In A Medicated Empire, Timothy M. Yang explores the history of Japan's pharmaceutical industry in the early twentieth century through a close account of Hoshi Pharmaceuticals, one of East Asia's most ...influential drug companies from the late 1910s through the early 1950s. Focusing on Hoshi's connections to Japan's emerging nation-state and empire, and on the ways in which it embraced an ideology of modern medicine as a humanitarian endeavor for greater social good, Yang shows how the industry promoted a hygienic, middle-class culture that was part of Japan's national development and imperial expansion. Yang makes clear that the company's fortunes had less to do with scientific breakthroughs and medical innovations than with Japan's web of social, political, and economic relations. He lays bare Hoshi's business strategies and its connections with politicians and bureaucrats, and he describes how public health authorities dismissed many of its products as placebos at best and poisons at worst. Hoshi, like other pharmaceutical companies of the time, depended on resources and markets opened up, often violently, through colonization. Combining global histories of business, medicine, and imperialism, A Medicated Empire shows how the development of the pharmaceutical industry simultaneously supported and subverted regimes of public health at home and abroad.
Two different collections of the gilled wild fungus Tricholoma terreum, collected in Italy, were subjected to phytochemical analysis. The fungal material was confidently identified by analysis of the ...ITS genomic sequences. Using both HR-LC-MS and NMR techniques, no evidence was found for the presence in the fruiting bodies of terreolides, terreumols or saponaceolides H-S, in striking contrast with the isolation of these terpenoids by Chinese authors from a mushroom collected in France and identified as T. terreum. The main cytotoxic terpenoid identified and isolated from the extracts of the specimens investigated in this work was the Csub.30 derivative saponaceolide B, which had been previously isolated from T. saponaceum and other T. terreum collections. Although saponaceolide B is a rather labile molecule, easily degradable by heat or in acidic conditions, our study indicated that none of the extraction protocols used produced saponaceolide H-S or terreolide/terreumol derivatives, thus excluding the possibility that the latter compounds could be extraction artifacts. Considered together, these findings point to the need for the unambiguous identification of mushroom species belonging to the complex genus Tricholoma, characterized by high variability in the composition of metabolites. Moreover, based on our data, T. terreum must be considered an edible mushroom.
The aim of this contribution is to present the long history of linguistic research on Cimbrian, an alloglotte variety of Germanic origin, spoken historically in the mountains of the present provinces ...of Verona and Vicenza and in southern Trentino, and still used in the municipality of Lusèrn/Luserna. Moreover, the main linguistic features of Cimbrian, in particular the variety of Lusèrn/Luserna, will be presented. Finally, I will discuss some initiatives for the preservation and promotion of the Cimbrian language and culture.
The Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachya, DP) is known for the nutritional value of its tuber. Nevertheless, DP also has promising pharmacological properties. Compared with the tuber, the leaves of DP ...are still very little studied. However, it may be possible to draw conclusions about the plant quality based on the coloration of the leaves. Magnesium, as a component of chlorophyll, seems to play a role. Therefore, the aim of this research work was to develop an atomic absorption spectrometry-based method for the analysis of magnesium (285.2125 nm) in leaf extracts of DP following the graphite furnace sub-technique. The optimization of the pyrolysis and atomization temperatures resulted in 1500 °C and 1800 °C, respectively. The general presence of flavonoids in the extracts was detected and could explain the high pyrolysis temperature due to the potential complexation of magnesium. The elaborated method had linearity in a range of 1–10 µg Lsup.−1 (Rsup.2 = 0.9975). The limits of detection and quantification amounted to 0.23 µg Lsup.−1 and 2.00 µg Lsup.−1, respectively. The characteristic mass was 0.027 pg, and the recovery was 96.7–102.0%. Finally, the method was applied to extracts prepared from differently colored leaves of DP. Similar magnesium contents were obtained for extracts made of dried and fresh leaves. It is often assumed that the yellowing of the leaves is associated with reduced magnesium content. However, the results indicated that yellow leaves are not due to lower magnesium levels. This stimulates the future analysis of DP leaves considering other essential minerals such as molybdenum or manganese.
The innovation policies of the pharmaceutical industry are determined mainly by elements of the macro-environment that influence the strategic directions of the companies. In this context, the study ...aimed to examine whether and to what extent determined the expansion or reduction of the workforce of pharmaceutical companies in the last decade by macro-environmental indicators. These indicators represent the political, economic, social and technological innovation environment well, which are also considered their strategic decisions. The analysis was based on sectoral and macroeconomic indicators and industry employment data for 27 European countries. The results of the multivariate statistical analysis show that the economic potential of each country's uptake market, the volume of governmental support, and the human development index significantly influenced the evolution of pharmaceutical employment over the period under study.
A gyógyszeriparban tevékenykedő szereplők innovációs politikáját jelentős mértékben meghatározzák az érintett vállalatok stratégiai irányait kívülről befolyásoló makrokörnyezet elemei. A tanulmány célja megvizsgálni, hogy a gyógyszereket fejlesztő, illetve azokkal kereskedő piaci szereplők munkaerőkapacitásának bővítését vagy leépítését az elmúlt évtizedben meghatározták-e és amennyiben igen, milyen mértékben a stratégiai döntéseiknél is fokozottan figyelembe vett makrokörnyezeti, azaz a politikai, a gazdasági, a társadalmi, valamint a technológiai-innovációs környezetet jól jellemző indikátorok. Az elemzés alapjául 27 európai ország ágazati és makrogazdasági mutatói, valamint az iparági foglalkoztatottsági adatok szolgáltak. A többváltozós statisztikai vizsgálatok eredményei alapján egyrészt az egyes országok felvevőpiacának, illetve a kormányok által nyújtott támogatásoknak a volumenét együttesen kifejező gazdasági potenciál, másrészt a humán fejlettségi index befolyásolta szignifikánsan a gyógyszeripari foglalkoztatás alakulását a vizsgált időszakban.
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