Preparation and ring-opening reactions of N-diphenylphosphinyl vinyl aziridines

Predominantly (E)-N-diphenylphosphinyl vinyl aziridines are prepared by a reaction of N-diphenylphosphinyl imines with α-bromoallyllithium in the presence of freshly fused ZnCl2. These aziridines undergo a ring-opening reaction with a variety of carbon and heteronucleophiles, in good yield, and generally with good regioselectivity.

The role of serviced offices in the corporate real estate supply chain

The paper analyses the evolving corporate real estate supply chain and the interaction of this evolution with emerging business models in the serviced office sector. An enhanced model of the corporate real estate portfolio is first presented incorporating vacant, alienated and transitory space. It is argued that the serviced office sector has evolved in response to an increasingly diverse corporate real estate portfolio. For the peripheral corporate real estate portfolio, the core serviced workspace product provides the ability to rapidly acquire high-quality workspace and associated support services on very flexible bases. Whilst it is arguably a beta product, the core workspace offer is now being augmented by managed office or back-to-back leases which enables clients to complement the advantages of serviced offices with a wider choice of premises. Joint venture business models are aligned with solutions to problems of vacant space.

Evolution and change in the serviced office sector: a decade later

With particular reference to its role in the corporate real estate supply chain, this paper focuses on how the serviced office sector in the UK has evolved and changed over the last decade. A qualitative research approach involving 21 semi-structured interviews with corporate clients of serviced office operators was used to address a number of issues regarding the perceptions of users of serviced offices. It is concluded that the serviced office sector has become an established sector of the UK’s commercial real estate market providing an essential product for many corporate organisations. The serviced office sector has been relatively nimble and a range of operational models have emerged. It was found that corporate organisations use serviced office space and services in order to align workforce change with portfolio change, to transfer risk, for short-term project space, as temporary overflow space, to pilot a new location, to become familiar with a specific geographical marketplace or simply to gain an initial presence in an area.

Investigations into plant biochemical wound-response pathways involved in the production of aphid-induced plant volatiles

Feeding damage to plants by insect herbivores induces the production of plant volatiles, which are attractive to the herbivores natural enemies. Little is understood about the plant biochemical pathways involved in aphid-induced plant volatile production. The aphid parasitoid Diaeretiella rapae can detect and respond to aphid-induced volatiles produced by Arabidopsis thaliana. When given experience of those volatiles, it can learn those cues and can therefore be used as a novel biosensor to detect them. The pathways involved in aphid-induced volatile production were investigated by comparing the responses of D. rapae to volatiles from a number of different transgenic mutants of A. thaliana, mutated in their octadecanoid, ethylene or salicylic acid wound-response pathways and also from wild-type plants. Plants were either undamaged or infested by the peach-potato aphid, Myzus persicae. It is demonstrated that the octadecanoid pathway and specifically the COI1 gene are required for aphid-induced volatile production. The presence of salicylic acid is also involved in volatile production. Using this model system, in combination with A. thaliana plants with single point gene mutations, has potential for the precise dissection of biochemical pathways involved in the production of aphid-induced volatiles

Endothelial cell-specific ROS production increases susceptibility to aortic dissection

Background—Increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) throughout the vascular wall is a feature of cardiovascular disease states, but therapeutic strategies remain limited by our incomplete understanding of the role and contribution of specific vascular cell ROS to disease pathogenesis. To investigate the specific role of endothelial cell (EC) ROS in the development of structural vascular disease, we generated a mouse model of endothelium-specific Nox2 overexpression and tested the susceptibility to aortic dissection after angiotensin II (Ang II) infusion. Methods and Results—A specific increase in endothelial ROS production in Nox2 transgenic mice was sufficient to cause Ang II–mediated aortic dissection, which was never observed in wild-type mice. Nox2 transgenic aortas had increased endothelial ROS production, endothelial vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression, matrix metalloproteinase activity, and CD45+ inflammatory cell infiltration. Conditioned media from Nox2 transgenic ECs induced greater Erk1/2 phosphorylation in vascular smooth muscle cells compared with wild-type controls through secreted cyclophilin A (CypA). Nox2 transgenic ECs (but not vascular smooth muscle cells) and aortas had greater secretion of CypA both at baseline and in response to Ang II stimulation. Knockdown of CypA in ECs abolished the increase in vascular smooth muscle cell Erk1/2 phosphorylation conferred by EC conditioned media, and preincubation with CypA augmented Ang II–induced vascular smooth muscle cell ROS production. Conclusions—These findings demonstrate a pivotal role for EC-derived ROS in the determination of the susceptibility of the aortic wall to Ang II–mediated aortic dissection. ROS-dependent CypA secretion by ECs is an important signaling mechanism through which EC ROS regulate susceptibility of structural components of the aortic wall to aortic dissection.

Self-Evidence, intuition and understanding

I argue that the account of self-evidence developed by Robert Audi cannot be true, and offer an alternatve account in terms of intuitions, understood as seemings

Exploring the association of diary product intake with the fatty acids C15:0 and C17:0 measured from dried blood spots in a multi-population cohort: findings from the Food4Me study

Scope: The use of biomarkers in the objective assessment of dietary intake is a high priority in nutrition research. The aim of this study was to examine pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:0) as biomarkers of dairy foods intake. Methods and results: The data used in the present study were obtained as part of the Food4me Study. Estimates of C15:0 and C17:0 from dried blood spots and intakes of dairy from an FFQ were obtained from participants (n=1,180) across 7 countries. Regression analyses were used to explore associations of biomarkers with dairy intake levels and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to evaluate the fatty acids. Significant positive associations were found between C15:0 and total intakes of high-fat dairy products. C15:0 showed good ability to distinguish between low and high consumers of high-fat dairy products. Conclusion: C15:0 can be used as a biomarker of high-fat dairy intake and of specific high-fat dairy products. Both C15:0 and C17:0 performed poorly for total dairy intake highlighting the need for caution when using these in epidemiological studies.

The SPARC Data Initiative: comparisons of CFC-11, CFC-12, HF and SF6 climatologies from international satellite limb sounders

A quality assessment of the CFC-11 (CCl3F), CFC-12 (CCl2F2), HF, and SF6 products from limb-viewing satellite instruments is provided by means of a detailed intercomparison. The climatologies in the form of monthly zonal mean time series are obtained from HALOE, MIPAS, ACE-FTS, and HIRDLS within the time period 1991–2010. The intercomparisons focus on the mean biases of the monthly and annual zonal mean fields and aim to identify their vertical, latitudinal and temporal structure. The CFC evaluations (based on MIPAS, ACE-FTS and HIRDLS) reveal that the uncertainty in our knowledge of the atmospheric CFC-11 and CFC-12 mean state, as given by satellite data sets, is smallest in the tropics and mid-latitudes at altitudes below 50 and 20 hPa, respectively, with a 1σ multi-instrument spread of up to ±5 %. For HF, the situation is reversed. The two available data sets (HALOE and ACE-FTS) agree well above 100 hPa, with a spread in this region of ±5 to ±10 %, while at altitudes below 100 hPa the HF annual mean state is less well known, with a spread ±30 % and larger. The atmospheric SF6 annual mean states derived from two satellite data sets (MIPAS and ACE-FTS) show only very small differences with a spread of less than ±5 % and often below ±2.5 %. While the overall agreement among the climatological data sets is very good for large parts of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (CFCs, SF6) or middle stratosphere (HF), individual discrepancies have been identified. Pronounced deviations between the instrument climatologies exist for particular atmospheric regions which differ from gas to gas. Notable features are differently shaped isopleths in the subtropics, deviations in the vertical gradients in the lower stratosphere and in the meridional gradients in the upper troposphere, and inconsistencies in the seasonal cycle. Additionally, long-term drifts between the instruments have been identified for the CFC-11 and CFC-12 time series. The evaluations as a whole provide guidance on what data sets are the most reliable for applications such as studies of atmospheric transport and variability, model–measurement comparisons and detection of long-term trends. The data sets will be publicly available from the SPARC Data Centre and through PANGAEA (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.849223).