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Increasing Application (increasing + application)
Selected AbstractsEpilepsy and intellectual disabilityJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 5 2000C. Bowley Abstract A Medline and Psychline literature review of epilepsy in people with intellectual disability was performed. The review has highlighted the importance of the impact of epilepsy on the lives of individuals and their families, affecting physical morbidity, leading to an increased mortality and increasing the care-giving burden. Interventions with a strong evidence base are mainly pharmacological with an increasing body of work on the novel antiepileptic drugs. Surprisingly little research exists into the quality of service provision for this population. The authors suggest three areas for future work: (1) an increasing application of research methodologies such as direct observation and qualitative studies into this field; (2) an exploration of the broad impact of treatment and (3) the possibility that epilepsy is a barrier to care provision. [source] Darwinism,a new paradigm for organizational behavior?JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2006Nigel Nicholson The Special Issue reflects a growing interest in Darwinian ideas and their increasing application to work and organizational issues, analyzes factors that have impeded its adoption as a paradigm and considers the prospects for future growth. After a brief introduction to key concepts in the new Darwinism, some histories, and controversies are traced. Causes for the particularly slow uptake of the paradigm in Organizational Behavior (OB) are discussed, as well as some of the common misconceptions and incorrect attributions that have been leveled at evolutionary theory. The paper then overviews the scope and contents of the Special Issue (SI) papers, and concludes by considering future prospects for the field. The authors argue that the paradigm has compelling significance and wide applicability to the full range of OB topics and interests. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Biological significance and development of practical synthesis of biotinMEDICINAL RESEARCH REVIEWS, Issue 4 2006Masahiko Seki Abstract Biotin (1), a water-soluble B series vitamin, distributes widely in microorganisms, plants, and animals. Biosynthesis of 1 involves five steps sequence starting from pimelic acid. The last step, a transformation from dethiobiotin (DTB) to 1, includes an iron clusters-mediated radical process. The compound 1 is a cofactor of carboxylation enzymes and plays crucial roles in the metabolism of fatty acids, sugars, and ,-amino acids. In addition to the increasing application to feed additives, recent reports have revealed that 1 enhances insulin secretion in animals, suggesting it for a promising therapeutic candidate for an anti-diabetes drug. The remarkably strong affinity of 1 with avidin and streptavidin has been extensively applied for such technologies as photoaffinity labeling. Among the number of approaches to 1 so far developed in 50 years, a synthesis using L -cysteine and thiolactone as a starting material and a key intermediate, respectively, represents one of the best routes leading to 1, because of short steps, high yield, use of inexpensive reagents, and ease of operation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Med Res Rev, 26, No. 4, 434,482, 2006 [source] Plant cell wall biosynthesis: genetic, biochemical and functional genomics approaches to the identification of key genesPLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006Naser Farrokhi Summary Cell walls are dynamic structures that represent key determinants of overall plant form, plant growth and development, and the responses of plants to environmental and pathogen-induced stresses. Walls play centrally important roles in the quality and processing of plant-based foods for both human and animal consumption, and in the production of fibres during pulp and paper manufacture. In the future, wall material that constitutes the major proportion of cereal straws and other crop residues will find increasing application as a source of renewable fuel and composite manufacture. Although the chemical structures of most wall constituents have been defined in detail, the enzymes involved in their synthesis and remodelling remain largely undefined, particularly those involved in polysaccharide biosynthesis. There have been real recent advances in our understanding of cellulose biosynthesis in plants, but, with few exceptions, the identities and modes of action of polysaccharide synthases and other glycosyltransferases that mediate the biosynthesis of the major non-cellulosic wall polysaccharides are not known. Nevertheless, emerging functional genomics and molecular genetics technologies are now allowing us to re-examine the central questions related to wall biosynthesis. The availability of the rice, Populus trichocarpa and Arabidopsis genome sequences, a variety of mutant populations, high-density genetic maps for cereals and other industrially important plants, high-throughput genome and transcript analysis systems, extensive publicly available genomics resources and an increasing armoury of analysis systems for the definition of candidate gene function will together allow us to take a systems approach to the description of wall biosynthesis in plants. [source] Ethical Considerations for Participation of Nondirected Living Donors in Kidney Exchange ProgramsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 6 2010E. S. Woodle Kidneys from nondirected donors (NDDs) have historically been allocated directly to the deceased donor wait list (DDWL). Recently, however, NDDs have participated in kidney exchange (KE) procedures, including KE ,chains', which have received considerable media attention. This increasing application of KE chains with NDD participation has occurred with limited ethical analysis and without ethical guidelines. This article aims to provide a rigorous ethical evaluation of NDDs and chain KEs. NDDs and bridge donors (BDs) (i.e. living donors who link KE procedures within KE chains) raise several ethical concerns including coercion, privacy, confidentiality, exploitation and commercialization. In addition, although NDD participation in KE procedures may increase transplant numbers, it may also reduce NDD kidney allocation to the DDWL, and disadvantage vulnerable populations, particularly O blood group candidates. Open KE chains (also termed ,never-ending' chains) result in a permanent diversion of NDD kidneys from the DDWL. The concept of limited KE chains is discussed as an ethically preferable means for protecting NDDs and BDs from coercion and minimizing ,backing out', whereas ,honor systems' are rejected because they are coercive and override autonomy. Recent occurrences of BDs backing out argue for adoption of ethically based protective measures for NDD participation in KE. [source] Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofluidic TransportADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 35 2009Jason Knowles Holt Abstract Recent strides have been made in both the modeling and measurement of fluid flow on the nanoscale. Carbon nanotubes, with their atomic dimensions and atomic smoothness, are ideal materials for studying such flows. This Progress Report describes recent modeling and experimental advances concerning fluid transport in carbon nanotubes. The varied flow characteristics predicted by molecular dynamics are described, as are the roles of defects and chirality on transport. Analytical models are increasingly being used to describe nanofluidic transport by relaxing many of the assumptions commonly used to describe bulk water. Recent experimental studies examine the size dependence of flow enhancements through carbon nanotubes and use varied spectroscopies to probe water structure and dynamics in these systems. Carbon nanotubes are finding increasing applications in biology, from protein filters to platforms for cell interrogation. [source] Optical properties tailoring for new devices engineering in high-gap oxidesPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (A) APPLICATIONS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE, Issue 7 2010Pier Carlo Ricci Abstract Monocrystal matrices of high-gap oxides are finding increasing applications as hosts of luminescent ions, typically rare earths (RE)s. Currently, RE-doped oxyorthosilicates, aluminum perovskites, and garnets (RE2SiO5,REAlO3,RE3Al5O12) are widely used as highly efficient and fast scintillators for ,-ray detection. On the other hand, shallow or deep intragap energy levels, due to stoichiometric deviation or impurities unintentionally added in the crystals, play a counteractive role giving rise to slower scintillation decay time, reduced light yield and afterglow. The aim of this work is to show how it is possible to tailor these unwelcome outcomes and RE-ion interactions for engineering new devices for optical memory storage. In this sense, experimental results of thermo- and radio-luminescence are presented. The role of the bandgap and the location in energy of the levels due to the RE dopants and to the defects is discussed from a theoretical point of view. The feasibility in the near future of new promising transparent displays is also discussed. [source] Weighted Wilcoxon-Type Smoothly Clipped Absolute Deviation MethodBIOMETRICS, Issue 2 2009Lan Wang Summary Shrinkage-type variable selection procedures have recently seen increasing applications in biomedical research. However, their performance can be adversely influenced by outliers in either the response or the covariate space. This article proposes a weighted Wilcoxon-type smoothly clipped absolute deviation (WW-SCAD) method, which deals with robust variable selection and robust estimation simultaneously. The new procedure can be conveniently implemented with the statistical software R. We establish that the WW-SCAD correctly identifies the set of zero coefficients with probability approaching one and estimates the nonzero coefficients with the rate n,1/2. Moreover, with appropriately chosen weights the WW-SCAD is robust with respect to outliers in both the x and y directions. The important special case with constant weights yields an oracle-type estimator with high efficiency in the presence of heavier-tailed random errors. The robustness of the WW-SCAD is partly justified by its asymptotic performance under local shrinking contamination. We propose a Bayesian information criterion type tuning parameter selector for the WW-SCAD. The performance of the WW-SCAD is demonstrated via simulations and by an application to a study that investigates the effects of personal characteristics and dietary factors on plasma beta-carotene level. [source] Multitasking by Multivalent Circular DNA AptamersCHEMBIOCHEM, Issue 3 2006Daniel A. Di Giusto Abstract Nucleic acid aptamers are finding increasing applications in biology, especially as therapeutic candidates and diagnostic components. An important characteristic in meeting the needs of these applications is improved stability in physiological fluids, which is most often accomplished with chemical modification or unnatural nucleotides. In an alternative approach we have specified the design of a multivalent circular DNA aptamer topology that encompasses a number of properties relevant to nucleic acid therapeutic candidates, especially the ability to multitask by combining different activities together within a modular structure. Improved stability in blood products, greater conformational stability, antidoting by complementary circular antiaptamers, heterovalency, transcription factor decoy activity and minimal unintended effects upon the cellular innate immune response are desirable properties that are described here. Multitasking by circular DNA aptamers could similarly find applications in diagnostics and biomaterials, where the combination of interchangeable modules might generate new functions, such as anticoagulation coupled with reversible cell capture as, described here. These results provide a platform for further exploration of multivalent circular aptamer properties, especially in novel combinations of nucleic acid therapeutic modes. [source] | |||||||||||||