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AbstractOfficers of the Irish Defence Forces have studied at civilian university since 1969, with the introduction of a policy referred to as the University Service Academic Complement (USAC) scheme. In attending university through USAC, officers are obliged to sign a contract stipulating that they will repay the full costs of their time at university. This paper draws on a study of 46 retired and serving officers, to analyse how they discussed their career and the military officer’s experience of civilian higher education. While the agreement officers are obliged to sign is a legal contract, interviewees consistently characterised their experience of the USAC scheme in terms that omitted this economic reality of the financial implications of attending higher education. Instead, they favoured terms that almost exclusively excluded such a perspective, and instead made the USAC scheme appear to be a ‘gift’ in Marcel Mauss’s terms. This paper illustrates how and why this is the case, in that the use of ‘gift language’ is a type of ‘resanctification’ of the military profession by individual officers in the face of the threat to cohesion and their symbolic universe. Beyond and at the societal level, resanctification through gift language also implies a political 'double-bind' for officers in terms of their relationship with civilian military authorities and the military organisation itself. This paper concludes with an overview of some of the implications of a gift analysis for militaries and their surrounding societies.

Evaluation of lubricating oil is critical to the operation and maintenance of industrial engines. Here a microwave rectangular cavity resonator sensor is developed for condition monitoring. An oil-filled quartz tube is placed at the position of maximum electric field intensity, where any impurity in the oil perturbs the resonance frequency and quality factor. This arrangement enables the detection capability of nonmetallic contaminants. Particle types are readily differentiated from the resonance parameters due to the different permittivity characteristics of the mixtures. The effect of the contamination on the permittivity is also revealed, providing an alternative analysis approach. From the measurement of standard liquids, the optimal permittivity calculation algorithm for the system developed is found, and estimation errors within ±5% are achieved. The use for oil adulteration detection is also demonstrated. The multifunctional sensor is low-cost, scalable, easy to implement, and capable of on-site and online monitoring.

And the best they could do is copy Ford's EcoBoost 3.5-liter engine and 10-speed, Ram's coil-spring rear suspension, and GM's "styling"? - Eric Weitze Jupiter, FL Tesla says that on a 250-kW Supercharger, its cars can gain 200 miles of range in 15 minutes - Ed. It's funny how hard Ford is working to distance itself from the white Ford Bronco of yesteryear. - Bill Robinson Oklahoma City, OK Ford is already attempting your product-planning idea with the current Escape, and while it's selling well, it's not quite ruling the segment - Ed. [Extracted from the article]

We have identified an underrecognized severe adverse drug reaction (ADR) of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) associated respiratory failure in previously healthy children and young adults. We investigated potential genetic risk factors associated with TMP-SMX induced respiratory failure in a cohort of seven patients. We explored whole genome sequence among seven patients representing nearly half of all reported cases worldwide and 63 unrelated control individuals in two stages: (1) human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus variation as several other ADRs have been associated HLA genetic variants and (2) coding variation to catalog and explore potential rare variants contributing to this devastating reaction. All cases were either heterozygous (carriers) or homozygous for the common HLA-B*07:02–HLA-C*07:02haplotype. Despite the small sample size, this observation is statistically significant both in conservative comparison to maximum reported population frequencies (binomial P= 0.00017 for HLA-B and P= 0.00028 for HLA-C) and to our control population assessed by same HLA genotyping approach (binomial P= 0.000001 for HLA-B and P= 0.000018 for HLA-C). No gene elsewhere in the genome harnessed shared rare case enriched coding variation. Our results suggests that HLA-B*07:02and HLA-C*07:02are necessary for a patient to develop respiratory failure due to TMP-SMX.

A highly convergent synthesis of c-Met kinase inhibitor 1has been demonstrated on a multikilogram scale using three key fragments: dihalotricyclic core 2, chiral sulfamide side chain 3, and pyrazole boronic ester 4. The chirality in sulfamide side chain 3was installed using the cheap and readily available starting material (S)-epichlorohydrin. A total of 2.71 kg of 1were isolated in seven steps (the longest linear sequence).

Both peripheral vascular disease (PVD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are leading causes of lower extremity amputation. The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is a tool used to estimate socioeconomic status based off a persons’ 9 digit zip-code, and this value has been shown to correlate with poor health outcomes. We sought to understand the effect of socioeconomic status on major amputation in diabetic patients with PVD in a single center.

Drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome/drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DIHS/DRESS) is one example of a severe delayed T-cell–mediated adverse drug reaction. DIHS/DRESS presents with fever, widespread rash and facial edema, organ involvement, and hematological abnormalities, including eosinophilia and atypical lymphocytosis. DIHS/DRESS is associated with relapse 2 to 4 weeks after acute symptoms, often coinciding with reactivation of prevalent chronic persistent human herpesviruses such as human herpesvirus 6, EBV, and cytomegalovirus. The mortality of DIHS/DRESS is up to 10% and often related to unrecognized myocarditis and cytomegalovirus complications, with longer-term consequences that contribute to morbidity including autoimmune diseases such as thyroiditis. It is essential that all potential drug causes, including all new drugs introduced within the 8 weeks preceding onset of DIHS/DRESS symptoms, are identified. All potential drug culprits, as well as drugs that are closely related structurally to the culprit drug, should be avoided in the future. Systemic corticosteroids have remained the mainstay for the treatment of DIHS/DRESS with internal organ involvement. Steroid-sparing agents, such as cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil, and monthly intravenous immune globulin, have been successfully used for treatment, and careful follow-up for cytomegalovirus reactivation is recommended. Strong associations between HLA class I alleles and DIHS/DRESS predisposition include HLA-B∗13:01 and dapsone, HLA-B∗58:01 and allopurinol, and HLA-B∗32:01 and vancomycin. These have opened a pathway for prevention, risk stratification, and earlier diagnosis. Single-cell sequencing and other studies of immunopathogenesis promise to identify targeted treatment approaches.

Delayed drug hypersensitivities are CD8+ T-cell mediated reactions associated with up to 50% mortality. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles are known to predispose disease, specific to drug, reaction, and patient ethnicity, with pre-treatment screening recommended for a handful of the strongest associations to identify and prevent drug use in high-risk patients. However, an incomplete predictive value implicates other HLA-imposed risk factors, and low carriage of many identified HLA-risk alleles combined with the high cost of sequence-based typing has limited economic viability for similar recommendation of screening across drugs and healthcare systems. To mitigate, an expanding armoury of low-cost polymerase chain reaction-based screens is being developed, and HLA-imposed risk factors are being discovered. These include (i) polymorphic variants of metabolic and endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase enzymes, towards multi-allelic screening with increased predictivity, (ii) regulation by immune checkpoint inhibitors, enabling de-tolerised animal models of human disease, and (iii) immunodominant T-cell receptors (TCR) on clonally-expanded CD8+ T-cells. For the latter, HLA-risk restricted TCR provides immunogenomic strategies and samples from a single patient to identify (i) novel HLA-risk associations in underserved minority populations, (ii) tissue-relevant effector biomarkers towards earlier diagnosis and treatment, and (iii) HLA-TCR-presented immunogenic structures to aid future drug development.