Molecular studies on the effect of germanium oxide on sponges, corals and ascidians

The stress response, at the molecular level, of the soft corals Dendronephthya klunzingeri and Heteroxenia sp., hard corals Acropora hyacinthus and A. valenciennesi, an ascidian Symplegma sp. and sponges Latruncula cortica and Callyspongia crassa to germanium oxide (GeO sub(2)) was evaluated. Evaluation was carried out using bioindicators. such as the level of expression of each of the heat shock proteins (HSPs) and the silicatein enzyme in response to the compound. However, the expression was measured by SDS Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS PAGE) and western blotting. The harmful concentration of GeO sub(2) that produced noticeable molecular changes in the studied samples during the first 6-24 hours was 6 μg/ml. The two studied soft corals as well as the ascidian responded to the harmful concentration of germanium oxide by expressing the heat-shock protein 90 (hsp90), while the two hard corals responded by expressing hsp70, C. crassa by decreasing the level of silicatein enzyme and sponge L. cortica produced no change by any of the used biomarkers, The soft coral Heteroxenia sp. was found to be sensitive to mechanical stress during the experiment and it was more sensitive to 6 μg/ml of GeO sub(2) than the other soft coral D. klunzingeri. The two studied hard corals were sensitive to mechanical stress during the experiment, but A. hyacinth us showed higher sensitivity than A. valenciennesi. However, these 2 corals displayed reverse response to GeO sub(2). Primitive evidences were found in the SDS PAGE to distinguish the tissue of the soft coral from that of the hard coral on the molecular level; the soft coral showed two prominent protein bands (45 and 50 kDa) while the two prominent protein bands for hard corals were 31 and 116 kDa

Effects of Anesthetic Management on Inflammatory Markers in Patients After Major Abdominal Surgeries: A Double-Blind Controlled Study

Background: Surgical trauma induces systemic inflammatory responses. We aimed to evaluate the influence of different analgesic models on postoperative pain and inflammatory markers modulation after major abdominal surgeries. Materials and Methods: A total of 105 patients scheduled for elective abdominal colorectal surgeries were selected and randomly assigned to one of the three groups: Group-1 (GM) four micrograms/kg of IT morphine; Group-2 (GML) four microgram/kg of IT morphine plus 1.5 mg/kg intravenous Lidocaine loading dose and 2 mg/min saline infusion during the operation and the next 4 hours postoperative; Group-3 (G0, control group) no added drugs. Results: Pain scored statistically significant lower figures in GML than the other two groups; p<0.001. Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha serum levels showed a statistically significant difference between the three groups; P <0.001; GML showed the lowest level, followed by group GM and Group 0 (10.3±4.4 vs. 20±4.4 vs. 26±7.5). Transforming Growth Factor beta-1 demonstrated the highest levels measured in GML, high levels in GM, and the lowest level in G0; p<0.001, where mean serum levels were 43.1±12.5, 26 ±4.2, and 18.9±7.7, respectively. Opioid consumption was significantly lower in GML than other two groups; P<0.001. Conclusion: Intraoperative and early postoperative intravenous Lidocaine infusion significantly improved the quality of postoperative analgesia. Optimizing analgesia in anesthetic management has a favorable effect on the pro and anti-inflammatory mediators. Keywords: Abdominal surgeries, Postoperative pain, TNF-alpha and TGF-bet

The Effect of Fulica Atra Feather on Oil Sorption Capacity of Polyurethane Foam

Comparative study of oil absorption using modified polyurethane foam as sorbents performed where Polyurethane type polyester was prepared locally and modified by using the feather of Coot (Fulica atra) Bird. The objective of the study to compare the oil spill removal capability of the pure and modified polyurethane.  Two types of Crude oil brought from Basrah oil fields used in this study, Sorption test in hydraulic oil was also done, the obtained results show that absorption capacity directly proportional to the filler type and used oils according to the difference in the capillary structure of both pure and modified polyurethane and the special structure of feather with stiff central shaft .  The polyurethane foam modified with wing feather has the highest absorption ratio due to changes between contour and fluff feather, the effect of viscosity very obvious in this study on absorption where the viscous oils unable to flow rapidly in to the sorbent due to the high cohesion more than the adhesion between oil and the sorbent materials, Finally, the modified polyurethane foam sorbents has a good buoyancy. Keywords: Polyurethane, Feather, Crude oil, Oil spill, Fulica atra, Polymer

Palladium-catalyzed direct desulfitative C2 arylations of 3-halo-: N -protected indoles using (hetero)arenesulfonyl chlorides

International audienceThe direct arylation of N-protected 3-haloindole derivatives with benzenesulfonyl chlorides as coupling partners using 5 mol% of bis(acetonitrile)dichloropalladium(ii) catalyst and lithium carbonate as a base in 1,4-dioxane was investigated. We demonstrated that both iodo and chloro substituents at the indolyl C3 position act as temporary blocking groups allowing the formation of 2-arylindoles through a direct desulfitative arylation, followed by in situ dehalogenation. While, from 3-bromoindole derivatives, 2-aryl-3-bromoindoles were obtained without debromination, and could be converted into 2,3-diarylindoles through a second palladium coupling. This method allows one to prepare in a few steps a very wide variety of indole derivatives, which are of interest in the synthesis of bioactive molecules

Palladium-catalyzed non-directed C–H bond arylation of difluorobenzenes and dichlorobenzenes bearing benzoxazole or benzothiazole

International audienceWe report, herein, on palladium-catalyzed direct arylation of difluorobenzenes and dichlorobenzenes bearing benzoxazole or benzothiazole moieties, which don't act as directing groups. With moderate electron-withdrawing substituents on the aryl bromides as coupling partners, the reaction proceeds nicely using phosphine-free PdCl2 catalyst, and potassium pivalate/dimethylacetamide (PivOK/DMA) as catalytic system. The reaction was regioselective and occurred at the less hindered ortho-positions of fluorine or chlorine atom

Conditions for the Palladium-Catalysed Direct 2-Arylation of 3-Bromobenzo[b]thiophene Tolerant of the Benzothienyl Carbon-Bromine Bond

International audiencePhosphine-free palladium(II) acetate catalyst was found to promote the direct 2-arylation of 3-bromobenzo[b]thiophene without cleavage of the benzothienyl carbon-bromine bond, allowing the synthesis of 2-aryl-3-bromobenzo[b]thiophenes in only one step. The best results were generally obtained using a low loading of the palladium catalyst (0.5 mol%), quite low reaction temps. (80-120 °C) and short reaction times (0.5-2 h). The reaction proceeds with electron-deficient para-, meta- and ortho-substituted aryl bromides and also with heteroaryl bromides. The benzothienyl carbon-bromine bond has been profitably employed for further palladium-catalyzed functionalisations. This strategy allows the straightforward synthesis of 2,3-di(hetero)arylated benzo[b]thiophenes with two different (hetero)aryl units via sequential catalytic arylations

Overlay Network Assignment in PlanetLab With NetFinder

PlanetLab has been widely used in the networking community to test and deploy user-defined overlays. Serving as a meta testbed to support multiple overlay networks, PlanetLab has significantly lowered the barriers to build new overlays. However, PlanetLab users always face the problem of selecting a set of nodes and interconnecting them to form the desired overlay network. Unfortunately, such a task is usually carried out manually by individual users and sometimes in an ad-hoc manner. In this paper, we develop NetFinder, an automatic overlay network configuration tool to efficiently allocate PlanetLab resources to individual overlays. NetFinder continuously monitors the resource utilization of PlanetLab and accepts a user-defined overlay topology as input and selects the set of PlanetLab nodes and their interconnection for the user overlay. Experimental results indicate that overlay networks constructed by NetFinder have more stable and significantly higher bandwidth than alternative schemes and near optimal available CPU

Epidemiological features of irritable bowel syndrome and its subtypes among Iranian adults

Abstract Background The epidemiological features of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have not been properly investigated in Iran. Also, worldwide there is limited knowledge about the characteristics of IBS subtypes. The aim of the study was to explore the epidemiological features of IBS and its subtypes among Iranian adults

Palladium-catalysed direct regioselective C5-arylation of a thiophene bearing a cyclopropyl ketone group at C2

International audienceA thiophene bearing a cyclopropyl ketone group at C2 was successfully employed in palladium-catalysed direct arylation. The reaction proceeds regioselectively at C5 without decomposition of the cyclopropyl ketone substituent. These couplings were performed employing as little as 0.5 mol% of ligand-free Pd(OAc)2 catalyst with electron-deficient aryl bromides. A wide variety of functional groups on the aryl bromide such as nitrile, nitro, acetyl, formyl, benzoyl, ester, trifluoromethyl, fluoro or methoxy was tolerated. © 2013 Elsevier Science. All rights reserved