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Spinal surgery can be associated with significant intraoperative blood loss which may lead to various complications. As the number of patients undergoing spinal surgery increases over time, accurate and effective hemostasis becomes critically important. Despite various surgical hemostatic techniques, conventional interventions such as compression, suture, ligation, and heat-generating cautery, are not suitable for osseous and epidural venous plexus bleeding during spinal procedures. Therefore, a variety of hemostatic agents have been developed to promote hemostasis. As they differ in terms of mechanism, form, application and potential adverse reactions, it is important to understand the natural features of existing agents. Here we comprehensively review currently available topical hemostatic agents from different sources and summarize their mechanisms of action, applications, and current or potential utilization in spinal surgery. We found hemostatic agents from different sources exert hemostatic actions through different mechanisms. In addition, topical hemostatic agents play various roles in spinal surgery including as hemostatic agent, dura mater repair, drug-carrier, skin closure, and fibrosis prevention. Compressive neurological complications are the most common complications of these hemostatic agents. Therefore, optimal use in spinal environments should match their features, indications, and efficacy with clinical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tomato (Licopersicon esculentum Mill.) is considered to be one of the products with the highest demand due to its nutritional value; however, it is susceptible to infection by fungi during its pre- and postharvest stages. In this research, three commercial products (1% Citrocover, 1% Citro 80, and 0.002% Microdyn) and two coatings based on 1.0% chitosan/0.1% lime or 0.1% orange essential oils were evaluated in vitro and on Saladette tomatoes that were previously inoculated with four postharvest fungi. The application of the commercial citrus-based product Citrocover was highly effective in reducing the in vitro development of Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium oxysporum, and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, but not Rhizopus stolonifer. The sanitizer Microdyn promoted infections with most fungi. Citrus-based products were effective in reducing infections with A. flavus in the tomatoes during storage. Overall, mycotoxin production was very low for all treatments. The use of commercial citrus-based products and coatings did not alter the weight loss, firmness, or total soluble solid contents of the treated tomatoes. The changes observed were, rather, associated with the normal ripening process of Saladette tomatoes. The commercial citrus-based products satisfactorily controlled the in vitro growth of the fungi Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium oxysporum, and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fredric Jameson's 1984 essay 'Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism' famously calls for new forms of representation that can provide a better notion of the sublime world space of multinational capital. Jameson states that such aesthetic scale models are yet unrealised, but this essay argues that a number of contemporary novels, including Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, Ben Lerner's 10:04 and works by Matias Faldbakken, Sally Rooney and William Gibson, present us with global figurations that are both more banal and more sublime than Jameson could have imagined. These novels all contain scenes where ordinary commodities are turned inside out in staggering leaps of scale, which constitute original figurations of the global infrastructures of late capitalism. Drawing on Bill Brown's thing theory, Jennifer Wenzel's notion of commodity biographies, and different theories of scale in the Anthropocene, I analyse different examples of this figure, which I term transparent commodities. In the concluding section, I show how these figurations prefigure the current global supply chain crisis, and I return to Jameson's original demand for representations of the global totality, which I discuss in dialogue with my analyses as well as theories of planetarity by Gayatri Spivak and Dipesh Chakrabarty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the commodities with the highest economic value in the plantation sector in Indonesia is coffee. In 2016 there was a significant difference between the area of robusta and arabica coffee, with the area of robusta coffee being superior. The wide difference between robusta and arabica coffee plantations is because robusta coffee is considered a potential opportunity in developing the community's economy compared to arabica coffee with a particular market. To improve the taste or quality of coffee production, one of the factors is the roasting process. Currently, the demand for coffee production is increasing with the need for maximum quality and taste of coffee beans, so the processing of coffee plants must be very concerned and improved. Therefore this study aims to determine the roasting technique with a roasting machine and its effect on improving the quality and taste of coffee beans that are popular with consumers. This study used a Split Plot Design (SPD) using the basic pattern of a Completely Randomized Design consisting of 2 levels. The first factor is the roasting time as the main plot with four levels. Then the second factor is the roasting temperature with two levels. Each factor was repeated four times so there were 32 experimental units. The results of this study indicate that in the roasting process using slow roast and fast roast techniques, roasting time affects all observation parameters, namely moisture content, pH value, brix value, flavor, aroma, and caffeine. However, the roasting temperature only affects moisture content, brix value, and caffeine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on marketing communications through an evaluation research approach. Focused on enhancing personalization, efficiency, and strategic insight, the study explores AI's applications in content creation, customer service, social media, influencer marketing, and predictive analytics. The results reveal a paradigm transition in customer engagement and behavior analysis, highlighting AI's role in providing profound insights and facilitating real-time interactions. Personalized marketing and targeted advertising have evolved, with AI analyzing vast datasets to craft tailored messages, significantly enhancing communication relevance. AI's impact extends to content creation and curation, accelerating processes through natural language generation and improving content personalization. Moreover, AI driven chatbots redefine customer service, providing 24/7 personalized support and actively contributing to marketing strategies. Social media and influencer marketing benefit from AI's optimization of content delivery, personalization, and campaign impact measurement. The synergy between AI and predictive analytics anticipates consumer behavior, enabling precise targeting and optimizing the customer journey. The study concludes with implications for businesses, advocating strategic AI integration for sustained growth, and emphasizes the necessity of staying attuned to emerging AI innovations in future research. This research serves as a roadmap, guiding businesses toward successfully navigating the digital era's evolving marketing communications view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the soundness of understanding markets based on historically-grounded methodologies as of 2024. Topics covered include the availability of product and customer information that may influence market and other economic institutions design, an institutional account of markets, the epistemic preconditions of markets and market regulation, and a new frontline from products to customers. Also noted is the value of market situation inputs from those directly involved.

The limit personal jurisdiction has on a court's authority has long relied on a three-element test: (1) the defendant must have certain minimum contacts with the forum state, (2) the lawsuit must arise out of or be connected to the defendant's contacts with the forum state, and (3) the exercise of jurisdiction must not offend "traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice."¹ The Supreme Court of the United States has spoken often about element one--""minimum contacts." Many cases detail the nature and quality of a defendant's conduct that can create the requisite contacts with the forum state to justify requiring the defendant to appear and defend in the forum state. One recurring problem in "minimum contacts" cases is what to do about harmful products (whether allegedly defective or infringing on a patent) that the defendant sold outside the forum state which end up causing harm in the forum state. The Court has indicated, using a "stream of commerce" analogy, the defendant may satisfy the requisite contact with the forum state by delivering the product into the stream with knowledge that the product will be sold in the forum state. The Court, however, has never been able to agree about the precise contours of this doctrine and lower courts vary wildly in how they approach so-called stream of commerce problems. The Supreme Court has also laid out the factors courts should consider for element three and has expressly held personal jurisdiction to be improper when personal jurisdiction would not be fair and reasonable. Until recently, however, the Court has never spoken about element two--the "arising out of or connected to" element. The Court spoke twice on the second element--the first time in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, San Francisco County² (BMS) and more recently in Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court.³ The Court has now provided significant guidance on this second element. This Article considers what the Court's recent pronouncements on element two might tell us about stream of commerce cases and whether such cases satisfy element one (contacts) and/or element two (arising out of/connected to). For jurisdictions that follow the so called "stream of commerce plus" test, the facts of Ford show that a stream of commerce analysis is no longer necessary. A defendant's seemingly unrelated plus conduct is itself the requisite connection between the defendant and the forum. And the inforum injury connects the litigation to the forum after BMS and Ford. The pure stream of commerce theory is less clear. BMS and Ford seem to require some in-forum event, likely the retail sale of the allegedly defective product, so that the litigation is sufficiently connected to the forum. Courts, however, have had mixed reactions to the extent to which these related cases affect a stream of commerce analysis, ranging from complete abrogation of the theory to having no impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a single server implements a two-commodity inventory queueing system. We assume that both commodities have a finite capacity. Customers arrive by a Markovian Arrival Process, there is a need for a single item, and either or both types of commodities are required, and this requirement is modeled using certain probabilities. The lead times are exponentially distributed, and the service times have a PH distribution. We use matrix analytical techniques to investigate the queueing inventory system and adopt an (s, S)-type replenishment policy that is dependent on the type of commodity. In the steady state, the joint and individual probability distribution of the Esystem, inventory level, and server status is obtained. A few significant performance measures are attained. Our mathematical concept is then illustrated with a few numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research explaining product and technology factors influencing the effectiveness of newsfeed ads embedded in social media platforms remains scarce. Applying the flow concept and technology fluidity theory, this experiment explored how product and technological factors influenced consumers' interaction with and evaluation of newsfeed ads on Facebook. Results showed that product type (think vs. feel) but not product involvement level (high vs. low), influenced immersion (a flow dimension) with the ad. While technology fluidity predicted users' sense of control (a second flow dimension) of the ad, the two flow dimensions were positively related to attitude toward the newsfeed ad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, Robert Lowell began to feel financially constrained or insecure. He therefore occasionally meditated on poetic art that would cater to consumerist cravings in the fashion of Dutch seventeenth-century still-life artists and French painters of food such as Chardin and Manet. In his descriptions of dishes and laid tables, Lowell toyed with poetry's ability to construct images of pleasure and obscure the work and procurement mechanisms necessary to obtain these commodities. The poet began to wonder about the market value of such poetically constructed comforts. However, Lowell was also aware of his dissimilarity to the classical still-life artists. His own attempts at representing foodstuffs are irresolute. Moreover, they are volatile, easily giving in to various reflective moods such as vanitas or ethical ponderings on labor. Almost never can Lowell's poetic still lifes be experienced purely sensually. His lack of enthusiasm for such a commodity poetics helps explain the decline of Lowell's posthumous reputation in the subsequent decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1980s and 1990s the Holdridge Life Zones system was one of the first and most influential ecological classifications used to predict the effects of climate change on vegetation worldwide. This was not its original purpose. This classification, first published in 1947 and revised in 1967, was explicitly designed to boost agricultural efficiency in the Greater Caribbean tropics. Leslie Holdridge, an American forester, developed his life zone scheme while leading extractive American scientific missions to procure Caribbean commodities like rubber and cinchona during World War II. Drawing on these experiences, he theorized that climate naturally shaped discrete ecological regions (life zones), which he believed were inherently suited to certain types of land use, such as the cultivation of particular tropical commodities. This essay thus argues that Holdridge Life Zones constructed climate as a normative force to prescribe efficient and sustainable land use throughout the Greater Caribbean. However, as later ecologists and biogeographers extended the Holdridge Life Zones classification to the global scale, this normativity was successfully erased. This essay thus investigates an overlooked and pioneering intersection of ecology and climate science, moving beyond formalized programs like the International Biological Program to reveal the centrality of resource extraction and the Greater Caribbean in shaping global bioclimatic knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporations' profit-making objectives are a central force guiding development strategies in the Global South but contradictorily can be blamed for a range of social and environmental harms. This article brings a state-corporate crime lens to bear on the economic and political processes that shape Global South-located commodity production. It seeks to understand the functioning of neo-imperialist profiteering through elaborating the concept of regimes of extreme permission , described as modalities of 'intense' accumulation, defined by weaker or unstable forms of hegemony consolidation, illegal/illicit practices, state-sanctioned violence and various socio-environmental degradations. Through analyses of two regimes of extreme permission in the SE Asian context—Indonesian palm oil plantations and Export Processing Zones for garment production in the Greater Mekong Subregion—the paper describes the role of states and corporations in constructing the repressive socio-political space required for neo-colonial corporate accumulation. We contribute to 'Southernizing' criminology by re-articulating state-corporate crime theory within imperialist contexts. It also shows that neo-colonialism can be understood as the de-regulation of corporate accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The tea shot-hole borer (TSHB) is an invasive ambrosia beetle that vectors several fungal plant pathogens that cause Fusarium branch dieback in avocado trees. This study assessed the potential of four commercial products containing the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana (Bb) for managing and mitigating the spread of the TSHB. The formulated fungal products tested were BioCeres WP, BotaniGard WP, BotaniGard ES and Velifer ES. Acquisition of spores by adult beetles dipped in the product suspensions with 2.5 ± 0.1 × 106 spores/mL was assessed. Survival time of beetles after residual exposure to the products in an in vivo avocado bark plug bioassay was also determined. Controls consisted of water only, BotaniGard ES and Velifer ES suspension supernatants with the spores removed. Production of Bb spores on beetles was assessed. Beetles exposed to Velifer ES and BotaniGard ES acquired significantly more spores than those exposed to the other fungal products. Beetles exposed to Velifer ES and BotaniGard ES died faster (6–8 days) compared to beetles treated with the other fungal products (10–11 days) and controls (12 days). Percentage mycosis was highest with beetles exposed to Velifer ES (63%). Spore production on cadavers of beetles dipped in Velifer ES was the highest among all treatments, whereas it was lowest on cadavers of beetles dipped in BotaniGard ES. All fungal products in this laboratory study demonstrated potential for use in management of the TSHB, especially Velifer ES. These Bb-based fungal products should be tested under field conditions to confirm these laboratory results. Euwallacea perbrevis, the tea shot-hole borer (TSHB), is an invasive ambrosia beetle that vectors several fungal pathogens that cause Fusarium branch dieback in avocado trees in southern Florida. This study assessed the potential of four commercial products containing the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana (Bb) for managing adult TSHB beetles. Formulated products containing Bb strains to which adult beetles were exposed were BioCeres WP, BotaniGard WP, BotaniGard ES, and Velifer ES. Controls consisted of water only and BotaniGard ES and Velifer ES supernatant with spores removed. Acquisition of spores by adult beetles dipped in product suspensions with 2.5 ± 0.1 × 106 spores/mL was assessed. Survival time of beetles after residual exposure to the Bb-based products in an in vivo avocado bark plug bioassay was determined. Production of Bb spores on beetles after being dipped in product suspensions and placed in a moistened bark-plug assay with water only was assessed. Significantly more spores were acquired by beetles exposed to Velifer ES and BotaniGard ES than beetles exposed to the other fungal products. Beetles exposed to Velifer ES and BotaniGard ES died faster (6–8 days) compared to beetles dipped in the other fungal products (10–11 days) and controls (12 days). Percentage of mycosis was highest with beetles exposed to Velifer ES (63%). Spore production on cadavers of beetles dipped in Velifer ES (20 ± 6.4 × 105 spores/cadaver) was the highest among all treatments, whereas it was the lowest on cadavers of beetles dipped in BotaniGard ES (1 ± 0.2 × 105 spores/cadaver). All Bb-based products, especially Velifer ES, demonstrated potential to manage TSHB populations under laboratory conditions. These Bb-based fungal products should be tested under field conditions to confirm these laboratory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost in every aspect of life, classification and categorization make it easier for humans to analyze complex structures and systems. In games, the classification of the players based on their demographics, behaviors, expectations and preferences of the game is important to increase players' motivation and satisfaction. Likewise, knowing the students' game and learning preferences may help design effective educational games. The player Head Model is introduced in this article to determine the similarities and differences of the game players by synthesizing various models from gaming and learning. It classifies players into seven types as entertainer, strategic, leader, tester, artistic, researcher, and socializer. This study is a systematic literature review were based on the existing literature, observations, and assumptions of various studies. Therefore, future experimental research studies on this model can be done to generalize the presented model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Review of the drugs assessed by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products or by the European Medicines Agency, made public from May to July of 2023, and considered of interest to the healthcare professional. These are positive technical reports prior to the authorization and placing on the market of the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patch tests are the gold standard in the work-up of allergic contact dermatitis. Apart from commercial products, it is also of utmost importance to include the patients' own products. Products with unknown content or containing strong irritant, corrosive, toxic or poisonous chemicals should never be patch-tested, though. Recommendations on how to patch-test finished products can easily be retrieved in the literature and in specialised reference books; practical advice on test modalities (test methods, concentrations, vehicles) have been outlined for leave-on and rinse-off cosmetics, household detergents, chemical products (glues, paints), solid materials (gloves, shoes, textiles, leather goods, metal, plastic and rubber items), occupational products, plants, woods and food items. Separate guidelines exist on how to patch-test drugs. Whenever a positive or negative reaction to a product is obtained, practitioners should always question the possibility of a false-positive or a false-negative reaction, respectively. In these cases, additional test procedures may be required (eg testing of separate ingredients, repeated open-application tests, serial dilutions of a chemical or product, glove-repeated application tests). In this article we provide a practical overview for clinicians on how to test patients' own products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creams, shower gels and bubble baths are often developed with a color concept to achieve a refreshing or relaxing effect or to emphasize certain ingredients. Natural extracts are particularly popular in natural cosmetics, but also come with challenges when used in aqueous products and their storage. With this study we propose a method to verify stability and to reconcile product efficacy and shelf life. We also highlight the advantages to not only work with coloring the product, but also pay attention to the design of the packages, especially with regards to colors and smart labelling, to support the appearance and message of the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: In the contemporary world film landscape (the 1990s to the 21st century), the film media allude to a new great "Latino" furor in Hollywood. This article proposes to stimulate reflection and debate on how Hollywood has cultivated this Latino "rage" from the 1920s to the present. Methodology: Based on the historiography of the process of building, industrializing and exporting "Latino-ness," combined with diplomatic documentation and recent press information, and from a political economy of cinema point of view in particular, this article establishes the correlation between the supposed "Latinization" of Hollywood and the historical-economic reasons for the inclusion of Ibero-American artistic elements in "the Mecca of cinema." Originality: Most studies on Hollywood's "Latinization" emphasize the industry's racialization, stereotypes and biases in its view of the "others" it has incorporated. The originality of this study lies in drawing on the less usual theoretical perspectives of the political economy of cinema (in conjunction with information on strategies and economic data currently circulating in the press) to explain more clearly the reasons for the myth of the "Latinization" of American cinema and its ultimate ends. The article posits a "Latinization" of economic, and not just ideological, causation and its explanation from theoretical perspectives on otherness and its implications. Conclusions: The analysis of this phenomenon evidences that the Ibero-American artistic elements incorporated by Hollywood are estimated by their "market value" as necessary and attractive "inputs" in front of Ibero-American audiences rather than by the reality of their talent. Additionally, incorporating Ibero-American talent is helpful to avoid eventual competition with other cinematographies in an industry that, like Hollywood, is, above all, an economic institution and a business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the government purchase system implemented by the Nguyễn Dynasty in the first half of the nineteenth century. A close examination of dynastic records reveals that the Nguyễn court purchased a vast range of natural and manufactured products, both those produced in its domain as well as various commodities imported from foreign countries. In order to procure foreign items, the court did not simply rely on commercial networks of Chinese merchants but also dispatched government vessels abroad. Official records demonstrate that government purchases assumed multiple functions in the fiscal administration of the Nguyễn Dynasty. In addition to obtaining necessary goods to maintain the state apparatus, these purchases were also designed for other purposes, such as increasing the money supply, famine relief through rice disbursement at cost, as well as collecting export products for the state-run trade. The massive sugar purchases undertaken in Central Vietnam are very useful in illuminating this point. Unquestionably, the central and regional authorities faced difficulties in their management of this institution; nevertheless, an analysis of the government purchase system provides fresh insight into the economic rationality underlying the fiscal policies of the Nguyễn Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoimprinting followed by metal deposition is a low-cost, high-throughput, and highly reproducible process for the fabrication of large-size plasmonic substrates required for commercial products. However, the plasmonic substrates prepared by the process usually have very broad surface plasmon resonances, which cannot be well reproduced by numerical simulations. The poor agreement between experiments and calculations has prevented the detailed analysis of the field enhancement behavior and the improvement of the performance as plasmonic substrates. In this work, we demonstrate that large-area plasmonic substrates with sharp surface plasmon resonances, which can be well reproduced by numerical simulations, are produced by sputter-deposition of gold (Au) on a commercially available nanoimprinted substrate. The good agreement between experiments and simulations allow us to identify the locations and field distributions of the hot spots. The angle dependence of specular reflectance and diffuse reflectance measurements in combination with numerical simulations reveal that a dipolelike bright mode and a higher-order dark mode exist at gaps between Au nanorods. Finally, we demonstrate the application of the developed plasmonic substrates for surface-enhanced fluorescence in sandwich immunoassays for the detection of influenza virus nucleoprotein. We show that the sharp resonance and the capability of precise tuning of the resonance wavelength significantly enhance the luminescence signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In theories of microeconomics, exchange costs are not taken into account when discussing exchange benefits, and an implicit assumption is made that exchange costs are zero. On the other hand, in the traditional international economy, the cost of trade was not considered very carefully. However, in the modern economy, trade costs constitute a significant portion of global trade. This article examined the effect of trade costs on trade volume in two groups, high-income, and upper-middle-income countries, over the period of 2006-2015 using the Panel data analysis method. The results of the study show that transportation costs and the number of commercial documents have a negative effect on the trade volume in high-income countries. In high-income countries, trade costs lead to a decrease in trade volume, while in upper-middle-income countries, transportation costs and the number of trade documents do not have a significant impact on trade volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: This article aims to demonstrate how, despite the high prices of talking machines for the pockets of the Mexican working classes, these sectors used various practices and mechanisms to enter the world of recorded sounds. This story develops in a specific context of the social uses of talking machines in Mexico, marked by the interest of several American companies in the country's sound market, such as Victor Talking Machine Company, National Phonograph and Columbia Record, whose directors sent technicians to record hundreds of records and cylinders with pieces performed by cultured and popular artists. Methodology: The tools of cultural history and a wide range of periodical sources, and, to a lesser extent, governmental petitions, are used to capture segments of the workings of the everyday economy and the consumption strategies of talking machines. Originality: This is a topic scarcely addressed by phonographic studies in Mexico, which have concentrated on analyzing musical recordings rather than understanding the consumption of these products. By considering income, consumers' spending capacity and the commercial strategies of businesses, this text reveals different applications of talking machines at the educational, domestic and occupational levels to explain how they were transformed into desired commodities. Conclusions: After highlighting the cost of living at the time and the wages of workers, artisans and peasants, the research concludes that practices such as raffles, theft, the offer of itinerant phonographers, listening in commercial establishments and installment purchases, among others, allowed the less privileged to have access to the apparently unattainable devices imported between 1903 and 1910. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion funnel is a model describing the stages consumers go through in their journey toward a purchase. This journey often lasts several days to weeks and can include multiple visits to a seller’s website. A large body of literature has focused on using observable search patterns to identify consumers’ hidden purchasing stages and to estimate their likelihood of conversion. We propose a novel set of measures to better reveal the consumer’s hidden stage in the funnel. These measures are based on the diversity of the searches that a customer engages in while browsing an e-commerce website, and they include not only the number of different products that are searched for, but also measures that rely on unobserved similarities among products, captured in a product network (in which products are assumed to be “similar” if they are frequently co-searched). We operationalize and evaluate our proposed measures using a large-scale dataset from a medium-sized tourism website used for comparing and booking flights. We estimate a hidden Markov model to show that our proposed diversity measures are associated with progress in the funnel and consumers’ conversion likelihood. Specifically, we show that consumers go through different distinguishable stages (states) in their journey, characterized by different values of our proposed diversity measures. To demonstrate the managerial and business implications of our theory, we show that incorporating search-diversity measures into a baseline prediction model significantly improves the model’s performance in predicting purchase likelihood and churn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the dissolution profiles of four piroxicam tablets commercially available in Argentine were evaluated. All the four brands complied with the USP dissolution profiles. Model-dependent and model-independent approaches were employed to compare the profiles, which were evaluated by fitting experimental data to the zero- and first-order, the Hixson-Crowell, the Higuchi, and the Weibull model curves. To test for applicability of the drug release models, the Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) were used. Only one marketed product complied with the USP dissolution specification for piroxicam capsules (simulated gastric fluid without pepsin). This product was taken as reference. All products dissolved in simulated intestinal fluid without pancreatin. For brands I and III, theWeibull model provided the best adjustment, whereas the Hixson-Crowell model was more suitable for brands II and IV. If the FDA f1 and f2 values are considered, only brand IV seemed to produce a dissolution curve that was similar to that of the reference product. The signals corresponding to the different polymorphs of piroxicam could be identified by neither FTIR-ATR nor DSC, possibly because of an interference generated by the main bands produced by excipients present in the tablets. The powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis of the tablets of product I revealed the presence of piroxicam polymorph I or β, while polymorph II or α2 was identified in the PXRD patterns of products II, III and IV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An appreciation of the social function of the concept of drugs is essential for understanding the moral panic they engender. Despite only emerging as a concept over the course of the twentieth century, drugs have come to be seen not as mere plant life in the manner that they appear in nature, nor are they seen as commodities, natural resources to be exploited for capitalist gain. Drugs instead function as the primary example of what anthropologist Michael Taussig calls 'transgressive substances'. Within the conceptualisation of prohibitionist law, drugs are not taken as the standard commodity to be exploited by humans for profits but instead are feared as phantom commodities that have the power to rule their creators. Drugs become not just objects but pathways, seen to facilitate movement between states of being, transferring its consumers from the realm of the human to the non-human. This article examines prohibition's engagement with the everyday life of drugs to open up how the concept's theoretical grounding is anchored in a law-making violence that seeks to cleanse an idealised imagination of the social. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit the reliance of Canada on the US for its imports using new product-level data on the country of origin, the last exporting country, and the transport mode of Canadian imports. We not only show that the US is a key supplier of Canada, but also a key logistical hub: half of the imports from non-US suppliers enter Canada through the US. Therefore, 77 percent of Canadian imports are tied to the US through production or logistical linkages, well above the 55 percent usually reported in the public debate. We show that this reliance on the US is pervasive across most product categories and for Canada's main trade partners. We exploit this new measure of reliance on the US together with input-output tables to quantify the direct and indirect reliance of Canadian industries on the US through their input usage. For the average Canadian industry, the US-related content of its inputs reaches 24 percent. We finally discuss some of the policy implications of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Las diversas fluctuaciones registradas en la balanza de pagos de las economías emergentes reflejan la vulnerabilidad de dichas economías, pues dependen del equilibrio de los flujos de capital y de comercio. En este estudio se analiza la relación entre los precios de los productos básicos y algunos fenómenos observados en los movimientos de capital en un grupo de economías emergentes seleccionadas. Se estiman modelos probit y cloglog a fin de establecer la probabilidad de que ocurran dichos fenómenos, así como sus principales determinantes en el período de 1995 a 2016. Los resultados permiten determinar los principales factores globales y nacionales condicionantes de los fenómenos, además de la importancia que asume el efecto de contagio. En el estudio se concluye que los países que exportan grandes volúmenes de productos básicos, como soja, minerales y petróleo, están sujetos a fenómenos de reducción de la entrada de capital extranjero [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En este análisis se busca establecer si el aumento de la renta de los socios comerciales del Brasil, beneficiados por el aumento de los precios de los productos básicos en la década de 2000, abrió un espacio para estimular las exportaciones de bienes industrializados de origen brasileño. Se parte de la hipótesis de que existe una relación positiva entre las exportaciones brasileñas de productos manufacturados y la variación de la renta de sus socios comerciales gracias al mayor dinamismo de sus exportaciones de recursos naturales. Se emplea un modelo estadístico jerárquico de dos etapas, en el que se parte de una estructura de datos de panel para estimar un modelo de datos de corte. Hasta donde sabemos, esta estrategia no se ha empleado en trabajos dedicados al estudio del comportamiento de las exportaciones de productos manufacturados brasileños en la década de 2000, especialmente con relación al auge económico provocado por el superciclo de alza de precios de los productos básicos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caft is a practically-oriented subject within the subject canon that focuses on the world of things, the materials they are made of, and the function and design of artifacts. Through constructive and formative engagement with material culture, the environment is experienced as being shapeable. Based on the subject demand linked to product design, the article shows how such a standard can be implemented in teaching. The article illustrates how the analytical product design as a reference field of the subject can be interpreted in a subject-specific way, thus providing important impulses for its implementation in the classroom. Based on this, it is then made clear to what extent the excursion into a field of reference that is relevant to the subject can also provide orientation how to situate the subject and its didactics appropriately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author shows the changes that the system of commodity relations is undergoing in the early 21st century. These changes are seeing the market take on an all-encompassing character, and we are witnessing a comprehensive manipulation of market actors by corporate capital. The present-day market is limited and undermined not only by state regulation but also by a process of socialisation, which represents the totality of transitional relationships and institutions. Having characterised this new quality of the relations of the market, the author demonstrates the specific nature of these processes in contemporary Russia, where the most modern forms of market relations and the most archaic are being propagated simultaneously. The green shoots of socialisation are characterised by the contradiction between the retention of a number of the achievements of the preceding system, and the development of shadow state regulation and 'manual control'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leuconostoc citreum is widely utilized across numerous industries due to its beneficial properties. Thus, a detection method for this target species is essential to track the presence of L. citreum in commercial products. We developed a rapid, on-site L. citreum detection method using the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique in this study. The designed LAMP primer set exhibited high specificity, only targeting the intended species among the 76 tested. Moreover, this assay demonstrated a sensitivity of 2 pg of target DNA. To evaluate the LAMP assay's applicability, we selected 20 varied types of processed products. The results confirmed these products' successful and precise detection of L. citreum within 35 min. Additionally, we used samples spiked with L. citreum to determine the detection limit, revealing L. citreum detection up to 102 or 103 CFU/mL. Thus, the LAMP assay developed herein is a specific, sensitive, precise, and rapid on-site detection method for L. citreum in various processed products. • We developed a rapid on-site detection method for Leuconostoc citreum. • Our novel assay exhibits high sensitivity, detecting as little as 2 pg of target DNA. • We detected L. citreum (up to 102 or 103 CFU/mL) in 20 products within 35 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural transition represents an essential component of land use and land cover change in countries across the world, as economic and social factors pressure agriculturalists out of traditional subsistence farming into commodity production. Modernization has altered modes of income, land ownership, and livelihood in Southeast Asia drastically in recent years. The Bình Thuận Province of southern Vietnam experienced a particularly radical transformation with the introduction of dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) cultivation, which has been profoundly encouraged by outside markets in China, Australia, Japan, and the United States. Dragon fruit plantation dynamics and recent expansion are captured via remotely sensed nighttime lights (NTL) data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), revealing a seasonal signal important for differentiating various land uses on the ground. We employed the Breaks for Additive and Seasonal Trend (BFAST) algorithm to reduce and summarize seasonal trends in NTL data and then used the BFAST output combined with a Normalized Difference Lights Index (NDLI) value for each year in the period of 2012 through 2018 in a decision tree classifier to differentiate dragon fruit land use from city lights across the province. The final output was contextualized with a series of semistructured interviews to examine and characterize a changing agricultural landscape associated with dragon fruit cultivation. Dragon fruit plantation in southern Vietnam follows the land system transition pathways of many other agricultural contexts but presents unique physical and social outcomes for further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers often desire to become better versions of themselves. Reflecting this interest in self-improvement, the marketplace offers consumers a wide range of products and services that promise to improve or better the consumer in some way. But, in a world with unlimited opportunities to spend one's time and money, what influences whether consumers will invest in products that enable self-improvement? We demonstrate that the degree to which God is salient has a negative effect on individuals' preferences for consumption choices with self-improvement features compared to equally attractive options that do not include such features. We propose that this is because thoughts of God activate a greater sense of being loved for who you are ("loved 'as-is'"), making self-improvement a lower priority. We demonstrate this basic effect across several experiments as well as archival data, provide process evidence through mediation and moderation, and address alternative explanations. We also identify important boundary conditions: God salience is less likely to decrease interest in self-improvement products when consumers do not believe in God, and when God is considered to be a punishing (vs. loving) entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers tend to see themselves in a positive light, yet we present evidence that they are pessimistic about whether they will receive a product's benefits. In 15 studies (N  =   6,547; including nine preregistered), we found that consumers believe that product efficacy is higher for others than it is for themselves. For example, consumers believe that consuming a sports drink (to satisfy thirst), medicine (to relieve pain), an online class (to learn something new), or an adult coloring book (to inspire creativity) will have a greater effect on others than on themselves. We show that this bias holds across many kinds of products and judgment-targets, and inversely correlates with factors such as product familiarity, product usefulness, and relationship closeness with judgment-targets. Moreover, we find this bias stems from consumers' beliefs they are more unique and less malleable than others, and that it alters the choices people make for others. We conclude by discussing implications for research on gift-giving, advice-giving, usership, and interpersonal social, health, and financial choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microalgae and microalgae-derived compounds have great potential as supplements in the human diet and as a source of bioactive products with health benefits. Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis (Nordstedt) Gomont, or Spirulina platensis) belongs to the class of cyanobacteria and has been studied for its numerous health benefits, which include anti-inflammatory properties, among others. This work was aimed at comparing some spirulina products available on the Italian market. The commercial products here analyzed consisted of spirulina cultivated and processed with different approaches. Single-component spirulina products in powder and flake form, free of any type of excipient produced from four different companies operating in the sector, have been analyzed. The macro- and micromorphological examination, and the content of pigments, phycobiliproteins, phenols, and proteins have shown differences regarding the morphology and chemical composition, especially for those classes of particularly unstable compounds such as chlorophylls and carotenoids, suggesting a great influence of both culture conditions and processing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many cellular activities in bacteria are organized according to their growth rate. The notion that ppGpp measures the cell's growth rate is well accepted in the field of bacterial physiology. However, despite decades of interrogation and the identification of multiple molecular interactions that connects ppGpp to some aspects of cell growth, we lack a system-level, quantitative picture of how this alleged "measurement" is performed. Through quantitative experiments, we show that the ppGpp pool responds inversely to the rate of translational elongation in Escherichia coli. Together with its roles in inhibiting ribosome biogenesis and activity, ppGpp closes a key regulatory circuit that enables the cell to perceive and control the rate of its growth across conditions. The celebrated linear growth law relating the ribosome content and growth rate emerges as a consequence of keeping a supply of ribosome reserves while maintaining elongation rate in slow growth conditions. Further analysis suggests the elongation rate itself is detected by sensing the ratio of dwelling and translocating ribosomes, a strategy employed to collapse the complex, high-dimensional dynamics of the molecular processes underlying cell growth to perceive the physiological state of the whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyglycerol esters of fatty acids (PEFA, E 475) was re‐evaluated in 2017 by the former EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient sources added to Food (ANS). As a follow‐up to this assessment, in this opinion, the Panel on Food Additives and Flavouring (FAF) addresses the data gaps identified to support an amendment of the EU specifications for E 475. The Panel performed a risk assessment of undesirable impurities and constituents potentially present in E 475. The Panel concluded that the maximum limits in the EU specifications for the 4 toxic elements (arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium) should be lowered based on actual levels in the commercial food additive E 475. The Panel also concluded that maximum limits for erucic acid, 3‐monochloropropanediol and glycidyl esters should be included in the EU specifications for E 475. Alternatively, the Panel recommends an amendment of the definition of E 475 to include a requirement that the fats and oils used in the manufacturing of E 475 comply with the respective EU legislation regarding suitability for human consumption. Further, the Panel concluded that there is no need for setting a specification limit for the content of trans‐fatty acids in E 475 as a limit is established in the Regulation (EU) No 2019/649, i.e. 2 g of trans‐fat per 100 g fat in food for the final consumer. Finally, the Panel recommends a modification of the definition of E 475 indicating that polyglycerol used for the manufacturing of E 475 should be produced from glycerol meeting the specifications for E 422 (Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012). In this case, respective specification limits for epichlorohydrin, acrolein and butanetriol would not be needed for E 475. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atlantic sea scallops support one of the most valuable fisheries in the eastern United States. The scallop population is susceptible to climate‐related environmental stress. Assessing and projecting climate impacts rely on the fundamental understanding of scallop ecophysiology, including the influences of temperature and food supply on its energy balance and growth potential. In this study, we developed a scope for growth (SFG) model driven by high‐resolution hydrodynamic and biological models to assess the spatial and seasonal variability of scallop energy dynamics. The overall SFG on the Northeast U.S. Shelf is higher in May–June and lower in January–February, with substantial spatial heterogeneity. In the Mid‐Atlantic Bight (MAB), negative SFG occurs from July to October due to strong thermal stress. Particulate organic matter in detrital form is an important food source for scallops, with higher/lower contribution in the cold/warm seasons, respectively. Warming and food deficiency induce a noticeable contraction of suitable scallop habitats in the MAB, while their impacts on Georges Bank are insignificant. Known seasonal spawning patterns and observed growth rates in these regions match the patterns of SFG generated by the model. The sensitivity of SFG to the variations in food and temperature increases with scallop size. Large scallops are more likely to experience low or negative SFGs than smaller ones, implying that the habitats shrink as scallops grow older/bigger. This study provides key information about scallop growth potential and biogeography from the perspective of energy balance, thus helping the development of adaptive fisheries management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report results from controlled laboratory experiments designed to investigate the effects of drinking alcohol on communication and transactions. In a game played in laboratory experiments, sellers who are privately informed about their asset's quality communicate and trade with potential buyers after both parties drink their given alcoholic beverages. We investigated the effects of alcohol consumption by varying the alcohol content of the assigned beverages across treatments. Our main findings are as follows. First, sellers with a drink of a high alcohol content lie significantly more often than those with a drink of a low alcohol content. Second, upon receiving a "High" message, buyers with a drink of a high alcohol content make higher offers for assets than those with a drink of a low alcohol content. Third, the public availability of information on alcohol content does not change players' behavior significantly. These findings are qualitatively consistent with the model of communication with a lying cost and naive receivers, suggesting that alcohol consumption lowers both the lying cost and the receiver's sophistication when interpreting messages, although we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the observed effect is due to something other than alcohol intoxication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place branding is an approach to stimulating territorial development. From the theoretical point of view, place branding in rural areas should be an inclusive and participatory process. Applications and outcomes of the process have been insufficiently investigated so far in rural areas. The oldest place brand in Slovenia, »Babica in Dedek«, is analyzed to present its socioeconomic circumstances, impacts, and challenges from the perspective of local producers. Three qualitative methods are thus applied: analysis of documents, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. This case study has revealed factors that contribute to new marketing opportunities, product packaging, holding seminars, and advertising local products in the area. On the other hand, the empirical findings are only partly aligned with the theoretical implications: the impacts of place branding are »sectorally limited« instead of being inclusive and participative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron-dependent peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) leads to ferroptosis. While detoxification reactions removing lipid peroxides in phospholipids such as that catalyzed by glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) protect cells from ferroptosis, the mechanism through which cells prevent PUFA peroxidation was not completely understood. We previously identified Fas-associated factor 1 (FAF1) as a protein directly interacting with free PUFAs through its UAS domain. Here we report that this interaction is crucial to protect cells from ferroptosis. In the absence of FAF1, cultured cells became sensitive to ferroptosis upon exposure to physiological levels of PUFAs, and mice developed hepatic injury upon consuming a diet enriched in PUFA. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that FAF1 assembles a globular structure that sequesters free PUFAs into a hydrophobic core, a reaction that prevents PUFA peroxidation by limiting its access to iron. Our study suggests that peroxidation of free PUFAs contributes to ferroptosis, and FAF1 acts upstream of GPX4 to prevents initiation of ferroptosis by limiting peroxidation of free PUFAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) challenge currently available COVID-19 vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapies due to structural and dynamic changes of the viral spike glycoprotein (S). The heptad repeat 1 (HR1) and heptad repeat 2 (HR2) domains of S drive virus-host membrane fusion by assembly into a six-helix bundle, resulting in delivery of viral RNA into the host cell. We surveyed mutations of currently reported SARS-CoV-2 variants and selected eight mutations, including Q954H, N969K, and L981F from the Omicron variant, in the postfusion HR1HR2 bundle for functional and structural studies. We designed a molecular scaffold to determine cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of HR1HR2 at 2.2-3.8 Å resolution by linking the trimeric N termini of four HR1 fragments to four trimeric C termini of the Dps4 dodecamer from Nostoc punctiforme. This molecular scaffold enables efficient sample preparation and structure determination of the HR1HR2 bundle and its mutants by single-particle cryo-EM. Our structure of the wild-type HR1HR2 bundle resolves uncertainties in previously determined structures. The mutant structures reveal side-chain positions of the mutations and their primarily local effects on the interactions between HR1 and HR2. These mutations do not alter the global architecture of the postfusion HR1HR2 bundle, suggesting that the interfaces between HR1 and HR2 are good targets for developing antiviral inhibitors that should be efficacious against all known variants of SARS-CoV-2 to date. We also note that this work paves the way for similar studies in more distantly related viruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]