A Breast Milk Pump at the Bedside: A Project to Increase Milk Production in Mothers of Very Low Birth Weight Infants.

The amount of milk production in mothers of babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is mostly determined by some actions focused on the first hours and days after birth. Working for an improvement in our previous results in terms of maternal expressed breast milk (MEBM) production, we designed a pilot project and a small observational study. After increasing the number of breast milk pumps to allow full-time availability and implementing educational strategies and updated information for parents, the volume of MEBM production by day 14 after birth was doubled and increased to >500 mL per day.

Transition-Metal-Free Allylic Borylation of 1,3-Dienes.

This work explains the reactivity of diboron reagents with 1,3-dienes in a transition-metal-free context. The sole addition of NaCO (30 mol %) to bis(pinacolato)diboron in MeOH allows the 1,4-hydroboration of cyclic and noncyclic 1,3-dienes. The electronic influence on the substrate guarantees the conjugated 1,4-hydroboration versus 1,2-diboration.

Copper-Mediated S2' Allyl-Alkyl and Allyl-Boryl Couplings of Vinyl Cyclic Carbonates.

A method for the copper-catalyzed borylmethylation and borylation of vinyl cyclic carbonates through an S2' mechanism is reported. These singular reactions involve selective S2' allylic substitutions with concomitant ring opening of the cyclic carbonate and with extrusion of CO and formation of a useful hydroxyl functionality in a single step. The stereoselectivity of the homoallylic borylation and allylic borylation processes can be controlled, and synthetically useful unsaturated (E)-pent-2-ene-1,5-diols and (E)-but-2-ene-1,4-diols are accessed.

Synthesis of a Naphthodiazaborinine and Its Verification by Planarization with Atomic Force Microscopy.

Aiming to study new motifs, potentially active as functional materials, we performed the synthesis of a naphthodiazaborinine (the BN isostere of the phenalenyl anion) that is bonded to a hindered di-ortho-substituted aryl system (9-anthracene). We used atomic force microscopy (AFM) and succeeded in both the verification of the original nonplanar structure of the molecule and the planarization of the skeleton by removing H atoms that cause steric hindrance. This study demonstrated that planarization by atomic manipulation is a possible route for extending molecular identification by AFM to nonplanar molecular systems that are difficult to probe with AFM directly.