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.

Characterisation of a preservative system in an oily preparation.

The influence of three variables, i.e. the concentrations of benzyl alcohol (BA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisol (BHA), on the preservative efficacy and antioxidant activity of an oily veterinary formulation was investigated using quantitative experimental designs and applying pharmacopoeial methods as part of the robustness-evaluation.

Determination of the relative amounts of three crystal forms of a benzimidazole drug in complex finished formulations by FT-Raman spectroscopy.

A 5% (m/m) premix for animal use was quantitatively characterized for the polymorph composition of its benzimidazole drug substance. Raman spectra of reference samples (pure polymorphs A, B and C in lactose at a concentration of 5%, m/m) were compared with the spectra of benzimidazole samples with a known polymorph composition and with the spectra of uncharacterized premixes. The raw intensities of 78 selected wavenumbers were vector-normalized and application of stepwise linear regression models estimated the relative quantities of the benzimidazole-drug polymorphs A, B and C in the different samples.

Statistical analysis of tablet breakability methods.

Purpose: Using a model tablet, the influence of breakability methodology on mass uniformity of half- and quarter-tablets as well as the comparison of different data acquisition and evaluation approaches were investigated. Moreover, different breakability evaluation criteria were compared based upon distribution as well as distribution-free models.

Methods: A cross-scored tablet, i.

Automatic buffer capacity model building for advanced interpretation of titration curves.

An automatic buffer capacity model building algorithm was developed. The objective of this algorithm is to characterize multiple buffer systems from experimental titration curves. Starting from a simple mathematical model that incorporates the available prior knowledge on the buffer system, the model is sequentially extended by incorporating additional monoprotic buffer equations.

A novel bending point criterion for dissolution profile interpretation.

A novel bending point criterion was developed and compared with a number of existing criteria for the interpretation of certain dissolution profiles; these comparison criteria were the percentage dissolved at a fixed time point, the fitted Weibull parameters, and the area under the dissolution curve (AUC). The statistical bending point model was applied to dissolution curves that showed linear dissolution. The bending point model is based on a general linear model, and its confidence information is obtained using the variance-covariance matrix of the parameter estimates.

Automatic buffer capacity model building for the purpose of water quality monitoring.

In this paper, buffer capacity profiles are used in the framework of automatic monitoring of water quality. The aim of the proposed methodology is to automatically and stepwise build buffer capacity models for each particular titrated sample, and to quantify the individual buffer systems that constitute the total buffer capacity. An automatic and robust model building algorithm has been developed and applied to many titration curves of effluent and river water samples.

Influence of temperature and process technology on the occurrence of Aeromonas species and hygienic indicator organisms in drinking water production plants.

The occurrence of Aeromonas spp. and hygienic indicator organisms in raw and treated waters of five drinking water production plants in Flanders (Belgium) was surveyed over a period of 17 months. Aeromonads were isolated on ampicillin-dextrin agar (ADA) and further identified by gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of their cellular fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) content.