Synthesis of flow‐compatible Ru-Me/Al2O3 catalysts and their application in hydrogenation of 1-iodo-4-nitrobenzene

The development of an active, selective, and long-term stable heterogeneous catalyst for the reductive hydrogenation of substituted nitrorarenes in continuous operation mode is still challenging. In this work, Ru based nanoparticles catalysts promoted with different transition metals (Zn, Co, Cu, Sn, or Fe) were supported on alumina spheres using spray wet impregnation method. The freshly prepared catalysts were characterized using complementary methods including scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and temperature programmed reduction (TPR). The hydrogenation of 1-iodo-4-nitrobenzene served as model reaction to assess the catalytic performance of the prepared catalysts. The addition of the promotor affected the reducibility of Ru nanoparticles as well as the performance of the catalyst in the hydrogenation reaction. The highest yield of 4-iodoaniline (89 %) was obtained in a continuous flow process using Ru-Sn/Al2O3. The performance of this catalyst was also followed in a long-term experiment. With increasing operation time, a catalyst deactivation occurred which could only briefly compensate by an increase of the reaction temperature

Effect of intensive phototherapy on T and B lymphocyte function in neonatal jaundice

Background: Jaundice is one of the most common problems that affect newborns in the first few days of life. Approximately 60% of full-term and 80% of the preterm newborn may develop neonatal jaundice. Although neonatal jaundice is of physiological type in most of these cases, some cases may have elevated serum bilirubin levels which, if not treated, may lead to bilirubin encephalopathy and subsequently bilirubin induced neurological dysfunction (BIND). Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of intensive phototherapy on B and T cells by measuring the percentages of CD19+, CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes subsets in newborns after 72 hours from exposure to intensive phototherapy to evaluate its effect on the immune system.Patients and methods: A prospective cohort study carried out in Zagazig University Hospital, Pediatric Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Clinical Pathology Departments. The study included 50 full-term newborns. Results: There was no significant difference regarding CD4, CD8 and CD19 for the patient group. Furthermore, the study showed that the percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes subsets showed no change in newborns after 72 hours of exposure to phototherapy, but CD19+ was highly significantly lower before treatment only. In addition, the follow up of those 25 jaundiced newborns for occurrence and frequency of infection and need for hospitalization for a period of six months after discharge showed no effect.Conclusion: our results showed no effect of phototherapy on lymphocyte subsets after 72 hours of exposure and no effect on infant immunity

Development of Highly Stable Low Ni Content Catalyst for Dry Reforming of CH4-Rich Feedstocks

Highly active and coking-resistant Ni catalysts suited for the dry reforming of CH4-rich gases (70 vol %, e. g. biogas or sour natural gas) were prepared starting from a Mg-rich Mg−Al hydrotalcite support precursor. Calcination at 1000 °C yields two phases, MgO and MgAl2O4 spinel. Complexation-deposition of Ni with citric acid on the preformed support as well as lanthanum addition yields a catalyst with remarkably low carbon accumulation over 100 h on stream attributed to both high Ni dispersion and preferred interactions of Ni with MgO on MgAl2O4. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA

Nb-modified Ce/Ti oxide catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3 at low temperature

Recently, great attention has been paid to Ceria-based materials for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) with NH3 owing to their unique redox, oxygen storage, and acid-base properties. Two series of bimetallic catalysts issued from Titania modified by Ce and Nb were prepared by the one-step sol-gel method (SG) and by the sol-gel route followed by impregnation (WI). The resulting core-shell and bulk catalysts were tested in NH3-SCR of NOx. The impregnated Nb5/Ce40/Ti100 (WI) catalyst displayed 95% NOx conversion at 200 °C (GHSV = 60,000 mL·g−1·h−1, 1000 ppm NOx, 1000 ppm NH3, 5% O2/He) without forming N2O. The catalysts were characterized by various methods including ICP-OES, N2-physisorption, XRD, Raman, NH3-TPD, DRIFTS, XPS, and H2-TPR. The results showed that the introduction of Nb decreases the surface area and strengthens the surface acidity. This behavior can be explained by the strong interaction between Ceria and Titania which generates Ce-O-Ti units, as well as a high concentration of amorphous or highly dispersed Niobia. This should be the reason for the excellent performance of the catalyst prepared by the sol-gel method followed by impregnation. Furthermore, Nb5/Ce40/Ti100 (WI) has the largest NH3 adsorption capacity, which is helpful to promote the NH3-SCR reaction. The long-term stability and the effect of H2O on the catalysts were also evaluated

Highly Selective Syngas/H2 Production via Partial Oxidation of CH4 Using (Ni, Co and Ni–Co)/ZrO2–Al2O3 Catalysts: Influence of Calcination Temperature

In this study, Ni, Co and Ni–Co catalysts supported on binary oxide ZrO2–Al2O3 were synthesized by sol-gel method and characterized by means of various analytical techniques such as XRD, BET, TPR, TPD, TGA, SEM, and TEM. This catalytic system was then tested for syngas respective H2 production via partial oxidation of methane at 700 °C and 800 °C. The influence of calcination temperatures was studied and their impact on catalytic activity and stability was evaluated. It was observed that increasing the calcination temperature from 550 °C to 800 °C and addition of ZrO2 to Al2O3 enhances Ni metal-support interaction. This increases the catalytic activity and sintering resistance. Furthermore, ZrO2 provides higher oxygen storage capacity and stronger Lewis basicity which contributed to coke suppression, eventually leading to a more stable catalyst. It was also observed that, contrary to bimetallic catalysts, monometallic catalysts exhibit higher activity with higher calcination temperature. At the same time, Co and Ni–Co-based catalysts exhibit higher activity than Ni-based catalysts which was not expected. The Co-based catalyst calcined at 800 °C demonstrated excellent stability over 24 h on stream. In general, all catalysts demonstrated high CH4 conversion and exceptionally high selectivity to H2 (~98%) at 700 °C

Development of Active and Stable Low Nickel Content Catalysts for Dry Reforming of Methane

Methane dry reforming (DRM) was investigated over highly active Ni catalysts with low metal content (2.5 wt %) supported on Mg-Al mixed oxide. The aim was to minimize carbon deposition and metal sites agglomeration on the working catalyst which are known to cause catalyst deactivation. The solids were characterized using N2 adsorption, X-ray diffraction, temperature-programmed reduction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The results showed that MgO-Al2O3 solid solution phases are obtained when calcining Mg-Al hydrotalcite precursor in the temperature range of 550–800 °C. Such phases contribute to the high activity of catalysts with low Ni content even at low temperature (500 °C). Modifying the catalyst preparation with citric acid significantly slows the coking rate and reduces the size of large octahedrally coordinated NiO-like domains, which may easily agglomerate on the surface during DRM. The most effective Ni catalyst shows a stable DRM course over 60 h at high weight hourly space velocity with very low coke deposition. This is a promising result for considering such catalyst systems for further development of an industrial DRM technology

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Synergistic Nanostructured MnOx/TiO2 Catalyst for Highly Selective Synthesis of Aromatic Imines

This work reports the development of a synergistic nanostructured MnOx/TiO2 catalyst, with highly dispersed MnOx nanoparticles (4.5±1 nm) on shape-controlled TiO2 nanotubes (8–11 nm width and 120–280 nm length), for selective synthesis of valuable aromatic imines at industrially important conditions. Pristine TiO2 nanotubes exhibited 97 % imine selectivity at a 38.3 % benzylamine conversion, whereas very low imine selectivity was obtained over commercial TiO2 materials, indicating the catalytic significance of shape-controlled TiO2 nanotubes. The MnOx nanoparticle/TiO2 nanotube (10 wt% Mn) catalyst calcined at 400 °C showed the best activity with 95.6 % benzylamine conversion and 99.9 % imine selectivity. This catalyst exhibited good recyclability for four times and is effective for converting numerous benzylamines into higher yields of imines. The high catalytic performance of MnOx/TiO2 nanotubes was attributed to higher number of redox sites (Mn3+), high dispersion of Mn species, and shape-controlled structure of TiO2, indicating that this catalyst could be a promising candidate for selective oxidation reactions. © 2021 The Authors. ChemCatChem published by Wiley-VCH Gmb

IL-28B genetic polymorphism as a Predictor for Efficacy of Treatment with Interferon in Egyptian Hepatitis C Patients

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C is a global health problem and represents a major cause of liver disease and socioeconomic burden. Effective antiviral therapy may prevent these complications, but the current treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection does not achieve sustained virological response (SVR) for all patients. Therefore, identification of the determinants of response to treatment is a high priority. A number of host and viral factors have been associated with treatment outcomes. Genome-wide association studies implicated IL28B single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as the strongest genetic pretreatment predictor of SVR in HCV infection. Recently, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the European Association for the Study of the Liver included IL28B testing in their guidelines.The present study was aimed toinvestigate the possible role of the SNPs of IL-28B(rs12980275 and rs8099917) inpredicting the response to therapy in Egyptian patients infected with hepatitis C virus-4 (HCV-4).Egyptian patients were treated with Peg-IFN-α/RBV. A total of 200 HCV-4 infected patients and 100 healthy control subjects were included in the presentstudy.SNPs in the IL-28B (rs8099917 T/G andrs12980275A/G) geneswere assessed usinga simple, rapid, and inexpensive polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method.The IL28B rs8099917 TT and rs12980275 AA genotypes were significantly higher in responders than in nonresponder (P=0.011 and P=0.012, respectively). Significant association between IL-rs8099917 TT and rs8099975AA was observed in responder group (P=0.0152). No significant differences in genotype and allele frequencies of IL28B gene (rs8099917 and rs12980275) between males and females were observed (P> 0.05). It can be concluded that SNPs in IL-28B may be promising predictors of SVR inHCV-4 infection

NRF2 and P73 polymorphisms in Egyptian women with breast cancer

The aim of the study was to assess the role of Nrf2 promoter and P73 G4C14 to A4T14 polymorphisms in  breast cancer and the potential relation to the onset of the disease. Eighty six female patients with breast tumor were included in this study. Nrf2 (rs6721961) and p73 (G4A) genetic polymorphisms in promoter  and exon2 region respectively were investigated using PCR-CTPP assay. The genotype frequencies of the three genotypes of Nrf2 promoter SNP (CC, CA, AA) showed no significant difference between benign and malignant  groups. Genotype frequencies for P73 G4A SNP (GG, GA) showed no significant difference between benign and malignant groups, no patient have the AA genotype. Regarding the onset of disease, the three Nrf2 genotypes in pre - and post-menopausal patients, showed that the distribution differ significantly in the 2 patients groups and that the AA genotype is significantly higher in the pre-menopausal patients compared to post-menopausal patients. Nrf2 (rs6721961) AA genotype might be related to early breast cancer onset. P73 G4A polymorphism shows no relation to both disease risk and disease onset. Therefore Nrf2 (rs6721961) promoter genotyping  might be related to the risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer.Key words: Breast cancer, Polymorphisms, Nrf2, P7