13 January 2013This briefing provides a summary of the parliamentary scrutiny of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Bill prior to Stage 3 proceedings which are scheduled to take place on 16 January 2014.

8 May 2014This briefing summarises Stage 1 and Stage 2 consideration of the Procurement (Reform) (Scotland) Bill, introduced in the Parliament on 3rd October 2013.

The quinoline MK-571 is the most commonly used inhibitor of multidrug resistance protein-1 (MRP-1) but was originally developed as a cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1 (CysLTR1) antagonist. While studying the modulatory effect of MRP-1 on anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) direct acting-antivirals (DAA) efficiency, we observed an unexpected anti-HCV effect of compound MK-571 alone. This anti-HCV activity was characterized in Huh7.5 cells stably harboring a subgenomic genotype 1b replicon. A dose-dependent decrease of HCV RNA levels was observed upon MK-571 administration, with an EC₅₀ of 9±0.3 μM and a maximum HCV RNA level reduction of approximatively 1 Log₁₀. MK-571 also reduced the replication of the HCV full-length J6/JFH1 model in a dose-dependent manner. However, probenecid and apigenin homodimer (APN), two specific inhibitors of MRP-1, had no effect on HCV replication. In contrast, the CysLTR1 antagonists SR2640 increased HCV-SGR RNA levels in a dose-dependent manner, with a maximum increase of 10-fold. In addition, a combination of natural CysLTR1 agonist (LTD4) or antagonists (zafirlukast, cinalukast, and SR2640) with MK-571 completely reversed its antiviral effect, suggesting its anti-HCV activity is related to CysLTR1 rather to MRP-1 inhibition. In conclusion, we showed that MK-571 inhibits HCV replication in hepatoma cell cultures by acting as a CysLTR1 receptor antagonist, thus unraveling a new host-virus interaction in the HCV life cycle.

Earlier genetic and inhibitor studies have shown that epigenetic regulation of gene expression is critical for malaria parasite survival in multiple life stages and a promising target for new anti-malarials. We therefore evaluated the activity of 350 diverse epigenetic inhibitors against multiple stages of Plasmodium falciparum. We observed ≥90% inhibition at 10 μM for 28% of compounds against asexual blood stages and early gametocytes, of which a third retained ≥90% inhibition at 1 μM.

The 10,700-capacity Pabellón Príncipe Felipe in Zaragoza will host the UEFA Futsal Cup finals in April involving Spain's Inter FS and Barcelona plus Portugal's Sporting CP and Győr of Hungary.

Romania and Slovakia will stage the U19 EURO final tournaments in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Lima, Peru, May 7, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Two priests in a rural area of Peru aimed to fight the coronavirus pandemic by finding a way to supply oxygen tanks, much needed for medical treatment, to their region.

The recent death of two doctors from coronavirus in Iquitos, Peru, underscored the hard-hit region’s shortage of medical equipment and medications. Both doctors died because of the lack of oxygen to treat them.

The Medical Corps of Hospital III of Iquitos and the Medical College of Peru said in a joint statement last month that there is a shortage of medications in the Loreto region, and its capital Iquitos is "one of the cities hardest hit by the infection."

“We don’t have medications” to treat coronavirus patients and “not enough oxygen tanks, pressure gauges and refilled tanks,” they reported.

One doctor was in intensive care at Loreto Regional Hospital and the other at a hospital under the country’s universal health insurance program, both in Iquitos, the Medical College of Peru said on social media.

Fr. Raymond Portelli, a parish pastor in Iquitos, along with the diocesan administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos, Fr. Miguel Fuertes, decided to start a fundraising campaign to acquire an oxygen plant for the city.

Portelli himself is a doctor caring for COVID-19 patients.

To purchase the machinery, they needed to raise about $118,000.

The city does have an oxygen plant, but it only produces between 100 and 160 tanks a day. The dean of the Medical College of Peru, Miguel Palacios, told local media that quantity is not enough and that current production would need to be tripled.

The priests’ campaign was launched the morning of May 3 on social media, and in less than a day, they had raised about $300,000.

Both priests thanked contributors, and said that thanks to the amount collected, a “high capacity” plant could be purchased for Iquitos.

Portelli added that Fuentes is currently in Lima coordinating with a specialist for the acquisition of the plant.

“Pray a lot that this work can be accomplished quickly. May God bless all who have contributed. We hope to continue to cover all the expenses,” he added.

  This story was first published by CNA's Spanish-language news partner, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.



 

Choral students at Penn State Behrend typically end the semester with a concert. This year, because of COVID-19, they tried something different: a virtual cabaret.

Source: www.geekwire.com - Friday, May 08, 2020
University of Washington researchers work with the virus that causes COVID-19 in a restricted lab. (UW Medicine via YouTube) In a newly published study, a University of Washington researcher argues that the eventual death toll from COVID-19 could be more than twice as high as the figures currently being discussed. The study was written by Anirban Basu, a health economist and statistician who’s the director of UW’s Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy and Economics Institute, also known as the CHOICE Institute . In his research paper , published online Thursday by the journal Health Affairs, Basu acknowledges there’s still lots of uncertainty surrounding the fatality rate for the disease caused by the coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2. But he says there’s evidence that the U.S. death toll could amount to 350,000 to 1.2 million. Anirban Basu is the Stergachis Family Endowed Director of the CHOICE Institute at the University of Washington’s School of Pharmacy. (UW Photo) “This is a staggering number, which can only be brought down with sound public health measures,” Basu said in an interview with MedicalResearch.com . The latest projections from UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimate that the U.S. death toll due to COVID-19 will amount to nearly 135,000 by Aug. 4. IHME’s projections are closely watched (and occasionally lowballed) by the White House. “We’ll be at 100,000” or 110,000 deaths, President Donald Trump to

The 2018 UEFA Super Cup will be played on 15 August of next year at Tallinn's Lilleküla Stadium, the first senior UEFA final in Estonia in the centenary of that republic's creation.

The 2019 UEFA Super Cup will be played at Beşiktaş Park in Istanbul on Wednesday 14 August of that year, the third major UEFA final to be played in the Turkish city.

The UEFA Youth League's relevance is emphasised by the list of talented young players who have graduated from the junior competition to star at the very top of the game.

Europe's representatives Portugal, Russia, Italy, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Spain all secured top-two finishes in the group stage to reach the last 16.

Governor Jack Markell today joined Delaware State Housing Authority Director Anas Ben Addi and other federal, state, and local officials to celebrate Delaware Homeownership Month and to announce the extension of a program that allows first-time homebuyers to claim a credit on their federal income taxes.

OMNIvision works behind the scenes at TeenStreet, OM’s international youth congress, providing top quality video for thousands of teens.

Almaty Arena will stage April's finals involving hosts Kairat, Barça, holders Inter FS and Sporting CP.

ETFs invite controversy because the products are cheaper.

Programs on Delaware's Lenape and Nanticoke Indian tribes to be featured.

Series features Bill Manthorpe, retired U.S. Navy captain and author.

Rohit Sharma shared a picture of daughter Samaira surrounded by her toys.

Review of: How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions by Centola, Damon, reviewed by Srebrenka Letina

A controlled burn on a 43-acre former farm field along U.S. Route 301 will provide fertile ground for "Delaware's first pollinator mitigation site" - where state officials hope native wildflowers will flourish to restore lost habitat for pollinators such as bees and birds. The Delaware Forest Service  conducted the successful firing operation on March 20 in cooperation DelDOT and DNREC's Division of Fish and Wildlife, which supplied valuable personnel, logistical support, and equipment. Thanks to favorable weather conditions and DelDOT lane adjustments on U.S. 301 North, the four-hour burn caused minimal disruptions to traffic and virtually no smoke effects on the adjacent Spring Mill housing development.

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL: Division of Fish and Wildlife

Truck drivers, traders, retailers, transporters and other stakeholders, who were facing problems in inter-state movement of any commodities, have been asked to seek help from the call centre.

An Indian photographer embraced work from home and aced it with these stunning shots of a speeding Lamborghini from his home. These images have set Instagram on fire and almost crashed the internet with how realistic this scale model of a Lamborghini Huracán is made to look like in the pictures.

According to the current definition, a micro unit is one where the investment does not exceed Rs 25 lakh, while a small enterprise is one where the investment is between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 5 crore.

The units situated within the corporate limits have been allowed to have 25-30% workforce capacity initially and the units situated outside the corporation will have 50% workforce capacity.

Israel suffers from a major skilled labor shortage and therefore, announced in 2015, that it will open doors to non-Israeli techies. But the government hasn’t worked in attracting those techies because the country’s embassies are too understaffed…

India's love for Rabindranath Tagore is a continuing tale, thereby marking the nation's reverence for a great artist, poet and visionary.

Taking to Twitter, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee quoted the lyrics of one of Tagore's songs (Rabindrasangeet) to pay tribute to him.

Originally, hospital ships were designed for military use to treat the wounded during wartime. The ships also provide relief to the hospitals on land, and they may dock near natural disasters.

Nearly a fifth of America’s youth are severely overweight, the latest national data shows. The trend only got worse with millions idling indoors under Covid-19 lockdowns – even as the same policies propel food shortages in the US.
Read Full Article at RT.com

Social media feeds are filled with historic shots marking Victory Day, but Facebook seems to have taken issue with one that symbolizes the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, and it keeps deleting a recently-colorized version of it.
Read Full Article at RT.com

Presently H1-B visas are frequently used by established companies and less by startups because the former, get the advantage in dealing with time and cost factors.US Immigration and the status of start upsThe present visa policies followed by U.S. make…

With this exercise, the state’s new council of ministers — 33 cabinet and 10 state — has hit the maximum limit, capped at 15 per cent of the Vidhan Sabha strength of 288.

Underscoring the importance of coordinated action and the need to avoid overlaps in efforts of stakeholders, Modi said there was need to form crisis management groups at the district level and appoint district surveillance officers.

Read about the value of data tagging and learn best practices for doing it effectively.

The post 4 data tagging best practices appeared first on The Data Roundtable.

Making things worse is that some countries that are specifically hard-hit by the coronavirus are also heavily dependent on tourism, like Italy and Spain.

Besides the Integrated L-40 stages, HAL is also manufacturing the riveted structures, propellant tanks, feed lines of PSLV, GSLV MKII and GSLV MKIII launch vehicles and structures of various satellites for the space agency.

At least two candidates have already entered the clinical evaluation stage, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

New York needs Broadway to be alive and well, so that tourism, hotels and restaurants do well, observed the spokesperson of a Broadway performers' association, citing a study showing that Broadway contributes nearly $15 billion to the local economy

Some creative hashtags on social media have come to the rescue of netizens, offering distraction as well as solace in these trying times.

Alabama quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, who was third string last season behind older brother Tua, has entered the transfer portal, a source told ESPN.

Over ten years ago, Suzanne Vega hit a terribly sexy groove with an album called Nine Objects of Desire that made me seek out every CD she has done since then. She’s kept us waiting for six years for her new studio effort, but it’s such vintage Vega that the reward is well worth the wait.

The first thing to note on Beauty & Crime is that producer Jimmy Hogarth and mixer Tchad Blake  have tuned the album’s tracks entirely to suit Vega’s rather inflexible, breathy voice. With the sonic help, Vega is freed up to focus on enunciating the layers behind her lyrics. Yet Hogarth and Blake also manage to seed each song with finely crafted arrangements and subtle hooks that make them musically interesting.

Although Vega uses a large canvas to record her ruminations, her most touching songs are those that are personal. On “Ludlow Street” she quietly mourns the passing of her brother: “I find each stoop and doorway’s incomplete/without you there”.

On the superbly produced “Bound”, she seems to be confirming her longtime friend Paul Mills’s continuing interest in her after her divorce from Michael Froom in 2001. On “As You Are Now” she manages – against all odds - to fit in a parent’s love for her child in four sweet verses.

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In a nutshell, tags allows you to navigate through program code distributed over multiple files effectively. e.g if you see a function call or a struct in e-code and want to "jump" to the definition (which may be in a different file) then you just hit CTRL+] in Vim! Pressing CTRL+t will take you back where you came from. Check out http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Browsing_programs_with_tags#Using_tags if you want to learn more about how to use tags with Vim.

This utility can generate tags file for your e files. It can either walk through e import order, a directory recursively or all directories on SPECMAN_PATH recursively! The tags file will have tags for struct, unit, types, events, defines, fields, variables, etc.

For help and some examples, just run ctags4e -help.

Verification is the top challenge in mixed-signal design. Bringing analog and digital domains together into unified verification planning, simulating, and debugging is a challenging task for rapidly increasing size and complexity of mixed-signal designs. To more completely verify functionality and performance of a mixed-signal SoC and its AMS IP blocks used to build it, verification teams use simulations at transistor, analog behavioral and real-number model (RNM) and RTL levels, and combination of these.

In recent years, RNM and simulation is being adopted for functional verification by many, due to advantages it offers including simpler modeling requirements and much faster simulation speed (compared to a traditional analog behavioral models like Verilog-A or VHDL-AMS). Verilog-AMS with its wreal continue to be popular choice. Standardization of real number extensions in SystemVerilog (SV) made SV-RNM an even more attractive choice for MS SoC verification.

Verilog-AMS/wreal is scalar real type. SV-RNM offers a powerful ability to define complex data types, providing a user-defined structure (record) to describe the net value. In a typical design, most analog nodes can be modeled using a single value for passing a voltage (or current) from one module to another. The ability to pass multiple values over a net can be very powerful when, for example, the impedance load impact on an analog signal needs to be modeled. Here is an example of a user-defined net (UDN) structure that holds voltage, current, and resistance values:

When there are multiple drives on a single net, the simulator will need a resolution function to determine the final net value. When the net is just defined as a single real value, common resolution functions such as min, max, average, and sum are built into the simulator.  But definition of more complex structures for the net also requires the user to provide appropriate resolution functions for them. Here is an example of a net with three drivers modeled using the above defined structural elements (a voltage source with series resistance, a resistive load, and a current source):

To properly solve for the resulting output voltage, the resolution function for this net needs to perform Norton conversion of the elements, sum their currents and conductances, and then calculate the resolved output voltage as the sum of currents divided by sum of conductances.

With some basic understanding of circuit theory, engineers can use SV-RNM UDN capability to model electrical behavior of many different circuits. While it is primarily defined to describe source/load impedance interactions, its use can be extended to include systems including capacitors, switching circuits, RC interconnect, charge pumps, power regulators, and others. Although this approach extends the scope of functional verification, it is not a replacement for transistor-level simulation when accuracy, performance verification, or silicon correlation are required:  It simply provides an efficient solution for discretely modeling small analog networks (one to several nodes).  Mixed-signal simulation with an analog solver is still the best solution when large nonlinear networks must be evaluated.

Cadence provides a tutorial on EEnet usage as well as the package (EEnet.pkg) with UDN definitions and resolution functions and modeling examples. To learn more, please login to your Cadence account to access the tutorial.