Experimental and Theoretical Investigations in Solid Phase<br /> Reaction Kinetics and Noncovalent Interactions in Water

Factors affecting reaction rates in polystyrene beads used in solid phase organic synthesis have been studied. The role of diffusion and reagent partitioning has been examined theoretically and experimentally. Both of these factors have been found to influence the reaction kinetics of common solid phase organic synthesis reactions. A mathematical model to analyze a simple bimolecular reaction inside a bead has been developed and successfully applied to the experimental data to obtain quantitative information on the influence of diffusion and reagent partitioning on the reaction rates. The effects of diffusion generally increase with the size and decreased swelling of the beads. Under many common reaction conditions, however, these effects may not be very significant. General guidelines to identify these conditions have been developed. A water-soluble torsion balance to study noncovalent interactions in aqueous media has been synthesized. The folding energies of new balances were found to be higher in water than in organic solvents. This increase can be partially attributed to hydrophobic forces. Aggregation and micelle formation were found to increase folding in water, indicating differences between microscopic and mesoscopic hydrophobic effects. The experimental data have been analyzed in the context of the Lum, Chandler and Weeks theory of hydrophobicity and evidences in its favor have been found. The hydrophobic response of a fluoromethyl group was found to be similar to a methyl group in two complementary torsion balances.<br /

Correlation between Arm Sales and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle and the United States during the Obama and Trump Administrations

This presentation investigates the relationship between Central America’s Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) and the United States in terms of both arms sales and migration during the Obama and Trump administrations. One of the primary reasons for migration is the high rate of gun violence, and as the U.S. is the biggest contributor of arms to the region it is natural to argue that there is a direct correlation between the U.S.’s sales of arms to the Northern Triangle and the migration from the region to the U.S. This presentation also analyzes, from a historical context, the United States’ responsibility to aid the Northern Triangle, through the implementation of legislation controlling gun sales to the area. Utilizing U.S. legislation, news articles, UN resolutions, and scholarly articles, this paper explains the importance of the correlation between arms sales and migration to the United States. The sources would also be used to establish precedence as to how a form of legislative intervention would affect the migration to the United States. The Obama and Trump administrations employed different strategies to mitigate the “migrant crisis”, but neither administration made efforts to mitigate the violence in the region. By contrasting the legislative action during the administrations, this presentation helps distinguish the actions that were beneficial and harmful to decreasing migration from the Northern Triangle to the U.S. Migration from the Northern Triangle has caused controversial conversations to arise throughout the United States. This presentation aims to determine the potential consequences of legislative actions from the United States and the impact it would have on both parties. The paper develops a course of action that would best help the Biden Administration decrease the violence in the Northern Triangle and, thus, the migration to the U.S.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1022/thumbnail.jp

An analysis of current managerial problems in the Indian textile industry

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston Universit

Scimitar syndrome - A rare cause of recurrent pneumonia

Scimitar syndrome is a congenital anomaly characterized by anomalous drainage of the right lung into inferior vena cava. This may be associated with other anomalies in the form of pulmonary hypoplasia, systemic arterial supply of right lung, and congenital heart diseases. We report an infant with recurrent pneumonia who turned out to be a case of scimitar syndrome on further workup. The patient was managed surgically by selective embolization of the artery from celiac trunk to sequestered lung. This case report highlights the fact that scimitar syndrome should be suspected in a patient with recurrent pneumonia with typical chest X-ray findings

Waardenburg syndrome-associated focal segmental glomerulosclerosis: A rare presentation

Waardenburg syndrome (WS) is characterized by auditory and pigmentary disorders with an incidence of 1:40,000. Renal involvement is rare in WS. A 10-year-old male, diagnosed as nephrotic syndrome at 4 years, was presented in relapse. A renal biopsy performed at 6 years revealed evidence of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. The child had morphological findings which were suggestive of WS. Hence, a diagnosis of WS type 1, with frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome, was made. The possible genetic basis of renal involvement in WS needs to be evaluated

Cardiac troponin I but not cardiac troponin T adheres to polysulfone dialyser membranes in an in vitro haemodialysis model: explanation for lower serum cTnI concentrations following dialysis.

BACKGROUND: Elevated serum cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and I (cTnI) can occur in patients with chronic kidney disease. Differences in cTn concentrations between cTnT and cTnI have been reported but the mechanism of such discrepancy has not been investigated. This study investigates the clearance of cTn with the aid of an in vitro model of haemodialysis (HD). METHODS: Serum was obtained before and after a single session of dialysis from 53 patients receiving HD and assayed for cTnT and cTnI. An in vitro model of the dialysis process was used to investigate the mechanism of clearance of cTn during HD. RESULTS: Serum cTnI was significantly lower (p=0.043) following a session of HD whereas cTnT concentrations were similar to those obtained before HD. Using an in vitro model of dialysis, it was demonstrated that cTnI is not dialysed from the vascular compartment but adheres to the dialyser membrane. CONCLUSIONS: The adherence of cTnI to the dialyser membrane is responsible for the observed decrease in serum cTnI following a session of dialysis. The adherence of cTnT or T-I-C complex to the dialyser membrane could not be demonstrated and supports the observation that pre-HD and post-HD serum concentrations of cTnT are similar

Does the Urinary Calcium/Citrate Ratio Add to the Diagnostic Workup of Children at Risk of Kidney Stones? A Cross-Sectional Study

The purpose of the study was to evaluate urinary citrate/creatinine (U Ci /U Cr ) and urinary calcium/citrate (U Ca /U Ci ) ratios for distinguishing stone formers (SF) from non-stone formers (NSF) in an at-risk population. This was a retrospective study that included all pediatric patients who underwent urinary citrate testing from April 2017 to March 2018. The urinary levels of citrate, calcium, sodium, potassium, creatinine, oxalate, urate, pH, and specific gravity (SG) were measured in our clinical laboratory. Diagnosis of kidney stones was obtained through chart review. A total of 97 patients were included (46 NSF and 51 SF). The U Ci /U Cr ratio was not significantly different between NSF and SF. Median U Ca /U Cr ratio was higher in SF (0.67) compared with NSF (0.21, p \u3c 0.0001). The median ratio of U Ca /U Ci was also higher in SF (1.30) than in NSF (0.65, p = 0.001). Oxalate, urate, pH, SG, and urinary sodium/potassium ratio did not differentiate between the SF and NSF. Positive correlation was seen between U Ca /U Cr and urinary sodium/creatinine U Na /U Cr (p \u3c 0.0001), as well as between U Ca /U Cr and U Ci /U Cr (p \u3c 0.0001). The study has demonstrated significantly higher U Ca /U Ci and U Ca /U Cr in SF compared with NSF, while the use of urinary oxalate, urate, pH, and SG did not differentiate between SF from NSF. We also confirmed a positive correlation between U Na /U Cr and U Ca /U Cr . While the utility of U Ca /U Cr is well established, our data suggest that U Ca /U Ci rather than U Ci /U Cr may be more predictive in the clinical setting when evaluating for nephrolithiasis

Cortisol-induced immune suppression by a blockade of lymphocyte egress in traumatic brain injury

Background: Acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) represents one of major causes of mortality and disability in the USA. Neuroinflammation has been regarded both beneficial and detrimental, probably in a time-dependent fashion. Methods: To address a role for neuroinflammation in brain injury, C57BL/6 mice were subjected to a closed head mild TBI (mTBI) by a standard controlled cortical impact, along with or without treatment of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) or rolipram, after which the brain tissue of the impact site was evaluated for cell morphology via histology, inflammation by qRT-PCR and T cell staining, and cell death with Caspase-3 and TUNEL staining. Circulating lymphocytes were quantified by flow cytometry, and plasma hydrocortisone was analyzed by LC-MS/MS. To investigate the mechanism whereby cortisol lowered the number of peripheral T cells, T cell egress was tracked in lymph nodes by intravital confocal microscopy after hydrocortisone administration. Results: We detected a decreased number of circulating lymphocytes, in particular, T cells soon after mTBI, which was inversely correlated with a transient and robust increase of plasma cortisol. The transient lymphocytopenia might be caused by cortisol in part via a blockade of lymphocyte egress as demonstrated by the ability of cortisol to inhibit T cell egress from the secondary lymphoid tissues. Moreover, exogenous hydrocortisone severely suppressed periphery lymphocytes in uninjured mice, whereas administering an egress-promoting agent S1P normalized circulating T cells in mTBI mice and increased T cells in the injured brain. Likewise, rolipram, a cAMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor, was also able to elevate cAMP levels in T cells in the presence of hydrocortisone in vitro and abrogate the action of cortisol in mTBI mice. The investigation demonstrated that the number of circulating T cells in the early phase of TBI was positively correlated with T cell infiltration and inflammatory responses as well as cell death at the cerebral cortex and hippocampus beneath the impact site. Conclusions: Decreases in intracellular cAMP might be part of the mechanism behind cortisol-mediated blockade of T cell egress. The study argues strongly for a protective role of cortisol-induced immune suppression in the early stage of TBI