Synthesis of Barium Titanate Using Deep Eutectic Solvents.

Novel synthetic routes to prepare functional oxides at lower temperatures are an increasingly important area of research. Many of these synthetic routes, however, use water as the solvent and rely on dissolution of the precursors, precluding their use with, for example, titanates. Here we present a low-cost solvent system as a means to rapidly create phase-pure ferroelectric barium titanate using a choline chloride-malonic acid deep eutectic solvent. This solvent is compatible with alkoxide precursors and allows for the rapid synthesis of nanoscale barium titanate powders at 950 °C. The phase and morphology were determined, along with investigation of the synthetic pathway, with the reaction proceeding via BaCl2 and TiO2 intermediates. The powders were also used to create sintered ceramics, which exhibit a permittivity maximum corresponding to a tetragonal-cubic transition at 112 °C, as opposed to the more conventional temperature of ∼120 °C. The lower-than-expected value for the ferro- to para-electric phase transition is likely due to undetectable levels of contaminants

Evaluation and use of surveillance system data toward the identification of high-risk areas for potential cholera vaccination: a case study from Niger.

In 2008, Africa accounted for 94% of the cholera cases reported worldwide. Although the World Health Organization currently recommends the oral cholera vaccine in endemic areas for high-risk populations, its use in Sub-Saharan Africa has been limited. Here, we provide the principal results of an evaluation of the cholera surveillance system in the region of Maradi in Niger and an analysis of its data towards identifying high-risk areas for cholera

Coral restoration - A systematic review of current methods, successes, failures and future directions.

Coral reef ecosystems have suffered an unprecedented loss of habitat-forming hard corals in recent decades. While marine conservation has historically focused on passive habitat protection, demand for and interest in active restoration has been growing in recent decades. However, a disconnect between coral restoration practitioners, coral reef managers and scientists has resulted in a disjointed field where it is difficult to gain an overview of existing knowledge. To address this, we aimed to synthesise the available knowledge in a comprehensive global review of coral restoration methods, incorporating data from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, complemented with grey literature and through a survey of coral restoration practitioners. We found that coral restoration case studies are dominated by short-term projects, with 60% of all projects reporting less than 18 months of monitoring of the restored sites. Similarly, most projects are relatively small in spatial scale, with a median size of restored area of 100 m2. A diverse range of species are represented in the dataset, with 229 different species from 72 coral genera. Overall, coral restoration projects focused primarily on fast-growing branching corals (59% of studies), and report survival between 60 and 70%. To date, the relatively young field of coral restoration has been plagued by similar 'growing pains' as ecological restoration in other ecosystems. These include 1) a lack of clear and achievable objectives, 2) a lack of appropriate and standardised monitoring and reporting and, 3) poorly designed projects in relation to stated objectives. Mitigating these will be crucial to successfully scale up projects, and to retain public trust in restoration as a tool for resilience based management. Finally, while it is clear that practitioners have developed effective methods to successfully grow corals at small scales, it is critical not to view restoration as a replacement for meaningful action on climate change

Piperidinols that show anti-tubercular activity as inhibitors of arylamine N-acetyltransferase: an essential enzyme for mycobacterial survival inside macrophages

Latent M. tuberculosis infection presents one of the major obstacles in the global eradication of tuberculosis (TB). Cholesterol plays a critical role in the persistence of M. tuberculosis within the macrophage during latent infection. Catabolism of cholesterol contributes to the pool of propionyl-CoA, a precursor that is incorporated into cell-wall lipids. Arylamine N-acetyltransferase (NAT) is encoded within a gene cluster that is involved in the cholesterol sterol-ring degradation and is essential for intracellular survival. The ability of the NAT from M. tuberculosis (TBNAT) to utilise propionyl-CoA links it to the cholesterol-catabolism pathway. Deleting the nat gene or inhibiting the NAT enzyme prevents intracellular survival and results in depletion of cell-wall lipids. TBNAT has been investigated as a potential target for TB therapies. From a previous high-throughput screen, 3-benzoyl-4-phenyl-1-methylpiperidinol was identified as a selective inhibitor of prokaryotic NAT that exhibited antimycobacterial activity. The compound resulted in time-dependent irreversible inhibition of the NAT activity when tested against NAT from M. marinum (MMNAT). To further evaluate the antimycobacterial activity and the NAT inhibition of this compound, four piperidinol analogues were tested. All five compounds exert potent antimycobacterial activity against M. tuberculosis with MIC values of 2.3-16.9 µM. Treatment of the MMNAT enzyme with this set of inhibitors resulted in an irreversible time-dependent inhibition of NAT activity. Here we investigate the mechanism of NAT inhibition by studying protein-ligand interactions using mass spectrometry in combination with enzyme analysis and structure determination. We propose a covalent mechanism of NAT inhibition that involves the formation of a reactive intermediate and selective cysteine residue modification. These piperidinols present a unique class of antimycobacterial compounds that have a novel mode of action different from known anti-tubercular drugs

Antioxidant effect of garlic and aged black garlic in animal model of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Hyperglycemia in the diabetic state increases oxidative stress and antioxidant therapy can be strongly correlated with decreased risks for diabetic complications. The purpose of this study is to determine antioxidant effect of garlic and aged black garlic in animal model of type 2 diabetes. The antioxidant activity of garlic and aged black garlic was measured as the activity in scavenging free radicals by the trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) assay. Three week-old db/db mice were fed AIN-93G diet or diet containing 5% freeze-dried garlic or aged black garlic for 7 weeks after 1 week of adaptation. Hepatic levels of lipid peroxides and activities of antioxidant enzymes were measured. TEAC values of garlic and aged black garlic were 13.3 ± 0.5 and 59.2 ± 0.8 µmol/g wet weight, respectively. Consumption of aged black garlic significantly decreased hepatic thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) level compared with the garlic group which showed lower TBARS level than control group (p<0.05). Activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) of garlic and aged black garlic group were significantly elevated compared to the control group. Catalase (CAT) activity of aged black garlic group was increased compared with the control group. These results show that aged black garlic exerts stronger antioxidant activity than garlic in vitro and in vivo, suggesting garlic and aged black garlic, to a greater extent, could be useful in preventing diabetic complications

Home on the Range: Factors Explaining Partial Migration of African Buffalo in a Tropical Environment

Partial migration (when only some individuals in a population undertake seasonal migrations) is common in many species and geographical contexts. Despite the development of modern statistical methods for analyzing partial migration, there have been no studies on what influences partial migration in tropical environments. We present research on factors affecting partial migration in African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) in northeastern Namibia. Our dataset is derived from 32 satellite tracking collars, spans 4 years and contains over 35,000 locations. We used remotely sensed data to quantify various factors that buffalo experience in the dry season when making decisions on whether and how far to migrate, including potential man-made and natural barriers, as well as spatial and temporal heterogeneity in environmental conditions. Using an information-theoretic, non-linear regression approach, our analyses showed that buffalo in this area can be divided into 4 migratory classes: migrants, non-migrants, dispersers, and a new class that we call “expanders”. Multimodel inference from least-squares regressions of wet season movements showed that environmental conditions (rainfall, fires, woodland cover, vegetation biomass), distance to the nearest barrier (river, fence, cultivated area) and social factors (age, size of herd at capture) were all important in explaining variation in migratory behaviour. The relative contributions of these variables to partial migration have not previously been assessed for ungulates in the tropics. Understanding the factors driving migratory decisions of wildlife will lead to better-informed conservation and land-use decisions in this area

Healthy ageing, appetite, frailty and sarcopenia: a brief overview

In many societies the population is getting older, such that in some western countries it is expected that those over 80 years of age will make up 30% of the population (1-2). In the modern era, due to improved health and better medical support/treatment, many people may spend as many years retired as they did working. Unfortunately, as one ages, the burden of disease increases (2.9 million people in England have >1 long-term condition), longevity is compromised by disability; therefore the drive must be to add life to years rather than just years to life. When people live long, the media often asks “what is the success associated with longevity or successful (healthy) ageing?” Is it a success to live a long life, or is successful ageing the key? Healthy ageing, is defined as a state, where the effect of frailty, sarcopenia, disease and disability have been minimised. Farpour et al (3) discuss the effect that aging has on Iranian people, and Liang et al discuss the findings of a systematic review looking at traditional Chinese’ medicine and subhealth (4), which could be aligned to prefrailty. In 2015 the WHO defined Health as “a state of complex physical, mental and social well-being and not merely absence of disease” (5). Healthy ageing was also defined as “the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables well-being in older age”. Rowe and Khan (1987) commented that to age successfully one must avoid disease, remain engaged with life and maintain a high level of physical and cognitive function (6). Healthy ageing is, therefore, a complex interplay between physical, cognitive and social factors, and perhaps is dependent on how we individually respond to the internal and external forces at play (table 1). The definition of what is normal and what is abnormal is fraught with difficulty; what is acceptable and what is not? There is a risk that where normative parameters (for younger adults) are exceeded there will be a medicalisation of “older age”! What ultimately matters is the preservation of functional ability, which the majority (75%) of very old people are able to do and live relatively independent lives (6). This paper will discuss the interdependency between healthy ageing, appetite, frailty and sarcopenia and their impact on functional ability

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012