The effects of CO2 pressure and pH on the Suzuki coupling of basic nitrogen containing substrates.

The Suzuki coupling reaction of basic nitrogen containing substrates (2-bromo- and 2-chloro-4-aminopyridine, and 2-bromo and 2-chloropyridine) with phenylboronic acid using Pd(TPP)2Cl2/K3PO4 in acetonitrile-water biphasic solvent systems under a CO2 or a N2 atmosphere is discussed. It was observed that 2-halo-4-aminopyridine produced quantitative yields of coupled products under a CO2 atmosphere while the yields for the 2-halopyridines were poor. In contrast, the yields of coupled products for the 2-halopyridines substrates were quantitative under a N2 atmosphere while only poor yields were realized for the 2-halo-4-aminopyridines under the same conditions.

Lean production of taste improved lipidic sodium benzoate formulations.

Sodium benzoate is a highly soluble orphan drug with unpleasant taste and high daily dose. The aim of this study was to develop a child appropriate, individually dosable, and taste masked dosage form utilizing lipids in melt granulation process and tableting. A saliva resistant coated lipid granule produced by extrusion served as reference product.

Molecular test based on isothermal helicase-dependent amplification for detection of the Clostridium difficile toxin A gene.

The AmpliVue Clostridium difficile assay and a glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH)-illumigene algorithm were evaluated using 308 diarrheal stool specimens of patients suspected of having C. difficile infection. Compared to the enriched toxigenic culture method, the sensitivities, specificities, and positive and negative predictive values of the AmpliVue C.

Ethylene-forming enzyme and bioethylene production.

Worldwide, ethylene is the most produced organic compound. It serves as a building block for a wide variety of plastics, textiles, and chemicals, and a process has been developed for its conversion into liquid transportation fuels. Currently, commercial ethylene production involves steam cracking of fossil fuels, and is the highest CO2-emitting process in the chemical industry.

Effects of leachate from crumb rubber and zinc in green roofs on the survival, growth, and resistance characteristics of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium.

The use of green roofs is a growing practice worldwide, particularly in densely populated areas. In an attempt to find new methods for recycling crumb rubber, incorporation of crumb rubber into artificial medium for plant growth in green roofs and similar engineered environments has become an attractive option for the recycling of waste tires. Though this approach decreases waste in landfills, there are concerns about the leaching of zinc and other heavy metals, as well as nutrient and organic compounds, into the environment.

p-BioSPRE-an information and communication technology framework for transnational biomaterial sharing and access.

Biobanks represent key resources for clinico-genomic research and are needed to pave the way to personalised medicine. To achieve this goal, it is crucial that scientists can securely access and share high-quality biomaterial and related data. Therefore, there is a growing interest in integrating biobanks into larger biomedical information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures.

High-pressure sapphire cell for phase equilibria measurements of CO2/organic/water systems.

The high pressure sapphire cell apparatus was constructed to visually determine the composition of multiphase systems without physical sampling. Specifically, the sapphire cell enables visual data collection from multiple loadings to solve a set of material balances to precisely determine phase composition. Ternary phase diagrams can then be established to determine the proportion of each component in each phase at a given condition.

Taste-masking assessment of solid oral dosage forms--a critical review.

Approaches to improve the taste of oral dosage forms that contain unpleasant tasting drugs are versatile. Likewise, the analytical in vitro and in vivo methods to assess taste-masking efficacy are diverse. Taste-masking has gained in importance since the EU legislation on medicines for children came into force in 2007, and taste-masking attributes are often required by regulatory authorities.

Let our voices be heard: Urban minority adolescents share their perspectives regarding substance abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention messages.

Purpose: This study explored the substance abuse and human immunodeficiency virus prevention needs of urban minority adolescents.

Design: Six 1-hour focus groups.

Setting: Two high schools and two community-based organizations located in the city of Paterson, New Jersey.

A flexible approach to distributed data anonymization.

Sensitive biomedical data is often collected from distributed sources, involving different information systems and different organizational units. Local autonomy and legal reasons lead to the need of privacy preserving integration concepts. In this article, we focus on anonymization, which plays an important role for the re-use of clinical data and for the sharing of research data.

Diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection: the molecular approach.

Diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection is based on clinical presentation and laboratory tests. Although numerous laboratory methods are now available, the diagnosis of C. difficile infection remains challenging.

Copy number genome alterations are associated with treatment response and outcome in relapsed childhood ETV6/RUNX1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The clinical heterogeneity among first relapses of childhood ETV6/RUNX1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia indicates that further genetic alterations in leukemic cells might affect the course of salvage therapy and be of prognostic relevance. To assess the incidence and prognostic relevance of additional copy number alterations at relapse of the disease, we performed whole genome array comparative genomic hybridization of leukemic cell DNA from 51 patients with first ETV6/RUNX1-positive relapse enrolled in and treated according to the relapse trials ALL-REZ of the Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster Study Group. Within this cohort of patients with relapsed ETV6/RUNX1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the largest analyzed for genome wide DNA copy number alterations to date, alterations were present in every ETV6/RUNX1-positive relapse and a high proportion of them occurred in recurrent overlapping chromosomal regions.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of nonaqueous silylamines for efficient CO2 capture.

A series of silylated amines have been synthesized for use as reversible ionic liquids in the application of post-combustion carbon capture. We describe a molecular design process aimed at influencing industrially relevant carbon capture properties, such as viscosity, temperature of reversal, and enthalpy of regeneration, while maximizing the overall CO2 -capture capacity. A strong structure-property relationship among the silylamines is demonstrated in which minor structural modifications lead to significant changes in the bulk properties of the reversible ionic liquid formed from reaction with CO2 .

Dramatic vestigialization of floral fragrance across a transition from outcrossing to selfing in Abronia umbellata (Nyctaginaceae).

Premise Of The Study: Vestigialization of traits that no longer enhance fitness is a common theme in evolution. Plants often use colorful, scented flowers to attract pollinators that mediate outcross pollination. After an evolutionary shift from outcrossing to self-fertilization, where cross-pollination is no longer necessary, attractive traits may be reduced, especially because these traits may also attract herbivores.

Blood pressure control in continuous flow left ventricular assist devices: efficacy and impact on adverse events.

Background: Continuous flow (CF) left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) are afterload sensitive and therefore pump performance is affected by hypertension. In addition, poorly controlled hypertension may increase the risk of aortic insufficiency (AI) and stroke. Blood pressure regimens after CF LVAD have not been studied and their impact on rates of AI and stroke are unknown.

Frequent and sex-biased deletion of SLX4IP by illegitimate V(D)J-mediated recombination in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) accounts for ∼25% of pediatric malignancies. Of interest, the incidence of ALL is observed ∼20% higher in males relative to females. The mechanism behind the phenomenon of sex-specific differences is presently not understood.

Histone deacetylase 10 promotes autophagy-mediated cell survival.

Tumor cells activate autophagy in response to chemotherapy-induced DNA damage as a survival program to cope with metabolic stress. Here, we provide in vitro and in vivo evidence that histone deacetylase (HDAC)10 promotes autophagy-mediated survival in neuroblastoma cells. We show that both knockdown and inhibition of HDAC10 effectively disrupted autophagy associated with sensitization to cytotoxic drug treatment in a panel of highly malignant V-MYC myelocytomatosis viral-related oncogene, neuroblastoma derived-amplified neuroblastoma cell lines, in contrast to nontransformed cells.

Use of allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation based on minimal residual disease response improves outcomes for children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the intermediate-risk group.

Purpose: In children with intermediate risk of relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), it is essential to identify patients in need of treatment intensification. We hypothesized that the prognosis of patients with unsatisfactory reduction of minimal residual disease (MRD) can be improved by allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT).

Patients And Methods: In the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Relapse Study of the Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster Group (ALL-REZ BFM) 2002, patients with an MRD level of ≥ 10(-3) (n = 99) at the end of induction therapy were allocated to HSCT, whereas those with an MRD level less than 10(-3) (n = 109) continued to receive chemotherapy.

New protocol for αAstree electronic tongue enabling full performance qualification according to ICH Q2.

Performance qualification (PQ) of taste sensing systems is mandatory for their use in pharmaceutical industry. According to ICH Q2 (R1) and a recent adaptation for taste sensing systems, non-specificity, log-linear relationships between the concentration of analytes and the sensor signal as well as a repeatability with relative standard deviation (RSD) values <4% were defined as basic requirements to pass a PQ. In the present work, the αAstree taste sensing system led to a successful PQ procedure by the use of recent sensor batches for pharmaceutical applications (sensor set #2) and a modified measurement protocol.

A new β-estradiol-inducible vector set that facilitates easy construction and efficient expression of transgenes reveals CBL3-dependent cytoplasm to tonoplast translocation of CIPK5.

Transient and stable expression of transgenes is central to many investigations in plant biology research. Chemical regulation of expression can circumvent problems of plant lethality caused by constitutive overexpression or allow inducible knock (out/down) approaches. Several chemically inducible or repressible systems have been described and successfully applied.

ALL-REZ BFM--the consecutive trials for children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The BFM studies for relapsed childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) were started in 1983, at a time when cure rates for ALL were still lower and the number of children with ALL relapse equaled about the number of children with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma. Today, relapses have become relatively rare events in ALL although, because of the frequency of ALL, they are still a significant cause of death in children and adolescents. With currently used treatment modalities, cure rates of about 50% after relapse can be achieved, and, together with the improved results of front-line therapy, the survival rate of childhood ALL is now about 90%.

The MLL recombinome of acute leukemias in 2013.

Chromosomal rearrangements of the human MLL (mixed lineage leukemia) gene are associated with high-risk infant, pediatric, adult and therapy-induced acute leukemias. We used long-distance inverse-polymerase chain reaction to characterize the chromosomal rearrangement of individual acute leukemia patients. We present data of the molecular characterization of 1590 MLL-rearranged biopsy samples obtained from acute leukemia patients.