The chemical industry is one of the major employers in science and technology. On the one hand, its products have greatly expanded the range of materials available to society but, on the other, some of the synthetic chemicals it produces cause significant harm to human health and to the environment. This briefing discusses the main ethical issues related to this industrial sector, as well as ne...

Virtual reality, ( VR ), is an important emerging technology in computer visualization. While the concept of virtual reality has been around since the early 1960s, until recently the capabilities of VR have been limited, and only available to those institutions with large computing budgets. Recent developments have greatly increased the capabilities of this technology and have brought the price...

The adaptive changes that develop in the pressure-overloaded left ventricular (LV) myocardium include cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and interstitial fibrosis. Although the former is known to depend to a sizeable extent on sympathetic (over)activity, little information exists whether the same applies to the latter, ie, whether excess catecholamine exposure contributes to the imbalance between collag...

With the proteomics concept introduction and effective projects implement as Human Plasma Project, the proteomics research is being developed rapidly, which is based on the analytical chemistry and physical chemistry. More and more biologists paid attention to this field, and got some important results in cell biology and biochemistry. The variation of protein quantity and various modifications...

Toward the functional dissection of neuronal circuits, a number of new genetic tools have been developed that enable rapid and reversible manipulation of genetically defined neuronal subtypes in intact mammalian brain circuits. Alongside the breakthrough technology of optogenetics, receptor-ligand pairs provide complementary approaches to modulate neuronal activity using chemical genetics.

OBJECTIVE To achieve consensus in all phases of chemical incident planning and response. DESIGN A three round Delphi study was conducted using a panel of 39 experts from specialties involved in the management of chemical incidents. Areas that did not reach consensus in the Delphi study were presented as synopsis statements for discussion in four syndicate groups at a conference hosted by the ...

The effect of environmental regulation on innovation by firms and on competitiveness by countries has been a source of theorizing and debate for more than half a century. In particular, the chemical industry, which arose in Europe and the US at the end of the 19 century together with the second industrial revolution, has been accused of causing numerous large-scale accidents, which have had sig...

Although their role in the cardiovascular system is still largely unknown, mast cells are present in the myocardium of both experimental animals and humans. Interestingly, cathecolaminergic nerve fibres and mast cells are often described in close morphological and functional interactions in various organs. In the present study we investigated the effects of chronic interference with beta-adrene...

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