BACKGROUND The fibrotic capsule that surrounds silicone implants consists mainly of collagen. The FDA-approved collagenase of the bacterium clostridium histolyticum provides a reasonable treatment option. Safety and efficacy at the female breast site must be evaluated before clinical utilization. MATERIALS AND METHODS We incubated 20 samples of fibrotic capsule as well as 12 full thickness sk...

In electricity markets, the choice of the right pricing regime is crucial for the utilities because the price they charge to their consumers, in anticipation of their demand in real-time, is a key determinant of their profits and ultimately their survival in competitive energy markets. Among the existing pricing regimes, in this paper, we consider ex-ante dynamic pricing schemes as (i) they hel...

The English expression ‘human dignity’ consists of the predicate ‘human’ and the noun ‘dignity’. The adjective qualifies the noun, thus determining the kind of dignity in question as the human kind. The adjective has a similar function in the expression ‘human being’: Here it qualifies the noun ‘being’, to determine the kind of being in question as a being of the human kind. ‘Human’ is etymolog...

Human beings have a natural curiosity to explore and understand their environment. Through advances in technology, mankind has been able to extend the way we see the world to a perspective never before possible. Using airborne and spaceborne platforms, complex imaging systems that surpass the limitations of the human eye are used to observe the Earth. Through these systems, we can now see in sp...

Individuation is one of the most important concepts defined by Carl G. Jung, and he and other analytic psychologists have developed a variety of techniques, including active imagination and dream analysis, to facilitate the process of individuation. Nevertheless, individuation is a universal human potential, and various spiritual traditions have their own practices to facilitate it. In particul...

Can the market provide law enforcement? This paper addresses this question by analyzing an historical case study: the system of private prosecutions that prevailed in England prior to the introduction of the police. I examine why this system came under strain during the Industrial Revolution, and how private clubs emerged to internalize the externalities that caused the private system to genera...

Cold War historians have neglected the significance of the year 1948 for Indochina. Based on new sources, this paper shows critical shifts in politics within the Vietnamese nationalist movement in 1948. These were the result of converging developments during late 1947 and early 1948, including changes in international politics, in French–Vietnamese relations, and in the relationship between non...

At the close of the nineteenth and the commencement of the twentieth century, socialism began to gain momentum as a large-scale movement in Europe and the United States. This popularity was supported by an increased influence of the working class in society, which put pressure for representation upon European parliaments and began to secure concrete improvements in labor protection laws. Moreov...