Investigating the role of cholesterol in the formation of non-ionic surfactant based bilayer vesicles:thermal analysis and molecular dynamics

The aim of this research was to investigate the molecular interactions occurring in the formulation of non-ionic surfactant based vesicles composed monopalmitoyl glycerol (MPG), cholesterol (Chol) and dicetyl phosphate (DCP). In the formulation of these vesicles, the thermodynamic attributes and surfactant interactions based on molecular dynamics, Langmuir monolayer studies, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), hot stage microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were investigated. Initially the melting points of the components individually, and combined at a 5:4:1 MPG:Chol:DCP weight ratio, were investigated; the results show that lower (90 C) than previously reported (120-140 C) temperatures could be adopted to produce molten surfactants for the production of niosomes. This was advantageous for surfactant stability; whilst TGA studies show that the individual components were stable to above 200 C, the 5:4:1 MPG:Chol:DCP mixture show ∼2% surfactant degradation at 140 C, compared to 0.01% was measured at 90 C. Niosomes formed at this lower temperature offered comparable characteristics to vesicles prepared using higher temperatures commonly reported in literature. In the formation of niosome vesicles, cholesterol also played a key role. Langmuir monolayer studies demonstrated that intercalation of cholesterol in the monolayer did not occur in the MPG:Chol:DCP (5:4:1 weight ratio) mixture. This suggests cholesterol may support bilayer assembly, with molecular simulation studies also demonstrating that vesicles cannot be built without the addition of cholesterol, with higher concentrations of cholesterol (5:4:1 vs 5:2:1, MPG:Chol:DCP) decreasing the time required for niosome assembly. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

An exploratory study of ICT usage in small logistics service providers

Information and communication technology (ICT) developments have strongly affected supply chain management (SCM) in recent years. ICT has had a great impact on all supply chain processes including planning, purchasing, production management, stock management, physical distribution and related integration management. Technology has become an important dimension of third party logistics (3PL) service supply as competitive advantage increasingly depends on the ability to create value for customers through the effective application of ICT. Within this process, while large 3PLs are gaining substantial benefits from technology usage and implementation, the magnitude of changes spurred by ICT dissemination in small logistics service providers remains unclear. This is reflected by the existing gap in literature where the role and competitive developing processes of small 3PLs are seriously underestimated. This gives rise to the need to develop research and investigation in this particular area. The objective of this paper is to narrow the knowledge gap in the field of ICT adoption in small 3PLs through an empirical investigation. It presents the results of a survey on a sample of small Italian 3PLs.

Investigating the role of capacitive coupling between the operating table and the return electrode of an electrosurgery unit in the modification of the current density distribution within the patients’ body

Background: Electrosurgery units are widely employed in modern surgery. Advances in technology have enhanced the safety of these devices, nevertheless, accidental burns are still regularly reported. This study focuses on possible causes of sacral burns as complication of the use of electrosurgery. Burns are caused by local densifications of the current, but the actual pathway of current within patient's body is unknown. Numerical electromagnetic analysis can help in understanding the issue. Methods: To this aim, an accurate heterogeneous model of human body (including seventy-seven different tissues), electrosurgery electrodes, operating table and mattress was build to resemble a typical surgery condition. The patient lays supine on the mattress with the active electrode placed onto the thorax and the return electrode on his back. Common operating frequencies of electrosurgery units were considered. Finite Difference Time Domain electromagnetic analysis was carried out to compute the spatial distribution of current density within the patient's body. A differential analysis by changing the electrical properties of the operating table from a conductor to an insulator was also performed. Results: Results revealed that distributed capacitive coupling between patient body and the conductive operating table offers an alternative path to the electrosurgery current. The patient's anatomy, the positioning and the different electromagnetic properties of tissues promote a densification of the current at the head and sacral region. In particular, high values of current density were located behind the sacral bone and beneath the skin. This did not occur in the case of non-conductive operating table. Conclusion: Results of the simulation highlight the role played from capacitive couplings between the return electrode and the conductive operating table. The concentration of current density may result in an undesired rise in temperature, originating burns in body region far from the electrodes. This outcome is concordant with the type of surgery-related sacral burns reported in literature. Such burns cannot be immediately detected after surgery, but appear later and can be confused with bedsores. In addition, the dosimetric analysis suggests that reducing the capacity coupling between the return electrode and the operating table can decrease or avoid this problem. © 2013 Bifulco et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Fast Information Retrieval in the Open Grid Service Architecture

This is an extended version of an article presented at the Second International Conference on Software, Services and Semantic Technologies, Sofia, Bulgaria, 11–12 September 2010.

Revisiting the lean agile paradigm:an empirical study in the aerospace industry

Much has been written about the potential impact of Lean Agile paradigm on firm's supply chain performance. However, most of the existing studies mainly pointed out Lean is for cost reduction, whereas Agility is for attaining flexibility. There are little empirical studies in literature that examined how Lean Agile paradigm impacts on supply chain performance. This paper aims to address this gap by studying the influence of Lean and Agility paradigms on a single commodity supply chain delivery performance in the aerospace industry. Data was collected from four separate 'Rigid pipes' supply chains to study how manufacturing alignment impacts on the delivery performance. Implications of the study to practitioners and academia are discussed and future research outlined.

Fenntartható fejlődés = Sustainability issues in purchasing and supply management

A fenntarthatóság kérdését a vállalati működésben számos kutatás elemzi. A vizsgálatokat azonban érdemes kiterjeszteni a vállalatokat beszállítóikkal összekötő kapcsolatrendszerre és az annak menedzseléséért felelős beszerzésre is, hiszen a nagy vállalatok beszerzési döntései jelentős értékükön keresztül fontos motiváló erőt jelentenek a beszállító vállalatok egy sokkal szélesebb hálózata számára. Tanulmányunk célja áttekinteni a fenntarthatóság három pillérjének beszerzési értelmezésének lehetőségeit, ehhez kapcsolódva bemutatni azokat a motivációs tényezőket, amelyek biztosíthatják azt, hogy a beszerzés a gyakorlatban is kezelni tudja a fenntarthatóság szempontjait. A bemutatott eredmények az irodalom feltérképezésén alapszanak, és egy olyan kutatás részét képezik, melynek során vállalati beszerzési szakembereket kérdezünk a fenntartható beszerzéssel kapcsolatos vállalati gyakorlatról és tapasztalataikról. A kutatás a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetemen folyó „Versenyben a világgal” kutatási program keretében készült. = Sustainability issues in literature are getting more and more attention. In this study the focus is extended to purchasing and supplier relationships as companies influence their supply base by the priorities of their sourcing decision. This paper addresses sustainability in purchasing in a comprehensive way including green, social responsibility and corporate growth issues. The results of a research project which aims to reveal and structure the meaning of sustainable purchasing and the motivating forces leading companies to make efforts in purchasing for sustainability and means applied to attain achievements at some fields of sustainability. After presenting the results of literature review, some theory development was done to create a framework in which it is possible to describe the sustainability means applied and the motivating force behind. This framework serves as a basis of an empirical investigation among Hungarian companies. The empirical results validated the theoretical framework: the number and the characteristics of sustainability activities were determined by the type of motivation (to avoid negative effects, compliance to expectations, to attain positive effects). Our research project was part of the research project “In Global Competition”.

Fenntarthatósági szempontok beépítése a beszállító értékelésébe a DEA/CI összetett indikátorok módszere alkalmazásával (Integrating sustainability criteria in supplier evaluation with application of the method of of DEA/CI complex indicators)

A környezeti hatások rendszerint túlmutatnak egy vállalat határain, éppen ezért az ellátási lánc kontextusban a környezeti szempontok érvényesítése során fontos szerep jut a beszerzési döntéseknek is. Számos olyan példát lehetne említeni, amikor egy adott szempont szerint egy alternatíva környezetileg előnyös, de az ellátási lánc egészét nézve már környezetterhelő. A környezeti hatások ellátási lánc szinten való mérése azonban komoly kihívásokat jelent. Ezzel jelentős kutatásokat és fejlesztéseket inspirált a téma. Az egyik olyan terület, amelyben komoly kutatási eredmények születtek, az a környezeti szempontok beszállítói értékelésbe való beépítése. A kutatások ezen irányához csatlakozva a szerzők tanulmányunkban azt keresik, hogyan lehet meghatározni az egyik legáltalánosabban használt szállítóértékelési módszerben, a súlyozott pontrendszerben egy adott szemponthoz azt a súlyt, amely mellett az adott szempont már döntésbefolyásoló tényezővé válik. Ehhez a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) összetett indikátorok (Composite Indicators, CI) módszerét alkalmazzák. A szempontok közös súlyának fontossága megállapításához a lineáris programozás elméletét használják. _____ Management decisions often have an environmental effect not just within the company, but outside as well, this is why supply chain context is highlighted in literature. Measuring environmental issues of supply decisions raise a lot of problems from methodological and practical point of view. This inspires a rapidly growing literature as a lot of studies were published focusing on how to incorporate environmental issues into supplier evaluation. This paper contributes to this stream of research as it develops a method to help weight selection. In the authors’ paper the method of Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) is used to study the extension of traditional supplier selection methods with environmental factors. The selection of the weight system can control the result of the selection process.

Discharge measurements and storm event chemistry at the San Francisco River station (Planta) in 2007-2008

To improve our knowledge of the influence of land-use on solute behaviour and export rates in neotropical montane catchments we investigated total organic carbon (TOC), Ca, Mg, Na, K, NO3 and SO4 concentrations during April 2007-May 2008 at different flow conditions and over time in six forested and pasture-dominated headwaters (0.7-76 km2) in Ecuador. NO3 and SO4 concentrations decreased during the study period, with a continual decrease in NO3 and an abrupt decrease in February 2008 for SO4. We attribute this to changing weather regimes connected to a weakening La Niña event. Stream Na concentration decreased in all catchments, and Mg and Ca concentration decreased in all but the forested catchments during storm flow. Under all land-uses TOC increased at high flows. The differences in solute behaviour during storm flow might be attributed to largely shallow subsurface and surface flow paths in pasture streams on the one hand, and a predominant origin of storm flow from the organic layer in the forested streams on the other hand. Nutrient export rates in the forested streams were comparable to the values found in literature for tropical streams. They amounted to 6-8 kg/ha/y for Ca, 7-8 kg/ha/y for K, 4-5 kg/ha/y for Mg, 11-14 kg/ha/y for Na, 19-22 kg/ha/y for NO3 (i.e. 4.3-5.0 kg/ha/y NO3-N) and 17 kg/ha/y for SO4. Our data contradict the assumption that nutrient export increases with the loss of forest cover. For NO3 we observed a positive correlation of export value and percentage forest cover.

Implementing restorative justice practice in schools: what pedagogy reveals

In the ongoing pursuit for creating safe, nurturing and relational school cultures, educators continue to turn to restorative justice (rj) principles and practice. Predominantly, schools begin to engage with rj in an effort to address harm done, causing its discourse to be situated in literature tied to classroom management and behaviour. However, in this location, the effectiveness of rj can be limited because the power relationships underlying the original punitive, managerial structures maintain their grip. Drawing on a qualitative study that examines the experiences of educators committed to implementing rj principles, this article explores how placing rj in the context of engaged, productive pedagogies better nurtures the hoped for relational and peaceful school culture.

British Romantic Criticism and the Fine Arts: A Study in Philosophical Theories of Literary Unity

This dissertation is an exploration of how a small but important group of Romantic critics, finding fault in the ideal of three unities developed by neoclassical Academicians and wrongly attributed to Aristotle, turned to the terminology and practices of the fine arts to emphasize their conception of organic unity in literature. The Romantic analogy to painting in particular enables a philosophical criticism of literature to present the aesthetic semblance of painting, the comprehension of a multitude of details in a harmonious whole that is a natural unity to its medium, as a paradigm of modern-romantic poetry and its aspirations to similar complexity, particularity, and imaginative colour. Further, in extension of the French Querelle des anciens et des modernes of the seventeenth century, the division of ancient and romantic art by Romantic critics like August Schlegel, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Hazlitt not only establishes an ethnological and historical difference between the artistic productions of these two cultural periods but also allows, unlike the neoclassical unities, a non-anachronistic philosophical vocabulary of whole and parts or of the general and particular in the criticism of poetry, which involution provides a “rule” more consonant with the laws of the imagination rather than with the rhetorical and absolutist dicta that were thither available in the literary canon.

Quintus Curtius before his sources: the episode of Alexander and the Scythians on the Tanais

Quintus Curtius found in his sources a speech where a Scythian censured Alexander, followed by the King’s reply. Curtius drastically abridged this second discourse in order to highlight the criticism of the Macedonian. The Scythian’s words have a striking rhetorical language and some allusions taken from Greek literature, in addition to possible indirect references to Caligula. Curtius declares that he follows his source word-for-word aiming to justify these inconsistencies, but also trying to hide the manipulations he has done to achieve his own narrative purposes.

"Sub Tiberio quies"? Judaea’s Political Situation under the Prefects (6-41 c.e.), between Reality and Ideology

Deeply conflicting views on the political situation of Judaea under the Roman prefects (6-41 c.e.) have been offered. According to some scholars, this was a period of persistent political unrest and agitation, whilst according to a widespread view it was a quiescent period of political calm (reflected in Tacitus’ phrase sub Tiberio quies). The present article critically examines again the main available sources –particularly Josephus, the canonical Gospels and Tacitus– in order to offer a more reliable historical reconstruction. The conclusions drawn by this survey calls into question some widespread and insufficiently nuanced views on the period. This, in turn, allows a reflection on the non-epistemic factors which might contribute to explain the origin of such views.

Le “brigand lusitanien” reconsidéré. Analyse du problème de la terre chez Appien

L’étude du “brigandage lusitanien” a donné lieu à une importante activité de recherche depuis la fin du XIXe siècle. Pour autant, et malgré une inflexion progressive de l’historiographie moderne vers une approche plus nuancée de l’origine du phénomène, le problème de la terre reste encore aujourd’hui au centre des préoccupations de nombre d’historiens et archéologiques. À partir d’une discussion serrée des principaux passages de Tite-Live, Diodore et surtout Appien, relatifs à la relation que d’aucuns ont voulu établir entre manque et/ou pauvreté de la terre et développement du brigandage chez les Lusitaniens, il est proposé une critique de l’interprétation socio-économique.

Illness and Fall in Albert Camus

This article focuses on the theme of illness in Albert Camus. Special emphasis is placed on his last published novel, La Chute. The issue of disease is usually focused in relation to death and finitude both in literature and philosophy. This article focuses on the relation between the existential experience of illness and the decay of the plenitude of life. The case of Albert Camus is especially significant for his chronical illness and because disease has a prominent place in his literary works. Here La Chute is chosen because it offers a great richness of interpretative levels unparalleled in other camusian works. Two different reading levels are proposed. The distinction and the analysis of these two levels will allow for more nuanced view of the relationship of the author to his work and of the controversy about the social role of the intellectual. The conclusion of this article differs both from the critics who only consider the novel in relation to the polemic with Jean-Paul Sartre, and those who interpret it as a disguised confession.

Das Bildzitat Eine Untersuchung von Paul Klees Die Revolution des Viaduktes in drei Texten der deutschprachigen Prosa

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung des Bildzitates und seiner Form. Ausgangspunkt ist ein Kunstwerk, Paul Klees Revolution der Viadukte, und dessen Versprachlichung, dem sognannten Bildzitat, in drei Texten der deutschen Prosa. Als literaturwissenschaftliche Methode wurde ein intermedialer Ansatz nach Rajewsky, sowie von Berndt, Tonger-Erk gewählt. Eine Auswahl des Kunstwerkes und der Texte, die das Kunstwerk zitieren, wurde basierend auf dem Material der Datenbank über literarische Bildzitate in Wien getroffen. Die Analyse der Bildzitate in SAID: Das Rot lächelt, das Blau schweigt. Geschichten über Bilder, Uwe Timm: Der Freund und der Fremde und Gertrud Leutenegger: Vorabend erfolgt nach folgender Fragestellung: 1. Welches sind die grundlegenden Charakteristika des Bildes, die in den literarischen Bildzitaten hervorgehoben werden? 2. Mit welchen sprachlichen Mitteln wird dies hervorgehoben? 3. Welche Rolle spielt der Titel des Gemäldes? Wie der Resultatteil zeigt werden von den Autoren Stilmittel ähnlich die des Gemäldes (Kontrast, Repetition) verwendet. Der Titel des Gemäldes und die Bildzitate werden im Text als verstärkendes Element verwendet. The pictorial quote An analysis of Paul Klees Revolution of the viaduct in three German prose texts. This essay explores the quotation of images in literature. Starting point is Paul Klee's painting The revolution of the viaduct and its verbal expression, which is known as 'image quotation', in three German prose texts. The textual analysis of these works - SAID's Das Rot lächelt,das Blau schweigt. Geschichten über Bilder, Uwe Timm's Der Freund und der Fremde and Gertrud Leutenegger's Vorabend - is based on theories of intermediality. This essay shows that the authors employ stylistic devices similar to those in the painting, such as contrast and repetition, and use them as intermedial references.