Distance functions of carabids in crop fields depend on functional traits, crop type and adjacent habitat: a synthesis.

Natural pest and weed regulation are essential for agricultural production, but the spatial distribution of natural enemies within crop fields and its drivers are mostly unknown. Using 28 datasets comprising 1204 study sites across eight Western and Central European countries, we performed a quantitative synthesis of carabid richness, activity densities and functional traits in relation to field edges (i.e.

Thiazolide Prodrug Esters and Derived Peptides: Synthesis and Activity.

Amino acid ester prodrugs of the thiazolides, introduced to improve the pharmacokinetic parameters of the parent drugs, proved to be stable as their salts but were unstable at pH > 5. Although some of the instability was due to simple hydrolysis, we have found that the main end products of the degradation were peptides formed by rearrangement. These peptides were stable solids: they maintained significant antiviral activity, and in general, they showed improved pharmacokinetics (better solubility and reduced clearance) compared to the parent thiazolides.

Monitoring the Impact of Hedgerows and Grass Strips on the Performance of Multiple Ecosystem Service Indicators.

The importance of semi-natural vegetation elements in the agricultural landscape is increasingly recognized because they have the potential to enhance multiple ecosystem service delivery and biodiversity. However, there is great variability in the observed effects within and between studies. Also, little is known about the simultaneous delivery of multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity because most studies focus on monitoring one service at a time and in conditions specifically suited to observe this one service.

Assessment of the solid-state composition of an active salicylanilide compound by FT-Raman spectroscopy.

A biologically active salicylanilide compound currently appears in three known solid-state forms: polymorph I (Pol I), polymorph II (Pol II) and the amorphous form (Amorph). The obtained FT-Raman spectra revealed several regions of interest (ROIs) qualitatively distinguishing the different forms, allowing samples with an unknown polymorphic composition to be quantitatively analysed by FT-Raman spectroscopy. The Markov-transformed peak areas of the Raman-bands in the ROIs from the samples were determined and compared with the transformed peak areas obtained for the reference solid-state forms.

The importance of the cosolvent propylene glycol on the antimicrobial preservative efficacy of a pharmaceutical formulation by DOE-ruggedness testing.

The aim of this study was to statistically evaluate the influence of the concentration of the co-solvent propylene glycol on the preservative efficacy of a complex pharmaceutical suspension-emulsion formulation containing methyl- and propylparaben. Preservative Efficacy Tests (PETs) were performed using the validated pharmacopoeial methodology with five test organisms over 1 month on lab-scale test formulations. These were independently prepared according to a Box-Behnken experimental design with a triplicate central point at 0.