Search for: All records

The oral route is the most common choice for drug administration because of several advantages, such as convenience, low cost, and high patient compliance, and the demand and investment in research and development for oral drugs continue to grow. The rate of dissolution and gastric emptying of the dissolved active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) into the duodenum is modulated by gastric motility, physical properties of the pill, and the contents of the stomach, but current in vitro procedures for assessing dissolution of oral drugs are limited in their ability to recapitulate this process. This is particularly relevant for disease conditions, such as gastroparesis, that alter the anatomy and/or physiology of the stomach. In silico models of gastric biomechanics offer the potential for overcoming these limitations of existing methods. In the current study, we employ a biomimetic in silico simulator based on the realistic anatomy and morphology of the stomach (referred to as “StomachSim”) to investigate and quantify the effect of body posture and stomach motility on drug bioavailability. The simulations show that changes in posture can potentially have a significant (up to 83%) effect on the emptying rate of the API into the duodenum. Similarly, a reduction in antral contractility associated with gastroparesis can also be found to significantly reduce the dissolution of the pill as well as emptying of the API into the duodenum. The simulations show that for an equivalent motility index, the reduction in gastric emptying due to neuropathic gastroparesis is larger by a factor of about five compared to myopathic gastroparesis. 

Productivity tracking tools often determine productivity based on the time interacting with work-related applications. To deconstruct productivity’s diverse and nebulous nature, we investigate how knowledge workers conceptualize personal productivity and delimit productive tasks in both work and non-work contexts. We report a 2-week diary study followed by a semi-structured interview with 24 knowledge workers. Participants captured productive activities and provided the rationale for why the activities were assessed to be productive. They reported a wide range of productive activities beyond typical desk-bound work—ranging from having a personal conversation with dad to getting a haircut. We found six themes that characterize the productivity assessment—work product, time management, worker’s state, attitude toward work, impact & benefit, and compound task—and identified how participants interleaved multiple facets when assessing their productivity. We discuss how these findings could inform the design of a comprehensive productivity tracking system that covers a wide range of productive activities. 

Measurements of the production of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in pp collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$$\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV at midrapidity with the ALICE detector are presented down to a transverse momentum (p_T) of 0.2 GeV/cand up top_T= 35 GeV/c, which is the largest momentum range probed for inclusive electron measurements in ALICE. In p-Pb collisions, the production cross section and the nuclear modification factor of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays are measured in thep_Trange 0.5< p_T<26 GeV/cat$$ \sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} $$$\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$= 8.16 TeV. The nuclear modification factor is found to be consistent with unity within the statistical and systematic uncertainties. In both collision systems, first measurements of the yields of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in different multiplicity intervals normalised to the multiplicity-integrated yield (self-normalised yield) at midrapidity are reported as a function of the self-normalised charged-particle multiplicity estimated at midrapidity. The self-normalised yields in pp and p-Pb collisions grow faster than linear with the self-normalised multiplicity. A strongp_Tdependence is observed in pp collisions, where the yield of high-p_Telectrons increases faster as a function of multiplicity than the one of low-p_Telectrons. The measurement in p-Pb collisions shows nop_Tdependence within uncertainties. The self-normalised yields in pp and p-Pb collisions are compared with measurements of other heavy-flavour, light-flavour, and strange particles, and with Monte Carlo simulations.