Equilibrium conditions for semi-clathrate hydrates formed with CO2, N2 or CH4 in the presence of tri-n-butylphosphine oxide

We measured the thermodynamic stability conditions for the N, CO, or CH semiclathrate hydrate formed from the aqueous solution of tri-n-butylphosphine oxide (TBPO) at 26 wt %, corresponding to the stoichiometric composition for TBPO·34.5HO. The measurements were performed in the temperature range 283.71-300.34 K and pressure range 0.35-19.43 MPa with the use of an isochoric equilibrium step-heating pressure-search method. The results showed that the presence of TBPO made these semiclathrate hydrates much more stable than the corresponding pure N , CO, and CH hydrates. At a given temperature, the semiclathrate hydrate of 26 wt % TBPO solution + CH was more stable than that of 26 wt % TBPO solution + CO, which in turn was more stable than that of 26 wt % TBPO solution + N. We analyzed the phase equilibrium data using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation and found that, in the pressure range 0-20 MPa, the mean dissociation enthalpies for the semiclathrate hydrate systems of 26 wt % TBPO solution + N, 26 wt % TBPO solution + CO, and 26 wt % TBPO solution + CH were 177.75, 206.23, and 159.00 kJ·mol, respectively

The impact of type 2 diabetes on health related quality of life in Bangladesh: results from a matched study comparing treated cases with non-diabetic controls

Background Little is known about the association between diabetes and health related quality of life (HRQL) in lower-middle income countries. This study aimed to investigate HRQL among individuals with and without diabetes in Bangladesh. Methods The analysis is based on data of a case-control study, including 591 patients with type 2 diabetes (cases) who attended an outpatient unit of a hospital in Dhaka and 591 age -and sex-matched individuals without diabetes (controls). Information about socio-demographic characteristics, health conditions, and HRQL were assessed in a structured interview. HRQL was measured with the EuroQol (EQ) visual analogue scale (VAS) and the EQ five-dimensional (5D) descriptive system. The association between diabetes status and quality of life was examined using multiple linear and logistic regression models. Results Mean EQ-VAS score of patients with diabetes was 11.5 points lower (95 %-CI: −13.5, −9.6) compared to controls without diabetes. Patients with diabetes were more likely to report problems in all EQ-5D dimensions than controls, with the largest effect observed in the dimensions ‘self-care’ (OR = 5.9; 95 %-CI: 2.9, 11.8) and ‘mobility’ (OR = 4.5; 95 %-CI: 3.0, −6.6). In patients with diabetes, male gender, high education, and high-income were associated with higher VAS score and diabetes duration and foot ulcer associated with lower VAS scores. Other diabetes-related complications were not significantly associated with HRQL. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the impact of diabetes on HRQL in the Bangladeshi population is much higher than what is known from western populations and that unlike in western populations comorbidities/complications are not the driving factor for this effect

Semisynthetic and Natural Garcinoic Acid Isoforms as New mPGES-1 Inhibitors

Over the last twenty years, tocotrienol analogues raised great interest because of their higher level and larger domain of biological activities when compared with tocopherols. Amongst the most promising therapeutic application, anti-inflammatory potency has been evaluated through the inhibition of various mediators of inflammation. Here, we worked on the isolation of two natural isoforms of garcinoic acid (i.e., δ and γ) from two different sources, respectively, Garcinia kola seeds and Garcinia amplexicaulis bark. We also developed semisynthetic strategies to access the other two non-natural α- and β-garcinoic acid isoforms. In the next stage of our work, microsomal prostaglandin E2 synthase was defined as a target to evaluate the anti-inflammatory potential of the four garcinoic acid isomers. Both dimethylated isoforms, β- and γ-garcinoic acid, exhibited the lowest IC50, 2.8 µM and 2.0 µM, respectively. These results showed that the affinity of tocotrienol analogues to microsomal prostaglandin E2 synthase-1 most probably contributes to the anti-inflammatory potential of this class of derivatives

Ready for O4 II: GRANDMA Observations of Swift GRBs during eight-weeks of Spring 2022

We present a campaign designed to train the GRANDMA network and its infrastructure to follow up on transient alerts and detect their early afterglows. In preparation for O4 II campaign, we focused on GRB alerts as they are expected to be an electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational-wave events. Our goal was to improve our response to the alerts and start prompt observations as soon as possible to better prepare the GRANDMA network for the fourth observational run of LIGO-Virgo-Kagra (which started at the end of May 2023), and future missions such as SM. To receive, manage and send out observational plans to our partner telescopes we set up dedicated infrastructure and a rota of follow-up adcates were organized to guarantee round-the-clock assistance to our telescope teams. To ensure a great number of observations, we focused on Swift GRBs whose localization errors were generally smaller than the GRANDMA telescopes' field of view. This allowed us to bypass the transient identification process and focus on the reaction time and efficiency of the network. During 'Ready for O4 II', 11 Swift/INTEGRAL GRB triggers were selected, nine fields had been observed, and three afterglows were detected (GRB 220403B, GRB 220427A, GRB 220514A), with 17 GRANDMA telescopes and 17 amateur astronomers from the citizen science project Kilonova-Catcher. Here we highlight the GRB 220427A analysis where our long-term follow-up of the host galaxy allowed us to obtain a photometric redshift of $z=0.82\pm0.09$, its lightcurve elution, fit the decay slope of the afterglows, and study the properties of the host galaxy