(3aS,7aS)-5-[(S)-3,3,3-Trifluoro-2-meth­oxy-2-phenyl­propano­yl]-2,3,4,5,6,7-hexa­hydro-1H-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyridin-3(2H)-one monohydrate

rac-Benzyl 3-oxohexa­hydro-1H-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyridine-5(6H)-carboxyl­ate was separated by chiral chromatography, and one of the enanti­omers ([α]22 D = +10°) was hydrogenated in the presence of Pd/C in methanol, producing octa­hydro-3H-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyridin-3-one. The latter was reacted with (2R)-3,3,3-trifluoro-2-meth­oxy-2-phenyl­propanoyl chloride [(R)-(−)-Mosher acid chloride], giving rise to the title compound, C17H19F3N2O3·H2O. The present structure established the absolute configuration of the pyrrolopiperidine fragment based on the known configuration of the (R)-Mosher acid chloride. The piperidine ring has a somewhat distorted chair conformation and is cis-fused with the five-membered envelope-shaped ring; the plane of the exocyclic amide bond is approximately orthogonal to the plane of the phenyl ring, making a dihedral angle of 82.31 (3)°. The water mol­ecule acts as an acceptor to the proton of the amino group in an N—H⋯O inter­action, and as a double proton donor in O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, generating infinite bands along the a axis

Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Octreotide on Tumor Mass in Acromegaly

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The long-acting somatostatin analogue octreotide is used either as an adjuvant or primary therapy to lower growth hormone (GH) levels in patients with acromegaly and may also induce pituitary tumor shrinkage.</p> <h3>Objective</h3><p>We performed a meta-analysis to accurately assess the effect of octreotide on pituitary tumor shrinkage.</p> <h3>Data Sources</h3><p>A computerized Medline and Embase search was undertaken to identify potentially eligible studies.</p> <h3>Study Eligibility Criteria</h3><p>Eligibility criteria included treatment with octreotide, availability of numerical metrics on tumor shrinkage and clear definition of a clinically relevant reduction in tumor size. Primary endpoints included the proportion of patients with tumor shrinkage and mean percentage reduction in tumor volume.</p> <h3>Data Extraction and Analysis</h3><p>The electronic search identified 2202 articles. Of these, 41 studies fulfilling the eligibility criteria were selected for data extraction and analysis. In total, 1685 patients were included, ranging from 6 to 189 patients per trial. For the analysis of the effect of octreotide on pituitary tumor shrinkage a random effect model was used to account for differences in both effect size and sampling error.</p> <h3>Results</h3><p>Octreotide was shown to induce tumor shrinkage in 53.0% [95% CI: 45.0%–61.0%] of treated patients. In patients treated with the LAR formulation of octreotide, this increased to 66.0%, [95% CI: 57.0%–74.0%). In the nine studies in which tumor shrinkage was quantified, the overall weighted mean percentage reduction in tumor size was 37.4% [95% CI: 22.4%–52.4%], rising to 50.6% [95% CI: 42.7%–58.4%] with octreotide LAR.</p> <h3>Limitations</h3><p>Most trials examined were open-label and had no control group.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Octreotide LAR induces clinically relevant tumor shrinkage in more than half of patients with acromegaly.</p> </div

Geographic Visualization in Archaeology

Archaeologists are often considered frontrunners in employing spatial approaches within the social sciences and humanities, including geospatial technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS) that are now routinely used in archaeology. Since the late 1980s, GIS has mainly been used to support data collection and management as well as spatial analysis and modeling. While fruitful, these efforts have arguably neglected the potential contribution of advanced visualization methods to the generation of broader archaeological knowledge. This paper reviews the use of GIS in archaeology from a geographic visualization (geovisual) perspective and examines how these methods can broaden the scope of archaeological research in an era of more user-friendly cyber-infrastructures. Like most computational databases, GIS do not easily support temporal data. This limitation is particularly problematic in archaeology because processes and events are best understood in space and time. To deal with such shortcomings in existing tools, archaeologists often end up having to reduce the diversity and complexity of archaeological phenomena. Recent developments in geographic visualization begin to address some of these issues, and are pertinent in the globalized world as archaeologists amass vast new bodies of geo-referenced information and work towards integrating them with traditional archaeological data. Greater effort in developing geovisualization and geovisual analytics appropriate for archaeological data can create opportunities to visualize, navigate and assess different sources of information within the larger archaeological community, thus enhancing possibilities for collaborative research and new forms of critical inquiry

Smart Communities and Knowledge Sharing as Main Tools to Achieve Common Purposes

As reaction to globalization and the loosing of landmark caused by the huge data and information availability in the “net” and by the mass media proliferation, the research of an identity and the need of a feeling of belonging is stronger and stronger in today society. The information and communication technologies (ICT’s) - which initially helped to erase socio-territorial boundaries and to strengthen a feeling of belonging to a single community in which we are all interlinked and interdependent – have now become the main tools for building local, and smart, communities. These, in addition to being places of confrontation, are also and above all places for sharing subjective and objective knowledge (and therefore for continuous learning). There are several experiences going towards this direction (i.e. creating shared spaces built around shared values that emerge to deal with problems felt as “public”) ranging from analytical, investigative, critical and vindictive dimensions to proposals, monitoring, evaluation, deliberation, on the most varied topics: from the abandonment of public buildings (such as confis- cated property), to security and the protection of territories. These are thus defined spaces in which, through self-organization and civic hacking dynamics, problems that are perceived as public are discussed and public goods are co-produced. These last are intended not as goods produced or owned by a public administration, but as the result of a process of social interaction. Digital technologies in this contest are tools by which social practices of re-appropriation and collective redefinition of public goods are nourished