“making space” in practice and education: Research support services in academic libraries

Design/methodology/approach – The present paper uses data from a recent survey of research support provision by academic libraries in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland, (authors 2013), and provides additional in depth analysis of the textual responses to extend the analysis in the light of forces for change in higher education. The original online questionnaire surveyed current and planned research support in academic libraries, and constraints or support needs related to service developments. It was distributed to 219 institutions in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland, and obtained 140 valid responses (response rate of 63.9 percent). Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics with thematic categorization and coding for the textual responses

Effect of Zn(II) deposition in soil on mulberry-silk worm food chain

The present study was conducted to evaluate the entrance of Zn(II) into the food chain of Bombyx mori (silk worm) from mulberry plants irrigated using Zn(II) containing synthetic effluents. The soil, plant, silkworm and their excreta were sampled to determine Zn(II) amount by using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The amount of Zn(II) deposited by synthetic effluent to soil was increased with pH of the effluent. However, the bioaccumaltion of Zn(II) in Morus alba leaves and B. mori larvae was high when the effluent pH was in the acidic range. B. mori excreted considerable amount of Zn(II) but still most of Zn(II) resided inside its body. The maximum Zn(II) amount detected in soil, leaves, larvae andfaeces were 386.51 ± 0.03, 142.85 ± 0.001, 91.375 ± 0.019 and 42.13 ± 0.69 mg/kg, respectively. Zn(II) present in B. mori body was responsible for toxic effects on its life cycle. First instar of B. mori was most affected by Zn(II) toxicity. Body length, body weight of B. mori decreased with increase in bioaccumlated Zn(II) amount in larval body. Higher Zn(II) concentration in larval body increased B. mori death rate significantly

Synthesis and antibacterial evaluation of 2-(1,3- Benzodioxol-5-ylcarbonyl)arylsulfonohydrazide derivatives

Purpose: To study the antibacterial activity of various sulfonamides derived from 1,3-benzodioxol-5- carbohydrazide.Methods: The synthesis involved the conversion of 1,3-benzodioxol-5-carboxylic acid (1) to ethyl 1,3- benzodioxol-5-carboxylate (2) and then to 1,3-benzodioxol-5-carbohydrazide (3). The target molecules, 2-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-ylcarbonyl)arylsulfonohydrazide derivatives (5a-l) were synthesized through a benignant method from aqueous medium by the reaction of 3 and arylsulfonyl chlorides (4a-l). The structural formulae of the synthesized compounds were characterized by infra red spectroscopy (IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) and electron impact mass spectrometry (EI-MS). The compounds were screened for in vitro antibacterial activity by determining their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC).Results: The molecule, 5k, bearing 2-hydroxy-3,5-dichlorophenyl group exhibited the highest activity with MIC of 11.92 ± 3.40 (S. typhi), 8.37 ± 2.22 (E. coli), 9.28 ± 2.31 (P. aeroginosa), 11.76 ± 1.30 (B. subtilis) and 10.30 ± 1.63 (S. aureus) μmoles/L relative to that of ciprofloxacin with 9.42 ± 1.09, 8.02 ± 2.17, 8.11 ± 1.32, 8.88 ± 2.00 and 9.23 ± 1.87 μmoles/L respectively.Conclusion: The most potent of the synthesized compounds (5k) posesses moderate activity against all the bacterial strains, while 5g remained completely inactive.Keywords: 1,3-Benzodioxol-5-carboxylic acid, Antibacterial activity, Sulfonohydrazide, Synthesi

Synthesis of N'-Substituted-2-(5-(4-Chlorophenyl)-1,3,4- oxadiazol-2-ylthio)acetohydrazide Derivatives as Suitable Antibacterial Agents

Purpose: To evaluate antibacterial activity of a series of molecules bearing 1,3,4-oxadiazole and azomethine moieties.Methods: The 4-chlorobenzoic acid (1) was precursor to N'-substituted-2-(5-(4-chlorophenyl)-1,3,4- oxadiazol-2-ylthio)acetohydrazide, 8a-p, through a multistep synthesis of corresponding ester, 2, hydrazide, 3 and 1,3,4-oxadiazole, 4. The molecule, 4, was subjected to electrophilic substitution by ethyl-2-bromoacetate to yield 5 which was stepped to 2-(5-(4-chlorophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2- ylthio)acetohydrazide (6). The target molecules, 8a-p, were synthesized by nucleophilic addition of 6 to arylaldehydes, 7a-p. The proposed structures of all the synthesized molecules were elucidated by Infra Red (IR), Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H-NMR) and Electron Impact Mass Spectrometry (EIMS) spectral data. Antibacterial activity was evaluated by the principle that microbial growth is in a log phase of growth and so results in increased absorbance of broth medium which is observed.Results: The molecule, 8b, was active against S. aureus and 8c against S. typhi only. The molecule, 8p, was the most active against S. typhi with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 10.04 ± 1.25 μM while 8e was active against E. coli with MIC of 9.45 ± 1.00 μM, both relative to the reference standard, ciprofloxacin, which displayed MIC of 9.13 ± 2.00 and 8.90 ± 1.65 μM, respectively.Conclusion: Most of the synthesized molecules exhibit 50 % antibacterial activity relative to the reference. Molecules 8b and 8c are the least active compounds.Keywords: 1,3,4-Oxadiazole, 4-Chlorobenzoic acid, Antibacterial activity, Azomethin

Synthesis and Evaluation of some New 5-Substituted-1,3,4- oxadiazol-2yl-4-(morpholin-4yl Sulfonyl)benzyl Sulfides as Antibacterial Agent

Purpose: To synthesise a new series of 5-substituted-1,3,4-Oxadiazol-2yl-4-(morpholin-4yl sulfonyl)benzyl sulfide and evaluate their antibacterial activity.Methods: Different organic acids were converted consecutively into corresponding esters, hydrazides and 5-substituted-1,3,4-Oxadiazol-2-thiols (4a-e). The targets, 6a-e were synthesized by stirring 4a-e with 4-(4-(bromomethyl)phenylsulfonyl) morpholine (5) in the presence of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and sodium hydride (NaH). All the structures were elucidated by modern spectroscopic techniques and screened against bacteria using standard procedure and ciprofloxacin drug as positive control.Results: The yield of the synthesized compounds (4a-e and 6a-e) were moderate (65 - 90 %). Compounds 6a-e had antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillis subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus while some had activity against the other bacteria used. One of the compounds, 6b, exhibited significant activity against all the bacterial strains, i.e., S. typhi (-), E. coli (-), K. pneumoniae (-), P. aeruginosa (-), B. subtilis (+) and S. aureus (+) with  MIC (μM) values of 11.01 ± 0.31, 15.37 ± 3.33, 16.11 ± 1.14, 9.70 ± 1.96, 10.01 ± 2.70 and 9.15 ± 0.29, respectively. However, none of the compounds had any inhibitory activity against any bacteria as high as that of ciprofloxacin.Conclusion: Five new compounds with antibacterial activities have been synthesized. Their potential as therapeutic agents is, however, yet to be evaluated.Keywords: 1,3,4-Oxadiazole, Benzyl sulfide, 4-(4-(bromomethyl)phenylsulfonyl)morpholine, Spectral analysis, Antibacterial activit

Orthologue chemical space and its influence on target prediction

Motivation In silico approaches often fail to utilize bioactivity data available for orthologous targets due to insufficient evidence highlighting the benefit for such an approach. Deeper investigation into orthologue chemical space and its influence toward expanding compound and target coverage is necessary to improve the confidence in this practice. Results Here we present analysis of the orthologue chemical space in ChEMBL and PubChem and its impact on target prediction. We highlight the number of conflicting bioactivities between human and orthologues is low and annotations are overall compatible. Chemical space analysis shows orthologues are chemically dissimilar to human with high intra-group similarity, suggesting they could effectively extend the chemical space modelled. Based on these observations, we show the benefit of orthologue inclusion in terms of novel target coverage. We also benchmarked predictive models using a time-series split and also using bioactivities from Chemistry Connect and HTS data available at AstraZeneca, showing that orthologue bioactivity inclusion statistically improved performance

Mumps epidemic in Portugal despite high vaccine coverage : preliminary report

A measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) trivalent vaccine was added to Portugal’s National Immunisation Programme (NIP) in 1987. All vaccines are given at health centres, free of charge, but an epidemic of mumps began in 1995, firstly in northern Portugal and has now spread to other areas. Initially, only one dose of MMR vaccine at the age of 15 months was recommended. In 1990 a second dose at the age of 11 to 13 years was added. Portugal was one of the first countries in Europe to advocate this policy

Effect of primary and secondary alcohols as oxygenated additives on the performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine

The demand for renewable energy sources is gradually escalating due to the spontaneously growing population and global economic development. The access to fossil fuels is gradually declining due to the limited available reserves. Hence, renewable energy resources, technology choice, and energy policy are always being revised due to the modernization of society. Meanwhile, the liquid energy sources such as methyl ester from locally produced vegetable oils are readily accepted by many countries globally, although it is currently being blended (up to 20%) with diesel. Oxides of nitrogen are the most substantial emissions from diesel engines produced due to high combustion temperature. The addition of alcohol in the fuel reduces the NOx formation since alcohols have high latent heat of evaporation. The present study's primary purpose is to investigate the effect of different alcohol types on engine performance and emission characteristics. For this purpose, seven test fuels and neat diesel were used. The test fuels P20 (20% palm biodiesel with 70% neat diesel and 10% alcohol on a volume basis), D70P20E10, D70P20Pr10, D70P20B10, D70P20Pe10, D70P20H10 were prepared and tested on a single-cylinder, 4-stroke, DI-diesel engine at different speeds at 100 % load. The P20E10 ternary fuel blend illustrated the most practical combination of all the bioethanol-based blends, which considerably improves the BTE, BSFC and reduces NOxformation at high speed compared to other types of alcoholic fuel blends. Also, the P20E10 fuel blend improved the cloud point of neat diesel

Effect of alcoholic and nano-particles additives on tribological properties of diesel–palm–sesame–biodiesel blends

This study focused on evaluating the lubricity of diesel–biodiesel fuel with oxygenated alcoholic and nano-particle additives. Fuel injection system lubrication depended primarily on the fuel used in the diesel engine. Palm–sesame oil blend was used to produce biodiesel using the ultrasound-assisted technique. B30 fuel sample as a base fuel was blended with fuel additives in different proportions prior to tribological behavior analysis. The lubricity of fuel samples measured using HFRR in accordance with the standard method ASTM D6079. All tested fuels’ Tribological behavior examined through worn steel balls and plates using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assess wear scar diameter and surface morphology. During the test run, the friction coefficient was measured directly by the HFRR tribometer system. The results exhibited that B10 (diesel) had a very poor coefficient of friction and wear scar diameter, among other tested fuels. The addition of oxygenated alcohol (ethanol) as a fuel additive in the B30 fuel sample decreased the lubricity of fuel and increased the wear and friction coefficient, among other fuel additives. B30 with DMC showed the least wear scar diameter among all tested fuels. B30 with nanoparticle TiO2 exhibited the best results with the least wear scar diameter and lowest friction coefficient among all other fuel samples. B30+DMC demonstrated significant improvement in engine performance (BTE) and carbon emissions compared to different tested samples. B30+TiO2 also showed considerable improvement in engine characteristics

Investigation of flexural properties of epoxy composite by utilizing graphene nanofillers and natural hemp fibre reinforcement

This study aims to determine the optimum reinforcement required to attain the best combination of flexural strength of modified green composites (graphene oxide + hemp fibre reinforced epoxy composites) for potential use in structural applications. An attempt was also made for the combination of graphene and hemp fibres to enhance load-bearing ability. The infusion of hemp and graphene was made by the weight of the base matrix (epoxy composite). Results showed that graphene reinforcement at 0.4 wt.% of matrix showed load-sustaining capacity of 0.76 kN or 760 MPa. In the case of hemp fibre reinforcement at 0.2 wt.% of the matrix, infusion showed enhanced load-bearing ability (0.79 kN or 790 MPa). However, the combination of graphene (0.1 wt.% graphene nanofillers) and hemp (5 wt.% hemp fibre) indicated a load-sustaining ability of 0.425 kN or 425 MPa, whereas maximum deflection was observed for specimen with hemp 7.5 % + graphene 0.2 % with 1.9 mm. Graphene addition to the modified composites in combination with natural fibres showed promising results in enhancing the mechanical properties under study. Moreover, graphene-modified composites exhibited higher thermal resistance compared to natural fibre reinforced composites. However, when nanofiller reinforcement exceeded a threshold value, the composites exhibited reduced flexural strength as a result of nanofiller agglomeration