The ethics of inattention: revitalising civil inattention as a privacy-protecting mechanism in public spaces.

Societies evolve practices that reflect social norms of appropriateness in social interaction, for example when and to what extent one should respect the boundaries of another person's private sphere. One such practice is what the sociologist Erving Goffman called civil inattention-the social norm of showing a proper amount of indifference to others-which functions as an almost unnoticed yet highly potent privacy-preserving mechanism. These practices can be disrupted by technologies that afford new forms of intrusions.

The right not to know and preimplantation genetic diagnosis for Huntington's disease.

The right not to know is underappreciated in policy-making. Despite its articulation in medical law and ethics, policy-makers too easily let other concerns override the right not to know. This observation is triggered by a recent decision of the Dutch government on embryo selection for Huntington's disease.

Activity and stability of chemically modified Candida antarctica lipase B adsorbed on solid supports.

The effect of various covalent chemical modifications on the transesterification activity and stability of adsorbed lipase B from Candida antarctica (CALB) was studied in 2-butanone and o-xylene. CALB species modified with either polyethylene glycol 2000 monomethyl ether (MPEG), polyethylene glycol 300 mono-octyl ether (OPEG) or n-octanol (OCT) were used in combination with a hydrophobic (Accurel) and a hydrophilic (Duolite) support. The thermostabilities of adsorbed CALB in both solvents, and that of free CALB in o-xylene were not influenced by the modifications.

Mapping the binding site of the small intestinal peptide carrier (PepT1) using comparative molecular field analysis.

The present study was undertaken to examine the relationship between chemical structure (steric and electrostatic fields) and affinity for the small intestinal oligopeptide carrier (PepT1) using comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA), a three-dimensional approach towards building quantitative structure-activity relationships. Various biological activity parameters (Kt, Jmax, Pc) and molecular descriptors (CoMFA fields, isobutylalcohol/water distribution coefficients) were examined. The resulting field map provides information on the geometry of the binding site cavity and the relative weights of various properties in different site pockets for each of the substrates considered.