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Mylan Department of Justice, agreeing to pay $465 million and enter into a corporate integrity agreement concerning the rebate program. In a report published on June 12, 2017 Institutional Shareholder Services criticized for the "outsized compensation" of Mylan's directors. Former CEO Robert Coury received a $98 million 2016 pay package in spite of shareholder losses and the perceived harm to the company inflicted by the EpiPen controversies. The report urged Mylan's shareholders to oust all of Mylan's existing directors. Inc. operates several divisions and subsidiaries in various regions around the world: Founded in 1961, the company was first located in an abandoned skating rink in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The facility was moved to Pennsauken, New Jersey in 1962, to Princeton, West Virginia in 1963, and then Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1965, and in 1976 it relocated its corporate headquarters to the Pittsburgh suburb Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Finally in 2004 it moved to a new office center in nearby Southpointe, a suburban business park located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Cecil Township, where it is still located. On February 23, 1973, had its initial public offering (IPO), becoming a publicly traded company on the OTC market under the ticker symbol MYLN. In 1976 the stock moved to NASDAQ. Their final stock move was in 1986, when their stock became available for trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MYL. Currently, the stock is traded on the NASDAQ
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Mylan Pharmaceuticals was founded as a drug distributor in 1961 by Milan Puskar and Don Panoz. In 1966 began manufacturing penicillin G tablets as well as vitamins and other dietary supplements. Panoz left in 1969 and Puskar quit the company in 1973, as it grew and experienced financial difficulties. The board hired Roy McKnight as board chairman, who convinced Puskar to return in 1976. discontinued operating as a contract manufacturing organization in 1980 and instead chose to market their products under their own "Mylan-labeled" brand. With the passage of the Hatch-Waxman Act in 1984, and other small generic companies gained value; in the eighteen months following passage of the law Mylan's earnings grew 166% to $12.5 million and its stock value rose 800%. In the 1980s one of the most prescribed drugs in the US was Dyazide, a diuretic that was a combination drug containing triamterene and hydrochlorothiazide; it had been on the market since 1965 and its patents had expired in 1980. Complications arose with the introductions of generics versions, because the formulation of Dyazide resulted in variable batches that made it impossible for generic manufacturers to show that their versions were bioequivalent. Some generic companies committed fraud trying to bring a generic version of Dyazide. Bolar Pharmaceutical had the first generic version approved in 1987, but it turned out that Bolar had fraudulently substituted Dyazide for its own version to conduct studies that were submitted to the FDA
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Mylan By 1989 the FDA rescinded its approval based on its suspicions and filed criminal charges against Bolar, to which Bolar eventually pled guilty in 1991. chose to develop a new version of a triamterene/hydrochlorothiazide combination drug instead of going the generic route; it developed a different, more stable formulation and used different dosages of each active ingredient (50 mg hydrochlorothiazide and 75 mg triamterene, compared with Dyazide's 25 mg hydrochlorothiazide and 50 mg triamterene). This drug had to get approval as a new drug, as opposed to a generic. Their product was called Maxzide and was approved in 1984. The higher dose allowed once per day dosing, which and its marketing partner, Lederle, believed would help it compete against Dyazide, which had $210M in sales in 1983. However, Mylan's patents on the drug were declared invalid in court, and its marketing exclusivity expired in 1987, prompting a rush of generic competition had concerns about the practices of its competitors and the FDA in general, and also with regard to companies seeking to bring generic versions of Maxzide. hired private investigators to examine its competitors' practices, and when it found evidence of corruption, it submitted it to the House Oversight and Investigations Committee, which investigated and found fraud and corruption within the Food and Drug Administration's generic drugs division and at other generic companies
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Mylan Two of the companies that had gotten approval to market generic versions of Maxzide, Vitarine Pharmaceutical and Par Pharmaceutical, were targets of Mylan's initial investigation and were found to have used Mylan's Maxzide to obtain their bioequivalence data, leading both companies to withdraw its generic competitor to Mylan's product. The corruption in the nascent generics industry and at the office in the FDA regulating it was widely covered in the media, and led to widespread concern among doctors and the public in the late 1980s and early 1990s that generic drugs were not really the same as the branded drugs they were meant to replace. In 1987 agreed to enter into a joint venture with Bolar to buy Somerset Pharmaceuticals; wanted access to Somersets' drug discovery capabilities as well as its new drug for Parkinson's, selegiline; the deal was completed in 1988 but its consummation was dependent on FDA approval of selegiline, which came in 1989. acquired Bertek Inc. in 1993 for its transdermal patch technologies, and kept it as a subsidiary. In 1999 renamed the company Technologies Inc. (MTI). MTI eventually came to be the contract manufacturer for the selegiline transdermal patch and was the first company to market generic nitroglycerin, estradiol, clonidine, and fentanyl transdermal patches. In 1996 acquired UDL Laboratories, a supplier of unit dose generic medications to institutional and long-term care facilities
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Mylan In 1998 when it was the world's second largest generics company, came under investigation from the Federal Trade Commission after it raised the prices of its products, tripling them in the case of lorazepam. had entered into an exclusive agreement with Profarmica, an Italian company that supplied drug ingredients, after which Mylan's competitors had higher prices and a diminished supply of raw ingredients for lorazepam and other drugs. Before the round of price increases the price of generic drugs had been 5 - 10% of the price of branded drugs and afterwards it was around 50%. The FTC filed suit at the end of 1998 and 32 states filed parallel actions. The case was settled in 2000, with paying a total of $147M -- $100M in disgorged profits into a fund to reimburse consumers and state agencies that had overpaid, $8 million in attorney's fees to the State Attorneys General, $35 million, plus $4 million in attorney's fees, to settle certain class actions with insurers and managed care organizations—and and three ingredient suppliers (Cambrex Corporation, Profarmaco S.R.L., and Gyma Laboratories) also agreed to an injunction barring them from entering into similar anticompetitive agreements in the future. In 2004 and King Pharmaceuticals began discussing a deal in which would acquire King for about $4B; wanted to expand its presence in branded pharmaceuticals and to acquire King's sales force
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Mylan The deal was complicated by a number of factors, and included an SEC investigation into King's accounting and Carl Icahn obtaining a 9.8% interest in and becoming its largest stakeholder in order to kill the deal. The parties called off the deal in February 2005. Afterwards, Icahn offered to buy for $5.4B and nominated a slate of board members to change the direction of Mylan; he won three seats in May 2005. In June bought back 25% of its shares in order to fend off Icahn. In July Icahn gave up his bid and sold his shares. In August 2006 announced that it had reached an agreement to buy a controlling interest in Matrix Laboratories, an Indian supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients. The deal gave access to markets in India and China and was completed in January the next year. In May 2007 and Merck KGaA agreed that would acquire Merck's generics arm for $6.6B. The deal was completed that October and tripled the size of Mylan. acquired the rights to market the EpiPen in the transaction. At that time annual sales were around $200 million and the EpiPen had about 90% of the market. In 2009, the company filed two lawsuits against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after the newspaper ran an article that was critical of the quality control procedures used at the company's Morgantown plant. The company had earlier quality control issues involving the FDA
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Mylan The lawsuits were dropped in 2012 without any damages paid by the Post-Gazette, which stated "The Post-Gazette did not find and did not intend to report that had manufactured or distributed any defective drugs. The Post-Gazette regrets if any reader of the article thought otherwise." Also in 2009, and its subsidiary UDL agreed to pay a $118M to settle a suit filed under the False Claims Act in which Mylan/UDL and two other companies were accused of underpaying states under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. The program requires drug companies to give rebates to states under Medicaid and the rebates are higher for new drugs than for generics; the suit said that the companies sold new drugs but paid rebates as if they were generics. In 2011, entered into an agreement with Pfizer for the exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize Pfizer's generic equivalent to GlaxoSmithKline's Advair (US)/Seretide (UK) Diskus incorporating Pfizer's proprietary dry powder inhaler delivery platform. launched the product in the UK in 2015 and in February 2016 the FDA accepted its ANDA, putting it in line behind Hikma and Sandoz to launch a generic version in the US. In 2012, launched a program called "EpiPen4Schools" to sell EpiPens in bulk and with discounts to schools. To participate in the program schools had to agree not to buy epinephrine autoinjectors from any other company for a year, a requirement which a spokesperson said is no longer part of its program
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Mylan In December 2012, the National Association of State Boards of Education launched a policy initiative designed to "help state boards of education as they develop student health policies regarding anaphylaxis and epinephrine auto-injector access and use," and advocated for state laws protecting school from legal liability for stocking and using epinephrine autoinjectors. Gayle Manchin, the mother of Mylan's CEO, Heather Bresch, had become president of the association in 2010, and shortly after had discussed donations from her "daughter's company" to the association. Manchin had been appointed to the West Virginia state school board by her husband, then-governor of the state Joe Manchin, in 2007. In a statement, said, "There is no truth to the suggestion that the company's efforts were anything but straightforward or that we are aware of anyone advocating inappropriately for the right of schoolchildren to have access to potential life-saving medicine." After successful lobbying from Mylan, in 2013, the "School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act" became law after passing Congress with broad and bipartisan support; it protected anyone from liability if they administered epinephrine to a child in a school (previously, only trained professionals or the affected person were allowed to administer the drug, and were open to liability), and it provided some financial incentives for schools that didn’t already stock epinephrine autoinjector to start stocking them
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Mylan Joe Manchin, the father of Mylan's CEO, was a senator at that time. In 2013 acquired an Indian generic injectable drugs company, Agila Specialties Private, for $1.6 billion in cash. In 2015 three plants acquired in that deal were issued warning letters by the FDA. In July 2014, and Abbott Laboratories announced an agreement under which would buy Abbott's generic drugs business in developed markets for stock valued at about $5.3 billion. acquired Mumbai-based Famy Care and expand its presence in the market for women's contraceptives at about $750 million. In April 2015, tried negotiating with the management of Irish pharmaceutical firm Perrigo to acquire the company, and when those negotiations failed attempted a hostile takeover, offering to buy $26B in shares directly from shareholders. Too few shareholders agreed to sell their stock by the deadline set in November 2015 and the effort failed. Two weeks after made its first offer for Perrigo, Teva Pharmaceutical offered to buy for $40B; the combined companies would have been the world's largest generic company and the 9th biggest drug company in the world. In July, Teva dropped its bid for and instead acquired Allergan's generic drug business for about the same price. In June 2015, agreed to work with Pulmatrix, a company with a proprietary inhaled drug delivery platform, to co-develop a product to treat for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; the product was PUR0200, a generic drug in a Pulmatrix device
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Mylan In February 2016, the company announced it would acquire Meda for $9.9 billion. In May of the same year the company announced it would acquire Renaissance Acquisition Holdings dermatology division for up to $1 billion. In December 2016, the attorneys general of 20 states filed a civil complaint accusing of a coordinated scheme to artificially maintain high prices for a generic antibiotic and diabetes drug. The complaint alleged price collusion schemes between six pharmaceutical firms including informal gatherings, telephone calls, and text messages. In October 2017, the company announced the launch of the first FDA-approved generic of Teva’s long-acting Copaxone. Approximately 3 months later, Credit Suisse analyst Vamil Divan cited IMS Health data which showed that the new generic accounted for 10% of the market. In May 2018, announced a collaboration with West Virginia University to expose children across West Virginia to STEM educational initiatives. In January 2019, the FDA announced their approval of Mylan's Wixela Inhub, the first approved generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's Advair Diskus. In late July 2019, and Pfizer announced that Pfizer would spin off and merge its off-patent medicine division, Upjohn, with Mylan, forming a brand new pharmaceutical business with sales of around $20 billion. The new company will be called Viatris, a name held by one of Mylan's subsidiaries
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Mylan This NewCo will continue sales of Mylan's more than 7,500 products, including biosimilars, generics, brand and over-the-counter remedies, with brands including the Epi-Pen, Viagra, Lipitor and Celebrex. The deal will be structured as an all-stock, Reverse Morris Trust transaction: In November 2019, & Upjohn announced that the name of the new company in the planned transaction would be Viatris. In 2018, valsartan manufactured by was voluntarily recalled due to the detection of trace amounts of "N"-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) which is a probable human carcinogen. The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors: acquired the right to market and distribute the EpiPen line of epinephrine autoinjector devices from Merck KGaA as part of their 2007 deal; that right had formerly been held by Dey LP, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck. According to Bloomberg the devices deliver about $1 worth of drug. At that time annual sales were around $200M. Bresch, the company's CEO, saw an opportunity to increase sales through marketing and advocacy, and the company launched a marketing campaign to increase awareness of the dangers of anaphylaxis for people with severe allergies that made the brand "EpiPen" as identified with its product as "Kleenex" is with facial tissue
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Mylan The company also successfully lobbied the FDA to broaden the label to include risk of anaphylaxis and in parallel, successfully lobbied Congress to generate legislation making EpiPens available in schools and in public places like defibrillators are, and hired the same people that Medtronic had worked with on defibrillator legislation to do so. Mylan's efforts to gain market dominance were aided when Sanofi's competing product was recalled in November 2015 and further when Teva's generic competitor was rejected by the FDA in March 2016. By the first half of 2015, had an 85% market share of such devices in the US and in that year sales reached around $1.5B and accounted for 40% of Mylan's profit. Those profits were also due in part to Mylan's continually raising the price of EpiPens starting in 2009; in 2009 the wholesale price of two EpiPens was about $100, by July 2013 the price was about $265, in May 2015 it was around $461, and in May 2016 the price rose again to around $609, around a 500% jump from the price in 2009. Starting in 2014, according to a 2017 report in the "New York Times", mid-level executives began questioning the rate at which the company had increased and was planning to continue to increase the price of the Epi-Pen, and raising concerns that the price increases were unethical; the "Times" reported that when these concerns were brought to Robert Coury, the chairman of the board, Coury "replied that he was untroubled
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Mylan He raised both his middle fingers and explained, using colorful language, that anyone criticizing Mylan, including its employees, ought to go copulate with themselves. Critics in Congress and on Wall Street, he said, should do the same. And regulators at the Food and Drug Administration? They, too, deserved a round of anatomically challenging self-fulfillment." The "Times" reported that Bresch provided similarly dismissive responses. The "Times" reporter noted that "Those top leaders’ responses are a far cry from the message on Mylan’s website, which says that 'we challenge every member of every team to challenge the status quo,' and that 'we put people and patients first, trusting that profits will follow.'", and also noted that "The firm is a case study in the limits of what consumer and employee activism, as well as government oversight, can achieve." In the summer of 2016, as parents prepared to send their children back to school and went to pharmacies to get new EpiPens, people began to express outrage at the cost of the EpiPen and was widely and harshly criticized, including criticism from Martin Shkreli, "poster boy for grasping pharma greed," letters from two Senators and initiation of Congressional investigations. Mylan's pricing of the EpiPen was widely referred to as price gouging
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Mylan The last price increase coincided with Mylan's airing of a new line of TV commercials that were described as "shocking" and "no holds barred", depicting an anaphylactic reaction from the point of view of the young woman having it at a party, and ending with the young woman seeing her swollen and hive-covered face in the mirror before she collapses. In response to criticism, increased financial assistance available for some patients to purchase EpiPens, a gesture that was called a "classic public relations move" by Harvard Medical School professor Aaron Kesselheim. The up to $300 saving cards can only be used by a small number of people who need the drug, and no one on Medicaid. They do nothing about the high price which is still being paid by insurers, who ultimately pass the cost onto consumers. further responded by releasing the first authorized generic version of the EpiPen in December 2016 at a more than 50% discount. In September 2016, the New York State Attorney General began an investigation into Mylan's "EpiPen4Schools" program in New York to determine if the program's contracts violated antitrust law and the West Virginia State Attorney General opened an investigation into whether had given the state the correct discount under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and subpoenaed the company when it refused to provide the documentation the state requested. In October 2016 the CEO of testified to Congress that Pfizer/King charged about $34.50 for one device
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Mylan In September 2016, a Silicon Valley engineering consultancy performed a teardown analysis of the EpiPen and estimated the manufacturing and packaging costs at about $10 for a two-pack. According to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General analysis, the U.S. government may have overpaid "as much as $1.27 billion between 2006 and 2016" to drugmaker N.V. for the EpiPen emergency allergy treatment. This represents three times the proposed settlement of $465 million announced by in October 2016. In October 2016, announced a settlement with the US Department of Justice over rebates paid by to states under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Questions had been raised by Congress and others about why EpiPen had been classified as a generic rather a proprietary product in the program since 1997; generic drugs have lower rebates (13%) than proprietary drugs (23%), and price hikes for generic drugs cannot be passed onto states, and a common form of pharmaceutical fraud involves misclassifying proprietary drugs as generic under the program. Under the agreement agreed to pay a $465 million payment and to a sign a corporate integrity agreement requiring it to perform better in the future; the settlement also resolved cases brought by states related to the rebates. Simultaneously with the settlement also announced it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to the drug rebate program
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Mylan Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee that launched the "probe of EpiPen pricing probe in 2016, released the analysis on May 30, 2017. On the same day, a group of "investment funds urged shareholders to vote against the re-election of the company's directors after it paid Chairman Robert Coury over $97 million last year." manufactures rocuronium bromide, which is approved by the state of Alabama for use in executions by lethal injection. European manufacturers refuse to sell drugs which can be used for executions to the United States, except to distributors or users who sign legally binding agreements that the drug will not be used for executions down the delivery chain. In September 2014, the London-based human rights organization Reprieve told that they were the only FDA-approved manufacturer of rocuronium bromide without legal controls in place to prevent its use in executions, and there was "a very real risk that may soon become the go-to provider of execution drugs for states across the country". The German asset manager divested itself of $70 million in shares for that reason. said that their distribution was "legally compliant," and that their restrictions did "prohibit resale to correctional facilities for use in lethal injections." Heather Bresch is Executive Director and has served as the CEO of since 2012. Robert Coury serves as Chairman, and Rajiv Malik is President.
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Aperture (botany) Apertures are areas on the walls of a pollen grain, where the wall is thinner and/or softer. For germination it is necessary that the pollen tube can reach out from the inside of the pollen grain and transport the sperm to the egg deep down in the pistil. The apertures are the places where the pollen tube is able to break through the (elsewhere very tough) pollen wall. The number and configuration of apertures are often very exactly characteristic of different groups of plants. The biggest class of plant species, the Eudicots, usually have three apertures in each pollen grain.
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Mohammad Khorrami Mohammad Khorrami, an Iranian mathematical physicist (born October 4, 1966, Tehran) is professor of physics at Alzahra University, Tehran. Competing with over half a million applicants, ranked first in national university entrance exams ("konkoor-e sarasari") of 1984 in Iran.. He graduated with the first rank from the department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Tehran. He started studying Physics at Sharif University in 1989 where he earned his Ph.D. after four years. He was among the third batch of Physicists who earned their Ph.D. in Iran. He joined the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics as a research fellow and at the same time he became a faculty member at Tehran University. Later he became a faculty member of The Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) before moving to Alzahra University. He is already a Physics faculty member and in the Theoretical Physics group by "A.Aghamohammadi", "A. Shariati", "A.H. Fatollahi" and F. Roshani. His research has been concerned with a variety of problems in stochastic processes, conformal field theory, two-dimensional gauge theory, integrability and quantum groups and general relativity. As a physicist, he classifies his tasks under three categories of research, teaching and publicizing. He has published over 70 papers in peer-reviewed physics journals. Among them are:
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National Museum (Prague) The National Museum (NM) (Czech: "Národní muzeum") is a Czech museum institution intended to systematically establish, prepare, and publicly exhibit natural scientific and historical collections. It was founded in 1818 by Kašpar Maria Šternberg. Historian František Palacký was also strongly involved in the foundation of the museum. The National Museum houses nearly 14 million items from the areas of natural history, history, arts, music and librarianship, which are located in dozens of museum buildings. The main building of the National Museum has been renovated in 2011-2019, and permanent exhibitions will be there gradually opened from spring 2020. After the French Revolution, royal and private collections of art, science and culture were made available to the public. The beginnings of the museum can be seen as far back as 1796 when the private Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts was founded by Count Casper Sternberk-Manderschied and a group of other prominent nobles. The avowed purpose of the society was "the renewed promotion of art and taste," and during the time of Joseph II, it would be adamantly opposed to the King. In 1800, the group founded the Academy of Fine Arts, which trained students in progressive forms of art and history. The National Museum in Prague was founded on April 15, 1818. It was founded by Count Sternberk, the first president of the Society of the Patriotic Museum who served as the trustee and operator of the museum
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National Museum (Prague) The early focus of the museum was natural sciences, partially because Count Sternberk was a botanist, mineralogist, and eminent phytopaleontologist, but also because of the natural science slant of the times, as perpetrated by Emperor Joseph II of Austria. The museum was originally located in the Sternberg Palace. When the venue became too small to house the museum's collections, the museum relocated to the Nostitz Palace. It too had insufficient capacity, which led to the construction a new museum building in Wenceslas Square. The museum did not acquire historical objects until the 1830s and 40s, when Romanticism arose. The institution of the museum was increasingly seen as a center for Czech nationalism. Serving as historian and secretary of the National Museum in 1841, František Palacký tried to balance natural science and history, as he described in his Treatise of 1841. However, it was not until nearly a century later that the National Museum’s historical treasures equaled its collection of natural science artifacts. The museum brought about an intellectual shift in Prague. The Bohemian nobility had, until this time, been prominent, both politically and fiscally, in scholarly and scientific groups. However, the National Museum was created to serve all the inhabitants of the land, lifting the stranglehold the nobility had had on knowledge. This was further accelerated by the historian František Palacký, who in 1827 suggested that the museum publish separate journals in German and Czech
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National Museum (Prague) Previously, the vast majority of scholarly journals were written in German, but within a few years the German journal had ceased publication, while the Czech journal continued for more than a century. In 1949, the national government took over the museum and detailed the museum's role and leadership in the Museum and Galleries Act of 1959. In May 1964, the Museum was turned into an organization of five professionally autonomous components, which included the Museum of Natural Science, the Historical Museum, the Naprstek Museum of Asia, African, and American Cultures, the National Museum Library, the Central Office of Museology. A sixth autonomous unit, the Museum of Czech Music, was established in 1976. The Main Building of the National Museum (Historical Building) is located on the upper end of Wenceslas Square and was built by prominent Czech neo-renaissance architect Josef Schulz from 1885 - 1891. Prior to the museum being constructed, there had been several noblemen’s palaces located at this site. With the construction of a permanent building for the museum, a great deal of work, which had previously been devoted to ensuring that the collections would remain intact, was now put toward collecting new materials. The building was damaged during World War II in 1945 by a bomb, but the collections were not damaged due to their removal to secured storage sites
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National Museum (Prague) The museum was reopened after intensive repairs in 1947, and in 1960, exterior night floodlighting was installed, which followed a general repair of the facade that had taken place in previous years. During the 1968 Warsaw Pact intervention, the main facade was severely damaged by strong Soviet machine-gun and automatic submachine-gun fire. The shots made numerous holes in sandstone pillars and plaster, destroyed stone statues and reliefs, and also caused damage in some of the depositories. Despite the general facade repair made between 1970 - 1972 the damage still can be seen because due to the use of lighter sandstone to repair the bullet holes. The main museum building was also damaged during the construction of the Prague Metro in 1972 and 1978. The opening of the North-South Highway in 1978 on two sides of the building resulted in the museum being cut off from city infrastructure. This also led to the building suffering from an excessive noise level, a dangerously high level of dust and constant vibrations from heavy road traffic. Due to the major reconstruction, the museum was closed between 7 July 2011 and 28 October 2018. Seven million items had to be relocated to the museum’s depositories, in what has been dubbed the biggest moving of museum collections in Czech history. In February 2019, the museum's dome was opened for the first time, which also serves as a view of Prague. The eastern courtyard was also opened and was for the first time roofed, during reconstruction
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National Museum (Prague) Since November 2019, the underground corridor connecting the Historical Building to the New Museum Building is newly accessible. It was partially opened on 28 October 2018. Full completion of reconstruction was planned for 2019. Permanent exhibitions will gradually be opened to visitors in 2020–2021. The New Building of the National Museum (former Federální Shromáždění Building) is located next to the Main Building of the National Museum. The former Prague Stock Exchange was built in 1937. The building was extended in 1968–1973 for meetings of the Federal Assembly (parliament), the bridge girder was used there and at that time it was the largest hanged glass wall in Czechoslovakia. Between 1995 and 2009 it was used by the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In 2000, the Ministry of Culture declared the building a cultural monument. In 2009, the building was assigned to the National Museum for its permanent extension and is used for short-term exhibitions. In 2019, the building was connected to the historical building through a tunnel. In 2020, the permanent exhibition History of the 20th Century should be opened here. In addition to the Historical and New Buildings, the National Museum also includes these buildings: The National Museum currently contains several million items of material in three main parts: the natural Museum, the Historical Museum and the Library. In 2010, the museum moved their collections to Prague 10, Horní Počernice
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National Museum (Prague) It has departments of mineralogy, paleontology, mycology, botany, entomology, zoology and anthropology, as well as scientific laboratories. The medieval collection includes jewelry, panel painting, wooden sculpture, and weapons (also such as used in the Hussite movement of the 15th century). In addition to their historical value, many of the objects held by this department contain a high artistic value. Examples of precious objects include: a silver tiara of a duke from the twelfth century; Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque jewelry; liturgical objects from the Medieval period, which include several chalices, the reliquary of St Eligius in the shape of mitre; Gothic and Renaissance glazed tiles and paving stones; precious embroidery of Rosenberg antependium dated about 1370; and fine Bohemian porcelain and glass collection from before the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as collections of painted portraits and miniature painting. The archives contain the rare charts and manuscripts of the Czech history from the 11th to the 20th century; many of the ancient ones have been digitalized. The collection of personal legacy contains written sources of famous personalities of Czech history, and the collection of seals and seal-sticks include about 3,000 pieces.
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Adolf Portmann (27 May 1897 – 28 June 1982) was a zoologist. Born in Basel, Switzerland, he studied zoology at the University of Basel and worked later in Geneva, Munich, Paris and Berlin, but mainly in marine biology laboratories in France (Banyuls-sur-Mer, Roscoff, Villefranche-sur-Mer) and Helgoland. In 1931 he became professor of zoology in Basel. His main research areas covered marine biology and comparative morphology of vertebrates. His work was often interdisciplinary comprising sociological and philosophical aspects of life of animals and humans. Portmann was known for his work in theoretical biology and his comparative studies on morphology and behavior. His research has influenced the field of biosemiotics. Portmann died in Binningen near Basel on 28 June 1982.
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Friction sensitivity is an approximation of the amount of friction or rubbing a compound can withstand before prematurely exploding. For instance, nitroglycerin has an extremely high sensitivity to friction, meaning that very little rubbing against it could set off a violent explosion. There is no exact determining the amount of friction required to set off a compound, but is rather approximated by the amount of force applied and the amount of time before the compound explodes.
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Alain Manesson Mallet (1630–1706) was a French cartographer and engineer. He started his career as a soldier in the army of Louis XIV, became a Sergeant-Major in the artillery and an Inspector of Fortifications. He also served under the King of Portugal, before returning to France, and his appointment to the court of Louis XIV. His military engineering and mathematical background led to his position teaching mathematics at court. His major publications were "Description de L'Univers" (1683) in 5 volumes, and "Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre" (1684) in 3 volumes. His "Description de L'Universe" contains a wide variety of information, including star maps, maps of the ancient and modern world, and a synopsis of the customs, religion and government of the many nations included in his text. It has been suggested that his background as a teacher led to his being concerned with entertaining his readers. This concern manifested itself in the charming harbour scenes and rural landscapes that he included beneath his description of astronomical concepts and diagrams. Mallet himself drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book. All Mallet maps and views from different editions (1683-1719) available at http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/mallet/ Treatises on line: http://architectura.cesr.univ-tours.fr/Traite/Auteur/Manesson_Mallet.asp?param=en
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2583297
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Drift (geology) In geology, drift is the name for all material of glacial origin found anywhere on land or at sea, including sediment and large rocks (glacial erratic). Glacial origin refers to erosion, transportation and deposition by glaciers. In the UK, the term 'drift' is commonly used to describe any deposits of Quaternary age. The Driftless Area refers to an unglaciated portion of North America devoid of the glacial drift of surrounding regions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2583979
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Homologous temperature expresses the thermodynamic temperature of a material as a fraction of the thermodynamic temperature of its melting point (e.g. using the Kelvin scale): formula_1 For example, the homologous temperature of lead at room temperature (25 °C) is approximately 0.50 (T = T/T = 298 K/601 K = 0.50). The homologous temperature of a substance is useful for determining the rate of steady state creep (diffusion dependent deformation). A higher homologous temperature results in an exponentially higher rate of diffusion dependent deformation. Additionally, for a given fixed homologous temperature, two materials with different melting points would have similar diffusion-dependent deformation behaviour. For example, solder (T = 456 K) at 115 °C would have comparable mechanical properties to copper (T = 1358 K) at 881 °C, because they would both be at 0.85T despite being at different absolute temperatures. In electronics applications, where circuits typically operate over a −55 °C to +125 °C range, eutectic tin-lead (Sn63) solder is working at 0.48T to 0.87T. The upper temperature is high relative to the melting point; from this we can deduce that solder will have limited mechanical strength (as a bulk material) and significant creep under stress. This is borne out by its comparatively low values for tensile strength, shear strength and modulus of elasticity. Copper, on the other hand, has a much higher melting point, so foils are working at only 0.16T to 0.29T and their properties are little affected by temperature.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2585385
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Milt is the seminal fluid of fish, mollusks, and certain other water-dwelling animals which reproduce by spraying this fluid, which contains the sperm, onto roe (fish eggs). It can also refer to the sperm sacs or testes that contain the semen. or soft roe also refers to the male genitalia of fish when they contain sperm, used as food. Many cultures eat milt, often fried, though not usually as a dish by itself. In Indonesian cuisine, the milt (called "telur ikan"; fish egg) of snakehead and snapper is usually made into kari or woku. In Japanese cuisine, the testes (白子 "shirako" 'white children') of cod ("tara"), anglerfish ("ankō"), salmon ("sake"), squid ("ika") and pufferfish ("fugu") are eaten. In Korean cuisine, the milt ( "iri") of Alaska pollock, cod, blackmouth angler, bogeo, and sea bream are eaten. In Romanian cuisine, the milt of carp and other fresh water fish is called "Lapți" (from the Latin word "Lactes") and is usually fried. In Russian cuisine, herring milt (молока, "Moloka") is pickled the same way as the rest of the fish, but eaten separately, sometimes combined with pickled herring roe. Various whitefish soft roes are usually consumed fried and it is an inexpensive everyday dish. In Sicilian cuisine, the milt of tuna is called "Lattume" and is used as a typical pasta topping.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2586311
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Rammelsbergite is a nickel arsenide mineral with formula NiAs. It forms metallic silvery to tin white to reddish orthorhombic prismatic crystals, and is usually massive in form. It has a Mohs hardness of 5.5 and a specific gravity of 7.1. It was first described in 1854 from its type locality in the Schneeberg District in Saxony, Germany. It was named after the German chemist and mineralogist, Karl Friedrich August Rammelsberg (1813–1899). It occurs as a hydrothermal mineral in medium temperature veins association with skutterudite, safflorite, lollingite, nickeline, native bismuth, native silver, algodonite, domeykite and uraninite.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2587939
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Animal engine An animal engine is a machine powered by an animal. Horses, donkeys, oxen, dogs, and humans have all been used in this way.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2590921
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Ear (botany) An ear is the grain-bearing tip part of the stem of a cereal plant, such as wheat or maize. It can also refer to "a prominent lobe in some leaves." The ear is a spike, consisting of a central stem on which tightly packed rows of flowers grow. These develop into fruits containing the edible seeds. In corn (maize), it is protected by leaves called husks. In some species (including wheat), unripe ears contribute significantly to photosynthesis, in addition to the leaves lower down the plant. A parasite known as "Anguina tritici" (Ear Cockle) specifically affects the ears on wheat and rye by destroying the tissues and stems during growth. The parasite has been eradicated in most countries (with the exception of North Africa and West Asia) by using the crop rotation system.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2592596
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Yousef Sobouti (, born 1932 in Zanjan, Iran) is a contemporary Iranian theoretical physicist. He got his undergraduate degree from Tehran University. In 1960 he received his MSc degree in Physics from University of Toronto. He finished his doctoral thesis on Astronomy and Astrophysics at University of Chicago under the supervision of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1963. He started teaching physics in Sharif University of Technology, and Shiraz University. Sobouti made significant contributions to the education of physics and basic sciences in Iran. His aim was to train young scientists who were capable of performing world- class research. He is the founder of Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Currently known as the University of Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences. He remained director until Aug 2010 when he was dismissed by the cabinet Minister of Science, Research and Technology. Many academics and students as well as many distinguished individuals in the city of Zanjan reflected their disappointment with the ministry on this decision. The Parliament representatives complained to the minister on this particular case. He was one of the people who changed the old educational system (known as Dar ul Funun) to term system.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2593588
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Christian Ludwig Nitzsch (3 September 1782 – 16 August 1837) was a German zoologist. He is best remembered for his approach to classifying birds on the basis of their feather tract distributions or pterylosis of their young. He was professor of zoology at the University of Halle. While his primary interest lay in ornithology, Nitzsch published studies on other topics, including diatoms (the diatom genus "Nitzchia" is named after him). He is also widely credited with producing the first systematic zoological studies of lice, Nitzsch Ch. L., Darstellung der Familien und Gattungen der Thierinsecten (insecta epizoica). "Magazin fur die Entomologie, Germar, Zincken", Bd.3 (1818). In 1832, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2596918
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Scorodite is a common hydrated iron arsenate mineral, with the chemical formula FeAsO·2HO. It is found in hydrothermal deposits and as a secondary mineral in gossans worldwide. weathers to limonite. was discovered in the Schwarzenberg, Saxony district, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany. Named from the Greek "Scorodion", "garlicky". When heated it smells of garlic, which gives it the name.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2603952
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Electron capture detector An electron capture detector (ECD) is a device for detecting atoms and molecules in a gas through the attachment of electrons via electron capture ionization. The device was invented in 1957 by James Lovelock and is used in gas chromatography to detect trace amounts of chemical compounds in a sample. The electron capture detector is used for detecting electron-absorbing components (high electronegativity) such as halogenated compounds in the output stream of a gas chromatograph. The ECD uses a radioactive beta particle (electron) emitter in conjunction with a so-called makeup gas flowing through the detector chamber. The electron emitter typically consists of a metal foil holding 10 millicuries (370 MBq) of the radionuclide . Usually, nitrogen is used as makeup gas, because it exhibits a low excitation energy, so it is easy to remove an electron from a nitrogen molecule. The electrons emitted from the electron emitter collide with the molecules of the makeup gas, resulting in many more free electrons. The electrons are accelerated towards a positively charged anode, generating a current. There is therefore always a background signal present in the chromatogram. As the sample is carried into the detector by the carrier gas, electron-absorbing analyte molecules capture electrons and thereby reduce the current between the collector anode and a cathode. Over a wide range of concentrations the rate of electron capture is proportional to the analyte concentration
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Electron capture detector ECD detectors are particularly sensitive to halogens, organometallic compounds, nitriles, or nitro compounds. It is not immediately obvious why the capture of electrons by electronegative analytes reduces the current that flows between the anode and cathode: the molecular negative ions of the analyte carry the same charge as the electrons that were captured. The key to understanding why the current decreases is to ask where charged entities can go "besides" being collected at the anode and cathode. The answer is recombination of negative ions or electrons with the positive ions of the makeup gas before these charged entities can be collected at anode and cathode respectively. Negative and positive ions recombine much more rapidly than electrons and positive ions; it is this more rapid neutralization that is the origin of the observed decrease in current. Examination of the rate balance equation with all charge production and loss mechanisms considered reveals that the current collected when the electron capture detector is saturated with analyte is not zero: it is half the current collected when no analyte is present. To laboratory chromatographers this theoretical result is a well known experimental observation. Depending on the analyte, an ECD can be 10-1000 times more sensitive than a flame ionization detector (FID), and one million times more sensitive than a thermal conductivity detector (TCD). An ECD has a limited dynamic range and finds its greatest application in analysis of halogenated compounds
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Electron capture detector The detection limit for electron capture detectors is 5 femtograms per second (fg/s), and the detector commonly exhibits a 10,000-fold linear range. This made it possible to detect halogenated compounds such as pesticides and CFCs, even at levels of only one part per trillion (ppt), thus revolutionizing our understanding of the atmosphere and pollutants.
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Conformal Killing vector field In conformal geometry, a conformal Killing vector field on a manifold of dimension "n" with (pseudo) Riemannian metric formula_1 (also called a conformal Killing vector, or conformal colineation), is a vector field formula_2 whose (locally defined) flow defines conformal transformations, i.e. preserve formula_1 up to scale and preserve the conformal structure. Several equivalent formulations, called the conformal Killing equation, exist in terms of the Lie derivative of the flow e.g. formula_4 for some function formula_5 on the manifold. For formula_6 there are a finite number of solutions, specifying the conformal symmetry of that space, but in two dimensions, there is an infinity of solutions. The name Killing refers to Wilhelm Killing, who first investigated Killing vector fields that preserve a Riemannian metric and satisfy the Killing equation formula_7. A vector field formula_2 is a Killing vector field iff its flow (locally defined, as it may only be defined for finite times on compact subsets of the manifold) preserves the metric tensor or iff it satisfies More generally, define a "w"-Killing vector field formula_2 as a vector field whose flow preserves the densitized metric formula_11, where formula_12 is the volume density defined by formula_1 (i.e. locally formula_14) and formula_15 is its weight. Note that a Killing vector field preserves formula_12 and so automatically also satisfies this more general equation
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Conformal Killing vector field Also note that formula_17 is the unique weight that makes the combination formula_18 invariant under scaling of the metric, therefore, only depending on the conformal structure. Now formula_19 is a "w"-Killing vector field iff Since formula_21 this is equivalent to Taking traces of both sides, we conclude formula_23. Hence for formula_24, necessarily formula_25 and a "w"-Killing vector field is just a normal Killing vector field whose flow preserves the metric. However, for formula_17, the flow of formula_2 merely has to preserve the conformal structure and is, by definition, a "conformal Killing vector field". The following are equivalent The discussion above proves the equivalence of all but the seemingly more general last form. However, the last two forms are also equivalent: taking traces shows that necessarily formula_34. Using that formula_35 where formula_36 is the Levi Civita derivative of formula_1 (aka covariant derivative), and formula_38 is the dual 1 form of formula_2 (aka associated covariant vector aka vector with lowered indices), and formula_40 is projection on the symmetric part, one can write the conformal Killing equation in abstract index notation as Another index notation to write the conformal Killing equations is
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Abell 2029 or A2029 is a large cluster of galaxies 315 megaparsecs (1.027 billion light-years) away in the constellation Virgo. A2029 is a Bautz–Morgan classification type I cluster due to its large central galaxy, IC 1101. has a diameter of 5.8–8 million light-years. This type of galaxy is called a cD-type brightest cluster galaxy and may have grown to its large size by accreting nearby galaxies. Despite its relaxed state, it is the central member of a large supercluster which shows clear signs of interaction.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2624679
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Emmanuel Dongala Emmanuel Boundzéki Dongala (born 1941) is a Congolese chemist and novelist. He was Richard B. Fisher Chair in Natural Sciences at Bard College at Simon's Rock until 2014. In 1997, he was dean of Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville when war broke out in the Republic of Congo. Bard College president Leon Botstein, who has aided a number of refugee professors, offered him a job teaching chemistry at the American college. As a chemist, his specialty is stereochemistry and asymmetric synthesis, as well as environmental toxicology. He is the author of a number of award-winning novels including "Johnny Mad Dog" (French: "Johnny Chien Méchant") and "Little Boys Come from the Stars". His work is featured in the Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry, and he has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. There is a film based on his book "Johnny Mad Dog", a 2008 French-Liberian film directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and starring Christopher Minie, Daisy Victoria Vandy, Dagbeh Tweh, Barry Chernoh, Mohammed Sesay and Joseph Duo. He was winner of the 2004 Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE for "Johnny chien méchant". He published "La Sonate à Bridgetowe"r "(Sonata mulattica)" in 2017, based on the true story of the original dedicatee of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, Rodolphe Kreutzer.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2624717
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Copaline (or copalite), also termed fossil resin or Highgate resin, is a naturally occurring organic substance found as irregular pieces of a pale yellow colour, for example in the London Clay at Highgate Hill. It has a resinous aromatic odour when freshly broken, volatilizes at a moderate temperature, and burns readily with a yellow, smoky flame, leaving scarcely any ash. is copal that has been partly mineralised.
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Telluride mineral A telluride mineral is a mineral that has the telluride anion as a main component. Tellurides are similar to sulfides and are grouped with them in both the Dana and Strunz mineral classification systems. Examples include:
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Selenide minerals are those minerals that have the selenide anion as a main component. Selenides are similar to sulfides and often grouped with them. Examples include:
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Sujoy K. Guha Sujoy Kumar Guha is an Indian biomedical engineer. He was born in Patna, India, 20 June 1940. He did his undergraduate degree ("B.Tech.") in electrical engineering from IIT Kharagpur, followed by a master's degree in electrical engineering at IIT, and another Master's degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He later received his Ph.D. in medical physiology from St. Louis University. He then founded the Centre for Biomedical Engineering , IIT Delhi and AIIMS and also obtained his MBBS degree from the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi University. One of the founders of biomedical engineering in India, Prof. Guha is internationally known in the areas of rehabilitation engineering, bioengineering in reproductive medicine and technology for rural health care. He has received several awards and has more than 100 research papers in cited journals. In 2003 he became a chair professor at IIT Kharagpur. He was awarded with Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honor in 2020. His major contributions have been in the invention and development of non-hormonal polymer-based injectable male contraceptive (RISUG) for which the Final Phase-III Clinical trials are underway; Problem-solving at a national level regarding contraceptives in mass usage, especially Copper T; individualized spot air-conditioning system for hospital patients and rehabilitation of the blind, with emphasis on opening automobile repair as an employment avenue.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2632438
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Fyodor Luzhin Fyodor Fyodorovich Luzhin (Russian: "Федор Федорович Лужин") (died 1727) was a Russian geodesist and cartographer. was first a student at the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Moscow and then in a geodesic class of the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg (until 1718). In 1719–1721, Luzhin took part in drawing a map of Kamchatka and Kuril Islands together with Ivan Yevreinov. In 1723–1724, he made surveys of different parts of East Siberia. In 1725–1727, Luzhin participated in the First Kamchatka Expedition led by Vitus Bering.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2635032
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Creeping wave According to the principle of diffraction, when a wave front passes an obstruction, it spreads out into the shadowed space. A creeping wave in electromagnetism or acoustics is the wave that is diffracted around the shadowed surface of a smooth body such as a sphere. Creeping waves greatly extend the ground wave propagation of long wavelength (low frequency) radio. They also cause both of a person's ears to hear a sound, rather than only the ear on the side of the head facing the origin of the sound. In radar ranging, the creeping wave return appears to come from behind the target. Vladimir Fock made important contributions to the understanding and calculation of creeping waves. They are described by Airy functions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2635189
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Standard solution In analytical chemistry, a standard solution is a solution containing a precisely known concentration of an element or a substance. A known weight of solute is dissolved to make a specific volume. It is prepared using a standard substance, such as a primary standard. Standard solutions are used to determine the concentrations of other substances, such as solutions in titration. The concentrations of standard solutions are normally expressed in units of moles per litre(mol/L, often abbreviated to M for molarity), moles per cubic decimetre (mol/dm), kilomoles per cubic metre (kmol/m) or in terms related to those used in particular titrations (such as titres). A simple standard is obtained by the dilution of a single element or a substance in a soluble solvent with which it reacts. A primary standard is a reagent that is extremely pure,stable,has no waters of hydration and has high molecular weight. Some primary standards of titration of acids include sodium carbonate. A known volume of a solution of acid can be standardized by titrating it against a solution of alkali of known concentration. Standard solutions are also commonly used to determine the concentration of an analyte species. By comparing the absorbance of the sample solution at a specific wavelength to a series of standard solutions at differing known as concentrations of the analyse species, the concentration of the sample solution can be found via Beer's Law
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Standard solution Any form of spectroscopy can be used in this way so long as the analyte species has substantial absorbance in the spectra. The standard solution is a reference guide to discover the molarity of unknown species. Titration methods can be used to acquire the concentration of a standard solution. These involve using equipment such as a burette. The properties of a standard solution for titrations are:
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Geron Corporation is a biotechnology company located in Menlo Park, California, which specializes in developing and commercializing therapeutic products for cancer that inhibit telomerase. Geron, based in Menlo Park, California, was founded by Mary C. West and Michael D. West, now CEO of AgeX Therapeutics. They secured initial venture capital investments in the company from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Venrock. The company was incorporated in 1990 and began doing business in 1992. John A. Scarlett was appointed CEO in 2011. The company's Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board has included Nobel laureates James Watson, Gunter Blobel, and Carol Greider, and Leonard Hayflick, known for discovering that human cells divide for a limited number of times "in vitro" (called the Hayflick limit). In 2017, Geron staff received the highest median pay in California, at $500,250. has sponsored human clinical trials of several anti-cancer products. In 2014 Geron exclusively licensed imetelstat to Janssen Biotech. This partnership was ended by Janssen on Sep 28th, 2018. In addition to testing drug candidates that exploit cancer cell's dependence on telomerase, Geron is researching the possible applications of activating the enzyme in normal cells to delay cellular senescence. The company is in the early stages of developing a telomerase based treatment for HIV called TAT0002, which is the saponin cycloastragenol in Chinese herb Astragalus propinquus
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Geron Corporation Geron has granted a license to Telomerase Activation Sciences to sell TA-65, the telomerase activator agent also derived from astragalus. In October 2010 Intertek/AAC Labs, an ISO 17025 internationally recognized lab, found the largest component of TA-65 to be Cycloastragenol. Geron originally investigated telomerase as a means of understanding and modifying human aging. However, Geron has ceased aging research of any kind. On January 23, 2009, Geron received FDA approval to begin Phase I testing of GRNOPC1 in humans. GRNOPC1 is an embryonic stem cell based drug that is designed to treat specific forms of spinal cord injury through remyelination of damaged axons. This trial does not involve direct use of stem cells however, as GRNOPC1 is composed of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells derived from embryonic stem cell lines. Studies have shown significant restoration of mobility in animals with spinal injuries that received cells. Geron also has several other embryonic stem cell treatments that are still in the preclinical phase, including GRNCM1, a treatment for heart disease, and GRNIC1, a treatment for diabetes. In tests with diabetic mice, 80% of the mice given GRNIC1 were still alive in 50 days while the entire control group, which was given no treatment, perished. Geron sold its human stem cell research assets to Asterias in 2013
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Geron Corporation As of October 2010 and November 2010, One of Geron's most highly publicized trial therapy products has been GRNOPC1, a stem cell therapy designed to heal severe spinal cord injuries. The cells in the GRNOPC1 therapy have been coaxed into becoming early myelinated glial cells, a type of cell that insulates nerve cells. For every GRNOPC1 cell that is injected in the patient, they become six to 10 cells in a few months. In Oct 2011 updated results on 4 patients were released. The trial was discontinued in Nov 2011. In early 2013 BioTime, whose CEO at the time was Geron founder Michael D. West, acquired 400 patents and other intellectual property related to embryonic stem cells from Geron and later went on to restart the trial. initially held exclusive rights to three cell types derived from embryonic stem cells, as the result of paying for the research originally conducted by Dr. James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The patents on the other three cell types are owned by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). WARF and Geron did not charge academics to study human stem cells but did charge commercial users. In 2001 WARF came under public pressure to widen access to human stem-cell technology, and they launched legal action against to recover some of the previously sold rights. The two sides agreed that Geron would keep the rights to only three cell types
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Geron Corporation In October 2006, a legal challenge was mounted to overturn these patents by The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the non-profit patent-watchdog Public Patent Foundation. They contended that two of the patents granted to WARF are invalid because they cover a technique published in 1992 for which a patent had already been granted to an Australian researcher. Another part of the challenge came from the molecular biologist Jeanne Loring who stated that University of Wisconsin–Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson's techniques (currently patents held by WARF) are rendered obvious by a 1990 paper and two textbooks. The outcome of this legal challenge was particularly relevant to the as it can only license patents that are upheld. The patents were ultimately upheld when the reexamination concluded in 2008. As an interim measure, on January 23, 2007 WARF relaxed the stem cell patents, allowing industry-sponsored research at academic and non-profit institutions without a license. WARF will allow easier and simpler cost free cell transfers among researchers and would not require a license or agreement from California's taxpayer-funded stem cell research program. As a participant in the then-controversial stem cell and cloning area, was asked to testify about its technology before the U.S. Congress. In 2001, when Congress was attempting to ban all forms of cloning, then Geron CEO Thomas Okarma spoke before Congress to preserve cloning for therapeutic purposes.
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DEEP2 Redshift Survey The DEEP2 Survey or DEEP2 was a two-phased Redshift survey of the Redshift z=~1 universe (where z= a measure of speed and by extension, the distance from earth). It used the twin 10 metre Keck telescopes in Hawaii (the world's second largest optical telescope) to measure the spectra and hence the redshifts of approximately 50,000 galaxies. It was the first project to study galaxies in the distant Universe with the resolution of local surveys like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and was completed in 2013.
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Iron catastrophe The iron catastrophe was a postulated major geological event early in the history of Earth, where heavy metals such as iron and nickel congregated in the core during a geologically brief period. The original accretion of the Earth's material into a spherical mass is thought to have resulted in a relatively uniform composition. While residual heat from the collision of the material that formed the Earth was significant, heating from radioactive materials in this mass gradually increased the temperature until a critical condition was reached. As material became molten enough to allow movement, the denser iron and nickel, evenly distributed throughout the mass, began to migrate to the center of the planet to form the core. The gravitational potential energy released by the sinking of the dense NiFe globules, along with any cooler, denser solid material, is thought to have been a runaway process, increasing the temperature of the protoplanet above the melting point of most components, resulting in the rapid formation of a molten iron core covered by a deep global silicate magma. This event, an important process of planetary differentiation, occurred at about 500 million years into the formation of the planet. This large spinning mass of super-hot metal is responsible for the creation of the Earth's magnetic field, the magnetosphere, which protects the Earth from solar wind and the most harmful components of solar radiation coming from our Sun
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Iron catastrophe The magnetosphere protects both Earth's atmosphere and life to the present day and distinguishes the planet from its close celestial neighbour, Mars, which no longer has a significant magnetic field nor comparable atmosphere. The term "catastrophe" is, here, in the mathematical sense of "a large, sudden change or discontinuity", as contrasted with "a disaster", because this event was necessary for life to emerge and evolve on Earth: without it, Earth's atmosphere would have been, as on Mars, stripped away by solar wind long before the present epoch. Another theory, however, suggests Mars did once experience its own iron catastrophe and was once shielded by a magnetosphere. By this theory Mars has simply cooled faster than the Earth, gradually solidifying its dynamic iron center, hence shutting down its magnetosphere. The finding of signs of liquid water once existing on Mars suggests that it once had its own magnetic shield to keep the water in the atmosphere of the planet from being blown into space by solar wind.
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Personalized medicine Personalized medicine, precision medicine, or theranostics is a medical model that separates people into different groups—with medical decisions, practices, interventions and/or products being tailored to the individual patient based on their predicted response or risk of disease. The terms personalized medicine, precision medicine, stratified medicine and P4 medicine are used interchangeably to describe this concept though some authors and organisations use these expressions separately to indicate particular nuances. While the tailoring of treatment to patients dates back at least to the time of Hippocrates, the term has risen in usage in recent years given the growth of new diagnostic and informatics approaches that provide understanding of the molecular basis of disease, particularly genomics. This provides a clear evidence base on which to stratify (group) related patients. In personalised medicine, diagnostic testing is often employed for selecting appropriate and optimal therapies based on the context of a patient's genetic content or other molecular or cellular analysis. The use of genetic information has played a major role in certain aspects of personalized medicine (e.g. pharmacogenomics), and the term was first coined in the context of genetics, though it has since broadened to encompass all sorts of personalization measures. Every person has a unique variation of the human genome
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Personalized medicine Although most of the variation between individuals has no effect on health, an individual's health stems from genetic variation with behaviors and influences from the environment. Modern advances in personalized medicine rely on technology that confirms a patient's fundamental biology, DNA, RNA, or protein, which ultimately leads to confirming disease. For example, personalised techniques such as genome sequencing can reveal mutations in DNA that influence diseases ranging from cystic fibrosis to cancer. Another method, called RNA-seq, can show which RNA molecules are involved with specific diseases. Unlike DNA, levels of RNA can change in response to the environment. Therefore, sequencing RNA can provide a broader understanding of a person's state of health. Recent studies have linked genetic differences between individuals to RNA expression, translation, and protein levels. The concepts of personalised medicine can be applied to new and transformative approaches to health care. Personalised health care is based on the dynamics of systems biology and uses predictive tools to evaluate health risks and to design personalised health plans to help patients mitigate risks, prevent disease and to treat it with precision when it occurs. The concepts of personalised health care are receiving increasing acceptance with the Veterans Administration committing to personalised, proactive patient driven care for all veterans
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Personalized medicine In some instances personalised health care can be tailored to the markup of the disease causing agent instead of the patient's genetic markup; examples are drug resistant bacteria or viruses. In order for physicians to know if a mutation is connected to a certain disease, researchers often do a study called a “genome-wide association study” (GWAS). A GWAS study will look at one disease, and then sequence the genome of many patients with that particular disease to look for shared mutations in the genome. Mutations that are determined to be related to a disease by a GWAS study can then be used to diagnose that disease in future patients, by looking at their genome sequence to find that same mutation. The first GWAS, conducted in 2005, studied patients with age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). It found two different mutations, each containing only a variation in only one nucleotide (called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs), which were associated with ARMD. GWAS studies like this have been very successful in identifying common genetic variations associated with diseases. As of early 2014, over 1,300 GWAS studies have been completed. Multiple genes collectively influence the likelihood of developing many common and complex diseases. Personalised medicine can also be used to predict a person's risk for a particular disease, based on one or even several genes
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Personalized medicine This approach uses the same sequencing technology to focus on the evaluation of disease risk, allowing the physician to initiate preventive treatment before the disease presents itself in their patient. For example, if it is found that a DNA mutation increases a person's risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, this individual can begin lifestyle changes that will lessen their chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes later in life. Advances in personalised medicine will create a more unified treatment approach specific to the individual and their genome. Personalised medicine may provide better diagnoses with earlier intervention, and more efficient drug development and therapies. Having the ability to look at a patient on an individual basis will allow for a more accurate diagnosis and specific treatment plan. Genotyping is the process of obtaining an individual's DNA sequence by using biological assays. By having a detailed account of an individual's DNA sequence, their genome can then be compared to a reference genome, like that of the Human Genome Project, to assess the existing genetic variations that can account for possible diseases. A number of private companies, such as 23andMe, Navigenics, and Illumina, have created Direct-to-Consumer genome sequencing accessible to the public. Having this information from individuals can then be applied to effectively treat them
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Personalized medicine An individual's genetic make-up also plays a large role in how well they respond to a certain treatment, and therefore, knowing their genetic content can change the type of treatment they receive. An aspect of this is pharmacogenomics, which uses an individual's genome to provide a more informed and tailored drug prescription. Often, drugs are prescribed with the idea that it will work relatively the same for everyone, but in the application of drugs, there are a number of factors that must be considered. The detailed account of genetic information from the individual will help prevent adverse events, allow for appropriate dosages, and create maximum efficacy with drug prescriptions. The pharmacogenomic process for discovery of genetic variants that predict adverse events to a specific drug has been termed toxgnostics. An aspect of a theranostic platform applied to personalized medicine can be the use of diagnostic tests to guide therapy. The tests may involve medical imaging such as MRI contrast agents (T1 and T2 agents), fluorescent markers (organic dyes and inorganic quantum dots), and nuclear imaging agents (PET radiotracers or SPECT agents). or in vitro lab test including DNA sequencing and often involve deep learning algorithms that weigh the result of testing for several biomarkers. In addition to specific treatment, personalised medicine can greatly aid the advancements of preventive care
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Personalized medicine For instance, many women are already being genotyped for certain mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene if they are predisposed because of a family history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer. As more causes of diseases are mapped out according to mutations that exist within a genome, the easier they can be identified in an individual. Measures can then be taken to prevent a disease from developing. Even if mutations were found within a genome, having the details of their DNA can reduce the impact or delay the onset of certain diseases. Having the genetic content of an individual will allow better guided decisions in determining the source of the disease and thus treating it or preventing its progression. This will be extremely useful for diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancers that are thought to be linked to certain mutations in our DNA. A tool that is being used now to test efficacy and safety of a drug specific to a targeted patient group/sub-group is companion diagnostics. This technology is an assay that is developed during or after a drug is made available on the market and is helpful in enhancing the therapeutic treatment available based on the individual. These companion diagnostics have incorporated the pharmacogenomic information related to the drug into their prescription label in an effort to assist in making the most optimal treatment decision possible for the patient
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Personalized medicine Having an individual's genomic information can be significant in the process of developing drugs as they await approval from the FDA for public use. Having a detailed account of an individual's genetic make-up can be a major asset in deciding if a patient can be chosen for inclusion or exclusion in the final stages of a clinical trial. Being able to identify patients who will benefit most from a clinical trial will increase the safety of patients from adverse outcomes caused by the product in testing, and will allow smaller and faster trials that lead to lower overall costs. In addition, drugs that are deemed ineffective for the larger population can gain approval by the FDA by using personal genomes to qualify the effectiveness and need for that specific drug or therapy even though it may only be needed by a small percentage of the population., Today in medicine, it is common that physicians often use a trial and error strategy until they find the treatment therapy that is most effective for their patient. With personalised medicine, these treatments can be more specifically tailored to an individual and give insight into how their body will respond to the drug and if that drug will work based on their genome. The personal genotype can allow physicians to have more detailed information that will guide them in their decision in treatment prescriptions, which will be more cost-effective and accurate
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Personalized medicine As quoted from the article "Pharmacogenomics: The Promise of Personalised Medicine", “therapy with the right drug at the right dose in the right patient” is a description of how personalized medicine will affect the future of treatment. For instance, Tamoxifen used to be a drug commonly prescribed to women with ER+ breast cancer, but 65% of women initially taking it developed resistance. After some research by people such as David Flockhart, it was discovered that women with certain mutation in their CYP2D6 gene, a gene that encodes the metabolizing enzyme, were not able to efficiently break down Tamoxifen, making it an ineffective treatment for their cancer. Since then, women are now genotyped for those specific mutations, so that immediately these women can have the most effective treatment therapy. Screening for these mutations is carried out via high-throughput screening or phenotypic screening. Several drug discovery and pharmaceutical companies are currently utilizing these technologies to not only advance the study of personalised medicine, but also to amplify genetic research; these companies include Alacris Theranostics, Persomics, Flatiron Health, Novartis, OncoDNA and Foundation Medicine, among others. Alternative multi-target approaches to the traditional approach of "forward" transfection library screening can entail reverse transfection or chemogenomics. Pharmacy compounding is yet another application of personalised medicine
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Personalized medicine Though not necessarily utilizing genetic information, the customized production of a drug whose various properties (e.g. dose level, ingredient selection, route of administration, etc.) are selected and crafted for an individual patient is accepted as an area of personalised medicine (in contrast to mass-produced unit doses or fixed-dose combinations). Respiratory diseases affect humanity globally, with chronic lung diseases (e.g., asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, among others) and lung cancer causing extensive morbidity and mortality. These conditions are highly heterogeneous and require an early diagnosis. However, initial symptoms are nonspecific, and the clinical diagnosis is made late frequently. Over the last few years, personalized medicine has emerged as a medical care approach that uses novel technology aiming to personalize treatments according to the particular patient's medical needs. Over recent decades cancer research has discovered a great deal about the genetic variety of types of cancer that appear the same in traditional pathology. There has also been increasing awareness of tumour heterogeneity, or genetic diversity within a single tumour. Among other prospects, these discoveries raise the possibility of finding that drugs that have not given good results applied to a general population of cases may yet be successful for a proportion of cases with particular genetic profiles
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Personalized medicine "Personalized Onco-genomics" is the application of personalized medicine to Cancer Genomics, or “oncogenomics”. High-throughput sequencing methods are used to characterize genes associated with cancer to better understand disease pathology and improve drug development. Oncogenomics is one of the most promising branches of genomics, particularly because of its implications in drug therapy. Examples of this include: Genomics can be used to identify people at risk for disease, which can assist in preventative efforts. Notable examples include: As personalised medicine is practiced more widely, a number of challenges arise. The current approaches to intellectual property rights, reimbursement policies, patient privacy and confidentiality as well as regulatory oversight will have to be redefined and restructured to accommodate the changes personalised medicine will bring to healthcare. Furthermore, the analysis of acquired diagnostic data is a recent challenge of personalized medicine and its adoption. For example, genetic data obtained from next-generation sequencing requires computer-intensive data processing prior to its analysis. In the future, adequate tools will be required to accelerate the adoption of personalised medicine to further fields of medicine, which requires the interdisciplinary cooperation of experts from specific fields of research, such as medicine, clinical oncology, biology, and artificial intelligence
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Personalized medicine The FDA has already started to take initiatives to integrate personalised medicine into their regulatory policies. An FDA report in October 2013 entitled, “"Paving the Way for Personalized Medicine: FDA’s role in a New Era of Medical Product Development",” in which they outlined steps they would have to take to integrate genetic and biomarker information for clinical use and drug development. They determined that they would have to develop specific regulatory science standards, research methods, reference material and other tools in order to incorporate personalised medicine into their current regulatory practices. For example, they are working on a “genomic reference library” for regulatory agencies to compare and test the validity of different sequencing platforms in an effort to uphold reliability. As with any innovation in medicine, investment and interest in personalised medicine is influenced by intellectual property rights. There has been a lot of controversy regarding patent protection for diagnostic tools, genes, and biomarkers. In June 2013, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that natural occurring genes cannot be patented, while “synthetic DNA” that is edited or artificially- created can still be patented. The Patent Office is currently reviewing a number of issues related to patent laws for personalised medicine, such as whether “confirmatory” secondary genetic tests post initial diagnosis, can have full immunity from patent laws
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Personalized medicine Those who oppose patents argue that patents on DNA sequences are an impediment to ongoing research while proponents point to research exemption and stress that patents are necessary to entice and protect the financial investments required for commercial research and the development and advancement of services offered. Reimbursement policies will have to be redefined to fit the changes that personalised medicine will bring to the healthcare system. Some of the factors that should be considered are the level of efficacy of various genetic tests in the general population, cost-effectiveness relative to benefits, how to deal with payment systems for extremely rare conditions, and how to redefine the insurance concept of “shared risk” to incorporate the effect of the newer concept of “individual risk factors". The study, "Barriers to the Use of Personalized Medicine in Breast Cancer", took two different diagnostic tests which are BRACAnalysis and Oncotype DX. These tests have over ten-day turnaround times which results in the tests failing and delays in treatments. Patients are not being reimbursed for these delays which results in tests not being ordered. Ultimately, this leads to patients having to pay out-of-pocket for treatments because insurance companies do not want to accept the risks involved. Perhaps the most critical issue with the commercialization of personalised medicine is the protection of patients
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Personalized medicine One of the largest issues is the fear and potential consequences for patients who are predisposed after genetic testing or found to be non-responsive towards certain treatments. This includes the psychological effects on patients due to genetic testing results. The right of family members who do not directly consent is another issue, considering that genetic predispositions and risks are inheritable. The implications for certain ethnic groups and presence of a common allele would also have to be considered. In 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) was passed in an effort to minimize the fear of patients participating in genetic research by ensuring that their genetic information will not be misused by employers or insurers. On February 19, 2015 FDA issued a press release titled: "FDA permits marketing of first direct-to-consumer genetic carrier test for Bloom syndrome.
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Peter Quinn (astronomer) Professor Peter Quinn is Executive Director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth, Western Australia and was previously the head of the Data Management and Operations Division at the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Professor Quinn has authored more than 300 published scientific papers and was awarded the 'Western Australian Scientist of the Year' in 2012. Professor Quinn is also a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. At the ESO Quinn was working towards the creation of the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory, a massive virtual database of astronomical data, designed to allow astrophysicists to carry out research using existing data without using valuable telescope time. Prior to working at ESO, Dr. Quinn taught astrophysics at Caltech for several years, working with Gerald Jay Sussman. His scientific interests include the study of dark matter, computational cosmology, galactic formation, and MACHOs.
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Biopharmaceutical A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biologic(al) medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, they include vaccines, blood, blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapies, tissues, recombinant therapeutic protein, and living medicines used in cell therapy. Biologics can be composed of sugars, proteins, or nucleic acids or complex combinations of these substances, or may be living cells or tissues. They (or their precursors or components) are isolated from living sources—human, animal, plant, fungal, or microbial. Terminology surrounding biopharmaceuticals varies between groups and entities, with different terms referring to different subsets of therapeutics within the general biopharmaceutical category. Some regulatory agencies use the terms "biological medicinal products" or "therapeutic biological product" to refer specifically to engineered macromolecular products like protein- and nucleic acid-based drugs, distinguishing them from products like blood, blood components, or vaccines, which are usually extracted directly from a biological source. Specialty drugs, a recent classification of pharmaceuticals, are high-cost drugs that are often biologics
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Biopharmaceutical The European Medicines Agency uses the term "advanced therapy medicinal products" (ATMPs) for medicines for human use that are "based on genes, cells, or tissue engineering", including gene therapy medicines, somatic-cell therapy medicines, tissue-engineered medicines, and combinations thereof. Within EMA contexts, the term "advanced therapies" refers specifically to ATMPs, although that term is rather nonspecific outside those contexts. Gene-based and cellular biologics, for example, often are at the forefront of biomedical research, and may be used to treat a variety of medical conditions for which no other treatments are available. In some jurisdictions, biologics are regulated via different pathways from other small molecule drugs and medical devices. The term biopharmacology is sometimes used to describe the branch of pharmacology that studies biopharmaceuticals. Some of the oldest forms of biologics are extracted from the bodies of animals, and other humans especially. Important biologics include: Some biologics that were previously extracted from animals, such as insulin, are now more commonly produced by recombinant DNA. As indicated the term "biologics" can be used to refer to a wide range of biological products in medicine. However, in most cases, the term "biologics" is used more restrictively for a class of therapeutics (either approved or in development) that are produced by means of biological processes involving recombinant DNA technology
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Biopharmaceutical These medications are usually one of three types: Biologics as a class of medications in this narrower sense have had a profound impact on many medical fields, primarily rheumatology and oncology, but also cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, neurology, and others. In most of these disciplines, biologics have added major therapeutic options for the treatment of many diseases, including some for which no effective therapies were available, and others where previously existing therapies were clearly inadequate. However, the advent of biologic therapeutics has also raised complex regulatory issues (see below), and significant pharmacoeconomic concerns, because the cost for biologic therapies has been dramatically higher than for conventional (pharmacological) medications. This factor has been particularly relevant since many biological medications are used for the treatment of chronic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease, or for the treatment of otherwise untreatable cancer during the remainder of life. The cost of treatment with a typical monoclonal antibody therapy for relatively common indications is generally in the range of €7,000–14,000 per patient per year. Older patients who receive biologic therapy for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or ankylosing spondylitis are at increased risk for life-threatening infection, adverse cardiovascular events, and malignancy
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Biopharmaceutical The first such substance approved for therapeutic use was biosynthetic "human" insulin made via recombinant DNA. Sometimes referred to as rHI, under the trade name Humulin, was developed by Genentech, but licensed to Eli Lilly and Company, who manufactured and marketed it starting in 1982. Major kinds of biopharmaceuticals include: Research and development investment in new medicines by the biopharmaceutical industry stood at $65.2 billion in 2008. A few examples of biologics made with recombinant DNA technology include: Many vaccines are grown in tissue cultures. Viral gene therapy involves artificially manipulating a virus to include a desirable piece of genetic material. With the expiration of numerous patents for blockbuster biologics between 2012 and 2019, the interest in biosimilar production, i.e., follow-on biologics, has increased. Compared to small molecules that consist of chemically identical active ingredients, biologics are vastly more complex and consist of a multitude of subspecies. Due to their heterogeneity and the high process sensitivity, originators and follow-on biosimilars will exhibit variability in specific variants over time, however the safety and clinical performance of both originator and biosimilar biopharmaceuticals must remain equivalent throughout their lifecycle. Process variations are monitored by modern analytical tools (e.g., liquid chromatography, immunoassays, mass spectrometry, etc.) and describe a unique design space for each biologic
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Biopharmaceutical Thus, biosimilars require a different regulatory framework compared to small-molecule generics. Legislation in the 21st century has addressed this by recognizing an intermediate ground of testing for biosimilars. The filing pathway requires more testing than for small-molecule generics, but less testing than for registering completely new therapeutics. In 2003, the European Medicines Agency introduced an adapted pathway for biosimilars, termed "similar biological medicinal products". This pathway is based on a thorough demonstration of "comparability" of the "similar" product to an existing approved product. Within the United States, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 created an abbreviated approval pathway for biological products shown to be biosimilar to, or interchangeable with, an FDA-licensed reference biological product. A major hope linked to the introduction of biosimilars is a reduction of costs to the patients and the healthcare system. When a new biopharmaceutical is developed, the company will typically apply for a patent, which is a grant for exclusive manufacturing rights. This is the primary means by which the developer of the drug can recover the investment cost for development of the biopharmaceutical. The patent laws in the United States and Europe differ somewhat on the requirements for a patent, with the European requirements perceived as more difficult to satisfy. The total number of patents granted for biopharmaceuticals has risen significantly since the 1970s
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Biopharmaceutical In 1978 the total patents granted was 30. This had climbed to 15,600 in 1995, and by 2001 there were 34,527 patent applications. In 2012 the US had the highest IP (Intellectual Property) generation within the biopharmaceutical industry, generating 37 percent of the total number of granted patents worldwide; however, there is still a large margin for growth and innovation within the industry. Revisions to the current IP system to ensure greater reliability for R&D (research and development) investments is a prominent topic of debate in the US as well. Blood products and other human-derived biologics such as breast milk have highly regulated or very hard-to-access markets; therefore, customers generally face a supply shortage for these products. Institutions housing these biologics, designated as 'banks', often cannot distribute their product to customers effectively. Conversely, banks for reproductive cells are much more widespread and available due to the ease with which spermatozoa and egg cells can be used for fertility treatment. Biopharmaceuticals may be produced from microbial cells (e.g., recombinant "E. coli" or yeast cultures), mammalian cell lines (see cell culture) and plant cell cultures (see plant tissue culture) and moss plants in bioreactors of various configurations, including photo-bioreactors. Important issues of concern are cost of production (low-volume, high-purity products are desirable) and microbial contamination (by bacteria, viruses, mycoplasma)
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Biopharmaceutical Alternative platforms of production which are being tested include whole plants (plant-made pharmaceuticals). A potentially controversial method of producing biopharmaceuticals involves transgenic organisms, particularly plants and animals that have been genetically modified to produce drugs. This production is a significant risk for the investor, due to production failure or scrutiny from regulatory bodies based on perceived risks and ethical issues. crops also represent a risk of cross-contamination with non-engineered crops, or crops engineered for non-medical purposes. One potential approach to this technology is the creation of a transgenic mammal that can produce the biopharmaceutical in its milk, blood, or urine. Once an animal is produced, typically using the pronuclear microinjection method, it becomes efficacious to use cloning technology to create additional offspring that carry the favorable modified genome. The first such drug manufactured from the milk of a genetically modified goat was ATryn, but marketing permission was blocked by the European Medicines Agency in February 2006. This decision was reversed in June 2006 and approval was given August 2006. In the European Union, a biological medicinal product is one of the active substance(s) produced from or extracted from a biological (living) system, and requires, in addition to physico-chemical testing, biological testing for full characterisation
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Biopharmaceutical The characterisation of a biological medicinal product is a combination of testing the active substance and the final medicinal product together with the production process and its control. For example: In the United States, biologics are licensed through the biologics license application (BLA), then submitted to and regulated by the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) whereas drugs are regulated by the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Approval may require several years of clinical trials, including trials with human volunteers. Even after the drug is released, it will still be monitored for performance and safety risks. The manufacture process must satisfy the FDA's "Good Manufacturing Practices", which are typically manufactured in a cleanroom environment with strict limits on the amount of airborne particles and other microbial contaminants that may alter the efficacy of the drug. In Canada, biologics (as well as radiopharmaceuticals) are reviewed through the Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate within Health Canada.
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Evershed effect The Evershed effect, named after the British astronomer John Evershed, is the radial flow of gas across the photospheric surface of the penumbra of sunspots from the inner border with the umbra towards the outer edge. The speed varies from around 1 km/s at the border between the umbra and the penumbra to a maximum of around double this in the middle of the penumbra and falls off to zero at the outer edge of the penumbra. Evershed first detected this phenomenon in January 1909, whilst working at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory in India, when he found that the spectral lines of sunspots showed doppler shift. Afterwards, measurements of the spectral emission lines emitted in the ultraviolet wavelengths have shown a systematic red-shift. The is common to every spectral line formed at a temperature below 10 K; this fact would imply a constant downflow from the transition region towards the chromosphere. The observed velocity is about 5 km/s. Of course, this is impossible, since if it were true, the corona would disappear in a short time instead of being suspended over the Sun at temperatures of million degrees over distances much larger than a solar radius. Many theories have been proposed to explain this redshift in line profiles of the transition region, but the problem is still unsolved, since a coherent theory should take into account all the physical observations: UV line profiles are redshifted "on average", but they show back and forth velocity oscillations at the same time
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Evershed effect In synthesis, the proposed mechanisms are: The effect was commemorated in a postage stamp issued in India on 2 December 2008.
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Center of percussion The center of percussion is the point on an extended massive object attached to a pivot where a perpendicular impact will produce no reactive shock at the pivot. Translational and rotational motions cancel at the pivot when an impulsive blow is struck at the center of percussion. The center of percussion is often discussed in the context of a bat, racquet, door, sword or other extended object held at one end. The same point is called the center of oscillation for the object suspended from the pivot as a pendulum, meaning that a simple pendulum with all its mass concentrated at that point will have the same period of oscillation as the compound pendulum. In sports, the center of percussion of a bat or racquet is related to the so-called "sweet spot", but the latter is also related to vibrational bending of the object. Imagine a rigid beam suspended from a wire by a fixture that can slide freely along the wire at point P, as shown in the Figure. An impulsive blow is applied from the left. If it is below the center of mass (CM) it will cause the beam to rotate counterclockwise around the CM and also cause the CM to move to the right. The center of percussion (CP) is below the CM. If the blow falls above the CP, the rightward translational motion will be bigger than the leftward rotational motion at P, causing the net initial motion of the fixture to be rightward
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Center of percussion If the blow falls below the CP the opposite will occur, rotational motion at P will be larger than translational motion and the fixture will move initially leftward. Only if the blow falls exactly on the CP will the two components of motion cancel out to produce zero net initial movement at point P. When the sliding fixture is replaced with a pivot that cannot move left or right, an impulsive blow anywhere but at the CP results in an initial reactive force at the pivot. For a free, rigid beam, an impulse formula_1 applied at right angle at a distance formula_2 from the center of mass (CM) will result in the CM changing velocity formula_3 according to the relation: where formula_5 is the mass of the beam. Similarly, the torque about the CM will change the angular velocity formula_6 according to: where formula_8 is the moment of inertia around the CM. For any point P a distance formula_9 on the opposite side of the CM from the point of impact, the change in velocity of point P is where formula_9 is the distance of P from the CM. Hence the acceleration at P due to the impulsive blow is: When this acceleration is zero, formula_2 defines the center of percussion. Therefore, the CP distance, formula_2, from the CM, is given by Note that P, the rotation axis, need not be at the end of the beam, but can be chosen at any distance formula_9
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Center of percussion Length formula_17 also defines the center of oscillation of a physical pendulum, that is, the position of the mass of a simple pendulum that has the same period as the physical pendulum. For the special case of a beam of uniform density of length formula_18, the moment of inertia around the CM is: and for rotation about a pivot at the end, This leads to: It follows that the CP is 2/3 of the length of the uniform beam formula_18 from the pivoted end. For example, a swinging door that is stopped by a doorstop placed 2/3 of the width of the door will do the job with minimal shaking of the door because the hinged end is subjected to no net reactive force. (This point is also the node in the second vibrational harmonic, which also minimizes vibration.) The sweet spot on a baseball bat is generally defined as the point at which the impact "feels" best to the batter. The center of percussion defines a place where, if the bat strikes the ball and the batter's hands are at the pivot point, the batter feels no sudden reactive force. However, since a bat is not a rigid object the vibrations produced by the impact also play a role. Also, the pivot point of the swing may not be at the place where the batter's hands are placed. Research has shown that the dominant physical mechanism in determining where the sweet spot is arises from the location of nodes in the vibrational modes of the bat, not the location of the center of percussion. The center of percussion concept can be applied to swords
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Center of percussion Being flexible objects, the "sweet spot" for such cutting weapons depends not only on the center of percussion but also on the flexing and vibrational characteristics.
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Eugène Bourgeau (1813–1877) was a French naturalist. He was native of Brizon in the "département" of Haute-Savoie in France. As a young man, he worked at the botanical garden in Lyon, where his influences included Nicolas Charles Seringe and Claude Thomas Alexis Jordan. In 1843 he relocated to Paris, where he was hired by Philip Barker Webb as a herbarium assistant. In 1845-46 he collected plants for the "Webb collection" in the Canary Islands. He had previously been a botanical collector in Spain, North Africa and the Canary Islands before joining the British North American Exploring Expedition of western Canada from 1857 to 1860. In Canada, he collected botanical specimens north of Lake Superior and areas around Lake Winnipeg, also journeying down the Saskatchewan River and venturing into the Rocky Mountains. Later expeditions included two trips to Asia Minor (the Lycia region and the Pontic Mountains), a journey to Spain and the Balearic Islands (1863), a scientific mission to Mexico (1865–66), and in 1870, a trip to the island of Rhodes. Bourgeau did not publish any botanical literature. He reportedly was a terrible speller and grammarian. The name of Eugène "Bourgeau" is commemorated with Mount Bourgeau, a peak located in Banff National Park. In honor of him, several taxonomic patronyms were also given in plants:
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Nitryl is the nitrogen dioxide (NO) moiety when it occurs in a larger compound as a univalent fragment. Examples include nitryl fluoride (NOF) and nitryl chloride (NOCl). Like nitrogen dioxide, the nitryl moiety contains a nitrogen atom with two bonds to the two oxygen atoms, and a third bond shared equally between the nitrogen and the two oxygen atoms. The nitrogen-centred radical is then free to form a bond with another univalent fragment (X) to produce an N-X bond, where X can be F, Cl, OH, etc. In organic nomenclature, the nitryl moiety is known as the nitro group. For instance, nitryl benzene is normally called nitrobenzene (PhNO).
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Stannite (ion) The stannite ion is , or similar. Stannite ion can be formed by adding strong base to stannous hydroxide. Stannite ion is a strong reducing agent; also, it may disproportionate to tin metal plus stannate ion. There are stannite compounds, for example, sodium stannite, NaSnO.
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Anil Kumar Das FRAS, FNI (1 February, 1902 - 18 February, 1961) was an Indian scientist, astronomer. During the International Geophysical Year, observatories in Madrid, India, and Manila were responsible for monitoring solar effects. The Kodaikanal Solar Observatory in South India performed this monitoring using their recently built solar tunnel telescope. Dr. Das was the director of the Kodaikanal observatory at this time. In 1960 he was responsible for installing a tower/tunnel telescope at the facility that would be used to perform some of the first ever helioseismology investigations. The crater Das on the far side of the Moon is named after him. After graduating ( Master of Science ) from the University of Calcutta, he studied spectroscopy with Charles Fabry at the Sorbonne in Paris. After obtaining his doctorate he was in Göttingen where he worked with Max Born at the Institut für Theoretische Physik and subsequently with Gustav Augenheister at the Geophysikalisches Institut and for a short period at the Solar Physics Observatory in Cambridge . He later worked at the Indian Meteorological Department in 1930 and then moved to the Kodaikanal observatory in 1937 as assistant director and director since 1946 and where he remained until his retirement in 1960. Most of his scientific contributions were in the field of solar physics mainly as an experimenter in the spectrophotometric study of sunspots and the chromosphere
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Anil Kumar Das He contributed significantly to the development of the equipment present at the Kodaikanal Observatory and to the growth of numerous young researchers.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2673451
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State-universal coupled cluster (SUCC) method is one of several multi-reference coupled-cluster (MR) generalizations of single-reference coupled cluster method. It was first formulated by Bogumił Jeziorski and Hendrik Monkhorst in their work published in Physical Review A in 1981. is often abbreviated as SUMR-CC or MR-SUCC.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2674172
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Thionyl The thionyl group is SO, a sulfur atom plus an oxygen atom. It occurs in compounds such as thionyl fluoride, SOF. chloride, SOCl, is a common reagent used in organic synthesis to convert carboxylic acids to acyl chlorides. In organic chemistry, the thionyl group is known as a sulfoxide group or sulfinyl group, and has the general structure RS(=O)R'.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2676960
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Döbereiner's lamp Döbereiner's lamp, also called a "tinderbox" ("Feuerzeug"), is a lighter invented in 1823 by the German chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner; the lighter is based on the Fürstenberger lighter and was in production until ca. 1880. In the jar, similar to the Kipp's apparatus, zinc metal reacts with dilute sulfuric acid to produce hydrogen gas. When a valve is opened, a jet of hydrogen is released onto a platinum sponge. The sponge catalyzes a reaction with atmospheric oxygen, which heats the catalyst and ignites the hydrogen, producing a gentle flame. It was commercialized for lighting fires and pipes. The world's largest manufacturer of these lighters was Heinrich Gottfried from Schleiz in Thuringia (Germany). It is said that in the 1820s over a million of the "tinderboxes" were sold. Examples of the lighter are exhibited in the Deutsches Museum and in the old pharmacy at Heidelberg Castle.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2677544
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Biotech Sweden was a Swedish tabloid magazine about and for the Scandinavian life science and biotech industry. "Biotech Sweden" was first published on 9 April 2002 by IDG Sweden, a subsidiary of IDG. It was sister publication of "Bio-IT World". At its initial phase "Biotech Sweden" was published seven times a year. Then it began to be published 11 times per year. The readers were mainly people working in the biotechnology medtech and pharma industry of the Nordic countries. It also carried the largest life science web news service of the Nordic countries, www.lifesciencesweden.se, with four newsletter distributed three times a week, subscription free-of-charge. On the website the magazine provided daily news in Swedish and a weekly news-letter covering life science news of the Nordic countries, plus also access to The Scandinavian Life Science Industry Guide, a database of all life science, medtech and labtech companies of Scandinavia. "Life Science Sweden" is also official media partner of Sweden Bio. The editor-in-chiefs included Ingrid Heath, Jörgen Lindqvist, Ingrid Helander and Loth Hammar. In 2012, the magazine changed its name to "Life Science Sweden" and in 2013 it was sold to Mentor Communications AB.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2679032
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Bel decomposition In semi-Riemannian geometry, the Bel decomposition, taken with respect to a specific timelike congruence, is a way of breaking up the Riemann tensor of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold into lower order tensors with properties similar to the electric field and magnetic field. Such a decomposition was partially described by Alphonse Matte in 1953 and by Lluis Bel in 1958. This decomposition is particularly important in general relativity. This is the case of four-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds, for which there are only three pieces with simple properties and individual physical interpretations. In four dimensions the of the Riemann tensor, with respect to a timelike unit vector field formula_1, not necessarily geodesic or hypersurface orthogonal, consists of three pieces:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2679447
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Electrogravitic tensor In general relativity, the gravitoelectric tensor or tidal tensor is one of the pieces in the Bel decomposition of the Riemann tensor. It is physically interpreted as giving the tidal stresses on small bits of a material object (which may also be acted upon by other physical forces), or the tidal accelerations of a small cloud of test particles in a vacuum solution or electrovacuum solution.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2679811
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Magnetogravitic tensor In general relativity, the magnetogravitic tensor is one of the three pieces appearing in the Bel decomposition of the Riemann tensor. The magnetogravitic tensor can be interpreted physically as a specifying possible spin-spin forces on spinning bits of matter, such as spinning test particles.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2679881
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Topogravitic tensor In general relativity, the topogravitic tensor is one of the three pieces of the Bel decomposition of the Riemann tensor. The topogravitic tensor can be interpreted as representing the sectional curvatures for the spatial part of a frame field.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2679889
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Heatproof mat A heatproof mat is a piece of apparatus commonly used in tabletop lab experiments that involve moderate temperatures (for example, when a Bunsen burner is being used) to prevent damage to a work surface. They may also be used for domestic equipment, such as hair straighteners, hair dryers or other hot objects. Traditionally, such mats were made of asbestos, often reinforced with a metal mesh, but fiberglass or other substitutes are now used because of the toxicity of asbestos fibres.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2679929
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