Volatile compounds and biological activities of aerial parts of Pituranthos scoparius (Coss and Dur) Schinz (Apiaceae) from Hoggar, southern Algeria

Purpose: To determine the chemical composition as well as in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the Pituranthos scoparius essential oil.Methods: The chemical composition of a hydro-distilled essential oil of P.scoparius was analyzed by GC and GC/MS systems. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and β-carotene-linoleic acid assays while antimicrobial activity was screened using the disk diffusion method against a panel of six bacterial (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebseilla pneumonia, Agrobacterium tumefaciens) and four fungal strains (Candida albicans, Mucor sp, Aspergillus flavus, Penicilium expansum).Results: A total of 46 constituents were identified, representing 85.6 % of the oil; limonene (46.9 %) and 1,8-cineole (7.6 %) were the main components. The free radical scavenging activity of the oil was moderate with IC50 of 11.21 mg/mL. The oil showed weak to strong antimicrobial activity against all the microorganisms strains tested with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 2.000 to 0.019 mg/mL.Conclusion: These findings indicate that the essential oil of P.scoparius has a potential for use as a preservative and flavorant in processed foods.Keywords: Pituranthos scoparius, Essential oil, Antioxidant activity, Antimicrobial activity, Flavoran

New anti-smoking legislation on youth smoking and quitting behaviours via a smoking cessation hotline

published_or_final_versio

When will youth smokers make a quit attempt and resume smoking after receiving telephone counseling? A longitudinal study

Paper Session 10 - Adolescent Smoking Cessation: PA10-1OBJECTIVE: To examine the pattern of youth smokers who received telephone smoking cessation intervention and who would initiate a quit attempt and subsequently resume smoking. METHODS: We collected data from a toll-free smoking cessation hotline “Youth Quitline” in Hong Kong from September 2005 to December 2007. The Youth Quitline is a peer-led hotline with multiple telephone counseling sessions at baseline, 1-week and 1-month and successive telephone follow-ups at 3- and 6-months, to help youth smokers aged 12 – 25 quit smoking. We applied non-parametric Kaplan-Meier method to explore the time trend prior to initiating a quit attempt as well as smoking resumption. RESULTS: The study included 408 youth callers, and 282 started quitting within the follow-up period. About 30% of the youth smokers (95%CI = 26 ￢– 35%) would initiate a quit attempt within 7 days after receiving the baseline telephone intervention. For the 282 callers who quit within the follow-up period, two-thirds (67%, 95%CI = 44 – 56%) resumed smoking within the first 7 days after their quit attempt. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study using survival analysis techniques to evaluate how soon youth smokers initiate their quit attempts and resume smoking, after receiving telephone counseling. Youth smokers who intend to quit initiate a quit attempt shortly after receiving the telephone intervention. Smoking cessation counselors should provide subsequent follow-ups promptly after the baseline intervention to capitalize on the quitting intentions of the smokers.postprintThe 16th Annual Meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT 2010), Baltimore, MD., 24-27 February 2010. In Proceedings of the SRNT, 2010, p. 2

Marfan syndrome and pregnancy: maternal and neonatal outcomes

Objective To report outcomes in a recent series of pregnancies in women with Marfan syndrome (MFS). Design Retrospective case note review. Setting Tertiary referral unit (Chelsea and Westminster and Royal Brompton Hospitals). Sample Twenty-nine pregnancies in 21 women with MFS between 1995 and 2010. Methods Multidisciplinary review of case records. Main outcome measures Maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity of patients with MFS and healthy controls. Results There were no maternal deaths. Significant cardiac complications occurred in five pregnancies (17%): one woman experienced a type–A aortic dissection; two women required cardiac surgery within 6 months of delivery; and a further two women developed impaired left ventricular function during the pregnancy. Women with MFS were also more likely to have obstetric complications (OR 3.29, 95% CI 1.30–8.34), the most frequent of which was postpartum haemorrhage (OR 8.46, 95% CI 2.52–28.38). There were no perinatal deaths, although babies born to mothers with MFS were delivered significantly earlier than those born to the control group (median 39 versus 40 weeks of gestation, Mann–Whitney U–test, P = 0.04). These babies were also significantly more likely to be small for gestational age (24% in the MFS group versus 6% in the controls; OR 4.95, 95% CI 1.58–15.55). Conclusions Pregnancy in women with MFS continues to be associated with significant rates of maternal, fetal, and neonatal complications. Effective pre-pregnancy counselling and meticulous surveillance during pregnancy, delivery, and the puerperium by an experienced multidisciplinary team are warranted for women with MFS

Research on the Social Causes of Juvenile Crime: Final Report

published_or_final_versionCommissioned by: Fight Crime Committee. Prepared by: The University of Hong Kon

Lifetime measurements in 63^{63}Co and 65^{65}Co

Lifetimes of the $9/2^-_1$ and $3/2^-_1$ states in $^{63}$Co and the $9/2^-_1$ state in $^{65}$Co were measured using the recoil distance Doppler shift and the differential decay curve methods. The nuclei were populated by multi-nucleon transfer reactions in inverse kinematics. Gamma rays were measured with the EXOGAM Ge array and the recoiling fragments were fully identified using the large-acceptance VAMOS spectrometer. The E2 transition probabilities from the $3/2^-_1$ and $9/2^-_1$ states to the $7/2^-$ ground state could be extracted in $^{63}$Co as well as an upper limit for the $9/2^-_1\rightarrow7/2^-_1$ $B$(E2) value in $^{65}$Co. The experimental results were compared to large-scale shell-model calculations in the $pf$ and $pfg_{9/2}$ model spaces, allowing to draw conclusions on the single-particle or collective nature of the various states.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Physical Review