Point-of-care cell therapy manufacturing; it’s not for everyone

The use of cellular therapies to treat cancer, inherited immune deficiencies, hemoglobinopathies and viral infections is growing rapidly. The increased interest in cellular therapies has led to the development of reagents and closed-system automated instruments for the production of these therapies. For cellular therapy clinical trials involving multiple sites some people are advocating a decentralized model of manufacturing where patients are treated with cells produced using automated instruments at each participating center using a single, centrally held Investigational New Drug Application (IND). Many academic centers are purchasing these automated instruments for point-of-care manufacturing and participation in decentralized multiple center clinical trials. However, multiple site manufacturing requires harmonization of product testing and manufacturing in order to interpret the clinical trial results. Decentralized manufacturing is quite challenging since all centers should use the same manufacturing protocol, the same or comparable in-process and lot release assays and the quality programs from each center must work closely together. Consequently, manufacturing cellular therapies using a decentralized model is in many ways more difficult than manufacturing cells in a single centralized facility. Before an academic center decides to establish a point-of-care cell processing laboratory, they should consider all costs associated with such a program. For many academic cell processing centers, point-of-care manufacturing may not be a good investment.

Modeling and Forecasting Cryptocurrency Closing Prices with Rao Algorithm-Based Artificial Neural Networks: A Machine Learning Approach

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are suitable procedures for predicting financial time series (FTS). Cryptocurrencies are good investment assets; therefore, the effective prediction of cryptocurrencies has become a trending area of research. Capturing inherent uncertainties associated with cryptocurrency FTS with conventional methods is difficult. Though ANNs are the better alternative, fixing the optimal parameters of ANNs is a tedious job. This article develops a hybrid ANN through Rao algorithm (RA + ANN) for the effective prediction of six popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, CMC 200, Tether, and Ripple. Six comparative models such as GA + ANN, PSO + ANN, MLP, SVM, LSE, and ARIMA are developed and trained in a similar way. All these models are evaluated through the mean absolute percentage of error (MAPE) and average relative variance (ARV) metrics. It is found that the proposed RA + ANN generated the lowest MAPE and ARV values, statistically different as compared with existing methods mentioned above, and hence can be recommended as a potential financial instrument for predicting cryptocurrencies.

Finds in the Library of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (To the 185th Anniversary of Mily A. Balakirev)

В статье рассмотрены выявленные в Научной музыкальной библиотеке Санкт-Петербургской государственной консерватории имени Н. А. РимскогоКорсакова партитуры симфонических произведений Милия Алексеевича Балакирева, входившие в состав его личного собрания. Таковы поэма «В Чехии», Увертюра на тему испанского марша, где особый интерес представляют пометы автора, проанализированные в статье. Их изучение вносит вклад в подготовку полного собрания сочинений Балакирева. Наряду с этими раритетами были подвергнуты описанию прижизненные издания балакиревской Симфонии C-dur, поэмы «Тамара» с маргиналиями выдающихся музыкантов — современников композитора: Э. Ф. Направника, А. К. Глазунова. Эти четыре партитуры, две из которых входили в балакиревскую библиотеку, — бесценный материал к темам, раскрывающим проблемы интерпретации симфонической музыки мастера, истории ее жизни на концертной эстраде. The article presents the scores of Balakirev’s symphonic works identified in the library of the Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, which were part of his personal library. These are the poem In the Czechia and an Overture on the theme of the Spanish march with the author’s notes being on a special interest and analyzed in the article. This study becomes a good investment in the preparation of the complete works of Balakirev. Along with these rarities, the article also describes life editions of the Balakirev’s Symphony in C-dur, the poem Tamara with marginalia of outstanding musicians — contemporaries of the composer: Eduard F. Napravnik, Alexander K. Glazunov. This is an invaluable material for topics that reveal the problems of interpretation of the master’s symphonic music, the history of its life on the concert stage.

How NFTs Influence Society: A Look at Scarcity Mindset, Generational Gaps in Education, and the Impact on the Environment

I propose that non fungible tokens (NFTs) will affect the greater public, and specifically the art market, at an exponential rate due to three factors. The first, scarcity mindset, drives the human sense of urgency for a particular commodity (Garvey, 2021). The next factor is the potential use of NFTs in real world applications or throughout the economy. The attraction of NFTs is that they are indiscriminate and allow anyone from various socioeconomic backgrounds to buy in. As scarcity seemingly increases, NFTs appear to be a good investment; but are there real world applications or do they merely exist within the virtual realm? The last determinant I would like to explore is the environmental impact of NFTs on the physical world. When comparing virtual ‘tokens’ used to fund digital art to paper money exchanged for a piece of physical artwork in concrete space, theoretically the former is much less detrimental to society. However, through practice-led research, I have conducted a six month investigation from May 2021 through October 2021 to uncover the true ramifications NFTs have on the world.

Analysis of the impact of sustainability education carried out by Qatar to improve its image as a future world education goal

This article seeks to explain the role of the presence of various world-class educational institutions in Qatar which is a concrete step for Qatar in development, social and cultural by Qatar. Qatar believes that education is a major way and has a strong influence to increase Qatar's inclusiveness in the world so that it can maintain a good investment climate. This research is a conceptual paper where the data presented in this study comes from literature studies from Emerald, Science Direct, and Google Schoolar where 314 articles were found which were selected and narrowed down to find 18 articles that were most suitable from the title, abstract, to useful results. This paper also conducted simple SWOT analysis in order to mapping the strategy and provide a valid explanation in this study. From the results of the agreement in this paper, it can be found that as a socio-economic effort which is a long-term plan, education is not the only step that is achieved, but also utilizes mass media and various other aspects.

ANALYSIS RELATES TO THE IMPACT FROM MACROECONOMIC FACTORS TO BANKING STOCK RETURNS WHICH MEDIATED BY PROFITABILITY

This research aims to analyze the impact which caused by macroeconomic factors to stock returns which mediated by profitability. This research used purposive sampling method with BUKU IV Banks who Listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange as sample in this research period. The data was taken from the quarterly financial reports of the sample banks and Bank Indonesia. The analysis technique that used in this research are panel data regression and used path analysis to reveal the impact which caused by intervening variable. The results found that interest rates had no significant impact towards stock returns, while the inflation rate and the rupiah exchange rate had a direct significant impact on stock returns. Path analysis found that interest rates, inflation rates and Rupiah exchange rate had no significant affect on stock returns which indirectly mediated by profitability. This research results are very useful as an information for investors and stakeholders to determine good investment decisions in the banking sector.

China’s New Foreign Investment Law and Its Contribution Towards the Country’s Development Goals

This article analyses China’s new foreign investment legal regime and assesses its contribution to the country’s development goals. Fulfilment of the goals entails an increase in ‘good’ investment flows and more effective regulation and management thereof. This article finds that the reform makes some positive progress towards the development goals. First, administrative control over foreign investments is eased, since a less burdensome report mechanism is established, while foreign investments not included on negative lists are exempt from the approval procedure. Second, a new system is established to strengthen post-entry supervision of foreign investments. Third, equal treatment of foreign investments as well as investment promotion and protection are strengthened. Fourth, the rules have become clearer and more transparent. However, due to certain regulatory flaws, problematic implementation, and a lack of ambition, the progress may be slower than intended. Therefore, the recent reform is only an incremental step towards China’s development goals.

Israel — The Human Capital Perspective

Human capital (HC) is about people — as individuals and as communities — and their welfare-enhancing qualities. For the individual, their human capital is not only an element of well-being, like good health and self-esteem, but also a means to facilitate their welfare, at least in the long term, through longevity as well as market and non-market productivity. For the community — group, organization, or nation — the benefits of HC to individuals can further be enhanced through social interdependencies, positive externalities, and optimal allocation of HC in the group, thus making HC a public good. Investment of a share of the benefits of HC in its formation makes for social and economic long-term sustainability of the community. The term “human capital” semantically combines the words “human” and “capital.” From an economic point of view, “capital” refers to the physical factors of production, including land, used along with labor-enhanced HC to create goods or services. These factors are not themselves significantly consumed or depreciated in the short-term production process (Boldizzoni, 2008). That is, skilled humans oversee production (and consumption) processes that yield social and economic value for them. From this perspective, human capital essentially refers to people’s ability — as individuals and as a collective — to identify and use the (physical) resources available to them for their current and future, even intergenerational, well-being. Both the formation and the use of HC are strongly associated with the demography of the community, mainly with regard to population growth and age distribution, because these determine the community’s potential and ability to form and optimally use its HC, subject to the constraint of market failures and imperfections. The objective of this paper is to indicate (1) challenges relating to the formation and deployment of HC in Israel, and (2) potential ways to meet these challenges. The first, theoretical part introduces concepts, models, approaches, and metrics. It starts with pertinent aspects of demography that relate to a nation’s optimal use of its individuals’ human capital and continues with a discussion of critical dimensions of human capital — knowledge and skill, location of economic activity, and health.