Education effects on cognitive function in a healthy aged Arab population

Abstract Background-The Minimental State Examination (MMSE) has not been validated in Arabic speaking populations. The Brookdale Cognitive Screening Test (BCST) has been developed for use in low schooling populations. We investigated the influence of gender, education and occupation in a cognitively normal community sample assessed with an Arabic translation of the MMSE and the BCST

Copper-catalyzed diastereo- and enantioselective desymmetrization of cyclopropenes: Synthesis of cyclopropylboronates

This document is the accepted manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of American Chemical Society 136.45, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see DOI: 10.1021/ja510419zA novel Cu-catalyzed diastereo- and enantioselective desymmetrization of cyclopropenes to afford nonracemic cyclopropylboronates is described. Trapping the cyclopropylcopper intermediate with electrophilic amines allows for the synthesis of cyclopropylaminoboronic esters and demonstrates the potential of the approach for the synthesis of functionalized cyclopropanesWe thank the European Research Council (ERC-337776) and MINECO (CTQ2012-35957) for financial support. M. T. and A. P. thank MICINN for RyC and JdC contract

Praising Damascus: City Panegyrics as a Literary Genre and a Concept of Urbanity

Taking panegyric literature about Damascus as an example, this study discusses its literary elaboration and established motif traditions in relation to a wide range of textual representations of cities. The vast corpus of city panegyrics in prose and poetry gives testimony to the dynamics of urban life and urban consciousness, as it has also always been a source of civic pride and belonging. The vigorous form of aesthetic elaboration about cities was both persistent and open for contestation at the same time. A striking example, which attests to this contestation and the dynamics of city praise is a city-slam ('mufāḫara / munāẓara') between Baghdad and Damascus, written in ca. 16th century Syria. This study focuses on rhetorical elements and their inversion in the city praise rather than on the topographical history of Damascus or other featured cities. Exposing the aesthetic devices and analyzing their functions by inverting them according to the rules of poetic speech offers a convenient tool for a more adequate understanding of city panegyrics, and the cultural perception of cities. Panegyrics contain assertions relating both to praise and criticism. Hardly any literary city praise is a mere embellishment or a hymnody of the respective city, and hardly any form of dispraise is just a verbal outburst without offering a counterproposal

Memory, Mimesis, and the Modern:The Literary Heritage in Māmayh’s Poetry

Māmayh ar-Rūmī ad-Dimašqī was one of the most significant Damascan poets in the 10th/16th century, whose verses were sung from Damascus to Yemen. Based on the current results of the ongoing edition of Māmayh's 'dīwān' ('Rawḍat al-muštāq wa-bahǧat al-ʿuššāq' "Garden of the ardent yearner and the joy of the lovers") this study discusses a selection of poems in which the poet converses with the literary past by not only using mimetic and emulative techniques (like 'taḍmīn', 'iqtibās', and 'taḫmīs' poems) but also through the use of more modern styles, forms and topics (like 'ʿāṭil' verses, coffee poems, and vernacular poems). While the mimetic poems refer directly to the admired or canonized models of the past perpetuating the tradition into the poet's present, the focus of the contemporary topics in the 'dīwān' is on how the poet's present is connected to the poetic and aesthetic practices of the past. With the analysis of Māmayh’s poetry, the study offers evidence of the impressive literary and intellectual background of an initially Ottomanized and then 'Syrianized' (former soldier-) poet, as well as his tremendous poetic creativity in melding together the 'old' and the 'new' in his verse

Metal-catalyzed rearrangement of enantiomerically pure alkylidenecyclopropane derivatives as a new access to cyclobutenes possessing quaternary stereocenters

Pd(II)- and Pt(II)-catalyzed ring-expansion of enantiomerically pure alkylidenecyclopropane derivatives leads to the formation of cyclobutene species with a complete preservation of the stereogenic center

Stereoselective C−B and C−H Bonds Functionalization of polyBorylated Alkenes

Alkenes are fundamental functional groups which feature in various materials and bioactive molecules; however, efficient divergent strategies for their stereodefined synthesis are difficult. In this regard, numerous synthetic methodologies have been developed to construct carbon–carbon bonds with regio- and stereoselectivity, enabling the predictable and efficient synthesis of stereodefined alkenes. In fact, an appealing alternative approach for accessing challenging stereodefined alkenes molecular frameworks could involve the sequential selective activation and cross-coupling of strong bonds instead of conventional C–C bond formation. In this study, we introduce a programmed site- and stereoselective strategies that capitalizes on the versatile reactivity of readily accessible polymetalloid alkenes, through a tandem cross-coupling reaction, which is catalyzed by an organometallic Rh-complex to produce complex molecular scaffolds. By merging selective C–B and remote C–H bond functionalization, we achieve the generation of polyfunctional C(sp2)-nucleophilic species intermediates. These species can be further modified by selective coupling reactions with various C-based electrophiles, enabling the formation of C(sp2)–C(sp3) bond for the generation of even more complex molecular architectures using the readily available starting polyborylated-alkenes

Case Report Unilateral Vocal Cord Paralysis following Insertion of a Supreme Laryngeal Mask in a Patient with Sjögren's Syndrome

Since its introduction in 1988 by Dr. Archie Brain, the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) is being used with increasing frequency. Its ease of use has made it a very popular device in airway management and compared to endotracheal intubation it is less invasive. The use of LMA was on the rise, so has been the incidence of its related complications. We report severe unilateral vocal cord paralysis following the use of the supreme laryngeal mask (sLMA) in a patient with Sjögren's syndrome. In addition, we propose possible mechanisms of injury, review the existing case reports, and discuss our findings

Unilateral Vocal Cord Paralysis following Insertion of a Supreme Laryngeal Mask in a Patient with Sjögren’s Syndrome

Since its introduction in 1988 by Dr. Archie Brain, the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) is being used with increasing frequency. Its ease of use has made it a very popular device in airway management and compared to endotracheal intubation it is less invasive. The use of LMA was on the rise, so has been the incidence of its related complications. We report severe unilateral vocal cord paralysis following the use of the supreme laryngeal mask (sLMA) in a patient with Sjögren’s syndrome. In addition, we propose possible mechanisms of injury, review the existing case reports, and discuss our findings