Kinetics and Mechanism of Hydrolysis of Benzimidazolylcarbamates

Synthesis of new 2-aminobenzimidazole-1-carbamates was accomplished by carbamoylation of 2-aminobenzimidazole using different substituted phenyl chloroformates. The aqueous hydrolysis of the new compounds was examined in the pH range 1-13 at 25 oC. The evaluated kinetic parameters led to the conclusion that up to pH 4 reaction proceeds by a bimolecular attack of water to the N-protonated substrate. This is the first time this behavior is described for carbamates, and can be ascribed to the higher basicity of the benzimidazolyl moiety when compared with the carbonyl oxygen. For higher values of pH, the results are consistent with a BAc2 mechanism with nucleophilic catalysis, but while between pH 4 and pH 7 water acts as the nucleophile, for pH> 7 the hydroxide ion is the acting species

Galhas De Insetos Da Serra Geral, Caetité, Bahia, Brasil

We inventoried and characterized the kinds of gall, gall-inducing insects and host plants from Serra Geral between August 2013 and July 2014. Two phytophysiognomies, cerrado sensu stricto and caatinga-cerrado, were examined monthly along transects during ca. 4 hours per visit, totaling 48 hours of sampling effort. A total of 49 gall morphotypes were found on 14 species of host plants in 18 genera and 13 families. Fabaceae and Malpighiaceae were the families with the most galls, with 22 and 10 gall morphotypes, respectively. The genera of host plant with the greatest richness of galls were Copaifera L. (n=10), Bauhinia Benth. (n=6), and Mimosa L. (n=5). Galls were found on leaves, buds and stems. The majority of the galls were globoid, glabrous, isolated, and one-chambered. The inducers belong to Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera, Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) being the most frequent and diverse gall-inducers. The associated fauna included parasitoids (Hymenoptera), successors (Formicidae), and predators (Pseudoscorpiones), obtained from 13, 2, and 1 gall morphotypes, respectively. Five plant taxa are recorded as hosts of gall-inducing insects for the first time. © 2016, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.16111

Removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by biosorbents

Introduction: - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of environmental carcinogens. They are formed during the incomplete combustion of organic matter. Humans are exposed to PAHs by various sources, including occupational environments, cigarette smoke, vehicle exhaust, and dietary sources as grilled and flame-broiled food. - In vivo studies in animals proved that PAHs are associated to cancer, and epidemiologic studies with exposed workers, especially in coke ovens and aluminium smelters, have shown clear excess of lung cancer and highly suggestive excesses of bladder cancer. - These compounds can enter in drinking water sources by precipitation and runoff on the earth’s surface. - Portuguese legislation for water for human consumption (DL 306/2007) proposes the determination of five PAHs; limits of the maximum concentration are 0.10 µg/L for total BghiP, BbF, BkF, IcdP, and 0.010 µg/L for BaP.This work was financial suported by the COMPETE program, under the Watercork project (nº. 2009/552).N/

A Computerized System to Solve Difficulties in Finding Medicines under the Medicine Shortages in Sri Lanka

Due to ongoing financial crisis in Sri Lanka, patients are starting to suffer from medicine shortages at an increasing rate. Patients are having to go to multiple pharmacies to find certain medicines which could result in health complications. Although e-pharmacy platforms provide the functionality to order medicines by uploading the prescription sheet, they do not provide alternatives on where to find the medicines that are not available in the pharmacy. This research introduces a new functionality to provide patients suggestion on where exactly to find missing medicines. This is found through checking the stock availability of the medicine in other pharmacies in sorted order with respect to the delivery location of the patient taken via Google map API to make the process much more efficient and practical. This is achieved by implementing a global identifier for each medicine where all pharmacies keep the records of the medicines in reference to the defined global identifier of that medicine. In addition to that, the system allows patients to view all the pharmacies nearest to their delivery location and give the freedom to place orders to whichever pharmacy they prefer. If a medicine is not available in the pharmacy which the order was placed for, the system will give suggestions to the patient on where exactly to buy the medicine

Postnatal development of rats exposed to fluoxetine or venlafaxine during the third week of pregnancy

The aim of the present study was to compare the toxic effects of fluoxetine (F) (8 and 16 mg/kg) and venlafaxine (V) (40 and 80 mg/kg) administered during the third week of pregnancy on early development of rats. Both antidepressants were administered by gavage on pregnancy days 15 to 20 to groups of 10 to 12 animals each. Duration of gestation, food and water consumption, number of live pups and birth weight were recorded. Litters were culled to six pups at birth (day 1) and followed for growth until weaning (day 25). On day 60, a male and a female from each litter were injected with the 5-HT1 agonist, 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (6 mg/kg, ip) and the serotonergic syndrome was graded. Fluoxetine but not venlafaxine reduced the duration of pregnancy when compared to the control (C) group (F = 21.1 days and C = 21.6 days, mean, P<0.02; maximum = 22 days and minimum = 21 days in both groups). The highest doses of both fluoxetine, 16 mg/kg (F16), and venlafaxine, 80 mg/kg (V80), reduced the food intake of pregnant rats, resulting in different rates of body weight gain during treatment (from pregnancy day 15 to day 20): F16 = 29.0 g, V80 = 28.7 g vs C = 39.5 g (median). Birth weight was influenced by treatment and sex (P<0.05; two-way ANOVA). Both doses of fluoxetine or venlafaxine reduced the body weight of litters; however, the body weight of litters from treated dams was equal to the weight of control litters by the time of weaning. At weaning there was no significant difference in weight between sexes. There was no difference among groups in number of live pups at birth, stillbirths, mortality during the lactation period or in the manifestation of serotonergic syndrome in adult rats. The occurrence of low birth weight among pups born to dams which did not show reduced food ingestion or reduction of body weight gain during treatment with lower doses of fluoxetine or venlafaxine suggests that these drugs may have a deleterious effect on prenatal development when administered during pregnancy. In addition, fluoxetine slightly but significantly affected the duration of pregnancy (about half a day), an effect not observed in the venlafaxine-treated groups.Universidade Federal FluminenseUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)UNIFESPSciEL

Developing a Cost-Efficient Employee and Project Management System for Small-Scale Software Development Startups

Startups are a vital and significant part of the software development landscape. They are the first to implement and embrace new technologies and changes in existing technologies. Even though the vast majority of startups are minor in scale, they represent a significant market share. They develop innovative products within a limited time frame with less capital. Their need to work within a limited time frame guides most startups to embrace the agile methodology. These companies also work with proprietary data and procedures essential to maintain competitiveness with other companies in the market. Employee management systems can reduce the workload on human resource management, and project management systems can increase the efficiency of software development. Both these systems are essential tools for a startup. Even though many tools provide these functionalities in the market, they were not developed specifically for startups. This research aims to create a single service optimized for a small employee base that can provide both of these functionalities in the most cost-efficient and secure way

WERECLAIM: A MERN Stack Solution to Enhance the Online Resale Market

Since the days of trading, used items have been widely used and recently, the marketing of these secondhand goods has received increased attention. Shopping ethically or acting ethically as a consumer has grown in popularity along with the rise in demand for used goods. People now prefer doing business online over the conventional means of satisfying their wants due to the huge advancement of technology. Furthermore, given that there are many who are unemployed and wish to earn money online, this kind of platform for buying and selling old goods is timely to address those needs as well. Making a platform for used goods sales and purchases appears to be an excellent idea in the age of digitization and WERECLAIM was designed to address several issues of purchasing and selling goods in the secondhand market. The purpose of this study is to investigate the major trends of used items buying and selling platforms and to emphasize the contribution of WERECLAIM to the modern used goods, buyers, and sellers. We have identified the major issues and the current needs of a used items trading system and came up with the system WERECLAIM which fulfills the demand of a used items trading platform

Observation of Vortex Matching Phenomena in Antidot Array of NbN Thin Film

We report vortex matching phenomenon in rectangular antidot array fabricated on epitaxial NbN thin film. The antidot array was fabricated using Focussed Ion Beam milling technique. The magneto-transport measurements points to a period doubling transition at higher magnetic field for rectangular lattices. The results are discussed within the light of several models including the multi-vortex model, the matched lattice model and the super-matched lattice model.Comment: Added references, modified abstract and discussions and corrected typo-graphic errors. Accepted for proceedings of M2S-IX 2009, Tokyo (Physica C

Variations In Desiccation Tolerance In Seeds Of Eugenia Pyriformis: Dispersal At Different Stages Of Maturation

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Eugenia pyriformis Cambess., known locally as uvaieira, a species of fruit-bearing tree with both pharmacological and gastronomic potential, has seeds which are sensitive to desiccation. The aim of this study was to analyse whether the degree of tolerance to desiccation of uvaieira seeds depends on the stage of maturation of the seeds at shedding. This, in turn, depends on the environmental conditions in which the seeds develop, including the accumulation of degree-days and rainfall in the period. Seeds were collected from the ripe fruit of parent plants located in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, Brazil, submitted to drying and analysed for water content and germination. A completely randomised design was used in a 20 × 3 factorial scheme (source of material x level of drying). The degree of desiccation tolerance differs between region and period of collection, even for the same parent plant when the seeds are collected in different years. The water and thermal conditions of the environment during seed development modify the maturation cycle, the physiological quality and the acquisition of desiccation tolerance. In uvaieira seeds, desiccation tolerance depends on the physiological maturity of the seeds at the time of dispersal, which is associated with the environmental conditions.471118126CAPES, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorCoordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

The shallow marine ostracod communities of the Azores (Mid- North Atlantic): taphonomy and palaeoecology

This is the first palaeoecological and taphonomical study of the Recent marine ostracods from the Azores. The aims of this work were to address the following questions: i) to establish the typical ostracod assemblages from the shallow waters of the Azores; ii) to determine the bathymetric ranges for each ostracod species; iii) to investigate the time span and depth in which significant transport occurs; iv) to quantify the amount of out of habitat transport between sandy beaches, tide pools and the sublittoral; v) to determine distinctive taphonomic features that can be used to recognize the amount of temporal resolution in ostracod assemblages. Fifteen species were recovered, representing 8 families and 12 genera (Loxoconcha, Neonesidea, Xestoleberis, Aurila, Urocythereis, Heterocythereis, Carinocythereis, Callistocythere, Leptocythere, Semicytherura, Lanceostoma and Cylindroleberis). The living assemblages are dominated by specimens of the Loxoconchidae, Xestoleberidae and Hemicytheridae, whereas the dead assemblages are dominated by specimens of the Loxoconchidae, Hemicytheridae, Bairdiidae, Xestoleberidae and Trachyleberidae. The shift from life-dominated assemblages in the shallower depths to death-dominated assemblages at greater depths is a consequence of significant transport downwards. The abundance of ostracods is higher in the first 10-20 m depth, especially in fine to medium sandy substrates. Considerable differences among islands were supported by the Bayesian model, as a consequence of the physical and hydrodynamic factors that differently affect each of the Azorean islands. Large-scale (sea-surface currents, Holocene relative sea-level, storms) and small-scale processes are responsible for shaping the Azorean Recent marine ostracod communities. No living specimens were found in the samples collected at the beach faces, thus reinforcing former interpretations of one of the authors (S. Ávila) that advocate that at a global scale, sandy beaches in oceanic islands located at temperate latitudes are almost or even completely devoid of life due to historical reasons related with the sea level changes