's product versus antibodies from an biosimilar; combination therapy and monotherapy; various diseases, etc. on the purpose to verify comparability in pharmacokinetics of the biosimilar with the reference medicinal product in a sufficiently sensitive and homogeneous population. Importantly, provided that structure and function(s), pharmacokinetic profiles and pharmacodynamic effect(s) and/or efficacy can be shown to be comparable for the biosimilar and the reference product, those adverse drug reactions which are related to exaggerated pharmacological effects can also be expected at similar frequencies. The European Union has the largest number of approved biosimilar medicines up to date. The EMA's scientific committees evaluate the majority of marketing authorization applications for biosimilar medicines before they can be approved and marketed in the EU | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar The EMA evaluates biosimilars according to the same standards of pharmaceutical quality, safety and efficacy that apply to all biological medicines approved in the EU. Source: European Medicines Agency (April 2019) The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCI Act) was originally sponsored and introduced on June 26, 2007, by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). It was formally passed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPAC Act), signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The BPCI Act was an amendment to the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act) to create an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products that are demonstrated to be highly similar (biosimilar) to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved biological product. The BPCI Act is similar, conceptually, to the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (also referred to as the "Hatch-Waxman Act") which created biological drug approval through the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFD&C Act). The BPCI Act aligns with the FDA's longstanding policy of permitting appropriate reliance on what is already known about a drug, thereby saving time and resources and avoiding unnecessary duplication of human or animal testing. The FDA has released a total of four draft guidelines related to biosimilar or follow-on biologics development. Upon the release of the first three guidance documents the FDA held a public hearing on May 11, 2012 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar In 2018, the FDA released a Biosimilars Action Plan to implement regulations from the BPCI, including limiting the abuse of the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) system for evergreening and transitioning insulin and human growth hormone to regulation as biologics rather than drugs. In Europe no unique identifier of a biosimilar medicine product is required, same rules are followed as for all biologics. For identifying and tracing biological medicines in the EU, medicines have to be distinguished by the tradename and batch number and this is particularly important in cases where more than one medicine with the same INN exists on the market. This ensures that, in line with EU requirements for ADR reporting, the medicine can be correctly identified if any product-specific safety (or immunogenicity) concern arises. The report 1 of the May 2017 WHO Expert Consultation on Improving Access to and Use of Similar Biotherapeutic Products, published in October 2017, revealed on page 4, that following the outcome arising from the meeting: "No consensus was reached on whether WHO should continue with the BQ...WHO will not be proceeding with this at present." On 14 February 2019, Health Canada announced the decision that both the brand name and non-proprietary name should be used throughout the medication use process. Biologics that share the same non-proprietary name can be distinguished by their unique brand names | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar The US decided on a different approach, being only jurisdiction requiring the assignment of a four character alphabetic suffix to the nonproprietary name of the original product to distinguish between innovator drugs and their biosimilars. In the United States, biosimilars have not had the expected impact on prices, leading a 2019 proposal to price regulate instead after an exclusivity period. Another proposal requires originators to share the underlying cell lines. In 2019, the proposed Biologic Patent Transparency Act would help address evergreening "patent thickets" by requiring that all patents protecting a biosimilar be disclosed. Biosimilars have found it difficult to get market share, which led biosimilar developer Pfizer to sue Johnson & Johnson over anticompetitive contracts with pharmacy benefit managers which bundle discounts; these are sometimes called the "rebate wall", and the rebates are generally unavailable to customers. A proposed rule affecting Medicare / Medicaid enrollees announced later in 2019 A proposed law entitled Prescription Pricing for the People Act of 2019 was introduced requesting that the FTC investigate rebating. In 2019, pharmaceuticals CEOs testified before a Senate committee, with companies disagreeing on biosimilar competition reform. The House Oversight Committee and Senate Finance Committee both held hearings in early 2019 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar The legal requirements of approval pathways, together with the costly manufacturing processes, escalates the developing costs for biosimilars that could be between $75–$250 million per molecule. This market entry barrier affects not only the companies willing to produce them but could also delay availability of inexpensive alternatives for public healthcare institutions that subsidize treatment for their patients. Even though the biosimilars market is rising, the price drop for biological drugs at risk of patent expiration will not be as great as for other generic drugs; in fact it has been estimated that the price for biosimilar products will be 65%-85% of their originators. Biosimilars are drawing market's attention since there is an upcoming patent cliff, which will put nearly 36% of the $140 billion market for biologic drugs at risk (as of 2011), this considering only the top 10 selling products. The global biosimilars market was in 2013 and is expected to reach by 2020 driven by the patent expiration of additional ten blockbuster biologic drugs. Certain companies (in some cases subsidiaries) tend to operate as , with major ones including Teva, Mylan, and Sandoz and may also extend that focus to biosimilars. Sandoz, for example, introduced the first biosimilar in the United States, and plans to introduce another in 2020. Newer companies such as India-based Sun Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, and Dr | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Biosimilar Reddy's Laboratories as well as Canada-based Apotex have taken share in traditional generics, which has led older companies to shift their focus to complex drugs such as biosimilars. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12924448 |
Transovarial transmission Transovarial or transovarian transmission (transmission from parent to offspring via the ovaries) occurs in certain arthropod vectors as they transmit pathogens from parent arthropod to offspring arthropod. For instance, "Rickettsia rickettsii", carried within ticks, is passed on from parent to offspring tick by transovarial transmission. In contrast, "Rickettsia prowazekii" is not passed on by transovarian transmission because it kills the vector that carries it (human louse). This is the mechanism by which many Rickettsiae are maintained in their arthropod hosts through generations, which occurs also in aedes mosquito vector of the yellow fever virus and in phlebotomine sandflies that transmit pappataci fever. Richard Dawkins in "The Extended Phenotype" page 222 (1999 edition) notes that "bacterial endosymbionts of insects which are transmitted transovarially" share an interest in the "success of their host's gametes...as well as the survival of their host's body." In this case, "the interest of the host genes and parasite genes might not be quite identical, but they would... be very much closer than the case of fluke and snail." where host and parasite have different means of propagation into the next generation, and therefore more divergent interests. Contrast with transstadial transmission. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12929900 |
MACPF The Membrane Attack Complex/Perforin (MACPF) superfamily, sometimes referred to as the MACPF/CDC superfamily, is named after a domain that is common to the membrane attack complex (MAC) proteins of the complement system (C6, C7, C8α, C8β and C9) and perforin (PF). Members of this protein family are pore-forming toxins (PFTs). In eukaryotes, proteins play a role in immunity and development. Archetypal members of the family are complement C9 and perforin, both of which function in human immunity. C9 functions by punching holes in the membranes of Gram-negative bacteria. Perforin is released by cytotoxic T cells and lyses virally infected and transformed cells. In addition, perforin permits delivery of cytotoxic proteases called granzymes that cause cell death. Deficiency of either protein can result in human disease. Structural studies reveal that domains are related to cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDCs), a family of pore forming toxins previously thought to only exist in bacteria. As of early 2016, there are three families belonging to the superfamily: Proteins containing domains play key roles in vertebrate immunity, embryonic development, and neural-cell migration. The ninth component of complement and perforin form oligomeric pores that lyse bacteria and kill virus-infected cells, respectively. The crystal structure of a bacterial protein, Plu-from "Photorhabdus luminescens" was determined () | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12936761 |
MACPF The domain is structurally similar to pore-forming cholesterol-dependent cytolysins from gram-positive bacteria, suggesting that proteins create pores and disrupt cell membranes similar to cytolysin. A representative list of proteins belonging to the family can be found in the Transporter Classification Database. Many proteins belonging to the superfamily play key roles in plant and animal immunity. Complement proteins C6-C9 all contain a domain and assemble into the membrane attack complex. C6, C7 and C8β appear to be non-lytic and function as scaffold proteins within the MAC. In contrast both C8α and C9 are capable of lysing cells. The final stage of MAC formation involves polymerisation of C9 into a large pore that punches a hole in the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria. Perforin is stored in granules within cytotoxic T-cells and is responsible for killing virally infected and transformed cells. Perforin functions via two distinct mechanisms. Firstly, like C9, high concentrations of perforin can form pores that lyse cells. Secondly, perforin permits delivery of the cytotoxic granzymes A and B into target cells. Once delivered, granzymes are able to induce apoptosis and cause target cell death. The plant protein CAD1 (TC# 1.C.39.11.3) functions in the plant immune response to bacterial infection. The sea anemone "Actineria villosa" uses a (AvTX-60A; TC# 1.C.39.10.1)protein as a lethal toxin. proteins are also important for the invasion of the Malarial parasite into the mosquito host and the liver | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12936761 |
MACPF Not all proteins function in defence or attack. For example, astrotactin-1 (TC# 9.B.87.3.1) is involved in neural cell migration in mammals and apextrin (TC# 1.C.39.7.4) is involved in sea urchin ("Heliocidaris erythrogramma") development. "Drosophila" Torso-like protein (TC# 1.C.39.15.1), which controls embryonic patterning, also contains a domain. Its function is implicated in a receptor tyrosine kinase signaling pathway that specifies differentiation and terminal cell fate. Functionally uncharacterised proteins are sporadically distributed in bacteria. Several species of "Chlamydia" contain proteins. The insect pathogenic bacteria "Photorhabdus luminescens" also contains a protein, however, this molecule appears non-lytic. The X-ray crystal structure of Plu-MACPF, a protein from the insect pathogenic enterobacteria "Photorhabdus luminescens" has been determined (figure 1). These data reveal that the domain is homologous to pore forming cholesterol dependent cytolysins (CDC's) from gram-positive pathogenic bacteria such as "Clostridium perfringens" (which causes gas gangrene). The amino acid sequence identity between the two families is extremely low, and the relationship is not detectable using conventional sequence based data mining techniques. It is suggested that proteins and CDCs form pores in the same way (figure 1). Specifically it is hypothesised that proteins oligomerise to form a large circular pore (figure 2) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12936761 |
MACPF A concerted conformational change within each monomer then results in two α-helical regions unwinding to form four amphipathic β-strands that span the membrane of the target cell. Like CDC's proteins are thus β-pore forming toxins that act like a molecular hole punch. Other crystal structures for members of the superfamily can be found in RCSB: i.e., , , , , Complement regulatory proteins such as CD59 function as MAC inhibitors and prevent inappropriate activity of complement against self cells (Figure 3). Biochemical studies have revealed the peptide sequences in C8α and C9 that bind to CD59. Analysis of the domain structures reveals that these sequences map to the second cluster of helices that unfurl to span the membrane. It is therefore suggested that CD59 directly inhibits the MAC by interfering with conformational change in one of the membrane spanning regions. Other proteins that bind to the MAC include C8γ. This protein belongs to the lipocalin family and interacts with C8α. The binding site on C8α is known, however, the precise role of C8γ in the MAC remains to be understood. Deficiency of C9, or other components of the MAC results in an increased susceptibility to diseases caused by gram-negative bacteria such as meningococcal meningitis. Overactivity of proteins can also cause disease. Most notably, deficiency of the MAC inhibitor CD59 results in an overactivity of complement and Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12936761 |
MACPF Perforin deficiency results in the commonly fatal disorder familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL or HLH). This disease is characterised by an overactivation of lymphocytes which results in cytokine mediated organ damage. The protein DBCCR1 may function as a tumor suppressor in bladder cancer. C6; C7; C8A; C8B; C9; FAM5B; FAM5C; MPEG1; PRF1 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12936761 |
CS gas (data page) Data on CS gas. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12941498 |
R. Keith Ellis Richard Keith Ellis, (born 17 November 1949) is a British theoretical physicist, at the University of Durham and a leading authority on perturbative quantum chromodynamics and collider phenomenology. He graduated from the University of Oxford (MA 1971, D. Phil 1974). He has held positions at Imperial College, MIT, Caltech, CERN and the University of Rome. He went to Fermilab in 1984. He was Head of the Theoretical Physics Department at Fermilab from 1993 to 2004. In 2015 he moved to the University of Durham in the UK, where he is a professor of Physics and Director of the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology. Ellis' work is of importance to the study of elementary particles at colliders, such as the Fermilab Tevatron, and the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Ellis has contributed in a substantial way to the interpretation of experiments performed at high energy. Together with Douglas Ross and Tony Terrano he performed the first calculation of jet structure in e+e- annihilation which allowed precise determination of the strong coupling. In addition, with Guido Altarelli and Guido Martinelli he performed a calculation of lepton pair production which allow reconciliation of observed rates with theoretical calculations. He has also co-authored a number of widely read papers on the theory of heavy quark production. He is also co-author for the parton-level Monte Carlo program MCFM. He is the coauthor with W. J. Stirling and B. R | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12943388 |
R. Keith Ellis Webber of a book on QCD and collider physics published by Cambridge University Press in 1996. Ellis was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1988 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2009. Also in 2009, Ellis together with John Collins and Davison Soper won the J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics, "For work in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, including applications to problems pivotal to the interpretation of high energy particle collisions." In 2019 he was awarded the Paul Dirac medal of the Institute of Physics, "For his seminal work in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) where he performed many of the key calculations that led to the acceptance of QCD as the correct theory of the strong interaction." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12943388 |
Flexural modulus In mechanics, the flexural modulus or bending modulus is an intensive property that is computed as the ratio of stress to strain in flexural deformation, or the tendency for a material to resist bending. It is determined from the slope of a stress-strain curve produced by a flexural test (such as the ASTM D790), and uses units of force per area. For a 3-point test of a rectangular beam behaving as an isotropic linear material, where "w" and "h" are the width and height of the beam, "I" is the second moment of area of the beam's cross-section, "L" is the distance between the two outer supports, and "d" is the deflection due to the load "F" applied at the middle of the beam, the flexural modulus: From elastic beam theory and for rectangular beam thus formula_4 (Elastic modulus) Ideally, flexural or bending modulus of elasticity is equivalent to the tensile modulus (Young's modulus) or compressive modulus of elasticity. In reality, these values may be different, especially for polymers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12947946 |
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