Africa is a continent of opportunities that is likely to piay an increasingly important role in the future international division of labour. Yet, German companies' economic activity and investment in ...Africa is still limited. This article examines how the digital transformation is changing the investment and innovation conditions in Africa, how German companies can utilise new opportunities resulting from these changes and how politics can foster greater commitment by German and European companies in Africa. Afrika ist ein Kontinent der Chancen, der in der kunftigen weltwirtschaftlichen Arbeitsteilung eine deutlich grossere Rolle spielen durfte als bisher. Dennoch tut sich die deutsche Wirtschaft bislang schwer. Die digitale Transformation verandert die Investitions- und Innovationsbedingungen in Afrika. Daraus ergeben sich auch fur deutsche Unternehmen Chancen auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent. Die Politik sollte Rahmenbedingungen fur ein starkeres privatwirtschaftliches Engagement deutscher und europaischer Unternehmen in Afrika schaffen.
Combining intelligent and active packaging serves the dual purpose of detecting color changes in food that reflect changes in its quality and prolonging its shelf life. This study developed an ...intelligent and active packaging system made from the cellulose of Acetobacter xylinum and assessed its ability to detect changes in the quality and to increase shelf-life of packaged fresh beef. The properties of the intelligent packaging’s sensor and active packaging films were determined. The application of this system to fresh beef stored at room temperature (28 ± 2 °C) for 24 h was tested. The color of the bromothymol blue (BTB) solution (pH 2.75) in the indicator of the intelligent packaging system changed from orange to dark green to indicate that beef quality changed from fresh to rotten. The meat treated with the active packaging with 10% and 15% garlic extract decayed on the 16th h. In contrast, the meat treated with the active packaging without the garlic extracts rotted on the 12th h. The shift in the indicator’s color was linearly related to the total plate count (TPC), total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN), and pH of the meat packaged using the active packaging system. Therefore, BTB solution (pH 2.75) can be used as an intelligent packaging indicator that will allow consumers to assess the quality of packaged meat easily. As an antimicrobial agent, the addition of 10–15% garlic extract to the active packaging films can help delay the spoilage of packaged beef.
Leslie Iversen (1937–2020) Snyder, Solomon H.; Jarrott, Bevyn; Turner, Anthony J. ...
Journal of neurochemistry,
November 2020, 2020-11-00, 20201101, Volume:
155, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This is an Obituary for Leslie Iversen (1937–2020). Les Iversen was an internationally renowned neuroscientist and pharmacologist, a substantial contributor to university life, learned societies, the ...pharmaceutical industry and society at large. He died on July 30th 2020.
Poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP)-based gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) are considered a promising electrolyte candidate for polymer lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of ...their free-standing shape, versatility, security, flexibility, lightweight, reliability, and so on. However, due to problems such as low ionic conductivity, PVDF-HFP can only be used on a small scale when used as a substrate alone. To overcome the above shortcomings, GPEs were designed and synthesized by a UV curing process by adding NASICON-type Lisub.1.5Alsub.0.5Gesub.1.5(POsub.4)sub.3 (LAGP) and garnet-type Lisub.6.46Lasub.3Zrsub.1.46Tasub.0.54Osub.12 (LLZTO) to PVDF-HFP. Experimentally, GPEs with 10% weight LLZTO in a PVDF-HFP matrix had an ionic conductivity of up to 3 × 10sup.−4 S cmsup.−1 at 25 °C. When assembled into LiFePOsub.4/GPEs/Li batteries, a discharge-specific capacity of 81.5 mAh gsup.−1 at a current density of 1 C and a capacity retention rate of 98.1% after 100 cycles at a current density of 0.2 C occurred. Therefore, GPEs added to LLZTO have a broad application prospect regarding rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
Malnutrition is common across varying patient populations, particularly older adults, and sarcopenia prevalence increases with advancing age. Both malnutrition and sarcopenia are associated with ...substantial adverse outcomes affecting both the patient and the healthcare system, including increased morbidity, mortality, rehospitalization rates, and healthcare costs. Healthcare practitioners may assess patients for either malnutrition or sarcopenia; however, many patients clinically present with both conditions, resulting in the syndrome, Malnutrition-Sarcopenia Syndrome, which is the clinical presentation of both malnutrition and accelerated age-associated loss of lean body mass, strength, and/or functionality. Clinicians are urged to screen, assess, and treat these conditions currently so as to adequately address the full spectrum of patients’ nutritional issues. By examining aspects of both conditions, clinicians can more fully assess their patients’ clinical and nutritional status and can tailor targeted therapies to meet their needs and improve outcomes. This proposed syndrome embodies the inherent association of malnutrition and sarcopenia, highlighting their combined impact on clinical outcomes. The objective of this review paper is to characterize Malnutrition-Sarcopenia Syndrome to advance clinical practice, by providing clinicians with the necessary background information to integrate nutritional assessment along with loss of muscle mass and functionality in their everyday clinical practice.
Looking for effective synthetic methods for 1H-pyrazolo3,4-bquinolines preparation, we came across a procedure where, in a three-component reaction catalysed by L-proline, ...4-aryl-4,9-dihydro-1H-pyrazolo3,4-bquinolines are formed. These compounds can be easily oxidised to a fully aromatic system, which gives hope for a synthetic method that could replace, e.g., Friedländer condensation, often used for this purpose, even though severely limited by the availability of suitable substrates. However, after careful repetition of the procedures described in the publication, it turned out that the compounds described therein do not form at all. The actual compounds turned out to be 4,4-(phenyl-methylene)-bis-(3-methyl-1-phenylpyrazol-5-oles). Therefore, 4-Aryl-4,9-dihydro-1H-pyrazolo3,4-bquinolines were prepared by another method and used as standards to compare the products formed in the original procedure.
Success of gene therapy relies on the durable expression and activity of transgene in target tissues. In vivo molecular imaging approaches using positron emission tomography (PET) can non-invasively ...measure magnitude, location, and durability of transgene expression via direct transgene or indirect reporter gene imaging in target tissues, providing the most proximal PK/PD biomarker for gene therapy trials. Herein, we report the radiosynthesis of a novel PET tracer sup.18FAGAL, targeting alpha galactosidase A (α-GAL), a lysosomal enzyme deficient in Fabry disease, and evaluation of its selectivity, specificity, and pharmacokinetic properties in vitro. sup.18FAGAL was synthesized via a Cu-catalyzed click reaction between fluorinated pentyne and an aziridine-based galactopyranose precursor with a high yield of 110 mCi, high radiochemical purity of >97% and molar activity of 6 Ci/µmol. The fluorinated AGAL probe showed high α-GAL affinity with ICsub.50 of 30 nM, high pharmacological selectivity (≥50% inhibition on >160 proteins), and suitable pharmacokinetic properties (moderate to low clearance and stability in plasma across species). In vivo sup.18FAGAL PET imaging in mice showed high uptake in peripheral organs with rapid renal clearance. These promising results encourage further development of this PET tracer for in vivo imaging of α-GAL expression in target tissues affected by Fabry disease.
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