Multi-ion drift tube analysis

Issued as Annual report, Final fiscal report, Summary report, and Final technical report, Project no. G-41-63

A Comparison of quality of life outcomes following different techniques of mastoid surgery

- Background: Mastoid surgery carried out to treat chronic otitis media (COM) can lead to an improvement in objective and subjective measures post-operatively. This study aims to look at the subjective change in quality of life using the Glasgow Benefit Inventory relative to the type of mastoid surgery undertaken. - Method: A retrospective multi-centre postal questionnaire survey of 157 patients who underwent mastoid surgery from 2008-2012. - Results: 83 questionnaire responses were received from patients having the surgery at 3 different hospitals (a response rate of 53%). 57% of patients had a Glasgow benefit Score of 0 indicating no change in quality of life post-operatively. 35% scored +50 indicating a significant improvement. The only significant difference found was that women fare worse after surgery than men. - Conclusions: The choice of mastoid surgery technique should be determined by clinical need and surgeon preference. There is no improvement in quality of life for most patients

Short and Efficient Syntheses of Protoberberine Alkaloids using Palladium-Catalyzed Enolate Arylation

A concise synthesis of the biologically active alkaloid berberine is reported, and a versatile palladium‐catalyzed enolate arylation is used to form the isoquinoline core. The overall yield of 50 % is a large improvement over the single, previous synthesis. By design, this modular route allows the rapid synthesis of other members of the protoberberine family (e.g., pseudocoptisine and palmatine) by substitution of the readily available aryl bromide and ketone coupling partners. Moreover, by combining enolate arylation with in situ functionalization, substituents can be rapidly and regioselectively introduced at the alkaloid C13 position, as demonstrated by the total synthesis of dehydrocorydaline. The avoidance of electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions to make the isoquinoline allows direct access to analogues possessing more varied electronic properties, such as the fluorine‐containing derivative synthesized here

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

CDD poles in dispersion relations for strong interactions

Issued as annual repor

Determination of ion-neutral interaction potentials from ion drift tube data

Issued as Annual technical letter, and Final technical report, Project no. G-41-66