606 research outputs found
Karl Polanyi’s the great transformation: Perverse effects, protectionism and gemeinschaft
No full textDrawing upon Karl Polanyi’s journalistic writings and unpublished lectures from the 1920s and 1930s, this article reconstructs the lineaments of his research programme that was to assume its finished form in The Great Transformation. It identifies and corrects a common misinterpretation of the thesis of that book, and argues that Polanyi’s basic theoretical framework is best conceived as Tönniesian: the ‘protective counter-movement’ of The Great Transformation is Gemeinschaft, understood dynamically, while the market society is Gesellschaft. It examines the two central mechanisms by which, in Polanyi’s understanding, Gesellschaft broke down in the mid-twentieth century: the ‘clash between democracy and capitalism,’ and a doctrine of ‘perverse effects’ whereby political intervention in markets impairs profitability and saps the vitality of the market system
Correction to:Value of 2-[18F]FDG-PET/CT in identifying immune-related adverse events in patients with melanoma or non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic scoping review (Clinical and Translational Imaging, (2024), 12, 2, (187-195), 10.1007/s40336-024-00618-3)
No full textIn this article the author name Mohammad Naghavi-Behzad was incorrectly written as Mohammad Naghavi-Bezhad. The original article has been corrected.</p
Correction: Transatlantic registries for minimally invasive liver surgery: towards harmonization (Surgical Endoscopy, (2023), 37, 5, (3580-3592), 10.1007/s00464-022-09765-y)
No full textThe original online version of this article was revised to correct corresponding author information. The correct corresponding authors are Mohammad Abu Hilal ([email protected]) and Marc G. Besselink ([email protected]). The original article has been corrected
SYNTHESIS OF C-GLYCOSYL AMINO ACIDS AS STABLE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR MODIFIED GLYCOPEPTIDE SYNTHESIS
No full textIn this thesis, we have studied and synthesized new class of C-glycosly amino acids whose structure features a
hetrocycle ring holding the carbohydrate and the amino acid fragments. Pyridine and tetrazole rings were used as
hetrocycle linkers in this project. This class of C-glycosyl amino acids is of interest as new chealtors and as building
building blocks for cotranslational glycopeptides synthesis. In the first part, C-Glycosylmethyl pyridylalanines were
synthesized via thermally induced Hantzsch-type cyclocondensation using an aldehyde-ketoester-enamino ester system.
To one of these reagents was attached a C-glycosyl residue, while to another was bound an amino acid fragment. In a
one-pot optimized methodology, the dihydropyridine was not isolated while its purification was carried out by removal
of unreacted material and side products using polymer-supported scavengers. Then the dihydropyridine (mixture of
diastereoisomers) was oxidized by a polymer-bound oxidant to give the target pyridine bearing the two bioactive
residues. In this way, a range of eight compounds (58-68% yield) was prepared in which the elements of diversity were
(i) the gluco and galacto configurations of the pyranose ring, (ii) the α- and β-configurations at the anomeric center, and
(iii) the positions of the carbohydrate and amino acid sectors in the pyridine ring. The orthogonal functional group
protection in these amino acids allowed their easy incorporation into oligopeptides via sequential amino and carboxylic
group coupling.
In the second part, tetrazole moiety was constructed via Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between nitriles and organic
azides. Two sets of compounds have been prepared, one being constituted of C-galactosyl and C-ribosyl O-tetrazolyl
serines, while the other contains S-tetrazolyl cysteine derivatives. In both cases, the synthetic scheme involved a twostep
route: the first one being the thermal cycloaddition of a sugar azide with p-toluensulfonyl cyanide (TsCN) to give a
1-substituted 5-sulfonyl tetrazole and the second the replacement of the tosyl group with a serine or cysteine residue.
For the high efficiency and operational simplicity, the azide-TsCN cycloaddition appears to be a true click process.
Finally, one of the amino acids prepared was incorporated into a tripeptid
X-efficiency Analysis of Commercial Banks in Pakistan: A Preliminary Investigation
No full textThe emergence of a fast-paced dynamic environment in the business world in general, and in the financial services sector in particular, has highlighted the significance of competition and efficiency. The need for deregulation has become a touchstone of success in fostering both competition and efficiency especially in the economies, which are exposed to structural reforms. In addition to that, intense competition both among domestic and foreign banks, rapid speed of innovations and introduction of new financial instruments, changing consumer’s demands and desire for product augmentation have changed the way a bank conducts business and services its customers. Larger the degree of competition, it is perceived that the firms would become more efficient. However, when the structure of an industry is product of the government regulations, the degree of competition is impaired markedly implying that the efficiency suffers negatively. Banking industry acts as life-blood of modern trade and commerce acting as a bridge to provide a major source of financial intermediation. Thus, appraisal of its efficiency is vital in context of an efficient and competitive financial system. Study of x-efficiency is believed to be important in particular as Berger, et al. (1993) found that x-inefficiencies account for around 20 percent or more of banking costs. Similarly, recent drive among banks towards downsizing, rightsizing and rationalisation of banking costs also implicates for the assessment of x-efficiency analysis of banks. It becomes vital in Pakistani context as there appears to be no study in literature on efficiency or x-efficiency analysis of banks in Pakistan. “A great deal more work is needed on x-efficiency research in banking. Managerial efficiency, the concept of x-efficiency, appears to be a much more important strategic and policy consideration” [Molyneux, et al. (1960), p. 273]. Given
The exegesis of Tabatabaei and the Hermeneutics of Hirsch: a comparative study
No full textThis thesis is a comparative study between Hermeneutics on the one hand and exegesis of the Holy Qur'an on the other. Its objective is to discover whether there are salient points of convergence between the two disciples, and whether issues germane to the Hermeneutical tradition in the West have been referred to and/or employed in Muslim works of Qur'an commentary. To this end, the works of one of the most prominent Shi'ite philosophers and exegetes. Allama Mohammad Hossein Tabataei, have been analysed and compared with the perspective and methodology of E D. Hirsch, one of the most important hermeneuticians in the Western World. Hirsch has been chosen since, in the opinion of the author, there is a considerable number of commonalities between the Hirschian approach to hermeneutics and the exegetical methodology of Tabatabaei and other Shi'ite Muslim interpreters of the Qur'an.. Hirsch, as an objectivist, along with a number of other Hermeneutical scholars, are critical of those who subscribe to philosophical Hermeneutics, such as Heideger and Gadimer. The same approach is taken in Tabatabaei's works, thus providing a strong rationale for an academic comparison of these two scholars. For this reason, this thesis attempts to study the theories of Tabatabaei and Hirsch in order to highlight the similarities and differences in their works. The central hypothesis is that while small differences in approach exist, there is much common ground, and that it is possible to use certain facets of Hirschian hermeneutics in the interpretation of the Qur'an, thus modernising some of the existing exegetical approaches employed by Shi'ite scholars.Since the aim of this thesis is to compare the interpretive works of Tabatabaei with those of Hirsch's, an introductory chapter has been dedicated to the study of the evolution of Shi'ite exegesis from the beginning to date. Tabatabaei's Al-Mizan has been chosen as the foremost work of Shi'ite exegesis in the modem period. Furthermore, a complete chapter has also been dedicated to Tabatabai's exegetical modus operandi as reflected in Al-Mizan, in order to arrive at a better understanding of his perspectives. This research arrives at the conclusion that philosophical Hermeneutics and Epistemology have opened new horizons on which we will always be dependent. Whatever interpretive theories with regards to the understanding of the text are accepted, or whatever the tendency as far as literary criticism is concerned, or whatever ideas are accepted in the arena of philosophy of human and social sciences, the discussion of the nature of understanding in general cannot be avoided. This does not mean that Hermeneutics is limited to these new theories. Rather, the opportunity always exists to introduce new interpretive theories in connection with the understanding of the text. It is indeed possible to study these discussions in detail in a separate sphere independent of the other branches of Islamic sciences and arrive at a number of stable principles in the interpretation of the text in Islamic research
A wavelet transform based digital image watermarking scheme
No full textDigital image watermarking techniques have been proposed to prevent unauthorized distribution of multimedia data. A digital watermark encodes the owner's license information and embeds it into the image. Several discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based techniques are used for watermarking. In this paper, a watermarking scheme is proposed in which the image is decomposed into wavelet coefficients and a visual recognizable logo is embedded in the wavelet coefficients. Wavelet coefficients corresponding to the points located in a neighborhood that have maximum entropy are proposed for embedding the watermark. This method embeds the maximum amount of watermark while the watermark is imperceptible. Watermarking techniques must be robust to some attacks such as smoothing, sharpening and compression. These maximum entropy areas can survive a variety of attacks and can be used as reference points for watermark embedding. The experimental results confirmed that the technique is robust to a variety of attacks.Peer reviewedFinal article publishe
Successive-relaying-aided decode-and-forward coherent versus noncoherent cooperative multicarrier space–time shift keying
No full textAbstract—Successive-relaying-aided (SR) cooperative multi-carrier (MC) space–time shift keying (STSK) is proposed for frequency-selective channels. We invoke SR to mitigate the typical 50% throughput loss of conventional half-duplex relaying schemes and MC code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) to circumvent the dispersive effects of wireless channels and to reduce the SR-induced interference. The distributed relay terminals form two virtual antenna arrays (VAAs), and the source node (SN) successively transmits frequency-domain (FD) spread signals to one of the VAAs, in addition to directly transmitting to the destination node (DN). The constituent relay nodes (RNs) of each VAA activate cyclic-redundancy-checking-based (CRC) selective decode-and-forward (DF) relaying. The DN can jointly detect the signals received via the SN-to-DN and VAA-to-DN links using a low-complexity single-stream-based joint maximum-likelihood (ML) detector. We also propose a differentially encoded cooperative MC-CDMA STSK scheme to facilitate communications over hostile dispersive channels without requiring channel estimation (CE). Dispensing with CE is important since the relays cannot be expected to altruistically estimate the SN-to-RN links for simply supporting the source. Furthermore, we propose soft-decision-aided serially concatenated recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) and unity-rate-coded (URC) cooperative MC STSK and investigate its performance in both coherent and noncoherent scenarios
Editorial: Transboundary conservation
No full textThis article was originally published in Frontiers in Conservation Science. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2024.1363427. © 2024 Wang, Ali, Thornton and Farhadinia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Transboundary areas often contain critical ecosystems that support rich biodiversity and play important roles in maintaining ecological connectivity. More than half of terrestrial vertebrate species have ranges spanning international borders. Many species may shift their distributions by crossing international borders in response to climate change or human disturbances. Yet species in transboundary regions are in increasing peril due to uncoordinated management among neighboring countries and artificial barriers, such as walls and fences along borders and cross-border roads that result in habitat fragmentation and the loss of ecological connectivity. Transboundary conservation can significantly contribute to ongoing efforts to reduce the risk of future extinctions by expanding protected areas and promoting collaborative management. Therefore, more attention to this topic is urgently needed. The Research Topic of Transboundary Conservation aims to enhance understanding of the potential, patterns, and effects of transboundary conservation by collecting studies that analyze transboundary conservation across different terrestrial and marine landscapes. Simultaneously, it aspires towards broader goals of international environmental governance and security.The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. LW was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32371745) and the 14th Five-Year Plan of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (E3ZKFF7B)
Effects of porcine small intestinal submucosa on elution characteristics of gentamicin-impregnated plaster of Paris
No full textObjective—To evaluate effects of small intestinal submucosa (SIS) on elution properties of plaster of Paris (POP).
Sample Population—27 POP cylinders, 27 POP spheres, and 9 polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) spheres.
Procedures—Pellets were loaded with gentamicin (50 mg/g) and divided into 7 groups of 9 beads each: PMMA spheres; POP cylinders coated with 0, 4, or 8 layers of SIS; and POP spheres coated with 0, 4, or 8 layers of SIS. Gentamicin concentration was measured 6, 12, 18, 24, 32, 40, and 48 hours and 3, 4, 5, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42 days after wrapping. Porosity was evaluated via scanning electron microscopy. Curvature factor of elution curves, total amount of drug released (TDR), time required to reach 50% of total release (TDRt50), and number of days with concentrations ≥ 1 μg/mL were compared among groups.
Results—SIS decreased the curvature factor and increased the TDRt50 and TDR of POP spheres and cylinders. Curvature factor of the PMMA-release curve remained lower than that for any POP group, but all POP groups wrapped in SIS released more gentamicin than PMMA spheres. Gentamicin concentrations remained ≥ 1 μg/mL in SIS-wrapped POP and PMMA groups throughout the study. Wrapping POP in SIS minimized the increase in porosity of pellets.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Wrapping POP with SIS slows the release and increases the amount of gentamicin leaching from spheres and cylinders. All groups wrapped in SIS maintained antimicrobial concentrations greater than the minimum inhibitory concentration of most pathogens
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