Advances in predicting and manipulating the immunogenicity of biotherapeutics and vaccines

Therapeutic proteins are vital to the future of human health provision and the survival and profitability of the global pharmaceutical industry. Returns from protein therapeutics are experiencing unprecedented growth: both their number and their economic dividend have increased by an order of magnitude in the last 10 years. The potential immunogenicity of protein therapeutics raises many clinical and safety concerns. Many poorly understood factors relating to both product and host affect immune responses. Available laboratory measurement of immunogenicity is of little utility for predicting the clinical properties of biotherapeutics. Coupled with assay variability and standardization issues, this precludes adequate prediction of the biological or clinical responses of therapeutic proteins, arguing for the utilization of informatic strategies in the analysis and prediction of protein immunogenicity. Currently, many unresolved issues must be addressed and thus circumvented before effective prediction can become routine.

Understanding institutional conversion:the case of the National Reporting and Learning System

This article focuses on one type of institutional change: conversion. One innovative approach to institutional change, the “political-coalitional approach”, acknowledges that: institutions can have unintended effects, which may privilege certain groups over others; institutions are often created and sustained through compromise with external actors; and institutions’ external context can vary significantly over time, as different coalitions’ power waxes and wanes. This approach helps explain the conversion of one institution drawn from the UK National Health Service, the National Reporting and Learning System. However, the shift of this system from producing formative information to facilitate learning to promote safer care, towards producing summative information to support resource allocation decisions, cannot be explained merely by examining the actions of external power coalitions. An internal focus, which considers factors that are normally viewed as “organisational” (such as leadership and internal stability), is also required.

The development and application of a coding and classification system for manufacturing industry

DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AT ASTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES WITH PRIOR ARRANGEMENT

Development of Database for Distributed Information Measurement and Control System

The purpose of this work is the development of database of the distributed information measurement and control system that implements methods of optical spectroscopy for plasma physics research and atomic collisions and provides remote access to information and hardware resources within the Intranet/Internet networks. The database is based on database management system Oracle9i. Client software was realized in Java language. The software was developed using Model View Controller architecture, which separates application data from graphical presentation components and input processing logic. The following graphical presentations were implemented: measurement of radiation spectra of beam and plasma objects, excitation function for non-elastic collisions of heavy particles and analysis of data acquired in preceding experiments. The graphical clients have the following functionality of the interaction with the database: browsing information on experiments of a certain type, searching for data with various criteria, and inserting the information about preceding experiments.

Connection of Network Sensors to Distributed Information Measurement and Control System for Education and Research

The development of the distributed information measurement and control system for optical spectral research of particle beam and plasma objects and the execution of laboratory works on Physics and Engineering Department of Petrozavodsk State University are described. At the hardware level the system is represented by a complex of the automated workplaces joined into computer network. The key element of the system is the communication server, which supports the multi-user mode and distributes resources among clients, monitors the system and provides secure access. Other system components are formed by equipment servers (CАМАC and GPIB servers, a server for the access to microcontrollers MCS-196 and others) and the client programs that carry out data acquisition, accumulation and processing and management of the course of the experiment as well. In this work the designed by the authors network interface is discussed. The interface provides the connection of measuring and executive devices to the distributed information measurement and control system via Ethernet. This interface allows controlling of experimental parameters by use of digital devices, monitoring of experiment parameters by polling of analog and digital sensors. The device firmware is written in assembler language and includes libraries for Ethernet-, IP-, TCP- и UDP-packets forming.

Data Protection and Packet Mode in the Distributed Information Measurement and Control System for Research in Physics

The present paper is devoted to creation of cryptographic data security and realization of the packet mode in the distributed information measurement and control system that implements methods of optical spectroscopy for plasma physics research and atomic collisions. This system gives a remote access to information and instrument resources within the Intranet/Internet networks. The system provides remote access to information and hardware resources for the natural sciences within the Intranet/Internet networks. The access to physical equipment is realized through the standard interface servers (PXI, CАМАC, and GPIB), the server providing access to Ethernet devices, and the communication server, which integrates the equipment servers into a uniform information system. The system is used to make research task in optical spectroscopy, as well as to support the process of education at the Department of Physics and Engineering of Petrozavodsk State University.

Implementation of a machine tool performance measurement and diagnostic system and its impact on parts verification

Five axis machine tools are increasing and becoming more popular as customers demand more complex machined parts. In high value manufacturing, the importance of machine tools in producing high accuracy products is essential. High accuracy manufacturing requires producing parts in a repeatable manner and precision in compliance to the defined design specifications. The performance of the machine tools is often affected by geometrical errors due to a variety of causes including incorrect tool offsets, errors in the centres of rotation and thermal growth. As a consequence, it can be difficult to produce highly accurate parts consistently. It is, therefore, essential to ensure that machine tools are verified in terms of their geometric and positioning accuracy. When machine tools are verified in terms of their accuracy, the resulting numerical values of positional accuracy and process capability can be used to define design for verification rules and algorithms so that machined parts can be easily produced without scrap and little or no after process measurement. In this paper the benefits of machine tool verification are listed and a case study is used to demonstrate the implementation of robust machine tool performance measurement and diagnostics using a ballbar system.

Linear Colligations and Dynamic System Corresponding to Operators in the Banach Space

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 47A48, 93B28, 47A65; Secondary 34C94.

Non-stationary stochastic inventory lot-sizing with emission and service level constraints in a carbon cap-and-trade system

Firms worldwide are taking major initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint of their supply chains in response to the growing governmental and consumer pressures. In real life, these supply chains face stochastic and non-stationary demand but most of the studies on inventory lot-sizing problem with emission concerns consider deterministic demand. In this paper, we study the inventory lot-sizing problem under non-stationary stochastic demand condition with emission and cycle service level constraints considering carbon cap-and-trade regulatory mechanism. Using a mixed integer linear programming model, this paper aims to investigate the effects of emission parameters, product- and system-related features on the supply chain performance through extensive computational experiments to cover general type business settings and not a specific scenario. Results show that cycle service level and demand coefficient of variation have significant impacts on total cost and emission irrespective of level of demand variability while the impact of product's demand pattern is significant only at lower level of demand variability. Finally, results also show that increasing value of carbon price reduces total cost, total emission and total inventory and the scope of emission reduction by increasing carbon price is greater at higher levels of cycle service level and demand coefficient of variation. The analysis of results helps supply chain managers to take right decision in different demand and service level situations.

Architecture of remote monitoring and diagnosis system based on service-oriented architecture(SOA)

In view of the increasingly complexity of services logic and functional requirements, a new system architecture based on SOA was proposed for the equipment remote monitoring and diagnosis system. According to the design principles of SOA, different levels and different granularities of services logic and functional requirements for remote monitoring and diagnosis system were divided, and a loosely coupled web services system was built. The design and implementation schedule of core function modules for the proposed architecture were presented. A demo system was used to validate the feasibility of the proposed architecture.

Adómorál és adócsalás - társadalmi preferenciák és korlátozott racionalitás = Tax morale and tax system: social preferences and bounded rationality

Az adócsalásnak egy olyan modellcsaládját vizsgáljuk, ahol az egykulcsos adó kizárólag a közjavakat finanszírozza. Két megközelítés összehasonlítására összpontosítunk. Az elsőben minden dolgozó jövedelme azonos, és ebből minden évben annyit vall be, amennyi maximalizálja a nála maradó jövedelemből fedezhető fogyasztás nyújtotta hasznosság és a jövedelembevallásból fakadó hasznosság összegét. A második hasznosság három tényező szorzata: a dolgozó exogén adómorálja, a környezetében előző évben megfigyelt átlagos jövedelembevallás és saját bevallásából fakadó endogén hasznossága. A második megközelítésben az ágensek egyszerű heurisztikus szabályok szerint cselekszenek. Míg az optimalizáló modellben hagyományos Laffer-görbékkel találkozunk, addig a heurisztikán alapuló modellekben (lineárisan) növekvő Laffer-görbék jönnek létre. E különbség oka, hogy a heurisztikán alapuló modellben egy sajátos viselkedésfajta jelentkezik: számos ágens ingatag helyzetbe kerül, amelyben altruizmus és önzés között ingadozik. ________ The authors study a family of models of tax evasion, where a flat-rate tax only finances the provision of public goods and audits and wage differences are ne-glected. The paper focuses on comparing two modelling approaches. The first is based on optimizing agents, endowed with social preferences, their utility being the sum of private consumption and moral utility. The second approach involves agents acting according to simple heuristics. While the traditionally shaped Laffer curves are encountered in the optimizing model, the heuristics models exhibit (linearly) increasing Laffer curves. This difference is related to a peculiar type of behaviour: within the agent-based approach lurk a number of agents in a moral state of limbo, alternating between altruism and selfishness.