Synthesis and Pharmacological Evaluation of Novel Schiff Base Analogues of 3-(4-amino) Phenylimino) 5-fluoroindolin-2-one

In our study, a series of novel 3-(4-(benzylideneamino) phenylimino) 4-fluoroindolin-2-one derivatives were synthesized and characterized by spectral (I.R, 1H NMR, mass) and elemental analysis. The title compounds (N1-N10) were evaluated for analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and ulcerogenic index activities. Results displayed that compound N3 exhibited significant analgesic activity. Among the title compounds studied, N2, N3, and N8 exhibited significant anti- inflammatory activity comparable to reference standard diclofenac sodium. Interestingly, the test compounds showed only mild ulcerogenic side effect when compared to aspirin

The HO Southern Galactic Plane Survey (HOPS) - I. Techniques and HO maser data

The definitive version can be found at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ Copyright Royal Astronomical SocietyWe present first results of the HO Southern Galactic Plane Survey (HOPS), using the Mopra Radio Telescope with a broad-band backend and a beam size of about 2 arcmin. We have observed 100 deg of the southern Galactic plane at 12mm (19.5-27.5GHz), including spectral line emission from HO masers, multiple metastable transitions of ammonia, cyanoacetylene, methanol and radio recombination lines. In this paper, we report on the characteristics of the survey and HO maser emission. We find 540 HO masers, of which 334 are new detections. The strongest maser is 3933Jy and the weakest is 0.7Jy, with 62 masers over 100Jy. In 14 maser sites, the spread in the velocity of the HO maser emission exceeds 100kms. In one region, the HO maser velocities are separated by 351.3kms. The rms noise levels are typically between 1 and 2Jy, with 95 per cent of the survey under 2Jy. We estimate completeness limits of 98 per cent at around 8.4Jy and 50 per cent at around 5.5Jy. We estimate that there are between 800 and 1500 HO masers in the Galaxy that are detectable in a survey with similar completeness limits to HOPS. We report possible masers in NH (11,9) and (8,6) emission towards G19.61-0.23 and in the NH (3,3) line towards G23.33-0.30.Peer reviewe

Initial Clinical Experience with Stationary Digital Breast Tomosynthesis

Rationale and Objectives: A linear array of carbon nanotube-enabled x-ray sources allows for stationary digital breast tomosynthesis (sDBT), during which projection views are collected without the need to move the x-ray tube. This work presents our initial clinical experience with a first-generation sDBT device. Materials and Methods: Following informed consent, women with a “suspicious abnormality” (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System 4), discovered by digital mammography and awaiting biopsy, were also imaged by the first generation sDBT. Four radiologists participated in this paired-image study, completing questionnaires while interpreting the mammograms and sDBT image stacks. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve were used to measure reader performance (likelihood of correctly identifying malignancy based on pathology as ground truth), while a multivariate analysis assessed preference, as readers compared one modality to the next when interpreting diagnostically important image features. Results: Findings from 43 women were available for analysis, in whom 12 cases of malignancy were identified by pathology. The mean areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve was significantly higher (p < 0.05) for sDBT than mammography for all breast density categories and breast thicknesses. Additionally, readers preferred sDBT over mammography when evaluating mass margins and shape, architectural distortion, and asymmetry, but preferred mammography when characterizing microcalcifications. Conclusion: Readers preferred sDBT over mammography when interpreting soft-tissue breast features and were diagnostically more accurate using images generated by sDBT in a Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System 4 population. However, the findings also demonstrated the need to improve microcalcification conspicuity, which is guiding both technological and image-processing design changes in future sDBT devices

Red Tides In the Gulf of Mexico: Where, When, and Why?

Independent data from the Gulf of Mexico are used to develop and test the hypothesis that the same sequence of physical and ecological events each year allows the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis to become dominant. A phosphorus-rich nutrient supply initiates phytoplankton succession, once deposition events of Saharan iron-rich dust allow Trichodesmium blooms to utilize ubiquitous dissolved nitrogen gas within otherwise nitrogen-poor sea water. They and the co-occurring K. brevis are positioned within the bottom Ekman layers, as a consequence of their similar diel vertical migration patterns on the middle shelf. Upon onshore upwelling of these near-bottom seed populations to CDOM-rich surface waters of coastal regions, light-inhibition of the small red tide of similar to 1 ug chl l(-1) of ichthytoxic K. brevis is alleviated. Thence, dead fish serve as a supplementary nutrient source, yielding large, self-shaded red tides of similar to 10 ug chl l(-1). The source of phosphorus is mainly of fossil origin off west Florida, where past nutrient additions from the eutrophied Lake Okeechobee had minimal impact. In contrast, the P-sources are of mainly anthropogenic origin off Texas, since both the nutrient loadings of Mississippi River and the spatial extent of the downstream red tides have increased over the last 100 years. During the past century and particularly within the last decade, previously cryptic Karenia spp. have caused toxic red tides in similar coastal habitats of other western boundary currents off Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, downstream of the Gobi, Simpson, Great Western, and Kalahari Deserts, in a global response to both desertification and eutrophication

The use of sewage treatment works as foraging sites by insectivorous bats

Sewage treatment works with percolating filter beds are known to provide profitable foraging areas for insectivorous birds due to their association with high macroinvertebrate densities. Fly larvae developing on filter beds at sewage treatment works may similarly provide a valuable resource for foraging bats. Over the last two decades, however, there has been a decline in filter beds towards a system of “activated sludge”. Insects and bat activity were surveyed at 30 sites in Scotland employing these two different types of sewage treatment in order to assess the possible implications of these changes for foraging bats. Bat activity (number of passes) recorded from broad-band bat detectors was quantified at three points within each site. The biomass of aerial insects, sampled over the same period as the detector surveys, was measured using a suction trap. The biomass of insects and activity of Pipistrellus spp. was significantly higher at filter beds than at activated sludge sites. In addition, whilst foraging activity of Pipistrellus spp. at filter beds was comparable to that of adjacent “good” foraging habitat, foraging at activated sludge sites was considerably lower. This study indicates the high potential value of an anthropogenic process to foraging bats, particularly in a landscape where their insect prey has undergone a marked decline, and suggests that the current preference for activated sludge systems is likely to reduce the value of treatment works as foraging sites for bats

Measurements of long-range near-side angular correlations in sNN=5\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5TeV proton-lead collisions in the forward region

Two-particle angular correlations are studied in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5$TeV, collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on data recorded in two beam configurations, in which either the direction of the proton or that of the lead ion is analysed. The correlations are measured in the laboratory system as a function of relative pseudorapidity, $\Delta\eta$, and relative azimuthal angle, $\Delta\phi$, for events in different classes of event activity and for different bins of particle transverse momentum. In high-activity events a long-range correlation on the near side, $\Delta\phi \approx 0$, is observed in the pseudorapidity range $2.0<\eta<4.9$. This measurement of long-range correlations on the near side in proton-lead collisions extends previous observations into the forward region up to $\eta=4.9$. The correlation increases with growing event activity and is found to be more pronounced in the direction of the lead beam. However, the correlation in the direction of the lead and proton beams are found to be compatible when comparing events with similar absolute activity in the direction analysed.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-040.htm

Study of the production of Λb0\Lambda_b^0 and B‾0\overline{B}^0 hadrons in pppp collisions and first measurement of the Λb0→J/ψpK−\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^- branching fraction

The product of the $\Lambda_b^0$ ($\overline{B}^0$) differential production cross-section and the branching fraction of the decay $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$ ($\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi\overline{K}^*(892)^0$) is measured as a function of the beauty hadron transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, and rapidity, $y$. The kinematic region of the measurements is $p_{\rm T}<20~{\rm GeV}/c$ and $2.0<y<4.5$. The measurements use a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3~{\rm fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb detector in $pp$ collisions at centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=7~{\rm TeV}$ in 2011 and $\sqrt{s}=8~{\rm TeV}$ in 2012. Based on previous LHCb results of the fragmentation fraction ratio, $f_{\Lambda_B^0}/f_d$, the branching fraction of the decay $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$ is measured to be \begin{equation*} \mathcal{B}(\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-)= (3.17\pm0.04\pm0.07\pm0.34^{+0.45}_{-0.28})\times10^{-4}, \end{equation*} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, the third is due to the uncertainty on the branching fraction of the decay $\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi\overline{K}^*(892)^0$, and the fourth is due to the knowledge of $f_{\Lambda_b^0}/f_d$. The sum of the asymmetries in the production and decay between $\Lambda_b^0$ and $\overline{\Lambda}_b^0$ is also measured as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ and $y$. The previously published branching fraction of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi p\pi^-$, relative to that of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$, is updated. The branching fractions of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow P_c^+(\rightarrow J/\psi p)K^-$ are determined.Comment: 29 pages, 19figures. All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-032.htm

Evidence for the strangeness-changing weak decay Ξb−→Λb0π−\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-

Using a $pp$ collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0~fb$^{-1}$, collected by the LHCb detector, we present the first search for the strangeness-changing weak decay $\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-$. No $b$ hadron decay of this type has been seen before. A signal for this decay, corresponding to a significance of 3.2 standard deviations, is reported. The relative rate is measured to be ${{f_{\Xi_b^-}}\over{f_{\Lambda_b^0}}}{\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-) = (5.7\pm1.8^{+0.8}_{-0.9})\times10^{-4}$, where $f_{\Xi_b^-}$ and $f_{\Lambda_b^0}$ are the $b\to\Xi_b^-$ and $b\to\Lambda_b^0$ fragmentation fractions, and ${\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-)$ is the branching fraction. Assuming $f_{\Xi_b^-}/f_{\Lambda_b^0}$ is bounded between 0.1 and 0.3, the branching fraction ${\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-)$ would lie in the range from $(0.57\pm0.21)\%$ to $(0.19\pm0.07)\%$.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-047.htm

BB flavour tagging using charm decays at the LHCb experiment

An algorithm is described for tagging the flavour content at production of neutral $B$ mesons in the LHCb experiment. The algorithm exploits the correlation of the flavour of a $B$ meson with the charge of a reconstructed secondary charm hadron from the decay of the other $b$ hadron produced in the proton-proton collision. Charm hadron candidates are identified in a number of fully or partially reconstructed Cabibbo-favoured decay modes. The algorithm is calibrated on the self-tagged decay modes $B^+ \to J/\psi \, K^+$ and $B^0 \to J/\psi \, K^{*0}$ using $3.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ of data collected by the LHCb experiment at $pp$ centre-of-mass energies of $7\mathrm{\,TeV}$ and $8\mathrm{\,TeV}$. Its tagging power on these samples of $B \to J/\psi \, X$ decays is $(0.30 \pm 0.01 \pm 0.01) \%$.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at http://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-027.htm