G raham Hutchings of Cardiff University made a discovery in 1982 that came to define his career. He predicted that golddespite its reputation for being inertshould be an excellent catalyst for an industrial reaction that makes vinyl chloride monomer (VCM, or chloroethene), used to produce one of the world’s most ubiquitous plastics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC). More than three decades later, Hut...

Current modeling approaches for designing services do not address the characteristics of collaborative business-to-business (B2B) service engagements. Yet, these types of service engagements, for example R&D services and other knowledge-intensive business services, are key components of industrialized economies. We identify the requirements of a modeling technique able to support the analysis a...

OBJECTIVES To assess residual long-term microcirculation abnormalities by capillaroscopy, 15 years after retiring from occupational exposure to vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Allier, one of the major areas of polyvinyl chloride production in France. PARTICIPANTS We screened 761 (97% men) retired workers exposed to chemical toxics. Exposure to chemicals...

BACKGROUND Inverse potential mapping (IPM) noninvasively reconstructs cardiac surface potentials using body surface potentials. This requires a volume conductor model (VCM), usually constructed from computed tomography; however, computed tomography exposes the patient to harmful radiation and lacks information about tissue structure. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is not associated with this ...

Vinyl chloride (VCM) is unloaded from railroad tank cars or tank trucks into pressurized storage spheres. VCM, emulsifiers, and catalysts are metered into polymerization vessels wherein PVC is produced through a chemical reaction in an aqueous medium under controlled conditions of temperature and pressure. After the reaction reaches a predetermined completion, the contents are transferred to a ...

Warfarin (WF) shows a number of interactions with other drugs, which alter its anticoagulant effects. The albumin binding interaction is one such pharmacokinetic mechanism of drug interaction with WF, which induces a rise in the free WF concentration and thus increases the risk of WF toxicity. Teicoplanin (TEIC) is an anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus drug, which also binds stron...

BACKGROUND There have been few investigations of an association between poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) dust exposure and an increase in lung cancer incidence, and their conclusions have been inconsistent. AIMS To determine whether PVC and/or vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) is the associated risk factor(s), by means of a nested case-referent study, in order to estimate lung cancer risk, avoiding sele...

A Box-Behnken design with three replicates was used for preparation and evaluation of Eudragit vancomycin (VCM) nanoparticles prepared by double emulsion. The purpose of this work was to optimize VCM nanoparticles to improve the physicochemical properties. Nanoparticles were formed by using W1/O/W2 double-emulsion solvent evaporation method using Eudragit RS as a retardant material. Full factor...

The widespread availability of 3D city models enables us to answer a wide range of spatial visibility queries in the presence of obstacles (e.g., buildings). Example queries include “what is the best position for placing a billboard in a city?” or “which hotel gives the best view of the city skyline?”. These queries require computing and differentiating the visibility of a target object from ea...

BACKGROUND Striatal enlargement with chronic neuroleptic treatment in schizophrenic patients has been reported by several investigators. Longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging studies of patients suggest that changes in striatal volume may be caused by treatment with antipsychotic medication. METHODS We have examined the effects of chronic neuroleptic treatment on postmortem striatal volume ...