Radio-Frequency Manipulation of State Populations in an Entangled Fluorine-Muon-Fluorine System.

Entangled spin states are created by implanting muons into single-crystal LiY_{0.95}Ho_{0.05}F_{4} to form a cluster of correlated, dipole-coupled local magnetic moments.

Discovery of a Dysprosium Metallocene Single-Molecule Magnet with Two High-Temperature Orbach Processes.

Magnetic bistability in single-molecule magnets (SMMs) is a potential basis for new types of nanoscale information storage material. The standard model for thermally activated relaxation of the magnetization in SMMs is based on the occurrence of a single Orbach process. Here, we show that incorporating a phosphorus atom into the framework of the dysprosium metallocene [(Cp)Dy(Cp)][B(CF)] (Cp is penta-isopropylcyclopentadienyl, Cp is tetraethylphospholyl) leads to the occurrence of two distinct high-temperature Orbach processes, with energy barriers of 1410(10) and 747(7) cm, respectively.

Care after death in children's hospices: recommendations for moving and handling, and for managing physiological deterioration.

Background: Children's hospices provide a range of services for babies, children and young people who have a life-limiting or life-threatening condition, including care after death in specialist 'cool bedrooms'. Care after death is a challenging but important element of hospice care.

Aim: The aims of the study were to identify the practices of staff providing care after death in UK children's hospices, notably their moving and handling practices and their management of physiological deterioration, and to produce recommendations that promote safe and consistent practice in moving and handling and in managing physiological deterioration after death in UK children's hospices.

Moving and Handling Children After Death: An Inductive Thematic Analysis of the Factors That Influence Decision Making by Children's Hospice Staff.

Hospices for children and adolescents in the United Kingdom provide care to the bodies of deceased children in specially designed chilled bedrooms called "cool rooms." In an effort to develop resources to support hospice practitioners to provide this specialist area of care, this study aimed to identify the factors that influence decision making when moving and handling children's bodies after death in a hospice cool bedroom. An internet-based survey was sent to all practitioners employed by 1 children's hospice.

Extreme Fermi Surface Smearing in a Maximally Disordered Concentrated Solid Solution.

We show that the Fermi surface can survive the presence of extreme compositional disorder in the equiatomic alloy Ni_{0.25}Fe_{0.25}Co_{0.

Change in the electronic structure of the bismuth chalcogenide superconductor CsBi Pb Te by dissociation of the bismuth dimers.

CsBi Pb Te is synthesized and the superconductivity associated with the structural transition from Pb substitution is studied. Photoemission spectroscopy measurements are performed in order to elucidate the relationship between the electronic structure and the occurrence of the superconductivity. When Bi is substituted with Pb, an electron doping-like change in the electronic structure is directly observed which is contrary to the naive expectation of hole doping.

Realization of a scanning soft X-ray microscope for magnetic imaging under high magnetic fields.

For the purpose of imaging element- and shell-specific magnetic distributions under high magnetic fields, a scanning soft X-ray microscope has been developed at beamline BL25SU, SPring-8, Japan. The scanning X-ray microscope utilizes total electron yield detection of absorbed circularly polarized soft X-rays in order to observe magnetic domains through the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism effect. Crucially, this system is equipped with an 8 T superconducting magnet.

Vacancies, disorder-induced smearing of the electronic structure, and its implications for the superconductivity of anti-perovskite MgCNi.

The anti-perovskite superconductor MgCNi was studied using high-resolution x-ray Compton scattering combined with electronic structure calculations. Compton scattering measurements were used to determine experimentally a Fermi surface that showed good agreement with that of our supercell calculations, establishing the presence of the predicted hole and electron Fermi surface sheets. Our calculations indicate that the Fermi surface is smeared by the disorder due to the presence of vacancies on the C and Ni sites, but does not drastically change shape.

Magnetic frustration, short-range correlations and the role of the paramagnetic Fermi surface of PdCrO2.

Frustrated interactions exist throughout nature, with examples ranging from protein folding through to frustrated magnetic interactions. Whilst magnetic frustration is observed in numerous electrically insulating systems, in metals it is a rare phenomenon. The interplay of itinerant conduction electrons mediating interactions between localised magnetic moments with strong spin-orbit coupling is likely fundamental to these systems.

Evaluation of work-based screening for early signs of alcohol-related liver disease in hazardous and harmful drinkers: the PrevAIL study.

Background: The direct cost of excessive alcohol consumption to health services is substantial but dwarfed by the cost borne by the workplace as a result of lost productivity. The workplace is also a promising setting for health interventions. The Preventing Alcohol Harm in Liverpool and Knowsley (PrevAIL) project aimed to evaluate a mechanism for detecting the prevalence of alcohol related liver disease using fibrosis biomarkers.

Prevalence of plasma small dense LDL is increased in obesity in a Thai population.

Background: Plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles vary in size, density, electrical charge and chemical composition. An increased presence of small dense LDL (sdLDL), along with raised triglyceride concentrations and decreased high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations is commonly known as the atherogenic triad and has been observed in some cases of obesity, principally in Europe and America. This study examines the prevalence of sdLDL in the plasma of an obese (BMI≥25 kg/m2) Thai population.

Origins and evolution of reproductive immunology: a personal perspective.

This is a brief personal assessment of the origins and development of the field of reproductive immunology from the 19th century to the present day, with special reference to the founding of the Journal of Reproductive Immunology in 1979.

Application of Toxocara canis excretory-secretory antigens and IgG subclass antibodies (IgG1-4) in serodiagnostic assays of human toxocariasis.

A major problem in the serodiagnosis of human toxocariasis in tropical countries is cross-reaction with antibodies to other helminthic diseases and a lack of sensitivity. The majority of tests currently available use total IgG and, in this study, the use of peroxidase-conjugated anti-human IgG subclass antibodies (IgG1-4) was compared with total IgG for the diagnosis of human toxocariasis by using Toxocara excretory-secretory (TES) antigens in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format. All four IgG subclass antibodies gave approximately 10-fold increases in optical density (OD) values for 50 toxocariasis patients compared to 29 healthy normals; this was significantly greater than the approximate doubling of OD values seen in the total IgG-ELISA format.

Novel anti-bacterials against MRSA: synthesis of focussed combinatorial libraries of tri-substituted 2(5H)-furanones.

Mucobromic and mucochloric acid were used as building blocks for the construction of a chemical combinatorial library of 3,4,5-trisubstituted 2(5H)-furanones. With these 2 butenolide building blocks, and eight alcohols a sublibrary of 16 dihalogenated 5-alkoxy-2(5H)-furanones was prepared. This sublibrary of 5-alkoxylated furanones was reacted with 16 amines generating a full size focussed combinatorial library of 256 individual compounds.

Teaching ethics in engineering education through historical analysis.

The goal of this paper is to stress the significance of ethics for engineering education and to illustrate how it can be brought into the mainstream of higher education in a natural way that is integrated with the teaching objectives of enriching the core meaning of engineering. Everyone will agree that the practicing engineer should be virtuous, should be a good colleague, and should use professional understanding for the common good. But these injunctions to virtue do not reach closely enough the ethic of the engineer as engineer, as someone acting in a uniquely engineering situation, and it is to such conditions that I wish to speak through a set of specific examples from recent history.

Discovery of a potent phenolic N1-benzylidene-pyridinecarboxamidrazone selective against Gram-positive bacteria.

As part of a study into antimycobacterial compounds a set of phenolic N1-benzylidene-pyridinecarboxamidrazones was prepared and evaluated. This report describes the unexpected discovery of a potent compound with a pronounced selectivity for Gram-positive bacteria over Gram-negative micro-organisms. In addition, this compound is active against various drug-resistant Gram-positive bacteria.

The immunological problem of pregnancy: 50 years with the hope of progress. A tribute to Peter Medawar.

This article is a tribute to the late Sir Peter Brian Medawar for his pivotal contribution in 1953 to the establishment of the field of Reproductive Immunology, with a brief and selective assessment of the progress made during the ensuing 50 years towards elucidation of the mechanisms responsible for the paradoxical survival of the conceptus as an intra-uterine allograft within the immunologically competent genetically alien female host. Medawar's succinct and stimulating theories have been central throughout the whole of this time and his basic conclusion, that the single most important factor ensuring the success of gestation is the anatomical separation of the fetus from its mother, remains substantially valid to this day. The extent to which other factors are of significance, particularly those relating to the relative roles of maternal adaptive and innate immune responses to the developing feto-placental unit, has yet to be fully defined.

Effect of catechol derivatives on cell growth and lipoxygenase activity.

Derivatives of salicylic acid have been synthesized as potential lipoxygenase inhibitors. Agents containing a phenolic dihydroxy moiety showed potent (IC(50)10(-6)-10(-7) M) inhibition of the growth of murine colonic tumour cells in vitro, and were effective inhibitors of 5-, 12- and 15-lipoxygenase in intact cells. The catechols were also potent inhibitors of rabbit reticulocyte 15-lipoxygenase (IC(50) approximately 1 microM).

Antioxidant properties of aged garlic extract: an in vitro study incorporating human low density lipoprotein.

Oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) has been recognized as playing an important role in the development and progression of atherosclerotic heart disease. Human LDL was isolated and challenged with a range of oxidants either in the presence or absence of AGE or its diethyl ether extract. Oxidative modification of the LDL fraction using CuSO(4), 5-lipoxygenase and xanthine/xanthine oxidase was monitored by both the appearance of thiobarbituric-acid substances (TBA-RS) and an increase in electrophoretic mobility.

Combinatorial solid phase synthesis of multiply substituted 1,4-benzodiazepines and affinity studies on the CCK2 receptor (part 1).

One hundred sixty-eight multiply substituted 1,4-benzodiazepines have been prepared by a five-step solid-phase combinatorial approach using syn-phase crowns as a solid support and a hydroxymethyl-phenoxy-acetamido linkage (Wang linker). The substituents of the 1,4-benzodiazepine scaffold have been varied in the -3, -5, -7, and 8-positions and the combinatorial library was evaluated in a chole cys to kinin (CCK) radioligand binding assay. 3-Alkylated 1,4-benzodiazepines with selectivity towards the CCK-B (CCK2) receptor have been optimized on the lipophilic side chain, the ketone moiety, and the stereochemistry at the 3-position.

Synthesis and evaluation of N1-substituted-3-propyl-1,4-benzodiazepine-2-ones as cholecystokinin (CCK2) receptor ligands.

A novel synthetic approach towards N1-alkylated 3-propyl-1,4-benzodiazepines was developed in five synthetic steps from 2-amino-4-chlorobenzophenone, in which the N-oxide 4 served as a key intermediate. The structure-activity relationship optimization of this 3-propyl-1,4-benzodiazepine template was carried out on the N1-position by selective alkylation reactions and resulted in a ligand with an improved affinity on the cholecystokinin (CCK2) receptor. The N-allyl-3-propyl-benzodiazepine 6d displayed an affinity towards the CCK2 (CCK-B) receptor of 170 nM in a radiolabelled receptor-binding assay.

Metal complexes of carboxamidrazone analogs as antitubercular agents. 1. Synthesis, X-ray crystal-structures, spectroscopic properties and antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H(37)Rv.

N(1)-Benzylidene-pyridine carboxamidrazones and their metal conjugates have emerged as a new class of potential antimycobacterial agents. Nine such carboxamidrazone analogs (L(1)-L(9)) along with their Cu(II) (MC(1)-MC(9)) and Fe(III) (MC(10)-MC(18)) complexes were synthesized. Single crystal X-ray structures of copper complexes MC(1) and MC(5) were determined which suggest slightly distorted square planer geometries for copper complexes and octahedral geometries for ferric compounds.

Dietary supplementation with aged garlic extract reduces plasma and urine concentrations of 8-iso-prostaglandin F(2 alpha) in smoking and nonsmoking men and women.

F(2)-isoprostanes are recently described prostaglandin F isomers produced by cyclooxygenase-independent free radical peroxidation of arachidonic acid. Their quantification in plasma and urine is a sensitive and specific indicator of lipid peroxidation and, hence, of oxidative stress in vivo. Some components of garlic are known to possess antioxidant properties.