Efficiency and purity control in the preparation of pure and/or aluminum-doped barium ferrites by hydrothermal methods using ferrous ions as reactants

The synthesis of hexagonal barium ferrite (BaFe12O19) was studied under hydrothermal conditions by a method in which a significant amount of ferrous chloride was introduced along side ferric chloride among the starting materials. Though all of the Fe2+ ions in the starting material were converted to Fe3+ ions in the final product, Fe2+ was confirmed to participate differently from the Fe3+ used in the conventional method in the mechanism of forming barium ferrite. Indeed the efficiency of the synthesis and the quality of the product and the lack of impurities such as Fe2O3 and BaFe2O4 were improved when Fe2+ was included. However, the amount of ferrous ions that could be included to obtain the desired product was limited with an optimum ratio of 2:8 for FeCl2/FeCl3 when only 2h of reaction time were needed. It was also found that the role of trivalent Fe3+ could be successfully replaced by Al3+. Up to 50% of their on could be replaced by Al3+ in the reactants to produce Al- doped products. It was also found that the ratio of Fe2+/M3+ could be increased in the presence of Al3+ to produce high quality barium ferrite.

Synthesis, structure and reactivity of the novel tetratin species bromoheptakis(2,6-diethylphenyl)-cyclotetrastannabutane

Metallation of ArBr (Ar = 2,6-diethylphenyl) with Li powder in diethyl ether, followed by addition of stannous chloride at low temperature does not give the expected oligomeric diarylstannane but an essentially quantitative yield of the novel tetrastannabutane [{SnAr2}3SnArBr]. Some reactions of the new species are reported.

Therapeutic and cytotoxic effects of the novel antipsoriasis codrug, naproxyl-dithranol, on HaCaT cells

A novel topical codrug, naproxyl–dithranol (Nap-DTH), in which dithranol and naproxen are linked via an ester in a 1:1 ratio to form a single chemical entity, was synthesized. The antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory and toxic effects of Nap-DTH were assessed, at the cellular level, using various in vitro methods. Cultured HaCaT keratinocytes were treated with Nap-DTH, and the cellular effects were compared with those of the parent compounds, individually and as a 1:1 mixture of naproxen:dithranol to mimic 1:1 in situ liberation from Nap-DTH. The results demonstrate that Nap-DTH did not modify proliferation and only exhibited slight toxic effects after 24 h at concentrations >21 μM. At a lower concentration (3.4 μM), Nap-DTH did not alter cell proliferation or inflammation, which suggests that the codrug is therapeutically inert. Relating to this, the 1:1 mixture of naproxen:dithranol exhibited the lowest toxic effect and the highest antiproliferative effect on HaCaT keratinocytes compared to dithranol at the same concentration. Moreover, the 1:1 mixture exhibited a reduced inflammatory effect compared to dithranol alone, as reflected by the upregulation of cyclooxygenase-2 by 45% and 136%, respectively. In spite of the 1:1 mixture showing a greater downregulation of Ki-67 and a 2-fold reduction of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (both cellular markers of proliferation) than dithranol, dithranol showed a much greater induction of cleaved caspase-3 protein expression (upregulated by 287%, compared to 85% for the 1:1 mixture). This suggests that when dithranol was administered with naproxen, inhibition of cell growth plays a more important role in the antiproliferation effects than the induction of apoptotic cell death. These results confirm that the codrug would lead to a better therapeutic profile and fewer adverse effects compared to its parent compounds.

Boots Book-lovers' Library and the novel: The impact of a circulating library market on twentieth-century fiction

In a Report for the Society of Bookmen in 1928, British publishers estimated that between a quarter to two thirds of all the books they published went to four circulating libraries: Boots, Smith’s, Mudie’s, and The Times bookclub. This essay examines the literary impact of one of the largest of these, Boots Book-lovers’ Library (1899-66), which by 1935 had around 400 libraries attached to their high-street pharmacies catering for the tastes of over one million subscribers a year. Compared to the wealth of studies examining the influence of the library market in the Victorian period, the significance of the subscription libraries as key distributors of fiction in the twentieth century is not well known. But private libraries expanded rapidly in the early twentieth century to cater for what Sidney Dark termed a ‘new reading public’, and records in publishers’ archives indicate that authors routinely adapted their unpublished manuscripts in order to meet the perceived demands of this library reader. This article examines the impact of the Boots Book-lovers’ Library market on authors’ practices of writing and revision, and on literary marketing and censorship. It focuses in particular on the author James Hanley (1897-1985), using unpublished correspondence in the Chatto & Windus archive at the University of Reading to demonstrate how the publisher’s sense of the tastes and expectations of the Boots library reader influenced the editorial process.

Design, synthesis and in vitro degradation of a novel co-drug for the treatment of psoriasis

Psoriasis is a common, chronic and relapsing inflammatory skin disease. It affects approximately 2% of the western population and has no cure. Combination therapy for psoriasis often proves more efficacious and better tolerated than monotherapy with a single drug. Combination therapy could be administered in the form of a co-drug, where two or more therapeutic compounds active against the same condition are linked by a cleavable covalent bond. Similar to the pro-drug approach, the liberation of parent moieties post-administration, by enzymatic and/or chemical mechanisms, is a pre-requisite for effective treatment. In this study, a series of co-drugs incorporating dithranol in combination with one of several non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, both useful for the treatment of psoriasis, were designed, synthesized and evaluated. An ester co-drug comprising dithranol and naproxen in a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio was determined to possess the optimal physicochemical properties for topical delivery. The co-drug was fully hydrolyzed in vitro by porcine liver esterase within four hours. When incubated with homogenized porcine skin, 9.5% of the parent compounds were liberated after 24 h, suggesting in situ esterase-mediated cleavage of the co-drug would occur within the skin. The kinetics of the reaction revealed first order kinetics, Vmax = 10.3 μM/min and Km = 65.1 μM. The co-drug contains a modified dithranol chromophore that was just 37% of the absorbance of dithranol at 375 nm and suggests reduced skin/clothes staining. Overall, these findings suggest that the dithranol-naproxen co-drug offers an attractive, novel approach for the treatment of psoriasis.

In vivo study of the biocompatibility of a novel compressed collagen hydrogel scaffold for artificial corneas

The experiments were designed to evaluate the biocompatibility of a plastically compressed collagen scaffold (PCCS). The ultrastructure of the PCCS was observed via scanning electron microscopy. Twenty New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into experimental and control groups that received corneal pocket transplantation with PCCS and an amniotic membrane, respectively. And the contralateral eye of the implanted rabbit served as the normal group. On the 1st, 7th, 14th, 21st, 30th, 60th, 90th, and 120th postoperative day, the eyes were observed via a slit lamp. On the 120th postoperative day, the rabbit eyes were enucleated to examine the tissue compatibility of the implanted stroma. The PCCS was white and translucent. The scanning electron microscopy results showed that fibers within the PCCS were densely packed and evenly arranged. No edema, inflammation, or neovascularization was observed on ocular surface under a slit lamp and few lymphocytes were observed in the stroma of rabbit cornea after histological study. In conclusion, the PCCS has extremely high biocompatibility and is a promising corneal scaffold for an artificial cornea. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A, 2013.

The effect of the novel bifidogenic trisaccharide, neokestose, on the human colonic microbiota

The potential prebiotic effect of the fructo-trisaccharide, neokestose, on intestinal bacteria was investigated. Bifidobacterium sp. utilized neokestose to a greater extend and produced more biomass from neokestose than facultative anaerobes under anaerobic conditions in batch culture. Lactobacillus salivarius utilized glucose but negligible amounts of neokestose. L. salivarius and the facultative anaerobes produced significantly more biomass from glucose than from neokestose, whereas the biomass yields obtained with bifidobacteria on neokestose and glucose, respectively, were not significantly different. Static batch cultures inoculated with faeces supported the prebiotic effect of neokestose, which had been observed in the pure culture investigations. Bifidobacteria and lactobacilli were increased while potentially detrimental coliforms, clostridia and bacteroides, decreased after 24 h fermentation with neokestose. In addition, this effect was more pronounced with neokestose than with a commercial prebiotic fructo-oligosaccharide. It was concluded that neokestose has potential as a novel bifidogenic substance and that it might have advantages over the commercially available sources currently used.

Archive fever: the publishers' archive and the history of the novel

In recent years, archives have been increasingly important to literary scholarship. Drawing upon Derrida’s description of ‘archive fever’ as an always elusive search for origins, this chapter considers the theoretical and methodological issues of reading in the publishers’ archive, questioning what this brings to our histories of the novel. Through examples drawn from the archives of two British publishers – the Hogarth Press (1917-46) and Chatto & Windus (established 1873) – focussing on Virginia Woolf’s Flush (1933) and James Hanley’s The Furys (1935), the chapter assesses the implications of bringing book history to bear on literary history.

The validation of a computer-based food record for older adults: the Novel Assessment of Nutrition and Ageing (NANA) method

Dietary assessment in older adults can be challenging. The Novel Assessment of Nutrition and Ageing (NANA) method is a touch-screen computer-based food record that enables older adults to record their dietary intakes. The objective of the present study was to assess the relative validity of the NANA method for dietary assessment in older adults. For this purpose, three studies were conducted in which a total of ninety-four older adults (aged 65–89 years) used the NANA method of dietary assessment. On a separate occasion, participants completed a 4 d estimated food diary. Blood and 24 h urine samples were also collected from seventy-six of the volunteers for the analysis of biomarkers of nutrient intake. The results from all the three studies were combined, and nutrient intake data collected using the NANA method were compared against the 4 d estimated food diary and biomarkers of nutrient intake. Bland–Altman analysis showed a reasonable agreement between the dietary assessment methods for energy and macronutrient intake; however, there were small, but significant, differences for energy and protein intake, reflecting the tendency for the NANA method to record marginally lower energy intakes. Significant positive correlations were observed between urinary urea and dietary protein intake using both the NANA and the 4 d estimated food diary methods, and between plasma ascorbic acid and dietary vitamin C intake using the NANA method. The results demonstrate the feasibility of computer-based dietary assessment in older adults, and suggest that the NANA method is comparable to the 4 d estimated food diary, and could be used as an alternative to the food diary for the short-term assessment of an individual’s dietary intake.

Ball milling as an effective route for the preparation of doped bornite: synthesis, stability and thermoelectric properties

Bornite, Cu5FeS4, is a naturally-occuring mineral with an ultralow thermal conductivity and potential for thermoelectric power generation. We describe here a new, easy and scalable route to synthesise bornite, together with the thermoelectric behaviour of manganese-substituted derivatives, Cu5Fe1-xMnxS4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.10). The electrical and thermal transport properties of Cu5Fe1-xMnxS4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.10), which are p-type semiconductors, were measured from room temperature to 573 K. The stability of bornite was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis under inert and oxidising atmospheres. Repeated measurements of the electrical transport properties confirm that bornite is stable up to 580 K under an inert atmosphere, while heating to 890 K results in rapid degradation. Ball milling leads to a substantial improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit of unsusbtituted bornite (ZT = 0.55 at 543 K), when compared to bornite prepared by conventional high-temperature synthesis (ZT < 0.3 at 543 K). Manganese-substituted samples have a ZT comparable to that of unsubstituted bornite.

The novel Syk inhibitor R406 reveals mechanistic differences in the initiation of GPVI and CLEC-2 signaling in platelets.

The inhibitory effect of R406 provides direct evidence of a role for Syk in GPVI, CLEC-2 and integrin alphaIIbbeta3 signaling in human platelets. Further, the results demonstrate a critical role for Syk in mediating tyrosine phosphorylation of CLEC-2, suggesting a novel model in which both Src and Syk kinases regulate tyrosine phosphorylation of the C-type lectin receptor leading to platelet activation.