Addition of PLA2 to CRP enhances sepsis diagnosis

Letter to the Editor refers to: Fredrikke Christie Knudtzen, Stig Lønberg Nielsen, Kim Oren Gradel, Annmarie Touborg Lassen, Hans Jørn Kolmos, Thøger Gorm Jensen, Pernille Just Vinholt, Court Pedersen, Characteristics of patients with community-acquired bacteremia who have low levels of C-reactive protein (≤20 mg/L), Journal of Infection, Volume 68, Issue 2, February 2014, Pages 149-155

Stable isotopes reveal complex changes in trophic relationships following nutrient addition in a coastal marine ecosystem

Complex links between the top-down and bottomup forces that structure communities can be disrupted by anthropogenic alterations of natural habitats.We used relative abundance and stable isotopes to examine changes in epifaunal food webs in seagrass (Thalassia testudinum) beds following 6 months of experimental nutrient addition at two sites in Florida Bay (USA) with different ambient fertility. At a eutrophic site, nutrient addition did not strongly affect food web structure, but at a nutrient-poor site, enrichment increased the abundances of crustacean epiphyte grazers, and the diets of these grazers became more varied. Benthic grazers did not change in abundance but shifted their diet away from green macroalgae + associated epiphytes and towards an opportunistic seagrass (Halodule wrightii) that occurred only in nutrient addition treatments. Benthic predators did not change in abundance, but their diets were more varied in enriched plots. Food chain length was short and unaffected by site or nutrient treatment, but increased food web complexity in enriched plots was suggested by increasingly mixed diets. Strong bottom-up modifications of food web structure in the nutrient-limited site and the limited top-down influences of grazers on seagrass epiphyte biomass suggest that, in this system, the bottom-up role of nutrient enrichment can have substantial impacts on community structure, trophic relationships, and, ultimately, the productivity values of the ecosystem.

What Teaching Strategies Can I Employ to Improve Student Achievement in the Addition of Fractions with Different Denominators?

The purpose of this action research was to determine what instructional strategies could be used to improve student achievement in fraction addition. An eighth grade intensive math class practiced multiplication facts and hands-on applications of fractions concepts for 2 months. Pretests/posttests were used to measure improvement in computation and understanding.

Tweaking Synchronisation by Link Addition

8 pages, 7 figures ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors wish to thank the Nesin foundation for an amazing working group activity in Nesin Math Village and wish to thank Tiago Pereira for fruitful discussions. PS and JK acknowledge gratefully the support of BMBF, CoNDyNet, FK. 03SF0472A. TP acknowledges FAPESP (No. 2012/22160-7 and No. 2015/02486-3) and IRTG 1740. DE acknowledge support by the Leibniz Association (WGL) under Grant No. SAW-2013-IZW-2.

Addition of sodium criterion to SOAR stroke score

Funding The NNUH Stroke and TIA Register is maintained by the NNUH NHS Foundation Trust Stroke Services and data management for this study is supported by the NNUH Research and Development Department through Research Capability Funds.

Investigation of additive effects in enantioselective copper-catalysed C-H insertion and aromatic addition reactions of α-diazocarbonyl compounds

Significant enhancements in enantioselectivities and reaction efficiencies in asymmetric copper-catalysed C-H insertion and aromatic addition reactions of α-diazocarbonyl compounds in the presence of various group I salts are reported. For the first time in carbenoid chemistry, evidence for the critical role of the metal cation is described.

Red mangrove juvenile mangroves and mangrove peat soils at the wetland mesocosm facility. Plants were exposed to phosphorus addition and defolitation, mimicing effects of marine storms on coastal mangrove ecosystems.

http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/fce_lter_photos/1334/thumbnail.jpg

Cost-effectiveness of zoledronic acid and strontium-89 as bone protecting treatments in addition to chemotherapy in patients with metastatic castrate-refractory prostate cancer: results from the TRAPEZE trial (ISRCTN 12808747)

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of adding zoledronic acid or strontium-89 to standard docetaxel chemotherapy for patients with castrate-refractory prostate cancer (CRPC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data on resource use and quality of life for 707 patients collected prospectively in the TRAPEZE 2 × 2 factorial randomised trial (ISRCTN 12808747) were used to assess the cost-effectiveness of i) zoledronic acid versus no zoledronic acid (ZA vs. no ZA), and ii) strontium-89 versus no strontium-89 (Sr89 vs. no Sr89). Costs were estimated from the perspective of the National Health Service in the UK and included expenditures for trial treatments, concomitant medications, and use of related hospital and primary care services. Quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were calculated according to patients' responses to the generic EuroQol EQ-5D-3L instrument, which evaluates health status. Results are expressed as incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves.

RESULTS: The per-patient cost for ZA was £12 667, £251 higher than the equivalent cost in the no ZA group. Patients in the ZA group had on average 0.03 QALYs more than their counterparts in no ZA group. The ICER for this comparison was £8 005. Sr89 was associated with a cost of £13 230, £1365 higher than no Sr89, and a gain of 0.08 QALYs compared to no Sr89. The ICER for Sr89 was £16 884. The probabilities of ZA and Sr89 being cost-effective were 0.64 and 0.60, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: The addition of bone-targeting treatments to standard chemotherapy led to a small improvement in QALYs for a modest increase in cost (or cost-savings). ZA and Sr89 resulted in ICERs below conventional willingness-to-pay per QALY thresholds, suggesting that their addition to chemotherapy may represent a cost-effective use of resources.

"Jag tänkte bara 15 + 7 –6" : En empiriskstudie omelevers tolkning av likhetstecknetoch sambandet mellan addition och subtraktion

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka elevers förståelseav likhetstecknet och sambandet mellan addition och subtraktioni årskurs 3 samt deras klassläraresuppfattning av den egna matematikundervisningen, som behandlar addition, subtraktion och likhetstecknet.Studiens syfte besvaras genom följande frågeställningar: Vad kan specifikt utformade matematikuppgifter ge för information om elevers förståelse av likhetstecknet och sambandet mellan addition och subtraktioni årskurs 3?samtVad tänker en lärare om de resultat som framkommit av elevernas matematikuppgifter? Den empiriska undersökningen har genomförts med en kvantitativ metod, i form av en enkät där elever i årskurs 3 fått lösa speciellt utformade matematikuppgifter och en kvalitativ metod, i form av semi-struktureradintervju med elevernas lärare. Det resultat som framkommit i undersökningen har analyserats med hjälp av en innehållsanalys. Resultatet visar att alla elever intehar kunskapom att likhetstecknet indikerar ekvivalens mellan höger sida och vänster sida om likhetstecknet, men en majoritetav eleverna har den förståelsen. Det var inte väntat från lärarens sida att fyra eleverhelthade missförstått likhetstecknetsbetydelse. Läraren är medveten om att likhetstecknet kan vara svårt attförstå, men hade förväntat att alla elever skulle klara av att lösa minst matematikuppgifterna med delägsta talen.Resultatet visar även att nio av sexton elever har förstått sambandet mellan addition och subtraktion.Läraren menar att det sambandet återkommer under hela lågstadiet och därför hade förväntat sig att fler elever sett sambandet. Men samtidigt anser läraren att det är positivt att lite mer än halva gruppen har förstått sambandet mellan addition och subtraktion. Slutligen visar resultatet av studien att missförståelse av likhetstecknet har inverkan på elevers resultat vid uppgifter med öppna utsagor, men inte vid uppgifter där talen på vänster sida om likhetstecknet är likamed ett tal på höger sida om likhetstecknet.

Nucleophilic addition of Nitrones to Electron deficient acetylenes and related studies

Nitrones or azomethine-N-oxides are important precursors for the synthesis of several heterocyclic systems. They belong to the allyl anion type 1,3-dipoles and possess unique structural features which make them extraordinarily useful synthons. They behave as 1,3-dipoles in 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions and as electrophiles in reactions with organometallic reagents. These are the two basic reactions given by nitrones. Nitrones also act as ‘spin traps’ in which they react with short-lived radicals to furnish stable nitroxide radicals which can be detected and identified by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Recently SmI2 catalysed reductive cross-coupling reactions of nitrones have gained significant interest in which the reactions are initiated by single electron transfer (SET) to nitrones. Apart from these reactions, nitrones are also known to participate in reactions which are initiated by the nucleophilic attack of nitrone-oxygen. In our group, we have also explored the nucleophilic character of nitrones through various reactions. The results obtained enabled us to develop a novel two-step one-pot strategy for quinolines and indoles - the heterocycles renowned for their pharmacological applications, from nitrones and electron deficient acetylenes. Using dibenzoylacetylene and phenylbenzoylacetylene as dipolarophiles, we could introduce a desired functional group at a predetermined position of the quinolines or indoles to be synthesised. In this context, the thesis entitled “NUCLEOPHILIC ADDITION OF NITRONES TO ELECTRON DEFICIENT ACETYLENES AND RELATED STUDIES” portrays our attempt to expand the scope of our x novel synthetic protocol using ester functionalised acetylenes: dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate (DMAD) and methyl propiolate. The thesis is organised in to five chapters. The first chapter briefly describes the different classes of reactions that nitrone functionality can tolerate. The research problem is defined at the end of this chapter. The second chapter describes the synthesis of different nitrones used for the present study. The optimisation and expansion of scope of the novel strategy towards quinoline synthesis is discussed in the third chapter. The fourth chapter portrays the synthesis of indole-3-carboxylates using the novel strategy. In the fifth chapter, the reaction of N-(2,6-dimethylphenyl) and N-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)nitrones are discussed. Here we also discuss the mechanistic reinvestigation of Baldwin’s proposal in the isoxazoline-oxazoline rearrangement. The major outcome of the work is given at the end of the thesis. The structural formulae, schemes, tables and figures are numbered chapter-wise since each chapter of the thesis is organized as an independent unit. All new compounds (except two compounds reported in fourth chapter) are fully characterised on the basis of spectral and analytical data and single crystal X-ray analysis on representative examples. Relevant references are included at the end of individual chapters.

AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE ADDITION OF BEVACIZUMAB TO STANDARD CHEMOTHERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH MALIGNANT PLEURAL MESOTHELIOMA

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Kinetics and coverage dependent reaction mechanisms of the copper atomic layer deposition from copper dimethylamino-2-propoxide and diethylzinc

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been recognized as a promising method to deposit conformal and uniform thin film of copper for future electronic devices. However, many aspects of the reaction mechanism and the surface chemistry of copper ALD remain unclear. In this paper, we employ plane wave density functional theory (DFT) to study the transmetalation ALD reaction of copper dimethylamino-2-propoxide [Cu(dmap)2] and diethylzinc [Et2Zn] that was realized experimentally by Lee et al. [ Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 4536−4539]. We find that the Cu(dmap)2 molecule adsorbs and dissociates through the scission of one or two Cu–O bonds into surface-bound dmap and Cu(dmap) fragments during the copper pulse. As Et2Zn adsorbs on the surface covered with Cu(dmap) and dmap fragments, butane formation and desorption was found to be facilitated by the surrounding ligands, which leads to one reaction mechanism, while the migration of ethyl groups to the surface leads to another reaction mechanism. During both reaction mechanisms, ligand diffusion and reordering are generally endothermic processes, which may result in residual ligands blocking the surface sites at the end of the Et2Zn pulse, and in residual Zn being reduced and incorporated as an impurity. We also find that the nearby ligands play a cooperative role in lowering the activation energy for formation and desorption of byproducts, which explains the advantage of using organometallic precursors and reducing agents in Cu ALD. The ALD growth rate estimated for the mechanism is consistent with the experimental value of 0.2 Å/cycle. The proposed reaction mechanisms provide insight into ALD processes for copper and other transition metals.