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The American Society of Health-system Pharmacists meeting incorporated an exhibition, talks by drug manufactures and discussion groups. The 1997 meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was held for a five day period and attended by over 6,000 participants. A variety of different types of pharmacists took part in the meeting but much of the content was aimed at institutional pharmacists. Those attending found the discussions around projects undertaken by various delegates a most stimulating exercise.

Herein we report that vesicular assembly from a simple non-ionic amphiphilic random copolymer initiates extremely efficient myotube formation from C2C12 myoblast cells in standard growth media lacking horse serum. Control experiments with structurally related polymers and a small molecule suggest the absolute necessity of the vesicular assembly as well as the particular hydrophilic functionality in mediating such high yielding muscle cell generation. The LDH assay indicates that the membrane integrity is retained during cell–cell fusion. Expression of various myogenic factors such as MyoD, myogenin and P-21 has been examined in the presence of the polymersome and control molecules to rationalize this serendipitous discovery.

The article probes on the efficacy of capital punishment to deter crimes in countries around the globe. According to the study conducted for the United Nations, statistics shows that the countries without the death penalty and those who abolished it have a lower murder rate than those who practice such execution. Furthermore, the fallibility of the judicial system is cited as one of the contended ethical and practical issues according to the abolitionist view.

The kinetics and mechanism of the Cr(VI) oxidation of D-fructose in the presence and absence of picolinic acid (PA) in aqueous acid media were studied under the conditions [D-fructose]T ≫[Cr(VI)]T at different temperatures. Under the kinetic conditions, the monomeric species of Cr(VI) was found to be kinetically active in the absence of PA whereas in the PA-catalysed path, the Cr(VI)–PA complex was considered to be the active oxidant. In this path, the Cr(VI)–PA complex undergoes a nucleophilic attack by the substrate to form a ternary complex which subsequently experiences a redox decomposition through glycol splitting leading to the lactone of C5-aldonic acid along with formaldehyde and the Cr(IV)–PA complex. The primary product formaldehyde undergoes further oxidation (in part) to form formic acid. Then the Cr(IV)–PA complex participates further in the oxidation of D-fructose and ultimately is converted into the inert Cr(III)–PA complex. In the uncatalysed path, the Cr(VI)–substrate ester experiences an acid-catalysed redox decomposition (2e transfer) in the rate-determining step giving rise to the products. The uncatalysed path shows a second-order dependence on [H⁺] whereas the PA catalysed path shows a fractional order in [H⁺]. Both paths show a first-order dependence on [D-fructose]T and [Cr(VI)]T. The PA-catalysed path is first order in [PA]T. All these patterns remain unaltered in the presence of externally added surfactants. The effects of a cationic surfactant, N-cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), and an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), on both the uncatalysed and PA-catalysed paths were studied. CPC inhibits both the uncatalysed and PA-catalysed paths whereas SDS catalyses the reactions. The observed micellar effects are explained by considering a distribution pattern of the reactants between the micellar and aqueous phases. The applicability of different kinetic models, e.g. the pseudo-phase ion-exchange model, the Menger–Portnoy model and the Piszkiewicz cooperative model, was tested to explain the observed micellar effects. The effect of [surfactant]T on the activation parameters was explored to rationalize the micellar effect. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In the picolinic acid (PA) promoted CrVI oxidation of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), the CrVI–PA complex formed at the pre-equilibrium step undergoes nucleophilic attack by the S of DMSO to form a positively charged reactive intermediate which experiences an oxygen transfer or a ligand coupling to give the products; the anionic surfactant (SDS) accelerates the process while the cationic surfactant (CPC) retards the reaction.

The article focuses on major religions' views on capital punishment. Major religions in the world include Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism and Christianity, and Islam. It is inferred that only Jainism does not advocate the death penalty, since they do not allow the killing of even small creatures. Their principles are nonviolence, search for truth, forgiveness and reform, although Jain rulers maintained armies who fought and eliminated opponents.