Stereocontrolled enantioselective total synthesis of the [2+2] quadrigemine alkaloids

Abstract A unified strategy for enantioselective total synthesis of all stereoisomers of the [2+2] family of quadrigemine alkaloids is reported. In this approach, two enantioselective intramolecular Heck reactions are carried out at the same time on precursors fashioned in four steps from either meso- or (+)-chimonanthine to form the two critical quaternary carbons of the peripheral cyclotryptamine rings of these products. Useful levels of catalyst control are realized in either desymmetrizing a meso precursor or controlling diastereoselectivity in elaborating C2-symmetric intermediates. None of the synthetic quadrigemines are identical with alkaloids isolated previously and referred to as quadrigemines A and E. In addition, we report improvements in our previous total syntheses of (+)- or (-)-quadrigemine C that shortened the synthetic sequence to 10 steps and provided these products in 2.2% overall yield from tryptamine

Visualizing sound emission of elephant vocalizations: evidence for two rumble production types

Recent comparative data reveal that formant frequencies are cues to body size in animals, due to a close relationship between formant frequency spacing, vocal tract length and overall body size. Accordingly, intriguing morphological adaptations to elongate the vocal tract in order to lower formants occur in several species, with the size exaggeration hypothesis being proposed to justify most of these observations. While the elephant trunk is strongly implicated to account for the low formants of elephant rumbles, it is unknown whether elephants emit these vocalizations exclusively through the trunk, or whether the mouth is also involved in rumble production. In this study we used a sound visualization method (an acoustic camera) to record rumbles of five captive African elephants during spatial separation and subsequent bonding situations. Our results showed that the female elephants in our analysis produced two distinct types of rumble vocalizations based on vocal path differences: a nasally- and an orally-emitted rumble. Interestingly, nasal rumbles predominated during contact calling, whereas oral rumbles were mainly produced in bonding situations. In addition, nasal and oral rumbles varied considerably in their acoustic structure. In particular, the values of the first two formants reflected the estimated lengths of the vocal paths, corresponding to a vocal tract length of around 2 meters for nasal, and around 0.7 meters for oral rumbles. These results suggest that African elephants may be switching vocal paths to actively vary vocal tract length (with considerable variation in formants) according to context, and call for further research investigating the function of formant modulation in elephant vocalizations. Furthermore, by confirming the use of the elephant trunk in long distance rumble production, our findings provide an explanation for the extremely low formants in these calls, and may also indicate that formant lowering functions to increase call propagation distances in this species'

An echocardiographic-confirmed case of atrial myxoma causing cerebral embolic ischemic stroke: a case report

A myxoma is the most common primary tumor of the heart. It has been reported as the source of a cardiogenic embolism. Therefore, it is important for clinicians to detect the myxoma early via echocardiography to prevent complications, such as syncope, sudden death, and cerebral embolic ischemic stroke. This report presents the case of a 54-year-old female whose clinical manifestation of atrial myxoma was an ischemic stroke. Atrial myxoma was later confirmed as the cause of her symptoms via transesophageal echocardiography

Three-Nucleon Electroweak Capture Reactions

Recent advances in the study of the p-d radiative and mu-3he weak capture processes are presented and discussed. The three-nucleon bound and scattering states are obtained using the correlated-hyperspherical-harmonics method, with realistic Hamiltonians consisting of the Argonne v14 or Argonne v18 two-nucleon and Tucson-Melbourne or Urbana IX three-nucleon interactions. The electromagnetic and weak transition operators include one- and two-body contributions. The theoretical accuracy achieved in these calculations allows for interesting comparisons with experimental data.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, invited talk at the CFIF Fall Workshop: Nuclear Dynamics, from Quarks to Nuclei, Lisbon, 31st of October - 1st of November 200

Detecting depression in patients with coronary heart disease: a diagnostic evaluation of the PHQ-9 and HADS-D in Primary Care, findings from the UPBEAT-UK Study

People with coronary heart disease (CHD) are at heightened risk of depression, and this co-occurrence of conditions is associated with poorer outcomes including raised mortality. This study compares the diagnostic accuracy of two depression case finding instruments in CHD patients relative to a diagnostic standard, the revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R)

Antimicrobial effect of vancomycin electro-transferred water against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Background: There is a number of alternative and complementary therapeutics that are unproven or have not been properly tested. For past twenty years, the transfer of bio-energetic information has been recognized as a novel scientific approach capable of contributing to improved therapy in the management of several diseases through the so-called bio-resonance therapy (BRT). Although BRT was discovered in the late 1980s, it is still poorly studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial effect of water samples transferred with electronic information of vancomycin, a well known drug against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), by using a BRT device on bacterial cultures.Material and Methods: MRSA cultures were treated with vancomycin electro-transferred water samples, vancomycin (4.0 and 8.0 μg/mL), sham electro-transferred (water to water) and non-transferred water samples (medium alone). Growth inhibition was evaluated in liquid and solid culture medium, spectrophotometrically and by CFU determination respectively.Results: The obtained data showed that by transferring vancomycin (4.0 and 8.0 μg/mL) information to water samples, the growth of cultured MRSA was significantly (p< 0.05) inhibited (up to 35%), compared with those cultures treated with electro-transferred water to water or cultured in medium alone (0% growth inhibition).Conclusion: This in vitro study suggests that water samples that are electronically transferred with vibration sustained information of vancomycin are capable of inhibiting growth of axenically cultured methicillin resistant S. aureus.Key words: Antimicrobial effect, electro-transferred water, bio-resonance, vancomycin, Sthaphylococcus aureus

Vagal sensory neurons drive mucous cell metaplasia

Summary: Airway sensory neuron-produced Substance P heightens allergy-induced goblet cell hyperplasia and hypersecretion of Muc5AC, electrically silencing these overreactive neurons reduced these components of lung type 2 allergic inflammatory response