Comparative Study

Non-invasive vaccine delivery is a top priority for public health agencies because conventional immunization practices are unsafe and associated with numerous limitations. Recently, the skin has emerged as a potential alternative route for non-invasive delivery of vaccine. Topical immunization (TI), introduction of antigen through topical application onto the intact skin, has many practical merits compared to injectable routes of administration. One of the possibilities for increasing the penetration of bioactives through the skin is the use of vesicular systems. Specially designed lipid vesicles are attracting intense attention and can be used for non-invasive antigen delivery. In the present study, elastic vesicle transfersomes, non-ionic surfactant vesicles (niosomes) and liposomes were used to study their relative potential in non-invasive delivery of tetanus toxoid (TT). Transfersomes, niosomes and liposomes were prepared and characterized for shape, size and entrapment efficiency. These vesicles were extruded through polycarbonate filter (50-nm pore size) to assess the elasticity of the vesicles. The immune stimulating activity of transfersomes, niosomes and liposomes were studied by measuring the serum anti-TT IgG titre following topical immunization. The immune response elicited by topical immunization was compared with that elicited by same dose of alum-adsorbed tetanus toxoid (AATT) given intramuscularly. The results indicate that optimal formulations of transfersomes, niosomes and liposomes could entrap 72.7 ± 3.4, 42.5 ± 2.4 and 41.3 ± 2.2% of antigen and their elasticity values were 124.4 ± 4.2, 29.3 ± 2.4 and 21.7 ± 1.9, respectively. In vivo study revealed that topically given TT containing transfersomes, after secondary immunization, could elicit immune response (anti-TT-IgG) that was equivalent to one that produced following intramuscularly alum-adsorbed TT-based immunization. In comparison to transfersomes, niosomes and liposomes elicited weaker immune response. Thus transfersomes hold promise for effective non-invasive topical delivery of antigen(s).

This study examines whether and how public media systems contribute to the health of democracies in 33 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, the Middle East, Latin America, and South America. We gather national economic data and public media funding levels, audience shares, and regulatory data, primarily for 2018 and 2019 but in some cases earlier, due to lack of available data. We then assess correlations with strength of democracy indices and extend Hallin and Mancini's typology of North American and European media systems through hierarchical cluster analysis of these 33 countries. We find five models of public media systems around the world, ranging from "state-administered" systems with low levels of independence (Botswana and Tunisia) to systems aligning with Hallin and Mancini's "Democratic Corporatist" model, with strong and secure (multiyear) funding, large audience shares, and strong regulatory protection for their independence. In between, we identify three mixed models: a "Liberal-Pluralist" model, a "Direct Funding" model, and a "Commercial-Public" model. Correlations and cluster analyses show that high levels of secure funding for public media systems and strong structural protections for the political and economic independence of those systems are consistently and positively correlated with healthy democracies.

In several forest tree breeding operations either backward or forward selection is used, although a proper combination of both might be more advantageous. Using calculations based on quantitative genetic theory, comparisons were made between the relative merits of backward and forward selection for individual families. In backward selection the mother was chosen based on her offspring and in forward selection the best offspring was selected from the family consisting of the mother and her children. A range of heritabilities and selection inten- sities in natural forest and progeny test (the latter is a function of progeny size) were compared. It is the more favourable to select backward the higher the mother ranks. Depending on the combination of parameter values, backward selection was superior to forward selection for open pollinated progeny in 1% to 57% of the top ranking families. High intensity of selection in the forest, low herita- bility and small progeny size favoured backw...

Dietary advanced glycation end products (AGE) formed during heating of food have gained interest as potential nutritional toxins with adverse effects on inflammation and glucose metabolism. In the present study, we investigated the short-term effects of high and low molecular weight (HMW and LMW) dietary AGE on insulin sensitivity, expression of the receptor for AGE (RAGE), the AGE receptor 1 (AGER1) andTNF-α, F2-isoprostaglandins, body composition and food intake. For 2 weeks, thirty-six Sprague–Dawley rats were fed a diet containing 20 % milk powder with different proportions of this being given as heated milk powder (0, 40 or 100 %), either native (HMW) or hydrolysed (LMW). Gene expression ofRAGEandAGER1in whole blood increased in the group receiving a high AGE LMW diet, which also had the highest urinary excretion of the AGE, methylglyoxal-derived hydroimidazolone 1 (MG-H1). Urinary excretion ofNε-carboxymethyl-lysine increased with increasing proportion of heat-treated milk pow...

PurposeAdjuvant chemotherapy for resected non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is now accepted on the basis of several randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that demonstrated improved survival. Although there is strong evidence that adjuvant chemotherapy is effective in stages II and IIIA NSCLC, its utility in stage IB disease is unclear. This report provides a mature analysis of Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 9633, the only RCT designed specifically for stage IB NSCLC.Patients and MethodsWithin 4 to 8 weeks of resection, patients were randomly assigned to adjuvant chemotherapy or observation. Eligible patients had pathologically confirmed T2N0 NSCLC and had undergone lobectomy or pneumonectomy. Chemotherapy consisted of paclitaxel 200 mg/m2intravenously over 3 hours and carboplatin at an area under the curve dose of 6 mg/mL per minute intravenously over 45 to 60 minutes every 3 weeks for four cycles. The primary end point was overall survival.ResultsThree hundred-forty-four patients...

This work reports the validation of a simple CZE method to be used in quality control of recombinant human glycosylated interleukin-7 (rhIL-7) batches produced in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. The separation buffer was a 25mM sodium borate at pH 10 containing 12mM diaminobutane (DAB) used as a dynamic coating agent of the capillary. This method allowed the separation of seven peaks ranging from low to high sialylated glycoforms. An extensive study on conditioning methods of the capillary has been conducted to yield repeatable results. Excellent RSD of EOF mobility (less than 0.6%) was obtained when conditioning included capillary equilibration under virtual analyses and storage in 0.1M NaOH overnight. Method specificity has been demonstrated to be able to discriminate different rhIL-7 glycoforms produced in CHO from formulation matrix. Linearity was demonstrated between 0.5 and 4mg/mL. LOQ was 0.5mg/mL. Repeatability (RSD<1.4 and 3.3% for t(m) and A%, respectively), intermed...

In the treatment of photoaged skin, glycolic acid works by removing superficial portions of the epidermis and stimulating dermis regeneration. Vitamins A, C, and E should stimulate collagen production and antioxidants should prevent free radical damage and skin aging. However, the effectiveness of different therapies has often relied on subjective methods of assessment. Histologic analysis has seldom been used because of the drawback of permanent scarring. In the literature, the use of a quantitative method for the assessment of facial rejuvenation has been described: the silicone replica technique. The authors' aim was to promote and recommend the use of this technique and, in particular, to test the effect of glycolic acid and multivitamin- and antioxidant-based products on skin texture. The authors performed a prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled study on 30 women treated topically in the outer canthal region (crow's-feet area). Patients were divided into thr...

Abstract: The patient submitted to artificial ventilation generally is connected to a high impedance flow source with controlled respiratory cycles to assure volume requirements or to a low impedance pressure source with spontaneous cycles to allow synchronization between his effort and system flow delivery. These two types of cycles represent the initial and final stages of artificial ventilation. The patient who needs a volume guarantee and at the same time presents unstable or insufficient inspiratory effort is difficult to manage with assisted cycles which are analogous to the controlled presence of a high impedance flow source. This paper presents a new approach where the respiratory cycles are obtained by the combination of flow and pressure sources using mathematical modeling. These cycles, named volume assisted pressure supported (VAPS) cycles, are compared with conventional assisted cycles showing a decrease in the patient work of breathing (WOB) during assisted ventilation. The theoretical results have been confirmed by clinical trials.

Most of legacy systems use nowadays were modeled and documented using structured approach. Expansion of these systems in terms of functionality and maintainability requires shift towards object-oriented documentation and design, which has been widely accepted by the industry. In this paper, we present a survey of the existing Data Flow Diagram (DFD) to Unified Modeling language (UML) transformation techniques. We analyze transformation techniques using a set of parameters, identified in the survey. Based on identified parameters, we present an analysis matrix, which describes the strengths and weaknesses of transformation techniques. It is observed that most of the transformation approaches are rule based, which are incomplete and defined at abstract level that does not cover in depth transformation and automation issues. Transformation approaches are data centric, which focuses on data-store for class diagram generation. Very few of the transformation techniques have been applied o...

Cancer in a parent has a devastating effect on the psychological well-being of the children. In this comparative study, we examined the hypothesis that children who have a parent suffering from cancer experience greater difficulty in terms of psychological adaptation than children with a parent suffering from another chronic pathology. A group of 52 children of parents with cancer was