The Selective Dehydration of Sugars in the Sustainable Synthesis of Chiral Fragments and Fluoroalkane Generation from Prochiral Substrates

Waste biomass is abundant in sugars (both hexoses and pentoses), making them a renewable source of chiral building blocks which may be utilised in synthetic chemistry. Although large percentages of waste biomass are useful (~17% sugar by weight), large-scale production of drug precursors and THF-containing molecules often utilise alternative synthetic routes. Trapping of sugars in their open-chain form allows them to be treated as chiral polyol reagents for attaching chiral centres. A variety of different sugar thioacetals may be selectively dehydrated to produce the corresponding ketene thioacetals under mild basic conditions. The reactivity of the resulting ketene thioacetals has been explored, with cyclisation induced to produce a range of novel heterocycles. Further selective dehydration has been carried out in some cases. Insight into the mechanism of dehydration has been provided, with studies into the intermediate structures. With the demand for chiral heterocyclic rings increasing in pharmaceuticals, we present sustainable methods for the synthesis of useful compounds from innately chiral fragments. In addition, studies into the formation of chiral fluorine compounds have been explored, with the application of ene-reductase biocatalysis in an effort for a more sustainable approach to synthetic chiral fluorine generation

The Effects of a Driving Simulator on Driving-Related Skills Necessary for ADL and IADL Function

Background Returning to driving is often a goal for an individual following a neurological impairment. Critical skills for success in returning to driving include intact cognition, visual, and visual-perceptual skills which are skills that are commonly compromised in individuals who have had a neurological accident. In addition, these skills are necessary for other areas of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLS), as well as activities of daily living road driving performance (Crotty & George, 2009). Emerging evidence has shown the use of driving simulator training as an intervention to increase and the generalizability this may have on ADL function and other areas of IADLs. It is prudent to investigate the effects of a driving simulator on skills crucial to everyday function

Making Social Studies Meaningful for ELL Students: Content and Pedagogy in Mainstream Secondary School Classrooms

Content-area instruction for English language learners (ELL) represents a growing area of instructional need in high schools across the United States. This article focuses on the challenges and successes in developing an effective instructional environment for teaching secondary-level social studies curriculum to a sheltered population of ELLs. In the present study, grant funding was provided for a schooluniversity partnership to support content-area teachers’ efforts to increase ELL students’ comprehension skills. The authors of this paper propose a multi-tiered approach to meeting the needs of English language learners in the mainstream social studies classroom – providing social and cultural supports during the process of acculturation, providing explicit instruction in academic strategies necessary for successful comprehension of in-depth content, and making social studies curriculum more accessible through a range of strategies for reducing cognitive load without reducing content

Aktywność turystyczna seniorów – na przykładzie turystów-obcokrajowców przebywających na terenie województwa podkarpackiego w 2012 roku

The main aim of this article was to define the activity level of senior foreigners who visited the Podkarpackie Province during summer and autumn of 2012. The research was conducted within the international project TOURage – Developing Senior Tourism in Remote Regions, which included twelve partners from ten European countries. Survey was conducted in selected places of Podkarpackie Province, both in the tourist accommodation base, as well as tourist attractions, with the usage of questionnaire earlier prepared by the project’s coordinator, accepted and delivered by the representatives of the Podkarpackie Marshal Office. In most cases they decide to stay on vacation for 1–2 weeks, usually during summer and autumn, accompanied by a spouse or friends. Journey and accommodation is organized by them individually, based on their own experiences or the opinions of relatives and friends. The greatest obstacles of tourist trips of senior citizens are security concerns during traveling and place of residence, money and health. They decide on going for trips mainly because they want to rest in a peaceful environment as well as spend some time with their families, and also because of possibility of taking part in new adventure. Sometimes they also seek new friends. Their choice of place to stay depends among others on: level of standard and quality of hotel accommodation, quality of services, safety, natural and cultural values, gastronomy, the opportunity to visit friends and relatives. Things like: handicraft, education, convenient transport connections, life in the city, camping have no influence on the choice

Regioselective Dehydration of Sugar Thioacetals under Mild Conditions

Sugars are abundant in waste biomass, making them sustainable chiral building blocks for organic synthesis. The demand for chiral saturated heterocyclic rings for pharmaceutical applications is increasing as they provide well-defined three-dimensional frameworks that show increased metabolic resistance. A range of sugar thioacetals can be dehydrated selectively at C-2 under mild basic conditions, and the resulting ketene thioacetals can be applied to the production of useful chiral building blocks via further selective dehydration reactions

Methodology of Cyclical Research of the Tourist Image of Podkarpackie Province (Poland)—A Proposal of a Solution and Selected Research Results

The attractiveness to tourists of Podkarpackie Province is related to its natural diversity and rich cultural heritage. The communes located in the southern, Carpathian part of the province are the most attractive tourist destinations. However, the volume of tourist traffic in Podkarpackie Province differs from many other regions in Poland. It is visited by far fewer tourists than might be expected. In order to conduct a more effective tourist policy, it was necessary to acquire knowledge on the structure of tourism in the region and its image. The aim of this article is to present the proprietary methodology of cyclical research of the tourist image of Podkarpackie Province and the key results of the research conducted in 2021. The proposed set of methods and techniques includes: (1) an analysis of strategic documents in terms of the assumed tourist image (Atlas.ti), (2) a verification of search trends for keywords related to the identified associations (Google Trends), and (3) a search of widely available internet resources for spontaneously generated content (Google Search). The obtained results indicate that potential tourists find online information about tourist assets deviating from the planned tourist image presented in the strategic document. First of all, they look for opinions and tips on specific tourist attractions. In the perceptions of average, potential tourists, some sub-regions such as the Low Beskids and the Southern Roztocze are practically unnoticeable. They clearly ‘lose’ with the Bieszczady, which are most associated with the region. Ultimately, the comprehensive image research consists of qualitative and quantitative modules. Only the combination of both will allow for a holistic view of the image of the region.publishedVersio

Fluorescence-Based Monitoring of In Vivo Neural Activity Using a Circuit-Tracing Pseudorabies Virus

The study of coordinated activity in neuronal circuits has been challenging without a method to simultaneously report activity and connectivity. Here we present the first use of pseudorabies virus (PRV), which spreads through synaptically connected neurons, to express a fluorescent calcium indicator protein and monitor neuronal activity in a living animal. Fluorescence signals were proportional to action potential number and could reliably detect single action potentials in vitro. With two-photon imaging in vivo, we observed both spontaneous and stimulated activity in neurons of infected murine peripheral autonomic submandibular ganglia (SMG). We optically recorded the SMG response in the salivary circuit to direct electrical stimulation of the presynaptic axons and to physiologically relevant sensory stimulation of the oral cavity. During a time window of 48 hours after inoculation, few spontaneous transients occurred. By 72 hours, we identified more frequent and prolonged spontaneous calcium transients, suggestive of neuronal or tissue responses to infection that influence calcium signaling. Our work establishes in vivo investigation of physiological neuronal circuit activity and subsequent effects of infection with single cell resolution

A phylogenomic analysis of Marek's disease virus reveals independent paths to virulence in Eurasia and North America

Virulence determines the impact a pathogen has on the fitness of its host, yet current understanding of the evolutionary origins and causes of virulence of many pathogens is surprisingly incomplete. Here, we explore the evolution of Marek's disease virus (MDV), a herpesvirus commonly afflicting chickens and rarely other avian species. The history of MDV in the 20th century represents an important case study in the evolution of virulence. The severity of MDV infection in chickens has been rising steadily since the adoption of intensive farming techniques and vaccination programs in the 1950s and 1970s, respectively. It has remained uncertain, however, which of these factors is causally more responsible for the observed increase in virulence of circulating viruses. We conducted a phylogenomic study to understand the evolution of MDV in the context of dramatic changes to poultry farming and disease control. Our analysis reveals evidence of geographical structuring of MDV strains, with reconstructions supporting the emergence of virulent viruses independently in North America and Eurasia. Of note, the emergence of virulent viruses appears to coincide approximately with the introduction of comprehensive vaccination on both continents. The time-dated phylogeny also indicated that MDV has a mean evolutionary rate of ~1.6 × 10−5 substitutions per site per year. An examination of gene-linked mutations did not identify a strong association between mutational variation and virulence phenotypes, indicating that MDV may evolve readily and rapidly under strong selective pressures and that multiple genotypic pathways may underlie virulence adaptation in MDV