Replacement of dichloromethane within chromatographic purification : a guide to alternative solvents

Replacement of dichloromethane as the bulk medium within chromatographic purification has been evaluated with a broad range of molecules containing functionality common within Medicinal Chemistry programmes. Analysis of the data set has generated a set of general guidelines to assist in the selection of alternative solvents for CH2Cl2 as the bulk media in these ubiquitously employed processes

Post-cancer treatment support program : an evaluation

Funding: This work was supported by the University of Aberdeen via research funds provided to CM and LB as part of their postgraduate studies. Acknowledgements: We thank Bethany Mills who collected study data and the staff and service users at Maggie’s who participated in this study.Peer reviewedPostprin

The technique of humour of Cratrinus, Eupolis, Pherecrates and Plato and of the poets of the Athenian old comedy

The thesis examines the technique of humour of the old comedians other than Aristophanes, concentrating particularly upon the four for whom we have the best evidence, viz. Cratinus, Eupolis, Pherecrates and Plato. The internal and external evidence for the kind of humour they employed is considered under five principal groupings, viz. The Visual Elements, Ridicule and Criticism, Physical Humour, Parody and Borrowings, and Imagery, Vocabulary and Verbal Devices. Within these main groupings there are many sub-divisions under which the examples of particular techniques are collected and discussed. A list of references is normally given, unless the discussion itself has already listed all examples. Several longer fragments are given detailed consideration and there is an index of fragments discussed. Account is taken of the most recently discovered fragments published in Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Many conclusions relate to limited techniques or even to particular fragments, but in broad terms we can see that Cratinus plays' had varied political, literary, philosophical and social themes and that some of his burlesques were allegories. Criticism and invective were strongly represented, there was some obscenity, parody tended to be of homer and the early poets rather than of Fifth Century Tragedy, and verbal inventiveness and word-play were prominent. Cratinus had much to say of his rivals and himself. Eupolis overriding interest was in topical criticism and he had no taste for fantasy and mythological burlesque. He shows no signs of full-scale criticism of Tragedy, but some interest in lyric poetry and in philosophy is apparent. He exploited sexual and excretory humour, but was less given to coining words than Crantius. Pherecrates avoided political criticism on the scale of Cratinus and Eupolis attacks and composed rather plays of everyday life. Dietary humour and the Golden Age these are well attested in his work, but he used obscenity with some restraint. He shows but a listed interest in parody. Plato wrote both in the Old and Middle Comedy style, composing burlesques, political plays and literary comedies. Burlesques with erotic themes were particularly to his liking (of. Aleseus Comicus), and sexual humour was probably an important part of his technique. Plato was capable in his use of imagery and verbal humour. Strattis provides our best evidence for burlescue of Tragedy on a large scale

Screening versus routine practice in detection of atrial fibrillation in patients aged 65 or over: Screening versus routine practice in detection cluster randomised controlled trial

Objectives : To assess whether screening improves the detection of atrial fibrillation (cluster randomisation) and to compare systematic and opportunistic screening. Design : Multicentred cluster randomised controlled trial, with subsidiary trial embedded within the intervention arm. Setting : 50 primary care centres in England, with further individual randomisation of patients in the intervention practices. Participants : 14,802 patients aged 65 or over in 25 intervention and 25 control practices. Interventions : Patients in intervention practices were randomly allocated to systematic screening (invitation for electrocardiography) or opportunistic screening (pulse taking and invitation for electrocardiography if the pulse was irregular). Screening took place over 12 months in each practice from October 2001 to February 2003. No active screening took place in control practices. Main outcome measure : Newly identified atrial fibrillation. Results : The detection rate of new cases of atrial fibrillation was 1.63% a year in the intervention practices and 1.04% in control practices (difference 0.59%, 95% confidence interval 0.20% to 0.98%). Systematic and opportunistic screening detected similar numbers of new cases (1.62% v 1.64%, difference 0.02%, −0.5% to 0.5%). Conclusion : Active screening for atrial fibrillation detects additional cases over current practice. The preferred method of screening in patients aged 65 or over in primary care is opportunistic pulse taking with follow-up electrocardiography. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN19633732

Novel technology based on the spectral kurtosis and wavelet transform for rolling bearing diagnosis

A novel diagnosis technology combining the benefits of spectral kurtosis and wavelet transform is proposed and validated for early defect diagnosis of rolling element bearings. A systematic procedure for feature calculation is proposed and rules for selection of technology parameters are explained. Experimental validation of the proposed method carried out for early detection of the inner race defect. A comparison between frequency band selection through wavelets and spectral kurtosis is also presented. It has been observed that the frequency band selected using spectral kurtosis provide better separation between healthy and defective bearings compared to the frequency band selection using wavelet. In terms of Fisher criterion the use of spectral kurtosis has a gain of 2.75 times compared to the wavelet

Scope and limitations of a DMF bio-alternative within Sonogashira cross-coupling and Cacchi-type annulation

Pd-catalysed C-C bond formation is an essential tool within the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Many of these reactions rely heavily on polar aprotic solvents; however, despite their utility, these solvents are incompatible with the drive towards more sustainable chemical synthesis. Herein, we describe the scope and limitations of an alternative to DMF derived from renewable sources (CyreneTM) in Sonogashira crosscoupling and Cacchi-type annulations

Working towards a holistic organisational systems model

This paper presents an integration effort combining a number of soft factors modelling tools and considers the potential impact of such an overall tool in a system of systems environment. The paper introduces the tools developed and how it is envisaged they will work together to provide a comprehensive, coherent output. It is suggested that a suite of interoperable tools of this form could aid the design and operation of organisational systems and ensure they are fit for purpose